A Call to Action: Let’s Get Serious About Power Skills

Words matter. How we communicate – the words and expressions we use – are often just as important as what we communicate.

Here's how Lera Boroditsky, a cognitive scientist at the University of California, San Diego, puts it: "By choosing how you frame and talk about something, you are cueing others to think about it in a specific way. We can drastically change someone's perspective by how we choose to talk about and frame something.”

That observation is exactly why we at PMI choose to use the term "power skills" instead of terms like "soft skills" or "interpersonal skills." Calling these abilities "power skills" signifies the value they bring to project professionals and to our organizations.

PMI values these skills so highly, in fact, that not only are they a main pillar in our PMI Talent Triangle® (alongside technical skills and business acumen), but we've also devoted our latest Pulse of the Profession® report to the relation between power skills and project success. Pulse of the Profession® is PMI’s annual global survey of project professionals, helping us track and understand the major trends shaping our profession.

Our most recent report confirms just how important power skills are. Quite simply, organizations that prioritize power skills perform significantly better on key drivers of success than organizations that don't. But the report also highlights the challenge organizations face in fully valuing power skills alongside technical skills, and how best to integrate both into their DNA. Talent decision makers, for example, report spending only one-quarter of their annual training and development budgets (25 percent) on power skills versus more than half (51 percent) on technical skills.

Both skillsets are equally important, but the world is changing. Generative AI tools, like chatGPT, are jumpstarting challenging writing and brainstorming tasks, leaving more time for human interaction. Technology-based project tools are augmenting technical skills like reporting, scheduling, and risk management, allowing project professionals to devote more time and attention to delivering value, focusing on outcomes, and managing relationships with key stakeholders. And that requires power skills – the abilities and behaviors that facilitate working with others and that help project professionals succeed. In fact, nine in 10 project professionals in this year’s survey agree that power skills help them work smarter.

There's also strong consensus – across regions, industries, and experience level – around the most important power skills: communication, problem-solving, collaborative leadership, and strategic thinking. These skills play an important role in driving project success. Compared to organizations that don't prioritize power skills, organizations that do place a high priority on these skills are:

• Three times more likely to report high benefits realization management (BRM) maturity – the number one driver of project success
• Two times more likely to report high project management maturity
• Roughly three times more likely to report high organizational agility

They're also more likely to meet business goals (72 percent vs. 65 percent), experience less scope creep (28 percent vs. 40 percent) and suffer less budget loss (17 percent vs. 25 percent). And wasted investment due to poor project performance for power skill organizations averages almost half that of non-power-skill organizations (4.8 percent vs. 8.8 percent).

So, what are the barriers to organizations investing in power skills? Cost, of course. That's perennial factor in investment decisions. The second barrier, however, is a lack of perceived value" – reported by 40 percent of survey respondents. If that weren't concerning enough, this view is held even by organizations that prioritize power skills in training and development.

That's why we need to devote more resources to advocating for the power of power skills. Specifically, we should encourage organizations to:

• Understand the connection between project success and power skills. It’s time we step outside the “iron triangle” of scope, cost and time and take full account of the critical nature of power skills and the contributions they make to our organizations. The metrics cited above can be helpful, but we can all identify recent, real-world situations where power skills would have made a difference. Dive into power skill scenarios in retrospectives and project lessons learned.
• As you create understanding around the need for and impact of power skills, focus discussions on the power skills most tied to fulfilling organizational objectives — communication, problem-solving, collaborative leadership, and strategic thinking. Project leaders need to model these skills consistently and communicate their importance continually.
• Emphasize the value of power skills by connecting them to hiring, ongoing performance, and culture. We should start talking about power skills as early as the recruitment phase – emphasizing the importance of power skills as “how we work together” to drive organizational success. And power skills training should be positioned as a benefit of employment. Power skills should also be built into individual development plans and should be consistently tracked during performance evaluations. Well-honed power skills = improved effectiveness.
• Evaluate professional development and training programs to ensure they reflect the organization’s commitment to building power skills in employees. And then back that commitment by allocating funding commensurate with the importance of power skills.

At PMI, we are committed to helping project leaders develop the full spectrum of skills needed to drive positive project outcomes and achieve individual professional success. Technical skills will always have a place on that spectrum and be critical for project success. My call to action today is for all of us to evangelize for the “power” in power skills within our organizations so that these critical skills can take their rightful place on that spectrum too. If we do, we will not only become better Project Managers but create a better working environment for everyone around us.

Tags: Communication | Talent Triangle | Agile | Interpersonal Skills | Problem Solving | Collaboration | Leadership | Strategy | Culture | Professional Development