Attributes of an Effective Project Manager

Recently I did an interview talking about the most important attributes of an effective project manager and those attributes which undermine a person's ability to manage projects well.  It was fun putting together the list and I thought I would share my raw bullets with you, as follows:

Attributes of an effective project manager:

• Skill in negotiating win-win solutions between stakeholders and the project team
• Ability to understand the needs of the stakeholder organization and take those into account when making day to day project decisions

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• Ability to objectively present decision alternatives and consequences and drive to a rational decision based on the alternatives
• Staying calm particularly during turbulent times
  
• Avoiding showing biases toward any team member or stakeholder organization
  
• Skill in clearly articulating a project workplan, its dependencies, and the resulting deliverables

• Desire to hold the team accountable for deliverables

• Ability to clearly articulate and communicate the mission of the project and continually remind the project team of the business purpose behind the project
• Ability to earn the respect of the team regardless of reporting relationships
• Willingness to be held accountable for results and not deflect blame when things don’t go well
• Ability to effectively leverage a project sponsor to get him/her to help the project manager through difficult issues
• Skill in managing virtual teams
  
  

Things which undermine a PM’s ability to manage effectively:

• Inability to stay calm when problems arise
• Blame-shifting when things go wrong
• Poor articulation of work assignments and deliverables
• Biases towards team members or stakeholder organizations
• Political or hidden agendas which influence project decisions
• Inability to compromise or negotiate win-win solutions
  

Lonnie Pacelli
Keynote Speaker | Board Director | Autism Advocate | Author | Project Management Expert | Microsoft/Accenture Veteran 
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