Power skills, traditionally known as soft skills, encompass a range of interpersonal abilities that are crucial for success in the workplace, particularly for project teams. Power skills include interpersonal skills such as communication, problem-solving, collaborative leadership and strategic thinking. These skills are essential for project professionals who lead teams, engage stakeholders, and navigate challenges in project plans. They are increasingly recognized as drivers of productivity, employee engagement, and overall organizational success.

As a Leader, one of the most important roles is to coach the team to do their best as a team and individual. By doing this, Leader will help them make better decisions, solve problems, learn new skills and otherwise progress their careers. When Leaders coach their team members, this may or may not apply. It’s more powerful for people to draw conclusions for themselves, rather than having these conclusions thrust upon them. On the other side, a team leader will often have expert knowledge to offer. It’s the daily job to guide team members to make decisions that are best for them.

PMI’s Global Megatrends 2022 report highlights six major themes – Digital Disruption, Climate Crisis, Demographic Shifts, Economic Shifts, Labor Shortages and Civil, Civic and Equality Movements. Of course, mega trends are always a simplification and they do not all affect everyone, every company or industry on the planet to the same extent. But they are very important CONTEXTUAL elements. They present opportunities to CONTRIBUTE, as project managers, to some of the world’s most pressing challenge, but also because understanding them, having a point of view, helps us all be better and more effective at dealing with MOST of the principles that PMI refers to, in PMBOK® Guide –  Seventh Edition.

The most recent PMI Pulse of the Profession research focuses heavily on Power Skills — also known as interpersonal skills or soft skills such as communication, problem-solving and collaborative leadership — are proving essential for project professionals. They are at the heart of leading successful teams, engaging stakeholders, and conquering challenges to the project plan. Technical skills enable project managers to chart the path from the start of a project to close, but power skills are how they bring the entire team along for the journey to execute a common vision.

It’s been well established that social and emotional intelligence are vital for satisfaction and success in virtually every area of life. Social and emotional intelligence surpass IQ in their impact on career success, satisfaction with personal intimacy, community impact, parenting, educational achievement... you name it.

Everyone has talents and strengths. Developing Strengths-Based Project Teams integrates common project management and strengths-based talent development language to help you and your project team learn about and become a strengths-based project team.

Rising rates of loneliness, depression and mental health concerns represent an opportunity for companies and leaders to embrace emotional intelligence in order to reengage people at work and life. According to Google’s famous Project Aristotle initiative, a high-performing team needs three things: 1) a strong awareness of the importance of social connections or “social sensitivity”, 2) an environment where each person speaks equally, and 3) psychological safety where everyone feels safe to show and employ themselves without fear of negative consequences. To harness these three elements of a successful team, it takes an emotionally intelligent leader.

The future is unknown. Our enemy is invisible. Under current global circumstances, stress takes a toll on our relationships. The health of our relationships impacts our environments, our mental health, our drive and engagement. Every outcome relies on our ability to work well, communicate and solve issues with others. The best results are created through relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted human societies around the world. This public health emergency was followed by a significant loss of human life; the ensuing social restrictions led to loss of employment, lack of interactions, and burgeoning psychological distress. As physical distancing regulations were introduced to manage outbreaks, individuals, groups, and communities engaged extensively on social media to express their thoughts and emotions.

The Coronavirus pandemic has changed the way we work, possibly forever. Psychologists and researchers state that returning to extremely changed workplace and live with “new normal” presents itself will be even more demanding upon people’s mental well-being. It doesn’t matter how talented or capable we are, we are all being stretched in ways we’ve never been stretched before.