Traits of a Great Project Manager

I've been quite busy talking to several people a day. Many are looking for their next role and sometimes they are not sure what the next role would be for them. What I do see is some experience running projects in their work history. So, I started to think, what makes a good project manager. Here's a quick list that came to mind:

1)     Great Communicators – PM's need to be able to communicate with all the layers of the project such as the project team, stakeholders, executive sponsors, end-users, and even peers to name a few. Frequent and consistent communication is key to a project success. These PM's usually have a well-defined communication plan as part of the project charter.

2)     Organized – PM's are responsible for a lot of details in the project. Having great organizational skills to make the job a lot easier. When PM's can provide resources, deliverables, or documentation quickly due to being well organized it provides an additional confidence booster to all that are involved in. These PM's a disciplined with their daily tasks and accountability.

3)     High level of Integrity and Trustworthiness. PM's are like the quarterback on the team. Team members need to know they can trust their PM. This will boost teamwork and loyalty to the project. Additionally, having a PM that addresses issues swiftly and doesn't try to bury the issues will earn a high level of respect and an ability to influence the customer's decisions. The PM will set the tone to the project and successful projects need to have a high-level of integrity.

4)     Fantastic Time Management and Resource Management skills – a PM needs to be able to plan out the timeline and make sure the resources and team members are in the right place at the right time. A lot of projects have changing priorities and unforeseen issues pop up. A PM needs to anticipate these changes and make the appropriate adjustments quickly.

5)     Champion of Teamwork.  As mentioned before the PM is like the quarterback. The PM has a key role but can't do the entire project. The PM needs to look out for the team. Help the team when they need it, support and fight for the team, supply direction and guidance. The PM needs the team members to be working in harmony throughout the project.

Some of the above are dependent on each other and I know there are a dozen more attributes that make a great Project Manager. Let's start the conversation, what other traits do you think a project manager should have? Add it to the comments and let's see if we can build a Unicorn PM.

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