97 Things Every Project Manager Should Know

Chapter 69. Communicating Is Key

CPM. Gennady Mironov

THE MOST CRITICAL KNOWLEDGE the project manager in any industry should have is how to be a good communicator. The person may have many different certifications and a list of titles and accreditations after his/her name, but without the basic knowledge of how to collaborate with others, the work of the project cannot be accomplished properly.

I strongly believe that when starting a new project, the good project manager should meet in person with all of the stakeholders. Especially the client. The PM should introduce him-/herself and discuss the project goals and all the critical issues. If the stakeholders, client, and even the project team are not located on different continents, meeting in person should not be a big problem, even during an economic recession.

We say in Russia that "it's better to see it one time than to hear it a hundred times." From my own project management experience working on multimillion-dollar projects, I've found I could easily solve problems with my clients within half a day by visiting them in person.

On one project, we had a problem when our contractor was delaying the project schedule by not supplying us with the required wireless base station. The problem was that the contractor had outsourced this part of the project to its own subcontractor, who was late with the power supply systems. Although we spent ...