Traits of an Effective Project Leader/Manager
Skills and Competencies
I. Leadership involves dealing with change and includes such elements as
setting and communicating direction, developing vision, and aligning team
members, stakeholders, and others.
A. Successful project management requires effective leadership.
B. It involved such elements as interpersonal relationships and facilitation.
C. Important in a project environment—as projects generate change—and
characteristics can differ from one project to the next.
D. It was also deemed important to understand the relative importance of
what project managers do to determine whether the skills and
competencies they were thought to require really would support their
effectiveness in leadership.
II. People skills, in short, the various attributes and competencies that allow one
to play well with others.
A. Be a good conversationalist and a great listener, and show empathy for
others.
1. Don’t ignore difficult conversations.
2. Share everything.
B. Show you care by being there and doing more for the project, your clients,
and your team.
1. Be a cheerleader.
2. Be patient.
C. Good negotiating skills are beneficial with both internal and external
discussions.
III. An effective project manager should possess integrity and ethical behavior.
A. To create trust and respect in others, people need to know that their point
of view and feedback will be considered and used.
B. The saying, “honesty is the best policy” is not only true, it’s essential in
building trust among your colleagues.
C. Be fair and objective.
D. Finish tasks completely, in a comprehensive manner.
IV. Corporate leaders have put critical thinking at the top of the list of essential
competencies needed by their workers to understand these challenges,
explore opportunities, and make good decisions in this new competitive
environment.
A. Good judgment is a key people skill that comes directly from learning,
listening to others and observing the world around you.
B. Work is a series of problem solving situations, but if you’re proactive, you’ll
take the pressure off your boss and colleagues.
C. A good project manager will know how to prioritize projects according to
the business’ overall needs and goals.
D. When trying to evaluate the priority of a new project, there are critical
thinking techniques you can put into practice to boost results and team
morale.
1. Avoid making or accepting assumptions.
2. Identify potential issues (and their consequences) from the start.
3. Use the Five Whys to find the root of problems.
V. Building in adaptability.
A. Adaptive teams learn continuously throughout the project, and they utilize
the new knowledge to make course adjustments. The features of adaptive
planning include:
1. Frequent reviews of the plan and the project, as well as revision of the
project plan to reflect the teams' learning as well as changes in the
project environment.
2. Willingness to adapt the plan using what the team has learned.
3. Flexible project lifecycle planning, characterized by a strategy of
"planning to replan”.
B. Organization’s capable of launching adaptive teams see early signs of the
eventual success or failure or their projects, and can correct in time to
respond to changes in the market.
C. 30 percent of project teams use formal risk management methods to
identify and manage foreseeable risks, let alone the unforeseen risks.
Sources:
ASU W.P. Carey School of Business. (2019, April 30). Adaptability:
Essential ingredient for successful project management. W. P.
Carey News. https://news.wpcarey.asu.edu/20060215-adaptability-
essential-ingredient-successful-project-management
Attention Required! | Cloudflare. (n.d.). Pmi.Org.
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/leadership-project-manager-
skills-competencies-8115
Fontein, D. (2020, April 29). The Project Manager’s Guide to
Critical Thinking Skills. Unito. https://unito.io/blog/critical-thinking-
skills/#:%7E:text=Critical%20thinking%20means%20questioning%2
0processes,how%20important%20this%20skill%20is%3A&text=Re
duce%20stress%20throughout%20a%20project
Smith, J. (2014, March 17). The 20 People Skills You Need To
Succeed At Work. Forbes.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2013/11/15/the-20-
people-skills-you-need-to-succeed-at-work/?sh=6ad4346f3216
