The qualities of a project manager

The best project managers are those who deliver on time and within budget allocated for projects that meet customer expectations. They also understood that the leadership and expertise of those involved in the task are at least or more important for the management of the project, the development of a sound methodology.

Therefore, in order to be considered a competent project manager, several essentials are required. Here are the qualities of a project manager that is absolutely should be noted and that will lead to success in the role.

6 qualities of a project manager

The leadership
The first essential quality to be recognized as an effective project manager is leadership. Indeed, today a project manager absolutely must have good leadership to effectively perform their role. Without this skill, it is difficult to lead a team necessarily made up of people not having similar personal goals and coming from various cultural backgrounds.

The leader must have a vision of the current project, and will know how to put the team members with different goals to achieve. It must also create an environment in which members can understand, accept and execute their responsibilities with confidence, regardless of their roles within the team. Thus, it will allow the group to get faster results and quality.

Knowing how to create a cohesive team
A project manager must also be defined by its expertise in building a team. He has to push the group to go beyond the observation and clear rivalries.

For a team passes a group of strangers in a strong and coherent unit, the quality of the project manager is therefore to understand the process and dynamics required for this transformation. It should also act with tact and lead his team depending on the stage of development which it passes.

Knowing inspire a shared vision
The project manager must possess a relevant vision of the goal to which he wants to take the project and must also have the ability to articulate smoothly. It is able to anticipate changes and to be able to determine, if necessary, new limits to the project. In a word, it is a visionary.

Communicate effectively
Communicating with members working on the project is also a fundamental quality for a project manager for clear communication on objectives, performance as well as the responsibilities and individual expectations, result in a thoughtful and creative work.

To communicate effectively, the project manager should not hesitate to be open and must dare to use the franchise in all circumstances. It must have the ability to effectively negotiate and use persuasion when necessary to keep the group in an environment facilitating cooperation.

Make appropriate decisions
It is very difficult to keep the project on track. Therefore, as project manager, it will be necessary to make hundreds of decisions every day to achieve this goal. Each of these decisions will help define the path taken by the project. If there are many models of decision-making that can be applied to a given problem, the important is choosing the one that best lend itself to the situation.

Make decisions based on available information, accept the consequences of those decisions and make new choices again and again; that is the difficulty of the task.

Sometimes the decision will not be popular with the group and it is fundamental that the project manager can make accept his choices and do run successfully. Be able to negotiate and influence people is essential to the success of the project.

Another important area in decision making is learning from the past. There is nothing worse than inadequate decision repeatedly. It is therefore essential for the project manager to learn from past situations and always be looking for a better way of approaching problems.

We must not forget also that one of the key elements to managing a project is to notify as soon as possible to the work team the decision which was taken.

Trust and learn to delegate tasks
One more important quality for a project manager is the ability to delegate tasks. He should not hesitate to do so. Trust is an essential element in a project manager with his team relationship and that trust must be made visible through concrete actions. It is useful for example to check and monitor the work of the group, but it is not about to abuse this monitoring to avoid such as fear sets in within the team.

What is certain is that people who are unable to trust will fail to properly direct a team.