Top 10 Qualities of a Project Manager

What qualities are most important for a project leader to be effective? Over the past few years, the people at ESI International, world leaders in Project Management Training, have looked in to what makes an effective project leader. With the unique opportunity to ask some of the most talented project leaders in the world on their Project Leadership courses ESI have managed to collect a running tally on their responses. Below are the top 10 in rank order according to frequency listed.

Inspires a Shared Vision

An effective project leader is often described as having a vision of where to go and the ability to articulate it. Visionaries thrive on change and being able to draw new boundaries. It was once said that a leader is someone who "lifts us up, gives us a reason for being and gives the vision and spirit to change." Visionary leaders enable people to feel they have a real stake in the project. They empower people to experience the vision on their own. According to Bennis "They offer people opportunities to create their own vision, to explore what the vision will mean to their jobs and lives, and to envision their future as part of the vision for the organisation." (Bennis, 1997)

Good Communicator

The ability to communicate with people at all levels is almost always named as the second most important skill by project managers and team members. Project leadership calls for clear communication about goals, responsibility, performance, expectations and feedback. There is a great deal of value placed on openness and directness. The project leader is also the team's link to the larger organisation. The leader must have the ability to effectively negotiate and use persuasion when necessary to ensure the success of the team and project. Through effective communication, project leaders support individual and team achievements by creating explicit guidelines for accomplishing results and for the career advancement of team members.

Integrity

One of the most important things a project leader must remember is that his or her actions, and not words, set the modus operandi for the team. Good leadership demands commitment to, and demonstration of, ethical practices. Creating standards for ethical behaviour for oneself and living by these standards, as well as rewarding those who exemplify these practices, are responsibilities of project leaders. Leadership motivated by self-interest does not serve the well being of the team. Leadership based on integrity represents nothing less than a set of values others share, behaviour consistent with values and dedication to honesty with self and team members. In other words the leader "walks the talk" and in the process earns trust.

Enthusiasm

Plain and simple, we don't like leaders who are negative - they bring us down. We want leaders with enthusiasm, with a bounce in their step, with a can-do attitude. We want to believe that we are part of an invigorating journey - we want to feel alive. We tend to follow people with a can-do attitude, not those who give us 200 reasons why something can't be done. Enthusiastic leaders are committed to their goals and express this commitment through optimism. Leadership emerges as someone expresses such confident commitment to a project that others want to share his or her optimistic expectations. Enthusiasm is contagious and effective leaders know it.

Empathy

What is the difference between empathy and sympathy? Although the words are similar, they are, in fact, mutually exclusive. According to Norman Paul, in sympathy the subject is principally absorbed in his or her own feelings as they are projected into the object and has little concern for the reality and validity of the object's special experience. Empathy, on the other hand, presupposes the existence of the object as a separate individual, entitled to his or her own feelings, ideas and emotional history (Paul, 1970). As one student so eloquently put it, "It's nice when a project leader acknowledges that we all have a life outside of work."

Competence

Simply put, to enlist in another's cause, we must believe that that person knows what he or she is doing. Leadership competence does not however necessarily refer to the project leader's technical abilities in the core technology of the business. As project management continues to be recognised as a field in and of itself, project leaders will be chosen based on their ability to successfully lead others rather than on technical expertise, as in the past. Having a winning track record is the surest way to be considered competent. Expertise in leadership skills is another dimension in competence. The ability to challenge, inspire, enable, model and encourage must be demonstrated if leaders are to be seen as capable and competent.

Ability to Delegate Tasks

Trust is an essential element in the relationship of a project leader and his or her team. You demonstrate your trust in others through your actions - how much you check and control their work, how much you delegate and how much you allow people to participate. Individuals who are unable to trust other people often fail as leaders and forever remain little more that micro-managers, or end up doing all of the work themselves. As one project management student put it, "A good leader is a little lazy." An interesting perspective!

Cool Under Pressure

In a perfect world, projects would be delivered on time, under budget and with no major problems or obstacles to overcome. But we don't live in a perfect world - projects have problems. A leader with a hardy attitude will take these problems in stride. When leaders encounter a stressful event, they consider it interesting, they feel they can influence the outcome and they see it as an opportunity. "Out of the uncertainty and chaos of change, leaders rise up and articulate a new image of the future that pulls the project together." (Bennis 1997) And remember - never let them see you sweat.

Team-Building Skills

A team builder can best be defined as a strong person who provides the substance that holds the team together in common purpose toward the right objective. In order for a team to progress from a group of strangers to a single cohesive unit, the leader must understand the process and dynamics required for this transformation. He or she must also know the appropriate leadership style to use during each stage of team development. The leader must also have an understanding of the different team players styles and how to capitalise on each at the proper time, for the problem at hand.

Problem Solving Skills

Although an effective leader is said to share problem-solving responsibilities with the team, we expect our project leaders to have excellent problem-solving skills themselves. They have a "fresh, creative response to here-and-now opportunities," and not much concern with how others have performed them. (Kouzes 1987)

References

• Bennis, W., 1997. "Learning to Lead," Addison-Wesley, MA.
• Kouzes, J. M: "The Leadership Challenge," Jossey-Bass Publishers, CA.
• Norman: Parental Empathy. Parenthood, Little, Brown, NY.

Source: http://www.projectsmart.co.uk/

Project Start and End-dates

One of the characteristics of a project is that there is a definite start and end-date. This seems simple enough until you start to try to define exactly what these dates mean. There are no universally recommended standards for either date. In many respects, it depends on each organization and whether there are any implications for choosing one alternative over another. Here are some of the options for identifying the project start-date.

• The idea is generated.
  This takes the start-date back a long way before the project is actually formalized and on the surface this definition may not make sense. However, remember that the definition you choose can depend on what the implication is. You may choose this definition if your company is trying to focus on the time it takes between when an idea is generated until the idea is fulfilled though a project. The concern may be that there is too much time to implement good ideas. If your company wants to minimize this total time span between idea and fulfillment, you might go with an early project start-date definition like this.
  
  
• A budget is approved.
  This definition is a little more concrete than the prior idea. In this definition, an idea has been generated and the idea has made it far enough that a cost/benefit statement has been prepared. The project has also made it through the prioritization process and an actual budget has been approved. Keep in mind that the budget may have been approved during the prior year business planning process. The actual work may not start until the following year. Therefore, this definition may also start the clock too early for many organizations.
  
  
• A project manager is assigned.
  This one is more common. It may be hard to say that a project has started before a project manager is assigned. When the project manager is assigned, the project planning and definition begin and the meat of the project starts. This is the general definition for project start-date that is utilized in the TenStep process.
  
  
• The Project Charter is approved by the sponsor.
  In some organizations the project officially starts when the client approves the Project Charter document. Some companies require an approved Project Charter and schedule before the project team can be allocated. They do this to ensure that the up-front agreement is in place before project work begins.
  
  
• The project kickoff meeting is held.
  Using this definition, the planning and definition work is considered to be “pre-project” work. All projects start with a formal kickoff meeting with the client and project team. By the time the kickoff meeting is held, the planning is completed, the client has approved starting the work and the project team has been allocated. The kickoff meeting is the time to tell everyone that the project is ready to begin. Because of this prior work, most organizations consider the kickoff meeting to be too late to use as the definition for the project start-date.
  

Why the Start-date is Important

To a certain extent, you might think that it doesn’t really matter when the project starts. Having a somewhat undefined start-date does not take away from the fact that the work is a project. It’s obvious that the project started at some point, since there was a point when the work was not in progress and a point where the work was in progress. So, at some point the project did in fact “start”.

The reason it is important to know the start-date is that there may be consequences and incentives based on how long it takes to complete a project. The following are examples of these consequences.

• Project team accountability.
  It is hard to hold people accountable for things that are not within their control. For that reason, it makes sense that a project manager is held accountable for the project no earlier than when he is assigned. If the project clock starts before he is assigned it is possible that some decisions were made and some resources expended beforehand, and therefore he does not have total control. Likewise, if team members are held accountable for completing a project within budget and on schedule, it is hard to hold them accountable for work and decisions that take place before they are assigned. For that reason, perhaps the project should officially start when the project manager is assigned, while team members are accountable for what happens after the Project Charter and schedule are approved, or after the project kickoff meeting is held.
  
  
• Process improvement.
  Many companies keep track of the total duration of projects and attempt to shorten the average project duration over time. It is important that everyone within the company use a common starting and ending point. Otherwise the project duration statistics will not be meaningful.
  
  
• Financial / accounting.
  Many projects have capital expenditures from an accounting standpoint (versus expense accounting). Precisely defining when a project starts has consequences in terms of the work that can be capitalized and the work that needs to be expensed.
  
  
• Comparisons with other companies.
  If you compare how long it takes your organization to deliver projects versus other organizations or other companies, you want to make sure you have a common definition of start and end-dates. If your company considers a project to start when a project manager is assigned and other companies start the clock at the kickoff meeting, it will appear that your company takes longer to deliver projects.

The question of when a project formally starts and ends is one that most people take for granted. However, there is not an easy answer for every organization. There are probably one or two answers that make most sense from a project management standpoint, but there may be cultural or financial factors that cause your organization to define the project boundaries differently.