Power Skills are all the rage. They are the skills that give your technical expertise the power to deliver results. In this video, I survey the topic.
This video is safe for viewing in the workplace.
This is learning, so, sit back and enjoy
What are Power Skills?
Hard skills have always been perceived as valuable. They mainly refer primarily to technical competencies. In the world of project-based working, they are things like cost and resource management, planning and scheduling, procurement and contract management, quality, scope and risk management. These are pretty much the competencies of formal project methodologies and older PM bodies of knowledge.
In contrast, the term ‘soft skills’ refers to human-centered skills, like communication, teamwork, leadership, motivation, conflict management, and cultural sensitivity.
The term ’soft skills’ appears to diminish their importance. They are arguably harder to master and more valuable than so-called ‘hard skills’. Tom Peters once said that ‘the soft stuff is the hard stuff’.
So, in the early 2020s, the term ‘Power Skills’ has emerged to replace the term ‘soft skills’. Its origins are hard to track down. The learning platform, Udemy used the term in a 2022 report and is cited on the web as being the first. However, PMI first used it in its 2021 Pulse of the Profession report, ‘Beyond Agility’.
In that report, PMI coined two phrases: ‘Gymnastic Enterprise’ and ‘Power Skills’. In that report, they listed four power skills. PMI has doubled down on the term. Their new Talent Triangle has three sets of skills, with Power Skills alongside Ways of Working (technical skills) and Business Acumen. And PMI’s 2023 Pulse of the Profession report was titled ‘Power Skills, Redefining Project Success’.
Definition of Power Skills
I am going to define Power Skills as:
‘Capabilities that allow us to succeed and excel in a wide range of work environments.’
Without power skills, other, technical or hard, skills are not enough to succeed in a modern workplace.
What Power Skills?
In that 2023 Pulse report, PMI listed 12 Power Skills, highlighting four that respondents to its survey rated most important.
The top four were:
- Communication
- Problem-solving
- Collaborative leadership
- Strategic thinking
The others are:
- Relationship building
- Adaptability
- Innovative mindset
- Accountability
- Empathy
- Discipline
- For-purpose orientation
- Future-focused orientation
I am not going to say much more about that report, but do read my detailed commentary on and assessment of it.
Enlarged List of Power Skills
PMI’s list of 12 skills is a good one. But it is not comprehensive. To it, we could add others. So, here is an enlarged list:
- Critical thinking
- Motivating others
- Creativity
- Managing others
- Managing Upwards
- Leadership
- Data literacy
- Digital fluency
- Personal Impact
- Positive attitude
- Resilience
- Self-awareness
- Self-control
- Social Awareness
- Cultural Sensitivity
- Team-working
- Team-building
- Time management
- Active listening
- Conflict management
- Political Acumen
And that is, of course, nothing like a full list!
Why are Power Skills Important?
If project professionals worked alone, with only technology and tools to support us, it is possible that we could do our jobs well without power skills. And, maybe, 200 years ago, our predecessors could manage largely by knowing what they wanted and instructing or commanding compliance with their wishes and intent. I doubt, by the way, that this was ever enough, except for absolute rulers.
But now, it is undoubtedly true that we only succeed when we engage the support, cooperation, and enthusiasm of others. We work in complex, multi-disciplinary , diverse teams, with still more complex and diverse stakeholder groups. Without power skills, there is only one way to go… Failure.
How Does the Priority of Power Skills Evolve through Your Career?
At the start of your career, the toughest thing to manage is yourself. You won’t have a team, but you do need to fit into one and deliver high-quality work. So place your power skills priorities around:
- Self-awareness and self-control
- Self-motivation, time management, and discipline
- Teamworking and communicating with the people around you
- Making a strong personal impact
As you start to lead teams, you will need to supplement all of these with the skills of leadership and management:
- Leading, managing, and motivating others
- Team-building, conflict management, and nurturing team members
- Relationship building and managing upwards
- Strategic thinking and accountability
As your career starts to reach its peak, your focus will shift again. Now you need to add in things like:
- Business and commercial acumen
- Political awareness and acumen
- Professional innovation
- Promoting yourself, your team, and your work
Through all of this, you also need to maintain constant learning and development in the foundational disciplines of psychology, emotional intelligence, and neuroscience. Managing yourself and working with other human beings demands a strong understanding of the knowledge these disciplines offer.
How can You Learn and Develop Your Power Skills?
The secret is to recognize that Power Skills will continue to transform and boost your career and that you will never be done with learning about them and honing your capabilities. The answer, therefore, is a lifelong learning mindset and a program of continuing professional development (CPD).
Constant self-assessment along with seeking out and listening to feedback will help you to set and review your priorities. From there, you’ll find a huge wealth of resources to support you. These include:
- Courses – live, both in-person and online, and self-paced courses
- Reading – books, magazines, blogs
- Observing – seeing what people around you do and the impact it has. Learn from the best (and avoid the mistakes of the worst)
- Mentoring and coaching – from people with the experience and temperament to help you – either professionally (for payment) or voluntarily (for the sake of paying it forward and their own self-development)
- Practicing – trying different approaches and observing the impacts they have
- Reflecting – on your experiences and deciding what changes and tests to make
Recommended Videos to Help with Your Key Power Skills
Carefully curated video recommendations for you:
- How to Communicate Big Ideas with Maximum Impact | Video
- Project Communication: Stop Using Telegrams – Get Better Project Results | Video
- Challenging Communication Tips for Better Project Communication | Video
- Project Communications 101 – the Basics of Project Communication Management
- Could You Survive on Mars? Problem-Solving | Video
- Two Approaches to Solving Project Problems | Video
- Solving Problems in the Gray Areas of Projects | Video
- What is Collaboration? | Video
- How to Build a Collaborative Project Culture with Deb Mashek
- Adriana Girdler’s Best Project Management Advice: Get Strategic
- What is Strategic Project Definition? | Video
- Business, Strategy, Projects: Project Management as a Strategic Business Activity
Recommended Articles to Help with Your Key Power Skills
- How to Get Project Communications Management Right… Every Time
- Boost Your Team’s Success with 10 Effective Team Communication Tips
- Problem-Solving: A Systematic Approach
- Great Project Collaboration: Want to Know How to Assure it?
What Kit Does a Project Manager Need?
I asked Project Managers in a couple of forums what material things you need to have, to do your job as a Project Manager. They responded magnificently. I compiled their answers into a Kit list. I added my own.
Check out the Kit a Project Manager needs
Note that the links are affiliated.
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For more of our videos in themed collections, join our Free Academy of Project Management.
