Seven Critical Qualities of a Good Project Manager

A few days ago, a group of friends and I were talking about project direction. And to be honest, we were talking specifically about project managers - the most commonly used term in Colombia - and their performance. The discussion, beyond the job title, was about which qualities a project manager needs to be successful.

Without focusing on any particular company, a job description, or a certification, we all agreed it wasn’t easy to find good project managers. And, paradoxically, it seemed unbelievable to us that this was the case, since we also considered these qualities as basic as good reading comprehension or being able to write a decent email.

Project Management for Life

Some time ago I volunteered in Colombia, and later across Northern Latin America (from Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela, all the way to Mexico) for the PMI Educational Foundation . The foundation champions the idea that certain project-management-related skills are essential life skills. It also promotes learning and internalizing those qualities in children and young people. For my part, I worked with children, teenagers, and people in socially vulnerable situations - displaced by violence or natural disasters - to build and strengthen management capabilities that would let them organize themselves, work as a team, plan their work, and, of course, be more successful in their own ventures. It’s not for nothing that people say “every good entrepreneur is a good project manager.”

But is it actually true that we should all have project management or direction skills? Not all of us are going to be project managers, but all of us should understand and value good planning, teamwork, and taking responsibility for our own execution. In another article I wrote about the first steps toward starting a career as a project manager.

We’re All Project Management

Consciously or unconsciously, all of us exercise some form of project management - and I don’t mean the processes out of a book. Imagine for a second what a project actually means to you.

To me, projects are vehicles for change. They’re instruments that let us change reality. That’s why people use expressions like: life project, thesis project, or, when starting a venture, it’s common to hear “I’m working on a new project.” Projects are a natural part of life and let us evolve. Projects give us excitement and motivation.

If they’re part of our lives, why isn’t this taught in school? We don’t know - some of us do believe it should be taught in school.

Why Are Projects Useful?

Everyone has ideas and dreams. Some people take those ideas and make plans to turn them into reality. But only a small group is capable of rallying people, aligning them, and making those plans and ideas actually happen. And for those in the know, plans aren’t the same thing as “schedules.” The latter are the real project managers, with their own set of qualities.

Qualities of a Project Manager

If we all have ideas, then we all have the potential to be project managers, and the need to be one. That’s why it’s worth understanding the role and the qualities it takes to practice project direction.

The Objective of a Project Manager

There’s a popular saying: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” The key word in that saying is together. But teams aren’t just groups of people. Some authors consider that the biggest difference between a group and a team lies mostly in the strength of the relationships - professional and personal. I’d invite you to read a piece published by Google under its re:Work initiative, Guide: Understand team effectiveness .

Turning groups of people into working teams isn’t easy. Teams need natural, fluid leadership, and people willing to hold the course, keep the focus, and sustain constant effort. That, in my view, is the fundamental role of the project manager.

Whatever you call it, a project leader is someone who functions as an enabler of the team’s performance. And what does that mean? Many things, all depending on context.

Qualities Depending on Context

A project manager’s qualities vary according to the project’s context and the team’s capabilities. To make my point, here are a couple of scenarios.

Suppose a well-established, strong team, focused, but with little connection to other groups or areas in the company. The project leader is probably someone who works directly, or through others, to strengthen that connectedness, while helping the team communicate and be communicated with - sending and receiving information - with the rest of the organization. The project manager’s qualities will lean more toward politics, communication, and the ability to distill and convey information - to name a few.

Now suppose the opposite: a group of people who just met, some of them new to the company. From the project manager, we’ll want clarity, punctuality in what’s asked of the team, and certainly a strong ability to plan the work, coordinate people, and help them integrate quickly into this new team. Beyond communication, the critical qualities here will be attention to detail to support building plans, driving discussions, and, in some cases, helping flesh out requirements.

Seven Critical Qualities of the Project Manager

In both scenarios, the role is the same: bring out the best in each individual on the team and build a team capable of meeting its needs on time (opportunity) and with the required quality. Some qualities of the project manager that are critical to doing the role well:

1. Leadership
2. Communication
3. Structured thinking - the ability to assemble a plan with logic and sense
4. Time management - their own and their team’s
5. Negotiation skills
6. Critical thinking
7. Emotional intelligence

All of us need, at some point or in some context, a leader. And I don’t mean the boss, or always the same person. Leadership is valuable because it keeps the focus, the energy, the spirit, and the sense of togetherness alive. Good project managers can, at any moment and whenever the situation calls for it, step into that leadership.