admintraining, demystifying beliefs that projects are led by accidental managers using trial and error methods.
The Project Management Institute of Zimbabwe database of professional members is rapidly expanding from one member in January last year to 15 this month.
Professional membership is a grade eligible to those individuals who possess either a PRINCE2 practitioner qualification or a Project Management Professional.
Both qualifications are globally considered as the world’s two leading qualifications in project management competency.
Last week we shared with you issues about project team development and this week we zero on the locus of project stakeholders – being the project manager.
What are the competencies of a good project manager? Should project managers be hired from outside the organisation or developed from within?
How do project managers differ from ordinary functional managers?
These are some of the questions that we will answer today.
Much has been written about the competencies of project managers. Some focus on the “art” versus the “science” of project management; others differentiate between “leaders” and “managers”.
Both conclude that successful project managers need a mixture of the two. The leader/art side requires strong communication, visioning and interpersonal skills, while the manager/science side requires detailed knowledge of methodology and tools, plus strong analysis and problem-solving skills.
Like the general project manager, those that manage large projects also require a mixture of the two disciplines plus an understanding of the technology being developed.
In many ways, the competencies of the successful project manager correlate with the three organisational competencies of a successful Project Office include people skills, methodology and process knowledge and technical qualifications.
Many organisations rush to the job market once the need to appoint a project manager arises ignoring the vast dormant talent of potential project managers that may be within the existing staff.
The temptation that project management consultants or some talent out is always a common myth, shunning talent from within.
There are three common sources from where a project manager can be hired, which are: internal development, external hire and consultancy.
Of course, option internal development is the best for obvious reasons that locally developed project leaders understand the culture and politics of the present project management organisation and are likely to understand the expectations of the project sponsors already.
Most project managers appointed from within must have obviously been former team members on some previous projects.
Fortunately for many organisations, they already have individuals who exhibit the needed characteristics, skills and experience to effectively lead projects.
Often overlooked as significant resources to an organisation, project managers are given the task of successfully implementing strategic initiatives that are the lifeblood of the company.
Operations may generate the revenue and run the organisation day to day, but it is strategic initiatives and the resulting projects that drive the future growth and direction of a corporation.
Projects are the means of creating new products, services and value to grow and build an organisation.
Project managers work with diverse teams crossing over many functional areas.
They know and understand the organisation from a variety of different perspectives – strategic, tactical, cross-functionally and business results-oriented.
They also work with a variety of levels – from the day to day ‘doers’ to executive sponsors.
Typically, they have grown up somewhere else in the corporate structure in a technical or specialist area such as marketing, and then either by accident or design they become project managers.
From there they nurture a capability to lead as well as manage. As project managers we all could hone our competencies in the leadership area.
In fact, when we consider the behaviours identified for effective project managers, strong leadership skills rank in the top 10 list along with satisfied clients, strong teamwork, effective communications, good project planning and tracking, and high quality work output.
I will share with you five of these traits that I believe impact our ability as project managers to be competent project leaders.
Trait 1: LBWA – “‘Leadership by wandering about”. The project management walkabout allows you to see what people are up to on a casual but visible basis.
This allows team members to see you and know that you are interested in the day-to-day minutia of the project.
It may be difficult with a virtual team but there are creative ways to get around that such as chat rooms and web bulletin boards.
You could also negotiate for a travel budget to visit remote team members or have them come to the central site on a regular basis over the life of the project.
Trait 2: – Do the right thing by demonstrating character on ethical decisions. This one in particular is my soapbox.
Ethics in project management can be very tricky and project managers often walk a fine line when working with such diverse stakeholders.
There will always be thorny issues on a project. As the project manager you must always be seen to be doing the right thing.
Honesty, integrity and communication go a long way in your success. Imagine someone very important to you (your husband, sibling, friend) looking over your shoulder as you make those tough decisions.
Trait 3: – Have difficult but achievable objectives. As a good leader you will know how much is too much.
Bringing team members from a wide variety of functional, organisational and cultural areas can make a project manager’s job very challenging in terms of cultivating and sustaining commitment to the project goal.
Without the right target it is hard to keep a team motivated – making it difficult keeps them challenged; making it achievable doesn’t overwhelm them.
Trait 4: – On bad days be an actor and act like you do on your good days. In other words, be consistent in your management style – not unpredictable.
By being consistent people are not trying to second-guess when they should tell you about something or how to deliver bad news.
Consistency allows the team to feel at home coming to you with their problems, challenges and issues.
Trait 5: – Prepare subordinates.
By allowing subordinates to take on some of your tasks as the project manager you are filling in behind you.
You begin the process of training them to take over your job eventually. It also allows you to focus on the leadership activities while they do the managing work.
One area that we often forget is the need to eventually replace ourselves so we can “retire” or do other things.
By preparing subordinates we are recognising that we are not irreplaceable.
Strategically, project managers must set direction for the team in its quest to successfully deliver the project objective.
Strong leadership skills allow us to delight senior management and exceed the expectations of project stakeholders.
- Peter Banda is the Secretary General and Chief Executive of the Project Management Institute of Zimbabwe. For your views and comments email Peter on; [email protected], or [email protected], www.pmiz.org.zw
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