Sample Article Review On Soft Skills And Technical Expertise

This article discusses the importance of certain kinds of skills in a project management. Disputes concerning the skills that an efficient project manager needs to have to be successful have long history. Some experts and businessmen believe that to build a team is more important than simply perform technical work. I think that “soft” or interpersonal skills as well as “hard” or technical skills are both important to receive a good outcome. But the question is what skills are more required in the reality that business faces nowadays.
Technical expertise was once considered to be the most influential factor why a particular manager was selected for a project. Thus, a project manager was more a technical rather than a functional area expert, regardless of their leadership potential. Moreover, industrial engineers based on their technical skills were the best candidates for project management occupations. But a range of failures proved that the abilities of a project manager must not be limited to only technical expertise.
The next part of the article proves the importance of real communication over the technique innovations. Interpersonal or leadership skills help to establish an effective team. They are based on the commitment to the task at hand. Lack of organization and management skills ranks first among the reasons of project managers’ failures. A manager who possesses such skills will hardly encounter such troubles as responsibility without authority. Nowadays a due regard is paid to leadership skills while selecting a project manager.
This article shows that those people who possess technical expertise have to become great communicators in order to be good project managers. Persuasion, negotiation and conflict management are now more appreciated than excellent technical skills. The chief aim is to find a balance between “soft” and “hard” because such a balance will grant higher level of cooperation and ensure that a team is eager to work toward a common goal-project completion.