Nine Competencies Your Project Manager Needs to Succeed

1. Execution

• Drives scope development and management
• Develops and manages project budgets, schedules, and timelines
• Employs strong organizational skills
• Incorporates time management principles into the work flow
• Integrates ongoing risk management trade-offs

2. Decision Making

• Collects and structures the available data impacting the project
• Makes timely decisions based on facts, circumstances, and needs
• Conducts scenario analysis

3. Communications

• Conveys information to all key stakeholders in both written and verbal formats
• Determines and utilizes the appropriate communication channels
• Infers meaningful insights from a collection of data
• Employs active listening
• Prepares and delivers presentations

4. Strategy Development

• Understands the impact of a project directly to and across various functions
• Understands the impact of a project to the overall business
• Integrates business goals into the project scope and deliverables
• Develops metrics to track progress towards goals
• Understands project and organizational dependencies

5. Team Management

• Motivates and inspires the team
• Leads by example
• Manages and resolves conflict
• Builds relationships within and outside the team
• Delegates appropriately
• Demonstrates team organization and governance

6. Business Acumen

• Understands industry trends and their impact on business
• Responds to market and business changes that affect the project and business
• Monitors competition and its impact on the project and business

7. Technical Competence

• Understands and integrates appropriate project management tools and processes
• Applies/obtains the necessary requisite subject matter expertise (SME)

8. Critical Thinking

• Determines the validity of project progress
• Maintains project objectivity
• Applies ongoing analysis to the project
• Integrates the project with cross functional objectives

9. Leadership

• Takes initiative
• Mentors team members
• Effects change and monitors progress
• Responds in a politically astute manner