My Entrepreneurship Assignment
Operations keeps the lights on, strategy provides a light at the end of the tunnel, but project management is the train engine that moves the organization forward.
Joy Gumz
Having a good project manager enable us to reach the end of the tunnel. If the person in that position doesn’t have the required skills, he won’t be able to drive the train or even get it started.We can divide the project manager competencies into:
Technical competency
- Project identification & design
- Project initiation
- Project planning
- Project execution & implementation
- Project monitoring & controlling
- Project closing
Interpersonal competencies
- Leadership
- Conflict resolution
- Motivating groups
- Team building
- Decision-making
- Negotiation skills
Personal/ Self-management
- Analyzing
- Presenting
- Prioritizing
- Persuading
- Listening
- Talking & Sharing
I mentioned in general the characteristics and qualities that a project manager should have and now I will go more in details with the top 6 core competencies that every project manager must own:
Leadership skills
It is the most important criteria since this person is not only responsible to reach an objective and make the project successful but also is responsible for leading the team to do so.
He/she has to keep employees motivated to continue working like expected.
He has also to resolve unanticipated problems and must be able to take hard decisions regarding the company or employees.Acquiring the leadership skills goes with:
- Motivation/ ambition
- Ability to delegate and inspire
- Organized
- Confident
- Honest
- Positive attitude
- Commitment
- Intuition
Open-mindedIn fact, a leader must also be a problem solver because there are no projects without problems unless it is a fake or bad one.
So, the project manager should be able to see the problem coming, make the decision and solve it even if it takes to cancel the whole project. If you have never recommended cancelling a project, you haven’t been an effective project manager.
Woody Williams
The project manager as it is said in this quote must be confident and take quickly the right decision.
Communication skills
The project manager is required to have an excellent written and verbal communication skills. He has to communicate and listen well, understand and be understood.Most of the the project managers’ time (90%) is spent communicating (either orally like project presentations, leading team meetings or written such as weekly status updates or email correspondence) with a lot of people including the team, sponsor, clients and others stakeholders. More the communication is effective, more the project will take steps forward and has more chances to succeed. Project managers have to be clear and concise.Negotiation skillsThis core competency goes hand-in-hand with communication skills. Project managers will regularly found themselves in a position of negotiating a contract (negotiating budgets, schedules, resources, support or with third party like suppliers or clients). For that reason, they should understand the different interests of people to align them and accomplish project goals.
Organization & Coordination
Between managing resources, planning, executing and monitoring the development of the project, a project manager must be organized to be able to do all these tasks. He/ she should be able to juggle multiple projects and stay on top of schedules, budgets, communication, and other people which bring us to G. Reiss’ quote: Project management is like juggling three balls ” time, cost and quality. Program management is like a troupe of circus performers standing in a circle, each juggling three balls and swapping balls from time to time. This quote enhances the fact that it is important to alienate time, cost and quality in order to succeed in your project. Planning, organizing, scheduling, leading, communicating and controlling of work activities are all of them crucial to achieve a pre-defined outcome on time and within budget.
Time management
A good project manager is able to differentiate and prioritize what needs to be done urgently and what not because there are a lot of things that could be done in a day and we are usually limited by the time. He/ she should be able to divide and plan the day as it needs to be and knows when to say no to the unnecessary tasks. So, the project manager will identify the best things to do from the good things that could be done or recognize the urgent tasks from the important ones.Therefore, a project manager should know how to value the time. It is also doing the right thing at the right moment.
Creative
Being a Project Manager is like being an artist, you have the different colored process streams combining into a work of art
Greg Cimmarrusti
I agree with this quote on the fact that a project manager should be an artist. He/ she had the materials (resources + team) and the painting canvas that he/ she transformed into an art (project). A project manager must be creative not only in the idea or the subject but also in the problem-solving and the decision- making.Risk management:The project manager should consider risks as well as what may go wrong in a project. That means that he/ she must be proactive than reactive (when it is already too late to do something). Being proactive doesn’t involve only identifying the risks but also planning what to do in case something goes wrong. I believe that these plans should be incorporated into the main one. It is a prevention action that must be taken in order to make investors and sponsors happier and not anxious.
On the other side, it will save us time juggling and struggling the unwelcome surprises.To conclude, it is not necessary to be good at telling people what to do or dividing tasks to be a project manager. This job involves more than that contrary to the belief of many persons. It includes most importantly job experience and training. I believe that job experience along with the core competencies that I mention will give us the good project manager that will be able to inspire others and lead competently, effectively and efficiently.
