I believe a successful project manager should have some degree of project recovery skill. Without this skill, a poorly performing team will typically continue deteriorating which can lead to greater obstacles and repercussions within the project. Unsuccessful project managers may not know how to respond to troubled projects. If a project manager has the ability to turn around a poorly performing team, then they also have the ability to maintain and improve the performance of a successful team. The ability to address and initiate change to improve project performance is a skill that sets apart efficient and inefficient project managers.
A project manager needs to have special abilities for successfully executing projects from initiation till closure. And there are lots of essential skills that a project manager should posses which can be grouped into the interpersonal skills and technical skills. Both of this skills works hand in hand to successfully carry on a project, execute it and finally conclude it.
A project may be well conceived and adequately financed, the resources may be specialists, and consultants may be highly experienced, but if the efforts of all the participants are not skillfully coordinated and managed, the project may overrun the budget, fail to meet the schedule, or fall short in functional and technical quality. The larger and more complex the project, the more critical this overall management function becomes. The position of project manager demands an overall defined skill set and personality profile.
The interpersonal skill arguably the most important one, which includes personality characteristics such as can-do attitude, confidence, enthusiasm, open mindedness, adaptability, and personal integrity. The second contains people management skills such as ability to communicate, ability of motivation, ability to influence and political sensitivity.
*The political sensitivity attribute is very important for project managers. Projects are multidimensional and are inherently affected by politics. The key is to be aware of politics, to work with them, but not be part of them.
Reference: www.pim.org
To me project managers must have three skillsets: interpersonal skills, managerial skills, technical skills. I listed the skillsets in order of importance based on my experiences in workplaces and group projects. I placed interpersonal skills as the most important because being able to effectively communicate with team members and get a consistent message across of the work they must complete has been the most important skill for managers during my work experience. If a manager is unable to communicate with their team then no matter how well crafted the schedule or budget are the project will not be completed effectively. This is why managerial skills are not as important to a project manager as interpersonal skills. Managerial skills are of course still necessary which is why they are listed second. Managerial skills will allow for effective distribution of work, while also keeping up with a preset schedule. Better managerial skills may allow for improvements in efficiency but will eventually reach a point of diminishing returns in effectiveness, as projects can only be completed so quickly and workers only so effective. Technical skills are placed lowest of the skillsets mostly because depending on the project a project manager may require no technical skills. Of course, in technology projects project managers should have at least an understanding of what their team members are working on but that they do not necessarily need to have any skill sin that field, just some passing knowledge at best. Having technical skills can of course help with projects, but it is by no means essential.
I agree with many of the comments that communication and organization skills are important. I believe the most important skill to be a successful PM is to be a team player. As a leader, communication and organization are very important but a leader should also be able to understand and empathize with the members of their team. This will create a work space where it can feel more like working together than individually.
This ties back to the importance of emotional intelligence discussed in the lectures. Working with people and creating good relationships will be more valuable for a leader than simply instructing on technical work. By creating a good environment for all team members to work in, a project will be able to be more efficient and result in more successful projects.
Ignoring skills that are specific to the industry, I think the most important skill a project manager needs to be able to do is communicate. Regardless of which industry, their job requires them to coordinate and oversee many different parts of a project. That is impossible if the project manager is unable to communicate between different parts of the project and accurately express information and plans across such. Even if they are a good leader or well organized, if they have no way of expressing and enforcing such via communication then they are going to be ineffective at their job.
Not only do they need to be able to communicate, but they need to be able to communicate effectively. Its not enough to just share information or tell others what to do, they need to be able to do such in a manner that is both understandable and clear. It is there job to oversee and coordinate, and effective communication is the tool by which they can do such.
Two skills that I believe a project manager needs to succeed is to be proactive and be able to effectively make decisions. In terms of being proactive, I agree with a prior post that this enables the project manager to anticipate or foresee any potential issues that may arise in advance. To effectively foresee issues and proactively react to them is a project manager skill that I believe develops with increasing experience on projects. While a project manager may not be able to foresee everything that could potentially go wrong, the effort to proactively react to current progress can help save time that may have been lost if such issues were not anticipated. Therefore, the ability to effectively make decisions is another important skill that a project manager must possess to succeed. In such scenarios, the project manager would have to make the decision whether to continue the project as is or make changes that could have an effect on many aspects of the project. Overall, both skills are those that I believe develop with experience and are crucial to enable projects to run efficiently.
I agree with almost all the skills that have been mentioned above (leadership, communication, organization, make decisions, etc.). However, I think the experience is more important for the project manager because the experience gives the project manager the ability to utilize this skills properly. In general, the experience is number one tool that can develop the working skills.
Like many of the responses before, I believe that communication is essential in the success of project managers. I have worked in a project in the past where the designated project manager delegated the roles of the project in the beginning of the project but failed to maintain communication throughout the project. When one of the team members could no longer fill out their role and dropped out of the project, the project manager failed to respond to the team's efforts of communication to redelegate the tasks of the abandoned role. It was not until the the date of the project's conclusion was approaching that the project manager checked in on the project, but thankfully the rest of the team had taken it upon themselves to split the tasks of the team member that left. Although the project was successfully completed, it became clear just how important communication really is in a project, especially if you've been tasked as the project manager.
From my experience working in a professional environment, and from my senior design course, one skill that I believe is essential for a project manager in order to succeed is organization. With organization, comes everything else, such as allocation of resources, time management, etc.
Corporate wise, when working on a project that requires input from Quality, Regulatory, Marketing, being organized on the deliverables each department has is essential. From my own work experience, I have been involved in a project where individuals from each department, Quality, Regulatory, Marketing, Clinical Research, were all required to submit data and information regarding our products. The project manager would assign each individual a deliverable to meet by the end of the month. Monthly meetings were held with the whole team to discuss the deliverables as well as to discuss any set-backs or challenges we may have been facing in order to take proactive measures to meet the deadline for the project. From my senior design course where my team and I designed a prosthetic, specific roles were assigned to each individual with the action items needed with a specific due date - that way - everyone is responsible for their contribution to the project. Given organizational skills, everything else can be accomplished in regards to allocation of resources, time management, and ultimately completion of the project.
I believe there are a lot of skills that are important for a project manager to have in order to succeed. Mainly, communication skills and time management skills. I think it also depends on what you consider successful. Success could be defined by how others (coworkers/underlings) see you, how you work as an individual to get a project to completion or a combination of the two. If a project manager wants to be successful, in my opinion, I think time management and detail oriented skills are extremely important. While communication and empathy are important, if you can't organize a plan for your workers to complete in a timely manner, no matter how much your workers like you, you will be seen as someone who isn't a dependable project manager and I would think that is what no being successful looks like.
There are multiple skills that a project manager needs to succeed, but I think that the most important of these is being able to adapt to unforeseen problems. Almost all projects do not go exactly as planned and there are many risks involved. If a project went exactly as planned, the project manager would not have to do much, as everyone on the project team would do as they were assigned from the start. However, the plan often must change, and it is the project manager is responsible for negotiating these changes. A project manager that is not able to adapt will lead to the project being a failure as the original plan will fall apart.
Project management is a job accompanied with numerous tasks where the project manager has to coordinate with all the team members to make a project successful. According to me the one skill that is most important is leadership. It is very important for every project manager to act as a head to the project and take the risks related to the project. The project manager has to be responsible for all the tasks associated with the projects and also responsible for the work of the team members. Leadership plays a major role in project management. Leadership enables project managers to come up with corporate visions and lead teams effectively.
There are many skills that project managers need to be successful, regardless of which industry they are in. Others have mentioned communication, time management, and more, but I personally believe that project managers must have strong interpersonal skills. Interpersonal skills are slightly over-arching, as it does cover some other skills such as communication, but it refers to one’s ability to interact with others. A lot of the work a project manager does depends on interactions with various departments and people to complete the project. Without interpersonal skills, completing a project would be a nightmare, potentially leading to missed deadlines or even a bad dynamic within the project management team. Without knowing how to interact with others, there would be no way someone could fill the role of a project manager successfully. For this reason, although there are many skills that could help a project manager be better, I believe interpersonal skills are the most important skills that a project manager must have.
What do you think is one skill a project manager needs to succeed?
I am not a project manager yet, but I spent a lot of time as a team player, and I have seen some managers that I learned from. In my opinion, interpersonal skills are a very important key to be a good manager. A good manager needs Social intelligence to manage his/her team and make the best use of the resources in their hands and handle the limitations. As a team member, it is very important to feel that my manager is accessible to give informative directions to perform a task and I can communicate with him/her during performing a task to ask for feedback. A good manager knows when to be a boss but he/she is always a leader and a person to guide the team and to push forward for the task to be completed.
A project manager has many responsibilities, and with that, should come many skills. If I had to choose just one particular skill that really sets a project manager apart and results in successful project developments and overall healthy relationships between project team members and managers, it would be emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence is very complex in that it possesses many other skills within itself. Emotional intelligence is not only the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, but also the ability to understand and influence the emotions and behavior of others. People with this skill are self-aware, meaning they are conscious of their feelings and also why they are experiencing these feelings. This is important as a project manager should know how their emotions and actions are affecting those who work for them everyday. Emotionally intelligent people also tend to be good at empathizing with others and possess the social skills required for teamwork. This is because these people are good listeners, not judgmental, loyal, and understanding. In particular, this ability to understand the needs of others and navigate different personalities through effective communication is what makes for the ideal project development environment. In conclusion, those who master emotional intelligence end up being the most successful leaders due to the willingness of others to follow them.
