Interpersonal skills, in project management, is defined as not only the ability to establish a relationship with others but also to maintain it. Efficient project managers are faced with the challenge of ensuring that all the schedules are followed and maintaining good communication with their project team. This is the reason why the need a to learn how to balance different skills like interpersonal, technical and conceptual skills so that they do not only know how to analyze different situations but also know how to interact properly with other people.
The success of the project management activities is to have a project manager that possesses great interpersonal skills. The project manager does need to possess the right values and should also possess good soft skills. Project managers need to have good leadership skills and should know how to promote team building within its members. Other skills necessary include a good decision maker, negotiator, motivator, coach, and communicator. Being able to communicate well is an important interpersonal skill so that the project manager can direct his or her project team to the right direction
This term is defined in the 5th edition of the PMBOK.