What do great project managers do that other people don’t?
That was one of the questions I asked a community of consulting peers recently. I also wanted to know:
- Can great project management skills be taught, or are they just natural for some people (i.e., “you have to be born that way”)?
- If project management excellence can be taught, how do you think these skills can be learned and developed most easily?
In their view, great project managers:
- See the Big Picture, and shift easily between the overall view and detail of the project
- Have strong people skills and emotional intelligence
- Build consensus and deal well with all members of the team, including the most challenging ones
- Set up a project well, such as by creating and communicating clear expectations, articulating why the project is important to customers of the work and to the business, and breaking big projects into do-able, assignable tasks
- Ask people to make commitments to achieve team and individual goals, and then follow up well to ensure that commitments made are commitments kept
- Align disparate people and resources to meet business objectives on time and within budget
- Synthesize multiple streams and sources of information well
- Are knowledgeable about the content and type of project they’re managing
- Are process-oriented, and manage the project with an eye to using a good process
- Have good problem-solving skills
- Are observant, adaptable, and juggle well
Here are a few of their specific thoughts about project managers who excel:
”If you can’t ‘see’ the whole project form the beginning…it becomes just a series of tactics. Project management, when delivered most effectively, is strategic,” one writer explained.
”A good project manager takes the ‘angst’ out of the process, calms down the players, steps in and lets them make their own contributions without worrying about how it is all going to fit together,” said one contributor.
Great Project Manager use some built in systems to use and do not waste time on creating their own one. Every project manager is considered the best when he/she meet the project in time. Project Management temples are the same thing that a project manager must use to save the time.
