Project management entails many disparate elements, but most lack the importance of communication. Leaders have to be in touch with everyone, from stakeholders to staff members, almost every day.
Managers act as the primary points of contact for many different parties, essentially making them communication channels. A high level of contact is a necessity in order to thrive in the modern corporate environment.
Read on for a look at why communication is so critical for every project for both internal and external matters.
Dealing with clients
Buyers are usually sensitive when it comes to their projects, especially in today’s unstable economy. When clients decide to pay for a certain initiative they want to ensure that it’ll be completed on time and that there will be significant returns on the initial investment. This means that stakeholders want regular updates and usually have questions, which other workers don’t always have the time to answer.
For instance, in an interview with Brett Harned, director of project management at Happy Cog, for .net magazine, Reed Lauber, a web developer, explained that his project manager helps out because client communication usually hampers productivity.
“Being able to walk out of a meeting and go do the things I need to do, knowing that communication with the client is being handled with a level of attention I can’t otherwise give it, is a huge weight lifted off, and raises the quality of every aspect of the service we’re delivering,” Lauber said.
Project managers can give clients the attention that they demand. Supervisors can explain to stakeholders how an assignment is progressing and what the timetable looks like for completion. Ultimately, this is the best way to ensure that buyers don’t feel like they’ve been left in the dark and then feel the need to bother workers for basic updates.
Internal communications
Managers also have to deliver information between upper-level executives and employees. Team members, who are actually working on a project, need to understand what’s required of them and what kind of resources the company is making available. Meanwhile, management wants to know how production is going and whether the staff will finish on schedule.
In this regard, project managers essentially have to act as messengers to ensure that the entire organization is on the same page. Without communication, some people might be working from outdated information that could put a project at risk of complete failure.