22 January 2024 - 3 min read
Project management sky-rocketed during 2023, with organisations now realising the impact that collaborative, skilled project managers can have on a business. Of the trends we’ve seen in 2023, such as integrating sustainability into project management and the superiority of agile, 2024 brings even more innovation and creativity.
So, while there will be overlaps, we're going to discuss what 2024 has in store for the world of project management, so that businesses and organisations know what to expect.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already making a huge difference to the day to day lives of project managers and is something that we will see more of in 2024. From automating administrative tasks to resource allocation and planning, some of the most common ways we are seeing the impact of AI include:
With the increase of automation and AI, it’s said that more of the technical parts of project management can now be completed by the use of different project management tools and software. So in order to strike the right balance between technical and personable, we'll see project managers investing more time into their soft skills, focusing particularly on emotional intelligence.
Soft skills are the personality traits, behaviours and interpersonal skills that human beings use to connect and interact with others. They are specifically important in workplaces as they determine how successfully leaders, managers and employees work together. Some examples include creativity, communication and critical thinking. Emotional intelligence overlaps several different soft skills and is fundamentally how you control your emotions, and how well you can understand them in various situations.
No two days are the same as a project manager, and with qualities such thinking on your feet and adaptability at the forefront, a project manager must be able to understand and control the way that they feel, think and act.
Some proven ways to help increase your emotional intelligence include:
Practising empathy
Putting yourself in the shoes of who you are managing will support with judgement and stereotyping, helping you to recognise the needs of others.
Observing how you react to people
When someone approaches you in your workplace with an issue, do you respond before you are presented with all the facts? Do you judge people on their past behaviours and decisions? Do you actively listen to what they are saying? These are all questions that you can ask yourself when approached as a project manager that will help with your observations.
Taking responsibility for your actions
Simply being able to admit when you’re wrong is a sign of good EI as you’re showing that you’ve listened to those around you and taken everyone’s feelings into account. Good project managers will admit when they’ve made a mistake and then work with their team to correct it. By doing this, your team is much more likely to trust you as well as appreciating and standing by your decisions.
Between the great resignation, quiet quitting and general workplace stress, it’s become an ongoing trend to practice setting healthy professional boundaries in the workplace. This will not only help reduce burnout from both project managers and their teams but it means expectations and ongoing workloads can be properly managed.
While we're not saying that projects wont coincide with others or have strict deadlines, it's still possible to set healthy boundaries during hectic periods, we recommend:
Trying to reduce personalising
Remembering that it’s business and not personal will keep you in good stead, and what you may do in your personal life, might be different in terms of the company's priorities.
Avoiding limiting your beliefs
Keeping an open mind and being willing to learn will help detach from making decisions about yourself, or having yourself in mind as the top priority.
Prioritising
Knowing what business is critical and what can be completed later will ensure you are not trying to do everything at once.
Practising mindfulness
Remembering that work is only a part of your life and that taking care of your mind will only make you a better manager.
With project management tools and practices being mostly online, 2024 will see an increased need for online security. Data breaches and cyber-attacks are extremely common these days, with 2,814 incidents and 8,214,886,660 breached records filed during 2023.
To try and reduce these risks as much as possible, project managers must be cyber security trained, covering the below topics:
It’s no surprise that 2024 will bring further remote and hybrid working patterns when looking at the way we have worked during the last two years. As a project manager, it's highly likely that members of your team may work in different locations and across a number of time zones.
This means that additional planning and oversight is needed to ensure all project members are working in sync, reducing barriers created by time, language and culture. Luckily, there’s several tools and best practises out there to support project managers who are managing remote or flexible teams such as:
We think so and according to the Future of Jobs 2023 report, project management job aren't going anywhere. There's said to be an increase in the number of employment opportunities available not only in the UK but across the globe, increasing the chances of earning a good salary, enjoying variety and working across a number of different industries. Research confirms that project managers are and will most likely remain in high demand, with 90 million employees worldwide working in industries that focus on project management.
Enrol today and start your year with a new career in project management.
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