General management skills and project management

General management skills are the broad management abilities used in running any business or organisation: leadership, communication, planning, organising, controlling, negotiating, problem solving, finance and influencing. The PMBOK treats them as supporting knowledge that sits alongside project management knowledge and application area knowledge.

Main general management skills

• Leading: set vision, motivate, inspire the team.
• Communicating: exchange information clearly with all stakeholders.
• Negotiating and influencing: reach agreements and persuade without formal authority.
• Problem solving: define the problem, analyse and decide.
• Planning and organising: set goals and arrange resources.
• Controlling / monitoring: compare actual with plan and correct.
• Team building and conflict handling.
• Finance and accounting, marketing, HR basics.

Relationship with project management

   +---------------------------+
   |  General management       |
   |   +-------------------+   |
   |   | Project management|   |
   |   |   knowledge       |   |
   |   +-------------------+   |
   |  Application area (IT)    |
   +---------------------------+

• A project manager's technical knowledge is not enough; the project is carried out through people, money and time, which need general management.
• Project management is a specialised form of management, so its processes (planning, monitoring, closing) apply general management ideas to temporary efforts.
• Leadership and communication are used to align the sponsor, customer and team.
• Financial skills are used for budgeting, cost control and ROI calculation.
• Negotiating helps with vendors and with changes in scope.

Example: A manager of an ICT project uses technical knowledge to judge a design, project management tools to prepare a Gantt chart, and general management skills to motivate a tired team and negotiate extra time with the client.