Soft Skills for the Professional Services Industry

CHAPTER 9Planning and Organizing

THE TASK OF PLANNING and organizing is another key task of a professional. In this context, planning and organizing refers to the following levels in a professional services provider:

• Project tasks
• Management tasks

In addition, planning and organizing naturally also relates to a professional's self‐management. However, as I understand this to be a tool for a professional because it is about their own management and not about the management of employees, this is not discussed in further detail here, but in Part Three, Tools.

Not every professional has management tasks in a professional services provider. Management tasks are reserved for executives. On the other hand, comparatively young employees have to cope with project management tasks relatively early in their professional life. This applies at least in part to projects. Ultimately, project responsibility lies with the partner or senior manager responsible for the assignment. In any case, far more professionals participate in project management than in the management of a professional services provider, which is why the key task of planning and organizing from a professional project manager's perspective is presented as follows.

Planning is often understood as the mental anticipation of future action. In this sense, the ability to plan a project properly stands for the mental anticipation of the individual project steps. This is the starting point for calculating the time required to conduct ...