The Complete Project Manager

Are you seeking the missing ingredients to move from good to great, to bridge the gap between strategy and execution? Are you looking for the next generation of skills, mindsets and processes to transform your performance as a project manager?

 

When you integrate knowledge and skills, you’ll see a positive impact on your desired project outcomes. According to a presentation to be given at PMI^® Global Congress 2012—EMEA, the complete project manager integrates key people, team, business, technical and organizational skills to achieve optimized results.

 

 

Skills Integration Map of the Complete Project Manager

 

Here is a sampling of the skills from what presenters Randall Englund and Alfonso Bucero, PMP, PMI Fellow, call the complete project manager’s toolbox. You can use these skills to take your performance to the next level.

 

Leadership and Management Skills

There is one thread that runs through all the key factors that determine success and failure: PEOPLE.

People do matter. Projects typically do not fail or succeed because of technical factors; they fail or succeed depending on how well people work together. When you lose sight of the importance of people issues, such as clarity of purpose, effective and efficient communications, and management support, then you are destined to struggle.

 

The challenge is to create environments in which people can do their best work.

 

The complete project manager needs to be both a leader and manager—covering both what to do (vision) and how to do it (execution). This requires placing a priority on understanding and listening to people. Lead by example. Demonstrate a positive attitude. Cultivate relationships up, across and down the organization.

 

Identify leadership qualities that have made a difference in your life—people who have influenced you. Study what they did. Be the “teachable” student who continuously learns and applies a flexible approach to leadership.

 

Project Management Skills

Complete project managers are professionals always ready to learn and always moving one step beyond. They are people who overcome a fear of making mistakes, are able to recognize better ways to get the job done, and can learn from their successes and failures as well as from others.

Competence is a key to credibility, and credibility is the key to influencing others. Most team members will follow competent project managers.

 

A common shortcoming is to focus on a deliverable you are providing (an output), but not articulate the benefit (the outcome, or value in business terms). Outputs have little intrinsic value unless they are linked to outcomes.

 

For example, a complete project manager might state, “By initiating a project office to coordinate our portfolio of projects [output], we select the right projects to meet our strategic goals and provide the key set of services required by our customers [outcome].” These statements have a strong project management process behind them.

 

Organizational Skills

An imperative facing complete project managers in all organizations is to execute projects within “green” organizations that encourage project-based work. In this context, “green” means the need to eliminate pollutants and “toxic” actions that demotivate people and teams. This environment allows people to work as natural, organic living systems.

 

Examples of a “green” organizational environment include:

• Trust among colleagues and management
• Cooperation instead of competition
• A common sense of purpose provides sustenance and meaning to all activities
• A shared vision brings clarity to the direction of work
• People fully communicate with each other regularly
• Individuals are respected, able to express their creativity and have power to influence others through positive persuasive techniques

There are a number of other skills (such as negotiating skills, political skills, sales skills and change management skills) that a complete project manager brings to the table. Achieving completeness is an unending—and thoroughly satisfying—journey. The rest of the story is in your hands…

 

 

http://www.pmi.org/eNews/Post/2012_03-26/Complete-Project-Manager.html