Knowing the project definition
One of the major qualities of a project manager is to always keep the project in focus. There are so many situations where one finds it hard to differentiate between project activities and operations. Knowing the difference between the two and tracking the project activities and making sure that these do not intermingle with each other is very crucial.
Communicate to identify changes
A major quality of a project manager is the ability to communicate effectively. A project Manager’s success depends on two major factors, communication and focuses on the goal. Continuous updates and real-time communication with the team helps identify deviations from goals in a timely manner. Adding to this effective communication with customers can also help in quick identification of changes in the scope.
It is important to keep things simple
Another important quality of a project manager is to keep things simple and understandable for the team. Most of the projects are complex in nature, but one can simplify this by properly defining activities and by following a structured plan. Decomposing the complex project into smaller achievable goals is very important.
Seek help
Yes, seeking help is a quality that most people are hesitant about, there is nothing wrong with asking for help. If you are stuck on something, instead of trying to solve it all by yourself, go ahead and seek help. By doing this, you do not become a bottleneck for your own project. And ask questions. Ask the same kind of questions repeatedly until you have got your query cleared. So it’s important to go ahead and ask questions without hesitation, get clarification, get the support that you need when you need it.
Enlist your mentors
It’s important to have quality mentors. Have a list of mentors who helped you in different areas and keep these contacts handy. If you don’t have one find one that can help you out and mentor you with your project related queries. A mentor could be your manager or a colleague within your organization or outside.
Identify your go-to people
Another quality is to maintain a healthy relationship with your go-to people. This could be your team, your superiors, stakeholder, or even customers. Find your go-to people. Those are the people that you know you can go to and always get information whenever you need it, this could involve information relating to support or escalations or even a general query.
Respect your team
No matter in which profession respecting others is a very important project manager quality. Your team can literally make you or break you, so if you disrespect your team they are going to disrespect you and in turn, are going to lose loyalty.
Listen to your customers and your stakeholders
A must-have quality for a project manager is to listen. Information given by the project stakeholders and customers is very crucial and can help in various stages of the project. This information could include details about the market they are serving, their customers, their organization, the different inputs that need to go in and continually be assessed and incorporated into your project.
Prepare yourself
Coming to one of the most important project manager quality, which is preparation. Prepare yourself for the day, prepare yourself for team meetings or any stakeholder meetings, prepare yourself for any presentations you are going to give, etc. Know what the project is, what the business objective is, who are the team members? You can never prepare too much.
Plan
Planning is an art, it is true that how much ever you plan, events can take a different route.
But it is always better to plan instead of going in unprepared for your project. Planning can reduce a lot of risks and rework which in turn can save a lot of cost and time.