Great project managers can be worth their weight in gold. Tight deadlines, budget constraints, politics and competing agendas all serve to create a powder-keg of challenges and problems.
I have worked with, and coached project managers within the construction, engineering and consulting industries for many years. What I’ve discovered is that the best ones have a few things in common.
The following attributes are essentials that the very best PM’s constantly demonstrate.

  1. They create a talented support team that fills the gap for their lesser skills. PM’s are generally more “big picture” thinkers and can be very effective if they have a talented team of resource specialists (technical, financial, legal, organizational, HR) to access as required.
  2. They love autonomy to make decisions and act.
  3. They are great networkers – they advance by engaging and garnering the support of others to achieve results.
  4. They have a passion for the project, the people and the outcome.
  5. They leverage their experience which allows them to influence through authority and knowledge.

A great project manager doesn’t have to be all things to all people, just the person that gets the right things done, the right way and on time.