Your Soft Side, Part 2

  ProjectsAtWork  

Once organizations have defined the intangible competencies that make up successful project managers -- and projects -- they need to consider the best ways to assess these 'soft skills.'

Part I of Your Soft Side described 10 intangible skills found in successful project managers. Here, in Part II, some factors to consider in evaluating these 'soft skills' are presented. 

Assessing the intangible factors contributing to the success of individual project managers is undervalued in most organizations. But the impact of the intangible skills on the project manager’s performance is equally powerful to the impact of the tangible ones. Therefore, organizations need to implement methodologies for evaluating the soft skills. How do you measure the intangible talents of project managers, their depth of understanding of protocol, their situational savvy and team building skills?

Before the assessment of the project manager can begin, the project environment’s temperature should be taken. The foreseen diversity of the team, business partners, supporting organization and the level of political conflict are some aspects of project organization that need to be understood. Additional project environment characteristics such as visibility of the project, funding levels, technical advancements and complexity of the business process should be evaluated as well.

The dynamics of an …

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