Pathways to the top

Getting to the top of the career ladder in project management can be a daunting task, but one sure route is to develop a set of established business skills to blend with the more technical side of project professionalism, argues Julie Zinn.

Think of the years of rigorous and in-depth training in your own technical sphere that have brought you to this point in your career. In common with scientists, engineers, IT professionals and other technical professionals the world over, you know your job inside out. Learning the discipline of project management has enabled you to add another string to your professional bow thats why youre managing projects that guide a team of fellow professionals, in pursuit of the ultimate goal: a happy customer with a job thats completed on time and on budget.

So, as a grounding for what could be a stellar career in project management, you could be forgiven for thinking that technical skills bolstered by project management skills have left you poised for success and youre just waiting for the right vacancy to take you up to the next step.

But when you see your peers going further and faster along the career path, it usually means that they have something you dont. Looking towards a bigger, wider role within your organisation means that you need bigger, wider skills to enable you to function alongside senior non-PM colleagues who have their eye on the growth of the business as a whole. And that means learning general business skills, which at this level are essential to your overall performance and thus to meeting your potential within your organisation. Without these business skills, technical professionals are likely to remain just that vital to any project, but destined to report to those with a broader approach to the business function.

There are many different rules of business, for approach and process, and to meet the complex and demanding objectives of todays global organisations you must have a solid understanding of them. Skills such as being able to translate technical or specialised language into business terms are vital, as are those that develop a business mindset and improve interpersonal and problem-solving business skills.

Eventually you will move on to a more overarching role where skills, such as the ability to coach others, negotiate with vendors or partners, conceptualise and present a business case will broaden your professional value even further. But first, a wide-ranging grounding in business skills will ease your path towards the top.

The term technical professional can cover a variety of roles, and its likely that you will fall into a group that includes programme managers, project managers (and project team members), IT professionals, business analysts, engineers and scientists.

People in all of these areas are increasingly being asked to deal with the softer side of business, in other words those skills needed to move on from technical expertise to wider usefulness in their organisation or the marketplace as a whole. Soft skills include influencing, communication, team management, delegating, appraising, presenting and motivating.

For a cross-functional skill set to achieve the desired outcome for individuals and organisations, there are six focus areas that are essential for the complex transition from technical to business focus. These could be described as business acumen/mindset, communication and interpersonal skills, critical thinking, coaching/mentoring, managing/controlling/ promoting business change, and finance/outcomes.

Business acumen

In the wider business role, you will need to plan and execute strategic initiatives, and take projects from vision to reality. Youll need to consider the strategic impact of a project and build a business case, as well as plan and manage cross-functional meetings instead of simply attending solely as a technical expert. Then youll have to identify opportunities and barriers that affect the teams work, and be aware of and communicate global implications. Learning all this will be part of your growing ability to align team goals with overall business goals.

Communication and interpersonal skills

One of the most common and obvious problems in many organisations is the disconnection between the mindset of technical professionals and that of business professionals. The two groups dont think the same way, and often they dont share a common language in terms of technical vocabulary and jargon, so moving up means youll have to learn the language of business.

Communicating at every level is vital as, according to a CIO magazine survey by Edward Prewit, Why IT Leaders Fail, the top leadership failure factor was poor interpersonal skills, cited by 58 per cent of respondents. Another survey by Right Management Consultants, Survey: Unknown Strategies Leads to Employee Disengagement, showed that 28 per cent of the companies only told leadership teams about missions and business strategies, excluding the average employee.

Other important skills include how to present to key stakeholders, collaborating with customers, delivering clear messages to virtual global team members, facilitating brainstorming or data-gathering sessions, and conveying concepts, visions and goals in a concise and understandable manner.

Critical thinking

Thinking quickly and critically helps you recognise new opportunities for improvement and success, as well as being able to identify the root causes of problems and understand the implications of potential solutions. Large-scale prioritisation is essential, as is the analysis of business risks and the recognition of opportunities. Thinking needs not only to change, but to be continuously shifting.

Youll need to understand the following different types of thinking, be able to determine which type is appropriate, and work out how to apply each in various situations such as strategic thinking, tactical thinking, analytical thinking, critical thinking and implicative, or systems, thinking - focusing on how one item interacts with other pieces of a system.

Coaching and mentoring

You need a firm grasp of your teams skills if youre to manage them for the good of the organisation, and that means being able to determine performance levels and work with a variety of people to improve their performance. If your organisation is to keep and promote its most talented workers, it must focus on, and invest in, continuous learning and professional development.

But for many technically based professionals, the art of transferring skills and knowledge to another person is a difficult one to master, so the organisation as a whole must recognise that making the development of individual contributors is a key responsibility of all managers.

Managing business change Organisational changes affect every level of an organisation and so can create uncertainty. Technical professionals need to learn the business skills that will allow them to engage positively in the change process, which means embracing a mindset that welcomes organisational change and uses it to create opportunity. You need to be able to articulate the vision, scope, rationale and impact of the change, while also working through it from both a high-level and technical-level perspective. Being a positive change agent also means helping others manoeuvre through change and being a role model for the change to which youre expecting others to adapt.

Financial outcomes

In your technical role, thinking about the financial or business outcome of a task was probably not a priority, but in a wider role you will need to focus on financial outcomes by setting realistic and measurable goals and objectives, and by learning methods for tracking progress and reporting. Also important is an understanding of the financial impact of the business decisions you make and how to uncover underlying assumptions that affect the numbers. Dealing with the financial aspect of business is critical to being a well-rounded business person.

Embracing the need for general business skills can lead you to a bigger, wider role in your career. Critical business knowledge and insight will help you work smarter and have greater impact, paving the way for even greater things. Imagine being able to understand and focus on organisational and strategic objectives; uncover business problems or opportunities; develop knowledge and skills in others; and become a better leader and deliver persuasive messages and presentations. Communicating effectively with stakeholders and staff alike, and using business metrics to track progress and outcomes, youll be able to make sure not only that organisational change works to your departments advantage, but that your department contributes to the organisations success.

• Julie Zinn is the executive director for project management and business skills programmes at global training firm ESI International. With a background in management, human resources development and corporate training, since 1995 she has managed several ESI organisation development initiatives such as corporate communications improvement, personnel reorganisation and business process re-engineering.