communication

Do you sometimes find yourself facing unexpected delays with no clear knowledge of their origin? orlike cross functional teams at your company speak completely different languages?

Are you having problems getting your technical team to interact with your business people?

Are your discussions with stakeholders often met with puzzled looks?

Well, If the answer to my questions is one huge fat yes, then you’re dealing with a major communication problem.

This article is designed to help you optimize your communication skills so you don't have to worry about this anymore.

They say seven is “the magic number”, so here is our Ultimate Guide to upping your communication game:

Rule #1: Prioritize!

Put guidelines and set milestones depending on your priorities. This will save you more time and effort than you can imagine. Ranking your to-do list based on importance gives you an idea of what really needs your attention right away. More importantly what resources and time you need to allocate in order to reach your goal.

Rule #2: Organize

You need to make a clear chart of who does what and what needs to be done by when. What comes after is simply a matter of allocation and management.

Rule #3: Leverage existing tools

There are so many amazing tools out there to help you structure and organize yourself and your team. You need to find what fits your needs best. This process might take you few months to test a few but you will find the right ones. Dealing with scattered information and lost call to actions can cause unnecessary delays. You just need to find the best methodologies and communicate clearly with your teams about them.

Rule #4: Sometimes, you need the tough talk

IT people are not always confrontational, that is a fact. Talking through issues and misunderstandings with your developers can directly increase the quality of their work and their productivity. Good communication between the technical and non-technical team can ensure a steady progress.

Rule #5: Translate

As a PM, you need to:

Put your objectives and reports in such words that the other end understands exactly what you mean.Make sure that your marketing/IT team and your end client have a clear understanding of what is presented to them.

Rule #6: ALWAYS provide feedback

Feedback is vital in business! It is one of the most critical metrics of progress. Giving and receiving feedback gives you an overview of what worked and what not. It helps you achieve continuous improvement. More importantly, feedback gives you an insight on how well you’re doing and helps you detect potential problems before they happen.

Rule #7: Set call-to-actions:

Calls to action are important. In a world where time equals money, responsiveness is key. They are also a great way to raise awareness on priorities within your team. Taking actions to deal with risks and unexpected issues can help the project advance much faster.

Being a PM can be very tricky sometimes. It requires a great deal of patience, management, communication, communication, and communication. You constantly have to keep up with all the arising problems while managing a team and meeting deadlines. This requires super-solutions!