What is the most underrated soft skill of a high performing PM?

Empathy and the ability to connect with people across the board is the most under-rated skill for high-performing PMs. Empathy enables PMs to connect dots, build relationships, solve problems and dive-deep, to increase their expertise PMs need to exhibit people skills that span three broad categories and empathy for each of these different categories helps in its own way. 1. Managing XFN - PMs typically work with large cross-functional (XFN) teams and need to adapt their working styles for each ...Read More

Sharp communication skills that enable proactive stakeholder management. This doesn't just mean blasting memos and updates to everyone, everywhere – it means:  Speaking about what matters to who;  Understanding what is the right timing; And knowing which channels are most effective for getting your point across.  In some organizations, you may be lucky enough to have a Product Operations team to help you with that; in others, you won't. Leaning into comms and stakeholder management means:  Risks ...Read More

I personally believe this to be communication. Often times, we as PMs dive heads down into a problem with understanding that we need to have a time with us to do the work. It is important to develop a communication style that resonates meaningfully with your audience. As a PM, you will need to communicate with: 1. Stakeholders 2. Peers 3. Direct reports 4. External partners  Each of these groups will require their own set of nuance that you will need to determine based on the relationship you ar ...Read More

Storytelling. Communication is a prerequisite for any PM, but storytelling is communication with impact at its core. When you move from just communication into storytelling, you move from sharing information to inspiring, motivating, influencing, and activating your audience. For PMs, they need to be able to: Influence Activate Motivate Inspire This is how PMs deliver high quality products. PMs can't deliver value alone - they need their team to deliver. And when teams are delivering from a plac ...Read More

Ability to tell the story and connect the dots. As a PM, if you are not able to tell your story in a crisp and clear manner with the right amount of details, and tailored to the audience - then how much good you are at your other PM skills, it will be difficult for you to get recognition. I feel that this skill is quite underrated and as you get into more technical PM roles, this becomes harder and harder as the business leaders and the non tech stakeholders are further away from your world, and ...Read More

The most underrated soft skill of a high-performing PM is the ability to effectively communicate and collaborate with stakeholders. This includes the following: Ability to listen to and understand the needs of stakeholders Ability to effectively negotiate and resolve conflicts The reason these skills seem to be the most elusive is most likely because of the confirmation bias that permeates us as humans. Once we've invested a significant amount of time into an idea or a point of view, we assume t ...Read More