Achieving Project Manager Greatness

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Leadership   Talent Management  

Sam has worked his way up the project management ranks and has finally been tapped to manage projects. But something isn’t going right. Sam’s projects seem to be faltering, with some on the brink of failure. Worse yet, he has done everything by the book: business cases, charters, work plans, communication plans, timely status reports, executive dashboards, a competent team, reasonable budget, achievable timelines and more.

And yet, success just isn’t happening. What is going wrong? Perhaps Sam needs to examine his leadership skills--those “soft” and “intangible” skills that elude so many project managers who otherwise appear quite competent in their craft.

Do you know someone like Sam? Maybe that Sam is you. Ever ask yourself what differentiates a good project manager from a great one? While there are many variables that contribute to becoming a great project manager, perhaps the most influential attribute is the ability to lead--the ability to foster trust, respect, support amongst those on your team and all others that have a stake in a project’s success.

So what are the skills, behaviors and traits that a project manager needs to master in order to demonstrate and provide effective project leadership? As you might expect, there are many pundits (including myself) that have opinions on this topic. Let’s …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.