During my professional career I have worked with many project managers; I have also played the role myself, managing various small and big projects, so I have come to appreciate a good and skilled project manager.

It is very interesting to see the different types of skills each project manager brings to the table as each person is different, but it is also fascinating to learn from achievements and failures.  Yes, we have all participated in both successful and unsuccessful projects.

So what makes a good Project Manager?

Let’s start with the definition by Wikipedia : “A project manager is the person responsible for accomplishing the stated project objectives. Key project management responsibilities include creating clear and attainable project objectives, building the project requirements, and managing the constraints of the project management triangle, which are cost, time, scope, and quality.”

Each time I search for contracts, I come across postings for “Project Managers”.  Most of them require the candidates to be able to handle a budget, provide solutions on time, and meet project objectives. In essence, companies look for professionals who are more or less “administrative assistants” for the project.  But what about defining the project?

The definition reveals something very important when handling a project: one of the most important skills a Project Manager needs to have is the ability to analyze the objectives in detail in order to define solid and reasonable requirements.  More importantly, the Project Manager has to make sure that the objectives make sense for the business and are understood by the stakeholders: what are they going to “get in return” by going ahead with a project?  Efficiency, cost reduction, customer satisfaction, growth?

But is this enough?  Unfortunately, in certain situations the stakeholders are not the ones who operate the business on a day to day basis, and their needs might not be realistic.  The project manager needs to gather information from every level in the company in order to be objective when making decisions.  This, at the end, is one of the keys to implementing a successful project.

As I see it a Project Manager needs to have certain skills that are usually overlooked:  he or she needs to be a good listener and a good negotiator, making sure to always have the purpose in mind, because ultimately, the project manager is accountable for the success of the project.

Last year I had the experience of working for a company as a contractor; the Project Manager assigned to the project I was working on didn’t have a clue about it.  I have to say that he was brought into the project when the requirements were already defined, so I wrote a scope of work describing in detail the requirements and the proposed solution.  It was very sad to see that he ignored everything described in the document and only read the page outlining the cost of the solution and when it was going to be delivered.  This project was going to affect the daily tasks of at least 50 users and my only contact in the company was the project manager who never got up to speed.

Let’s analyze the two sides of the coin:  Probably for him it was overwhelming because he wasn’t able to help me and didn’t have the skills to feel confident about the functionality and the quality of my work.  From my side it was very frustrating because he wasn’t able to deal with my inquiries; he became an obstacle for the project.

No matter how big or small a project is, one of the roles of the Project Manager is to facilitate communication between all parties involved.  I am not saying that the individual needs to have all the answers, but being resourceful and solving problems while under pressure is a must when dealing with a project.  Each unanswered question contributes to an unsuccessful project; even though not every answer will make everybody happy.

Project Managers wear many hats, but apart from having a business background, they are people oriented: listening, negotiating, facilitating, giving constructive feedback… in other words, they are leaders.

Usually leaders are trusted, leaders are followed, and leaders get people working together.  Leaders protect, and leaders have specific objectives to fulfill people’s needs.

So, in my experience, a good Project Manager is someone who is a natural leader and who can cover every angle of a project from start to finish.