Characteristics of a Project Manager – Part 3

In my two previous articles on this topic, I’ve touched on what I consider to be 6 key characteristics of good Project Managers.

• Good organizer
• Excellent communicator
• Experienced negotiator
• Confident leader
• Good listener
• Well connected in the organization

In what will likely be my final article on this topic (at least for awhile), I’d like to cover three key characteristics:

• Problem solver
• Doing what you say and saying what you do
• Passionate about the task

Problem Solver

In an ideal world, there would be no problems.  Even if that were the case in the real world, I believe there would STILL be problems in the IT world.  Every project faces issues.  If you’re a lucky Project Manager, you may only have one or two sizeable issues to resolve on a given project.  If you’re unlucky, you may go through stretches where it seems like it’s a daily occurrence.

One project I was asked to jump on was going south fast.  A critical processing performance benchmark could not be met and we needed to resolve why and how to fix it, because moving on past this issues was not an option…it was a show-stopper.  With management and customer approval, I gathered key resources from both sides into a war-room type setting at the delivery organization site so that we were physically close to key development, tech support, and infrastructure support resources during this critical effort.  We spent two solid weeks together working on performance tuning, development re-work, break/fix testing, and customer testing and we finally got through it.  We may have been able to eventually solve it remotely, but we had been trying that and it certainly wasn’t working fast enough.  This way the customer saw the dedication and issue resolution up close and regained confidence in the delivery organization while also participating heavily in the solution.

The problem-solving characteristic in a good Project Manager forces them to change their way of thinking based on a given situation – forces them to get creative.  Go to management to get what you need.  If it’s important to the project, then it’s important to your executive management and to the customer and you’ll be surprised what they’re willing to do and help you with in order to resolve issues.

Do What You Say and Say What You Do

This one probably applies to any profession and just about any role a person plays, but it’s often overlooked.  “Do what you say, and say what you do.”  Let’s dissect the first part of that phrase first.

The Project Manager should have good follow-through.  The Project Manager should do what they say they are going to do.  If I’m the PM and I say I’ll have something ready for team distribution by COB today, then I need to meet that deadline.  If I’m going to help with system testing and I’ll run through some test cases by Friday and have feedback ready then I need to do that and meet the critical deadlines. 

When the Project Manager – the leader of the team and ultimately the entire project – can’t meet deadlines and doesn’t meet their commitments, then why should the rest of the team?  PMs, if you set up smoke screens and miss deadlines because you’re too busy, then the rest of the team will see that and sense that deadlines are merely suggestions.  Respect will be lost and the project timelines may ultimately be affected. 

Since you are in the most visible position on the project, it’s absolutely critical that both your delivery team and the customer see you doing what you say you are going to do.  And if you can’t meet a deadline that you imposed on yourself, that’s usually ok as long as you own up to it and acknowledge to the team and to the customer why you missed the target.  At least then you show that it’s still important by not blowing it off and turn your work in late without an explanation.

The second part of that phrase really has an entirely different meaning.  “Say what you do.”  Some of us have a hard time touting our own work.  I’m not saying you should stand on a street corner and shout it to the world, but it’s ok to acknowledge when you’re responsible for a success and certainly don’t let anyone else take the credit for your work.  Be sure to give proper due to project team member efforts, but if you’re primarily responsible for a particular success, then acknowledge it – in some sort of humble way, of course. 

As the PM, it’s rare that we get to take credit for anything – it’s usually team efforts or developer’s efforts, etc.  So if you accomplish something notable on the project that is helping the overall effort…go ahead and take the credit.  You’ll be more sought-after in the future because of it (if you consider that a good thing!).

Passionate

Passion may not be one of those things that we think of when sorting out what a good Project Manager should have, but now that I mention it, it sort of fits doesn’t it?  A PM with passion on a project means that PM is concerned for the effort, the budget, the timeline, the customer, the individual team members, and of course the final outcome.

I can’t think of a time on a project when having passion for the project and its success and the success and growth of the team members would be a bad thing.  Passion for success and reaching goals tends to rub off on others…imagine a whole project team with a decent amount of passion toward succeeding for the company and the customer.  Show me a Project Manager with passion and I’ll show you a successful and sought-after Project Manager.

Finally 

For now, I think this concludes my look at the characteristics of a Project Manager.  I’d enjoy hearing your thoughts and feedback.  I think the list is truly a long one – I may even write about more at another time.  Let me know what you think and what your list looks like.

Related posts:

1. Characteristics of a Project Manager – Part 2
2. Five More Signs You’re Not Cut Out to be a Project Manager
3. Project Management and Startups: How Can PM Help? – Case Study 1
4. Characteristics of a Project Manager – Part 1
5. Characteristics of a Project Manager – Honesty