Latest MET Makes Conversation Podcast Highlights Importance of People Skills in Project Management
In the newest episode of MET Makes Conversation, the podcast where the Metropolitan College academic community lends perspectives on the real-world challenges facing their fields, our experts examine the newest trend in the field of project management: namely, the growing importance placed on what the Project Management Institute has dubbed “power” skills, like communication capability, the capacity to build relationships, positivity, and even a good sense of humor.
Leading the discussion are a pair of knowledgeable project managers; MET Master Lecturer Richard Maltzman, who has 40 years of experience in the field, having built and developed Nokia’s Global Program Management Office, and Farrah Aversano, a MET student earning her MS in Project Management with concentration in Portfolio, Program & Project Management.
As he discusses in the interview, in Maltzman’s view, the increase in global volatility in recent years has fundamentally altered the scope of project managers. What’s more, as automation simplifies many elements of project management, and projects become increasingly complex, the demands of project leadership has changed.
“In general, there’s just more turmoil in the world and therefore it becomes more important to have these people skills,” he says in the conversation. “In addition to that, there’s a trend in AI. Artificial intelligence, and automation in general, can take over many of the standard project scheduling and planning tasks that project managers have traditionally done. Because of that, there’s an increased focus on the tasks and behaviors and oversight that project managers need to have with teams and team-building.”
Listen to the latest episode of MET Makes Conversation, “The Increasing Need for Project Managers to Focus on People Skills,” above, or via your preferred podcast platform, like Spotify or Apple Podcasts—where you can subscribe for all future episodes.