The author of an article on the management-issues.com website claims that there is one phrase among project managers that he really dislikes. What is it? Even very gifted and senior project managers sometimes claim that they are not in charge of people, but projects.
However, such an attitude is just plain wrong. Of course, project managers do not have the same responsibility as direct line managers. Line managers of the people who form a project team are often numerous and drawn from various positions in various departments.
If a project is a brick wall, communication is the mortar
Let’s use an analogy here: when you are building a brick wall, the bricks must be well made. Bricks are the project management process tasks: updating documentation, workflow, and everything that needs to be aligned in order to fit together well. However, do you know what holds any brick wall together? It is the mortar between individual bricks.
This means that project managers must be interested in the people with whom they are working. They must assess the performance and coach colleagues who need coaching.
Clear and proactive communication between co-workers is what forms the mortar of project management. Certainly you need to master processes and get tasks done but that is only one part of the job of a successful project manager.
You can't mind the fact that communication is not just an effective transfer of information: sometimes it can also prove messy and even unpredictable.
-jk-