When a business undertakes a new project, the management team must first identify and determine the project’s goals and objectives. This can include input from sponsors, a board of directors, or stakeholders. Harvard Business Review also notes that a project manager is required to determine “which activities will produce the intended results. He then prepares and schedules work, supervises day-to-day execution, and keeps track of progress until he assesses performance, wraps up the project, and documents the lessons learned.”
The project manager is responsible for ensuring a project is completed successfully and on schedule. As a result, having the correct person in this role is vital if you want the project to be successful. Below are the characteristics of an efficient project manager.
Can See the Big Picture
Whether the project manager comes from outside the business or from within, they must have a broad understanding of the project and its components. The project manager should mentally visualize the project as planned so that they understand how every aspect works together and have a better comprehension than anyone else in the room. While they may lack the technical abilities to complete each project component, they must first comprehend the overall purpose and goal to ask appropriate questions and monitor progress.
Is Flexible
While the broader picture is crucial, an innovative project manager will know the project’s high-level ramifications and the details. They can operate within both sides of the spectrum by understanding that focusing on the large picture or the minute details will sabotage your project’s success. Similarly, every successful project manager can communicate and collaborate with big-picture and detail-oriented team members.
Is a Leader
Although numerous projects are technical, project management success requires strong communication and “soft skills.” In a variety of contexts and circumstances, good project managers successfully interact with all sorts of personalities on a project. Good communicators can ask the questions that aid the team in developing a successful project strategy. Additionally, past facilitation experience or natural abilities in the field are beneficial. A project manager’s effective facilitation may help team members succeed by guiding, motivating, and supporting them.
Can Adapt
Only some projects run well from beginning to end. In reality, many projects that have veered off track cannot be corrected and salvaged. A competent project manager sees where things have gone wrong and realizes that getting back on track will require adapting, maneuvering, and patience.
Will Say No
Good project managers understand that they must be brutally honest occasionally. They recognize when the individuals clamoring for the results need to be informed that their expectations are unreasonable. Companies all too frequently “overlaunch” by initiating projects without considering resources, capacity, and unreasonable expectations.
Subsequently, some project managers may hesitate to deny upper management, so they attempt a project and over-extend resources only to fail. It would help if you had a project manager who is not scared to communicate and highlight facts and reasonable concerns even when the truth is unpopular.
Will End the Project
In a similar spirit to the capacity to say “no,” the most successful endeavor is sometimes the one you do not complete. Ending a project to which one has devoted a substantial amount of time and energy is difficult, mainly when it affects a team of individuals who have also committed a significant amount of time and energy. Some initiatives, however, should not be finished for various reasons. Effective project managers understand this distinction and may persuade their management and teams that time would be better spent working on other projects with a higher chance of success.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the success of a project hinges on the meticulous identification and determination of its goals and objectives by the management team. The project manager plays a pivotal role in this process and orchestrates the project from conception to completion. Essential qualities of an efficient project manager include the ability to envision the big picture, flexibility in navigating between high-level implications and intricate details, effective leadership and communication skills, adaptability to address unforeseen challenges, and the courage to say no and, when necessary, to bring a project to a timely and strategic conclusion. These characteristics collectively contribute to the project’s success and underscore the significance of selecting the right person for the crucial role of a project manager.
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