Do You Have the Personality to Be a Good PM?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Career Development   New Practitioners  

I was talking to someone the other day in a social setting, and when he found out that my background was in project management, he said: “I would have loved to have been a project manager, but I didn’t have the right personality for it.” He’s retired now so won’t be correcting that misconception, but I wanted to explore with him what it was he thought a PM should be like.

As you might expect, he talked about being confident and outgoing; of being comfortable working with people from all areas and levels of the organization; of having a broad understanding of the business, and so on. In other words, he told me how many people would describe a stereotypical project manager. But there is so much more to project management than that—and there are so many ways to perform the role successfully.

I can’t help that individual now because he has completed his career (and was very successful in the path he did choose). But I am sure there are other potential younger PMs who worry that they don’t have what it takes to succeed as a project manager. So, let’s set the record straight.

Anyone can be a project manager
As a project manager, I have an outgoing personality. I’m comfortable working with all types of people, and I’m able to make decisions quickly when needed. I have also enjoyed some success building and …

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