Profile of a good project manager

Dr Muhammad Arshad and Prof Michael FitzGerald examine the skills and psychological profile necessary in order to be a good project manager

“Every human is a project manager from birth to death, childhood to old age, research to discovery and even cooking a simple dish.” — (Hajra 1943-2003).
What does a health minister/secret-ary, health manager, clinical director, hospital superintendent, ward manager, specialist, surgeon, psychiatrist, finance manager, ancillary staff manager and even a patient have in common? Each one is a project manager in their own way.
Everyone has a project of some kind to deal with, such as budgeting, health targets, waiting lists, operations or recruiting the right staff for the right position. The health service is a big industry that needs successful project managers, who should have special qualities and skills to deal with day-to-day business.
Project management
A successful project manager has special characteristics and qualities such as integrative responsibility, skills and experience (Archibald, 1976). These special characteristics and qualities enable them to demonstrate the necessary actions that lead to success of the project (Mulenburg, 2000).
This article is about the important characteristics and qualities of a successful project manager and how he/she differs from mediocre project managers, in order to bring about the successful completion of a project.
A project, loosely defined, is ‘a collection of activities and tasks designed to achieve a specific but temporary goal of the organisation, with specific performance or quality requirements, all the while subject to time and cost constraints’ (Pyren, 1994). Project management is a procedure, a discipline, an action or the application of tasks, tools, skills, knowledge and techniques to complete a project on time, within budget and within a set of specific requirements. Different organisations apply different project management tools and techniques to complex projects (Kwak, 2005).
Henry Gantt (1861-1919), the father of planning and control techniques, is famous for the creation of the Gantt Chart as a project management tool (Stevens, 2002).
Henri Fayol (1841-1925) is known for his creation of the general theory of management, with six primary functions and 14 principles (Henri, 1918), which form the foundation of the body of knowledge associated with project and programme management (Witzel, 2003).
The project management life-cycle involves five key stages of initiating, planning, execution, monitoring and completion (Cleland & Gareis, 2006). Every project has to face five important interrelated constraints such as time, cost, desired performance, assigned resources and acceptability by the stakeholders, which are tackled easily by a good manager (Hartley, 2009, p. 25-29, Kerzner, 2009, p. 3).
Sometimes the project lead plays the dual role of a technologist and manager, to make judgments, decisions and analyses of the project. An effective project manager requires something more than just mediocre management skills of planning, organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling (Mulenburg, 2000).
Leadership skills
To be effective, he or she must provides the necessary leadership to complete the project, on time and within budget. Moreover, an effective project lead empowers the team to create their own vision about the project also. Skills of leadership, team building, working attitude and co-ordinating the team members can hold the team together, to run the work smoothly and to achieve the right objectives (Kerzner, 2006; Summer, Bock & Giamartino, 2006).
The person responsible must be a good coach, who encourages team members to depend on and learn from each other to perform by education, explanation, motivation and mentoring (Project Smart, n.d.), as a close collaboration between team members is essential for success (Kovtun, 2002). The manager should have shared vision, good communication, integrity, competence, enthusiasm, empathy, team-building skills, be composed under pressure, have the ability to trust others and have problem-solving skills. He/she not only leads the project, but also delegates, educates and communicates to the team members about specific goals and objectives (Barry, 2009).
Communication
A successful project leader has the talent to communicate effectively with the team about tasks, responsibilities and performance to achieve individual goals. They must reflect high standard of ethical behaviour through their words and actions (Turner & Muller, 2004).
According to Cleland and Ireland (2007), a good manager is able to balance functional progress such as operational and capital costs, keep the financier updated, assemble a dynamic workforce, innovate to devise technology issues, develop relationships with stakeholders, address political and cultural issues, and manage cost, time and risk of the project.
Management practice should be flexible and adjustable according to the circumstances, but the fundamental rules should be the same – time, budget and quality. However, the success of a project depends on project manager’s capability to meet these three requirements (Baccarini, 1999), and apply evidence-based management to minimise the error and improve the quality of work (Wiegers, 2008).
A passionate manager is committed to the goals of the project and leads the project with optimism, enthusiasm and positive attitude. Enthusiasm is one of the most important merits, as the project work may not be accomplished with a negative attitude. A competent project manager listens to the point of view of other members of the team with empathy, and successfully leads others in their technical and business expertise (Kerzner, 2006).
An outstanding project manager is an exemplary role model for all the team, who always establishes his/her trust in other team members through actions and accomplishments. A mediocre and unskilled project leader is unable to trust others and always fails in the project work. However, an influential manager demonstrates the capability to monitor other team members’ work, and has the ability to delegate tasks by endorsing other people to participate fully in that project (Baccarini, 1999).
Conflict resolution
An outstanding and extraordinary skill of a triumphant project manager is conflict resolution, which is important for the success of a project. Whenever there are two or more bosses of a project, the employees may display confusion because of conflict, which is a valid disadvantage of matrix management. The efficient project leader can minimise these conflicts by proper management and co-operation (Robey & Sales, 1994). Flexibility, creditability, tolerance, innovation and availability are important characteristics of a successful project manager (Stutterfield, Friday-Stroud & Shivers-Blackwell, 2006).
An organised manager looks after all important needs of the team to produce a good outcome. Physiological and safety are the lower needs, while esteem and self-actualisation are the higher needs of the team members to seek achievement, face challenge and take responsibility (Mulenburg, 2000).
According to Kendra & Taplin (2004), a successful manager has the calibre to assess potential values and ethical rules of the project, to make sure that there is no violation in any project. It is a well-established fact that a good project manager can improve the self esteem, motivation and confidence of team members, so these confident and motivated team members can assist the project manager to approach the task with confidence, which subsequently produces effective solutions for any problems.
Muzio, Fisher, Thomas and Peters (2007) suggested that manager’s observation power, especially observing the strengths and weaknesses of each employee, is the key factor for achieving success in the project. They added that weaknesses are more observable than strength, so a manager who has a high level of observational power makes them more successful in their workplace through employee development.
A successful manager is always committed to the organisation, which provides comprehensive technical and management supports, so that a project is completed on time, on budget and without any major problem for customers and team members as well. Some sort of problem can be expected in every project, as there is nothing perfect in a practical world (Mulenberg, 2000).
Project managers must demonstrate excellent problem-solving skills and at times have to take on too much responsibility to do their job while under pressure and within limited time, rather than train someone else how to do that (Project Smart, n.d.). The person must remember that they can influence the outcome of their project, even if under stress due to situational crises (Kerzner, 2006). In other words, they need to stay calm, composed and in full control of the project under all kinds of pressure.
Motivation
Motivational needs theory consists of three motivation components: achievement, authority and affiliation (McLelland, 1978). This is based on five motivational needs: biological/physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualisation (Maslow, 1943). A good manager applies this theory to overcome difficulties, achieve good outcomes, make positive choices and provide valid expectations for team members by motivation.
A project manager’s powers of expert, referent and formal authority play a significant role in the success or failure of a project. Referent and formal authority powers help the manager to influence the team members positively, but the authority power can have a negative effect on the project manager’s ability to influence team members (Mullenburg, 2000).
Despite pressure from pivotal stakeholders like politicians and financiers, a dynamic project manager demonstrates the skill to navigate staff smoothly by assigning resources, prioritising tasks, ensuring quality, finishing the project within the predicted budget and communicating between technical staff and business managers about project status and changes of scope (Project Smart, n.d).
The success of a project depends on four competencies such as core values, leadership, mission success and technical expertise. Leadership includes dealing with changes, responsibility, team development and decision making; mission success includes good results, innovation and customer focus; and interpersonal skills mean diversity, building relationships, collaboration and communication (Muzio et al., 2007).
Success is not easy to achieve but it is easier for a person who has a polite nature, and who treats everyone respectfully. A mediocre project manager can also run their project based on personal experiences and traditional management skills such as planning, organising, commanding, co-ordinating and controlling, but they may not get success every time due to a lack of personal characteristics, as these same characteristics are reflected in their actions (Turk, 2004).
There must be awareness of the staff in the organisation, to match their skills to the right jobs (Turk, 2004). Numerous projects fail as the project manager is unable to manage his/her project effectively, because he/she might have personal experience, knowledge and skills, but no good characteristics (Sutterfield et al; 2006).
Based on all the above-mentioned literatures, Bary and Howard (1983), Archibald (1976), Mulenburg (2000) and Kerzner (2006), I summarise a chart that describes the main characteristics of a successful project manager. A mediocre project manager may or may not have these characteristics.
Self-described: Personality, self-understanding, technical expertise, flexibility, interpersonal relationship, work ethics and commitments, competence, intellect, evaluation, communication;
Ego-resilience: Adaptability, self-knowledge, flexibility, self-controlled, confident;
Personality: People centered, creative, initiative, problem solver, logical thinker, team builder, supported, motivated, organized, motivated, goal oriented, shows good judgment;
Leadership: Enthusiastic, independent, having managerial power, high energy level, strong, honest, ability to resolve conflicts, self-discipline, courage, broad-minded, inspiring;
Managerial: Communicator, mentor, business oriented, intelligent, responsible, co-operative.
To conclude, personal characteristics influence a manager’s actions and a project leader’s actions, in turn, influence the outcome of the project. Mulenburg (2000) mentioned that even mediocre managers can develop their management skills and knowledge from their experience, but it is too difficult to develop personal characteristics.
A successful manager develops their skills in their workplace, while mediocre managers will leave their job due to many reasons. It is believed that a manager who has good characteristics can make good decisions, correct conclusions and compensate for the weaknesses of the team, as he/she knows its good and bad points. Moreover, good characteristics help the manager to remain in their profession as a successful project manager. Have a look around and see how many people are successful project managers and have the relevant skills.
l References on request