Here are the 10 Keys:
- Develop a consistently positive attitude.
- Make wise choices.
- Believe in your abilities.
- Be a master at setting goals and achieving them.
- Have a clear vision of what success means to you and to
your project.- Develop steady, positive habits.
- Show persistence.
- Over-communicate.
- Be transparent.
- Do what you say you will do without exception.
What do you think are the most important skills or qualities needed in a really good project manager?
Many beginning project managers focus on the use of tools or techniques. While specific knowledge is important, it’s no guarantee of capability in a PM. If you read my earlier post, Are you a Project Manager from Hell, you have some idea of how a person can be exceptionally knowledgeable and still be a walking organizational disaster.
Below are ten qualities, the development of which, will stand you in good stead throughout your career. A good shortcut in developing these is to model them for others.
If you could choose just one to focus upon for the rest of the week, which would it be?
- Develop a consistently positive attitude.
- Make wise choices.
- Believe in your abilities.
- Be a master at setting goals and achieving them.
- Have a clear vision of what success means to you and to your project.
- Develop steady, positive habits.
- Show persistence.
- Over-communicate.
- Be transparent.
- Do what you say you will do without exception.
In future blog entries, I’ll elaborate on each in more detail.
Have a great week.
Alec
(Image by nasty days on flickr)
Originally posted 2008-08-11 08:00:00.
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{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Alec – tough challenge to pick just one of the ten keys..
Perhaps developing steady, positive habits will help build a consistently positive attitude – leading one to believe in their abilities, make wise choices and so forth!
Hi Raven,
Thanks for your comment.
You’re right. They do all sort of support and feed into each other. The good news is that they get more automatic with time. I’m still working on the consistently positive attitude, though. Being snarky is so tempting at times!
Wish you well,
Alec
Hi Alec,
My question relates to number 5. I’m working for a non-profit and we are developing a program to assist seniors with daily life. I am currently in a grant writing class and was told that I need to come up with a way to measure success from a manageable standpoint…but how? What else can I do besides creating surveys and asking for comments? How do I quantify? I want the grant funding of course, but more importantly, I want our project to be successful (and be able to prove it was successful).
Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Georgette
Hi Georgette,
For your project you seem to have two ways to go. The first is to define a specific problem that seniors are having (e.g. can’t get to the grocery store), measure how often it is occurring, implement your solution, and then re-measure.
The harder way to go is to measure the intangible “satisfaction” the seniors have in daily life. This would be done with surveys.
Hope this helps. Good luck! It sounds like a very worthwhile project.
Alec
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You’re very welcome. Good luck with your project!
Alec
Great post! I am tempted to print the list out, have it laminated, and distribute to all the PMs I work with
For me number 10 is the killer. And if you can do this with a positive attitude, wisely, over-communicate and above all with respect and praise for the team that participate, you can do great things.
I would say that 4 and 9 are the most important. Projects would be more successful in general if all PMs were a master of setting clear goals and achieving them–on time, of course. I also think that transparency is one of the most important elements that leads to a successful project conclusion.
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