The Project Management Institute published an article earlier this year discussing the importance of assessing people skills in project managers. “The best project leaders don’t just manage projects. They manage people too.” Because many project teams are cross-functional in nature, the project manager must be able to communicate with and motivate people from a broad range of backgrounds and experience levels. The article states that “ninety percent of a project manager’s time is spent communicating with stakeholders.” The article goes on to explain that when choosing a project manager organizations should look for individuals who can:
- Communicate project goals cross functionally and with all levels of the organization.
- Unite project stakeholders through collaboration and teamwork.
- Gain project buy-in with active listening and relationship-building.
Last week I had a first-hand opportunity to see a project manager demonstrate these skills. I participated in a three day kick-off meeting as part of the team who will be implementing organizational design changes that are happening in our business unit. This project is very complex and the results will impact employees at all levels of the organization. Although the project manager for this team is new to the business, it quickly became clear that she had significant experience in project management. Some of the activities she initiated to make this project kick-off a success were:
- The agenda, goals, and expectations for the kick-off meeting were clearly communicated to the team in advance of the meeting. Team members knew exactly what information they were expected to prepare for the discussion.
- Time was allocated according to priorities and while minor modifications to the agenda were made as the meeting unfolded, the project manager made sure the meeting stayed on track.
- Each member on the team had a role in the meeting and was expected to provide input and gain understanding on what other team members were contributing. Ground rules were set in advance to minimize outside distractions.
- Time for relationship-building was scheduled at the beginning of the meeting and during the team dinner.
- At the end of the meeting the project manager reviewed all action items, along with the agreed upon due date and individuals responsible for follow-up.
- A roundtable discussion was held at the end of the meeting for people to provide input on what worked well and what they still had concerns about. Each team member was required to comment, ensuring everyone’s voice was heard.
After leaving the meeting I felt like the next steps in the project and the expectations for my role were very clear. I also felt comfortable with and respected by the others on the team, even though this was the first time I had met many of them. Most importantly, I felt like we had set up a good foundation for which to build success. These positive outcomes were primarily due to the communication among the team which was facilitated so well by the project manager.
PMI Article: http://www.pmi.org/Professional-Development/Career-Central/Assess-People-Skills-in-Project-Managers.aspx
Wow! I just left a comment on a previous post where I suggested adding diplomacy/negotiation as a required skill for a project manager.
Your recent experience with a project kick-off meeting just shows how these skills are so important in a project manager. A good project manager is organized, able to communicate well, get everyone working together on the same objective and resolve issues actively and in a respectful way.
Project success is squarely dependent on the leaders skills in managing a projects and ensuring that all stakeholders feel part of the project.
Your experience demonstrated the importance of a project manager with a clear project plan. You stated that she was new to the company, but immediately displayed confidence in what she was doing. By coming into the kick-off meeting with detailed project structure, she was able to command the project from the start. In many project management roles, you work with different people, groups, and organizations for which past familiarity can be limited. With this limited relationship, it can be easy to come into the project with pre-conceived doubts about the manager’s capabilities. Based on your reaction, this was not the case with this manager. She seems to have directed the kick-off meeting in a confident, successful way. This, in turn, caused the project participants (you) to become confident as well. It sounds like this was a wonderful learning experience for you.
Seems like the project manager you dealt with is a very capable manager. They displayed some of the traits that my article I posted suggested a project manager to have. They seemed to have effective verbal communication as well as decisive leadership. Seems like they have made great efforts to allow for research as well as networking opportunities. Seems like your project is off to a great start. Keep us posted as to how the project progresses.
Communication is the key to be any successful manager, especially when it comes to operations and project manager. As the head person being in-charge of others, the project manager acts as the CORE or processor in a computer. Without that processor, the entire project and communication web will fail. It is also important to remember how the manager is willing to communicate, if its verbal it can get more complicated because nothing has been noted. I have worked with people that told my specific directions and after completing my task, I been told I did wrong even though I listened carefully to the directions. Keep in mind to take notes on what you are being told to do, managers are humans and they make mistakes too, however, they do not like to be blamed for it or admit to it.
Great post annh599. I too have seen these attributes exhibited in several project leaders I’ve worked with/for in the past. While these are great attributes and should be the goal of every project manager, I find that time constraints often keeps me from performing at this level. Usually what happens is I start with the idea that I’ll run the project similar to that above. However, once I get into the project, I have 10 other projects, back-to-back calls, and meetings to attend. By the time I get to the project call, I have no time to prepare an agenda, send out meeting minutes, or confirm everyone’s responsibilities. I often find myself doing project management “off the cuff”. I’m assuming others have experienced this same frustration?
You outlined this project manager’s strengths well and I think we can all learn from her ability to set expectations for the team. I imagine it was easy to identify her strengths because they are not as common in project managers as we would all like. Too often we are assigned to projects, whether small or large scale, where the individual roles are not defined, the timeline is not laid out, and the expectations are not stated. I agree with jacobw599 in that it’s often time restrictions that prevent these pieces from happening and it too has happened to me. However, I think that taking the time initially can really help shorten the overall time of the project by keeping the team on track and also creating a shared vision everyone can work toward.
Great article and thank you for sharing your experience with the project manager that ran the three-day kick-off team. Based on what you posted, not only was she a good communicator, but very organized and seems that she was well prepared. I’ve always found people like that inspiring when they manage an event and it is run flawlessly.
My experience in project management has been mostly in smaller organizations with small teams, where the project manager not only manages the project, but also has other roles within the team. The upfront preparation and follow up minutes begin strong at the beginning of a project, but as it progresses, the team is tasked with the project implementation. The agendas and minutes then tend to become a lower priority and are distributed less frequently. I’ve even seen in one circumstance where the project manager was criticized for not having enough to do if they have plenty of time to generate the meeting documentation.
Despite the criticism, my argument has always been that over-communication is better than not communicating enough. The project manager needs to maintain the same level of communication throughout a project, which I agree with being around 90%. Consistent agendas and minutes, for example, can not only provide specific direction to the team, but also copied to stakeholders as status reports or referenced as a historical record throughout the entire project. In addition, the PMI website that you linked to also appears to have many other good tools and articles to assist with more effective project management.