My Notes On Traits Of A Successful Project Manager

By Rajesh Priyadarshi

He is an active listener. Understands applicable laws and regulations required to run the desired project module as assigned to him. He is good at brainstorming techniques. He has a sharp business accumen. He understands the change managemnt techniques. He has got the knowledge required to tap the various communiaction channels where he applies the appropriate tools, techniques and methods. He is sharp enough to resolve conflicts while executing the project. He know how to satisfy the customers be it internal or an external customer. He is good at data gathering techniques so that data can be used for the purpose of running the project successfully. He possess a good decision making power. He knows how to delegate the work among the peers and subordinates. He is diverse and has got cultural senstivity. He understands what is emotional intelligence. He is good at making calculated judgements. He knows how to facilitate work. Loaded with interpersonal skills and knowledge management, he knows how to manage the information effectively which is required to run the project successfully. Additionally, a project leader should have leadership qualities which he should use for negotiating and influencing the stakeholders, peers, subordinates and the management team as per the situation. He should be aware of the organizational pyramid and associated operations. He should practice prioritization and manage the timelines effectively. He should learn and apply problem-solving tools and techniques. He should be aware of the project finance principals. He must learn the quality assurance and control techniques. And this is possible when he sharpens his relationship management skills. With situational awareness, he should apply the appropriate risk assessment techniques. And he should emerge as an expert when running the project(s) remotely or under ambigous conditions. From the management point of view, he should focus on strategic management, change management, cost management planning, including project budgeting tools and techniques, communication planning, understand the contract types and their selection criteria, estimation tools and techniques, human resourse planning, procurement planning, requirement gathering techniques, regulatory and environmental impacts assessment planning. And finally from process control point of view, for improving his knowledge and skills on a continous basis, he should concentrate on continous improvement processes, elements of a statement of work, interdependencies among project elements and vendor management techniques. He should be able to apply project performance mesaurement and tracking techniques e.g. EV, CPM, PERT and Trend Analysis. He should learn process analysis techniques like LEAN, Kanban and Six Sigma. He should understand the project control limits e.g. thresholds and tolerances and should undertand the ISO, BS, CMMI, IEEE standards for enhancing the project execution quality. Shouls be able to use the quality measurement tools e.g. statistical sampling, control charts, flow-charting, inspection and assessment will be an added advantage.

This is possible, when a person wanting to be a successful project leader remains focussed, learns skills on a continous basis and keeps sharpening the above mentioned traits with a high level of perseverence and patience under all situations and conditions.