World Executives Digest|5 Attributes Every Project Manager Should Possess|The effectiveness and success of any project are largely affected by the leadership skills of a project manager. This is true for all construction and architectural projects– it doesn’t matter whether your project involves constructing buildings, or you supply building products and accessories such as floor tiles or access doors. Like most other undertakings, any project without a competent leader is unlikely to succeed. There will be inevitable issues such as time management, budget and resource allocation, and the promise of having high-quality results that require a project manager to have exceptional skills to handle them.
If you are a manager who, despite trying his best to manage things efficiently, is not getting the expected results that you want, then you are in the right place. It is high time that you look at the checklist on the attributes that a project manager should possess that we’ve provided just for you. While some managers possess natural leadership qualities, there are still some leadership skills that need to be acquired over time. If you already have all of these qualities mentioned below, all you need to do is to hone your skills.
- Lead on the Frontline
Being a good project manager requires great leadership. Your leadership role would entail leading, motivating, and managing teams; setting the vision of the project; serving, coaching and inspiring your team members.
As a manager, you are in charge of your team. This means that you have to set a good example for your team members to follow if you want your team to perform well and deliver the desired results. Often, project managers have a bad reputation for bossing everyone else around on a project. While this may be true in some cases, anyone who’s ever managed projects knows that project management is not about being a dictator who barks out orders to the team and then sits behind his desk, relaxing while his members do all the hard work. Truth be told, managing is not in this list of skills for a project manager. Leading, however, is a completely different story.
As project managers, it is important that we lead from both strategic and operational perspectives. This means that you need to communicate the vision and organize your team tasks, resolve conflicts, set goals to achieve, and evaluate the performance of the team members and the team as a whole. If you are giving your 100% to the project, your team members will see your commitment and determination and this will motivate them to give their 100% as well. Being a project manager means that you have to be the one taking the reins– you need to be the one who takes responsibility for how you can make your team’s life better, the team’s No. 1 cheerleader and major encourager but at the same time, a leader who’s not afraid to call out any team member or the whole team when something goes wrong.
- Good Communication
Your team members must understand what you want from each of them and in order for you to convey the message effectively, you need to have good communication skills. Your team members must be able to ask you questions if they have any confusion in order to avoid issues later on, thus you need to be someone who is easily approachable. Good communication skills are not only important in leading your team. It is also a must for you to be able to communicate with clients. Any client would want to know what’s happening with the project
Keep in mind that great communication is the crux of any relationship, be it with your team or your clients. Good communication will get you continuously realigned on the project since it will ensure that everyone is on the same page and will help to avoid uncomfortable conversations in the future.
- Focus and Handling Pressure
Let’s admit it. The easiest way to judge a project manager is to subject him or her to immense pressure and see how he/she reacts to it. The way that a manager handles pressure and difficult situations actually speak volume about their character. A great project manager does not only handle pressure brilliantly but also knows the art of thriving under pressure.
Having great focus is also another important ingredient for successful project management. A great project manager knows how to remain focused on the task and ensures that the whole team is the same. One great way of having great focus on a project is by proper planning– which means that you have to plan everything from the smallest details to the major ones. Additionally, the project management planning skill that you have to master is planning up to the extent that you are always ten steps ahead and you always know “what’s next”. This means that you plan not only for success but also for unforeseen and unavoidable disasters.
- Problem Solving and Decision Making Skills
As a project manager, you are always expected to make quick and correct decisions and this requires exceptional problem-solving skills and decision-making capabilities. If you don’t have any problem-solving skills, you won’t be able to succeed as a project manager.
Moreover, project managers are always an easy target when some projects don’t go according to plan. Having good risk management is one way of avoiding surprises. To be able to stay on top of your project, you need to be able to control risk, and actively mitigate the same before it grows into a bigger issue. Of course, this would involve your decision-making skill once you have identified the possible risks. Make action plans once you know what could possibly go wrong. When you are able to effectively manage the risks, you will have massive benefits such as having happy clients who won’t have to worry about losing more money when unexpected risks really do happen.
- Versatile and Flexible
In today’s rapidly evolving development world, you need to be flexible and versatile in their approach in order to succeed. You have to always be ready to experiment and change things up a little when necessary. Be open and versatile enough to play different roles and know how to deal with ever-changing situations.
Moreover, in spite of being versatile, you still need to have a solid knowledge of understanding the hows and whys of a process that you will have to adopt. You should know technically what’s feasible and what’s not, and how much work might be needed in a type of project. This means that for every change that you make, you must still be able to give quick estimates, come up with workarounds to issues or be able to ascertain whether or not the steps that you took are appropriate. This can be achieved through learning. Just because you’re already a manager means that you don’t have to learn anymore. Learning is important to give you a better grasp of the projects that you lead and it will help you better understand and interact with teams and clients. At Best Access Doors, we will help you in achieving good project management skills with the use of our trusted quality products for your construction project. Visit us at https://www.bestaccessdoors.com/ today. Key Points:
- In today’s ever-developing world, managers must be qualified and competent enough to handle all kinds of situations.
- A good project manager must also be a good leader.
- Good problem-solving and decision-making skills will help a project manager handle pressure and unexpected risks as the project commences.
- If you already have these qualities in your arsenal, you just need to improve and hone them in order to become a great project manager who can take the business to the next level.
