- This is more than just having clear, honest, and straightforward dealings with their clients/management. It also means being honest and fair with their teams. In addition, a good Project Manager has a high degree of self-awareness especially about their strengths and weaknesses. They can explain how they compensate for their weaknesses
- A good Project Manager acts more like a mentor/coach rather than a commander/controller. They engage their teams in solving the problems of the project. In effect, the team develops the plan and holds themselves accountable. The good Project Manager provides coaching/mentoring, removes obstacles, protects, and keeps the team focused on the goals.
- A good Project Manager works with their teams to select the processes, methods, and reporting artifacts they will use during the project. The selection of the lightest weight processes and tools that will work is often the best choice.
- Good Project Managers understand there are no magic bullets or single processes that solve all problems. For example, there are many project management methods (scrum, extreme programming, evo, unified process, waterfall, critical chain, etc.). They are not universally applicable. The ability to work with a team to select the best method and to customize it for their project is a key successful Project Manager trait.
- A good Project Manager has the ability to converse with technical people as well as upper management. They know how to tailor their communication for their audience. They quickly identify the project stakeholders and manage their expectations.
- One of the key attributes of a Project Manager is the ability to keep the team focused on the goals. However, it is important for the project manager to also understand the strategy of the company so that they can exploit opportunities as they arise in the context of the project.
- Project Managers should also be flexible and be adaptable to high rates of change.
- Although a good Project Manager does not need to have all the expertise of everyone on the team, they do need to be able to discuss the issues of the project. This is the minimum level of domain knowledge necessary. For example, a Project Manager on a drug development project needs to know about FDA drug approval regulations and the drug development process.
- Since project management is an integrative discipline, a successful project manager also has a number of other skills. At minimum these include: project management, finance, business, technical, social, communication, and leadership skills.
- Experience with successful and unsuccessful projects.
Five Characteristics That Would Undermine a Project Manager
(1) Lacking Any One of the Five Traits Listed Above
- I would not hire anyone as a project manager if they lacked any one of the five traits listed above.
- Although it is ideal for a team to be co-located, it is now quite common to obtain resources where they are available and affordable. Being able to work with remote people who have different cultures and languages is becoming more important for Project Managers.
- One of the roles of the Project Manager is to help a team deal with change (changing requirements, environments, personnel, standards, regulations, etc.). Since change happens quite a bit in the real project environment inflexible people would be at a great disadvantage.
- Groups of professionals working on teams prefer to participate in the planning process. A Project Manager with a strong command and control mentality is likely to alienate such a team, get lower productivity, and result in a failed project.
- The project environment can be stressful. The ability to make people laugh and teach them though story telling are important leadership traits. Without this the Project Manager will be at a disadvantage and may potentially have teams with morale problems.
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