Why Effective Communication is Important as a Project Manager

Effective communication is successfully exchanging information, opinions, knowledge, and data in a way that is understood with clarity and purpose. Both the sender and receiver will feel confident in the communication and, in turn, will build trust between them. 

What is effective communication and why it matters

Effective communication shows up for everyone at one point or another. This could mean arranging a time and place to meet your group of friends, scheduling a doctor’s appointment, or finding the time for errands. This type of communication skill is vital for project managers because we need to align everyone on strategies and goals to ensure that the right information is shared with the right people for project success. 

While communication output is vital to the forward momentum of projects, project managers also need to know how to listen, facilitate, and approach with empathy as they begin to build trust with clients and their teams.  

Active listening ensures that the right questions are asked in order to correctly understand what the other is saying. These help to clear up misunderstandings before they happen and reiterate alignment. Ultimately, the goal at the end of the project is for both Savas and the client to be satisfied with the end results. Effective communication will eliminate ambiguity and offer transparency into our process in how we approach a problem and the solution. At Savas, we pride ourselves on transparency, and our communication skills tie into that practice both internally and with our clients for our projects’ success.

Communication as a project manager looks like a balancing act in making sure the team has what they need and that the client is kept informed and is being heard. Project plans should have an equilibrium on understanding your team and their communication styles and processes vs. the client’s communication style, expectations, and vision. At Savas, our transparent communication approach allows us to have channels of communication open that serve as a portal into the team’s bandwidth and engagement and the client’s expectations and goals.

The objective of the project manager is to gather all this information and distribute it to the team and the client in a strategic way without an oversaturation of information. In doing so, we are able to align everyone on the goal and receive buy-in on how we will get there by initially building trust.

One of the most critical skill sets for project managers is effective communication. Part of our effective communication is understanding the big picture and the small details. During our Discovery phase for project success, our team does a deep dive into the project’s goals, the client’s vision, and our team’s skill sets. We ask informed questions at the beginning and have a focused discussion centered around what’s possible and what is not based on the project details.

Effective communication is all about providing the right information in the right format at the right time. At Savas, we provide the right impact to the client because of the thoroughness of our Discovery phase; we actively listen and provide a precise and detailed project plan that aligns with both their and Savas’s goals and objectives. It is through the success of our effective communication with clients that we can build trust, remain consistent, and be productive with each project we take on. 

At Savas, we make communication part of our process. While we use no standard process across the board, we utilize all our tools to centralize communication and provide a two-way system from us to our clients when working on projects. Internally, we create specific channels of communication for each contact to ensure the small details for each one can be shared throughout the project’s life with the full team.

Externally, we centralize communication with our clients through a program called TeamWork. TeamWork acts as our direct line of communication with our clients and grants other team members access to the full view of the project plan. Nothing hides in a single person’s email or is lost in transit; we utilize transparent communication because of its continued success in our work.

Whether it is having an internal sync to review updates from the client or syncing with the client to share the project status, we are precise and purposeful in our communication, ensuring we are effectively working towards the same goals and the continued project success of Savas and our clients. No two projects are the same, and effective communication is the best way to approach the problem with an impactful solution.