Communicate Effectively as a Project Manager

as the project manager you are the one
who connects your team to the
information they need
throughout the project you'll serve as
the main resource for your team when it
comes to communicating and clarifying
goals action items progress and updates
it's important to make sure that your
caring information forward consistently
and coherently so that everyone
understands what the current state of
the project is and what happens next
teams communicate in a myriad of ways
though project managers are constantly
communicating through check-ins and
meetings project documents such as
project plans including schedules
trackers and meeting notes there are
also hubs for team communication it's
your responsibility to be clear about
how those documents get used
who has access to those documents and
how often the documents get updated
of course in addition to those
responsibilities you'll also have to
field emails instant messages and attend
meetings all of these things are
critical in driving a project forward as
a project manager you are the one who
coordinates incoming and outgoing
information you connect individuals to
the necessary details and context
and track who needs to receive what
information and when you'll need to
communicate certain information to your
team multiple times and in various ways
some people learn by listening some
people learn by watching and others
learn by doing
communicating in various ways ensures
that you're sharing knowledge to your
team in a format that's digestible and
easy for them to take in
your team will have a lot of tasks to
focus on
be proactive and reinforce important
information multiple times in multiple
ways so that no one is left out of the
loop there are many tools for
communicating with your team to make it
easy to keep in contact and be on the
same page throughout the duration of the
project some of these include email and
messaging in-person meetings video
conferencing and work management and
collaboration tools your organization
might have some of these tools in place
already or you might have the
opportunity to select some for a project
in either case it's good to be familiar
with what's out there let's start with
messaging an email
email is standard for business
Communications so it's important to
streamline the number of emails that you
send out at Google I get tons of emails
a day it's a lot of work to figure out
which ones I need to read immediately
which ones can wait and which ones
require a reply right away
it's important that you understand how
to use email in a professional context a
quick internet search will provide you
with lots of tips and examples here are
some of my key tips for you to keep in
mind carefully select who you're sending
an email to and most importantly be
conscious of why you're sending it make
sure the subject field clearly states
what the email is about
if it's urgent or requires a response
add that to the subject and the first
line of the email
keep your messages as short as possible
and stay on topic
if there's a lot of information to share
consider placing the information into a
digital document you can link or attach
to the email
then summarize what you want readers to
focus on if there's a specific action
you need from the recipient state it
clearly so that they understand what's
expected of them and when
your language choices matter so avoid
slang acronyms and shortcuts for words
that might be more appropriate for texts
oh and one more thing write an
inappropriate tone for the person
receiving the email it's generally best
practice to be friendly motivating clear
and specific as I mentioned earlier most
people especially other managers
directors and executive get lots of
emails with that in mind you may want to
consider instant messaging tools like
Google meet or slack this can be an
alternative to email when you just have
a quick question or update or as a way
to alert someone to please check their
inbox instant messaging helps reduce
back and forth emails or phone calls and
can quickly clear up miscommunications
or let you know if and when you should
take an issue to a meeting
be mindful of when you decide to use
instant messaging this kind of quick
communication can lead to distraction
and informality
it can easily become an outlet to share
non-work related information or
information that's sensitive or
confidential
it can also be difficult to track
instant messages later on if you need to
reference information that you chatted
about you might not be able to easily
find it with instant messaging
it's a good idea to ask people's
preferences on how they like to be
communicated with
even if instant messaging is faster the
person might prefer to use email with
experience you'll be able to determine
the most effective ways to communicate
with your team next up we'll discuss
some tools for remote meetings
virtual meeting tools like Google meet
and zoom are great for communicating
especially as remote work becomes more
standard better yet each of these tools
are easy to access and easy to learn how
to use well Run online meetings can be
extremely effective they allow you and
your team to interact in real time which
can help boost morale and create a sense
of team when it's not possible to be
together in person virtual meetings can
be highly engaging as attendees can
access and share files during the
meeting
and then there are Work Management and
collaboration tools like Google Drive
Asana and smartsheet these kinds of
tools make it easier to share
information among teams even better with
work management and collaboration tools
information sharing goes both ways
team members can easily update their
progress without the need for extra
meetings or phone calls these tools can
accomplish many different things like
tracking progress on tasks deliverables
and Milestones they can also help you to
manage a budget build helpful charts and
diagrams manage contracts and licenses
and keep stakeholders informed Work
Management and collaboration tools allow
you to focus your Communications within
the context of specific tasks project
details and timelines rather than
writing an email and linking to the
relevant information when you're working
and communicating in a tool the
information is already there in one
place for easy reference and decision
making
another great aspect of these kinds of
tools is that the work gets done in real
time these tools allow remote teams to
collaborate and communicate as though
they're physically working in the same
office together
encouraging your teams to check in and
update their progress regularly helps to
maintain the real-time feel of
interacting with co-workers there are
many different types of work management
software that automatically make project
planning and tracking a lot easier and
they are much more efficient than manual
project tracking a quick word of caution
before we move on the use access or
sharing of confidential or need to know
information externally including
financial and business data user data
and information about our products and
services is likely prohibited unless
you're given explicit permission
when using shared Work Management tools
just be mindful of who wants and needs
access versus who doesn't need access to
do your part in keeping important data
safe there are so many different ways to
share information to your team whether
through meetings emails instant messages
spreadsheets and trackers by becoming
familiar with some of the more common
communication tools you can choose the
right one for your project needs
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