Congratulations. Your latest project is nearly in on time, under budget, and with all of its components poised to function in perfect harmony.

So why isn t senior management as happy as you expected? Why did your project team need to put out one fire after another? Why are your end users confused and besieging you with frantic phone calls and endless emails?

What s all too easy to forget is that the reason the project was approved was to support your company s strategic and fiscal objectives. Even the most soundly designed project methodology, expertly implemented and technically flawless, can result in a business failure if the project purpose, applications, or very existence aren t fully understood throughout your organization.

The answer is all about communications skills. In fact, the number one factor in the success or failure of projects is the quality and consistency of communications. If you re a project manager, the bulk of this responsibility falls to you. In Communications Skills for Project Managers, Michael Campbell unlocks this critical component of project success, illustrating how to keep every project stakeholder in the loop every step of the way from concept through delivery and beyond. A veteran of countless projects on every conceivable scale, Campbell gives you the universal elements of all communications as they pertain to the specific demands of a project management environment. And you ll get a generous selection of powerful tools to help you:

Present the case for your project to senior management and other key stakeholders

Secure and maintain the right level of leadership support throughout the life of the project

Combine written, phone, and in-person communications for maximum effect

Use communications to help manage expectations, risks, and scope change

Link the hallmarks of project management (defined tasks, specific deliverables, and repeatable techniques) with the change management challenges that sometimes inhibit acceptance of new projects, and learn how to sell the need for change by taking the fear out of it through great communications

Apply top-notch communications strate­gies to every project you manage from now on

As a project manager, you have to know how to react on the fly to shifting business priorities, evolving expectations, and perennial leadership changes and to make sure everyone around you understands exactly what s going on, all the time. Communications Skills for Project Managers shows you how to develop a practical approach to the biggest and most critical part of your job relating the work of your team to the goals of your organization and the daily lives of its people.

Michael Campbell, PMP, is the President and leader of the Energy Practice at MCA International LLC. He is the author of Bullet­proof Presentations and co­author of the fourth edition of The Complete Idiot s Guide to Project Management. He lives in Houston, Texas.

Considering how important the area of communications management is for successful projects, this book has been long overdue. Project managers will find its contents invaluable, as they will gain an appreciation of the dramatic, positive impact of effective communications on their projects. Mike Campbell s book is right on target!

Walter A. Viali, PMP, Principal Consultant, PMO To Go LLC; past President, PMI Houston Chapter

According to the Project Management Institute, over 80 percent of your job as a project manager is communication. But you re so busy with all the other project tasks that you hardly have time to contemplate this crucial role.

Even if you ve got every component of your project fine tuned and humming, it can still fall short if you haven t convinced leadership of its value, told everyone exactly how to implement it, and prepared everyone for the changes that new projects inevitably bring. In fact, poorly communicated project information can doom even perfect projects to failure. You need to apply the same level of care in sharing information about projects as you do in designing and executing them.

Most project management books gloss over the importance of communications or ignore the issue completely. But the success or failure of your project is likely to hinge on your skills to manage not just processes and schedules, but people and their expectations, change and its impact, and information and its role in your organization. Communications Skills for Project Managers gives you all the practical advice and strategies you ll need to ensure total project success where projects not only work unto themselves but drive the organizational growth that they re designed (and expected) to accomplish. With this invaluable guide, you ll learn how to keep your project team, upper management, and all other stakeholders involved and informed every step of the way.

Written by a certified Project Management Professional® and brimming with powerful examples, practical tools, templates for repeatable processes, and a complete case study, Communications Skills for Project Managers ensures that your best project efforts will resonate with every person and every group they re designed to help.