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To be a project manager, you need the right skills to handle pressure and manage people while achieving the project goals. As a project manager, I have learned specific traits that make for excellent project management that we will share in this post.
Project managers are responsible for completing projects on time and within budget while ensuring safe and excellent execution. The project manager must communicate effectively with an eye for detail and a positive attitude to lead people and handle the work pressure.
To understand those personality traits, you must understand the key responsibilities of a project manager. It does not matter what type of projects you run; the key responsibilities are the same. You can learn about those responsibilities here: What Are The Project Manager’s Responsibilities?
The following are the top 7 personality traits for a project manager. Those traits are based on my experience as a project manager and many project managers I knew in my professional career.
1- Excellent listener and communicator
Perhaps the essential features a project manager must have is listening first then communicating effectively second. Intelligence is not the main indicator of success. Successful leaders are better communicators than thinkers, enabling them to leverage other people’s skills at will.
This skill means that you need to be the last person to speak in a meeting. You want to pay attention to what others have to say and offer. This is how you can get perspective from others, not because you lack intelligence, but you realise that you can not do everything by yourself and you certainly do not have all the answers, so you listen to people. Moreover, it makes others feel appreciated because they are heard.
Project management needs a bit of understanding and sales skills to market your ideas and earn profit for your company and organisation. Out of all the books I have read about communication, I found nothing better than How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie, probably the best communication book you can ever read.
2- Effective time management skills
Effective time management can do two things. First, ensure that your work is done on time by working smart. Second, be in control of your time by worrying and stressing less. The best way to manage your time is to understand the urgency and importance of your tasks; this is known as your action priority list.
The best way to sort your task is to break them into three lists. First is the most urgent, which is your priority list or A list. Second is your B list which is important but not urgent tasks that you can afford to postpone for now. Finally, the C list is the not urgent and not important tasks.
| A-List | B-List | C-List |
|---|---|---|
| Highly urgent | Not urgent | Not urgent |
| Extremely important | Important | Not important |
| Has the highest priority | Still a priority but can be postponed | It can be postponed for a long time |
By sorting your work from highest to lowest priority, you ensure that you are working efficiently and not just wasting your time with tasks that can hold you off from other urgent and important ones. Moreover, you ensure that you work smarter, not harder, and are more likely to finish tasks on time and have as little stress as possible.
So what qualifies as a priority action? Simply think of it as the essential thing that needs to be done today. This is how you turn an average day into a productive day. Instead of endlessly wasting time with non-important tasks, action your priorities and make it your mission to finish those tasks today.
Think of your priority action list as big rocks that you need to get out of your way. Ignore other irrelevant tasks (small rocks) that do not add value to your project, at least not now. Watch this video on how important it is to prioritise your big rocks.
3- High attention to details
The attention to detail allows project managers to spot mistakes early. Some work can be extremely complex, and you must train yourself to look for those fine details that are not recognised by others, which is why education and learning are important to succeed as a project manager.
Understanding the contract and the scope of work can make a huge difference as it allows for spotting mistakes when checking for quality. Therefore, the project manager must read and understand the critical documents related to the project and have a team of engineers and problem-solvers who can step in to solve problems.
The project manager must see things from a functional view, not from a consumer perspective. For example, if the project manager is building apartment blocks, the project manager must look beyond just aesthetics to building defects. Training yourself as a project manager to have better attention to detail is not a quick thing. However, it does grow with experience.
The thing that made me increase my attention to detail was understanding the project itself as much as possible. That means that you need to ask many questions to many people from different specialties to build the experience required to run your projects.
Listening to mentors and leaders within your organisation can significantly impact your success. Do not just listen aimlessly but try to take notes, ask questions, implement what you learned, and take action to grow faster.
4- Leadership skills and a team player
Some think that a good leader makes decisions that should not be questioned. This is a big misconception. If you work in an environment where your boss has the final judgement when no one dares to question him/her, you should be the one to defy that logic or unspoken rule because you will either point the error in your boss’s decision which it might earn you their respect or discover the error in your thinking which might give you perspective and help you to start thinking like your boss.
You might be the project manager, but you can not make all the decisions by yourself because you do not know everything, and even if you work in a big organisation, you might have a manager you report to.
The best project managers are leaders, not bosses; they are team players who listen first, judge the situation second and take action as a final step. So you work with people, and sometimes for them, just because you are the project manager does not mean that you are the boss because thinking this way is a quick way to failure.
Therefore, change your mindset about leadership. As a project manager, I realised that working with people is more like serving and leveraging their intelligence. Help them with their work, and they will help you back. This is how you can be a team player through collaboration, communication, and a positive attitude and understanding.
Working on any technical project requires teamwork, which means that people will usually be assigned tasks relevant to their skills. Your responsibility is to understand your team to leverage their skills that best suit the project requirement. Your team will be happy because they are understood, and you are more likely to achieve the intended project goals.
5- Flexibility with a positive attitude
Working in a highly technical area where you are in charge of designers and builders requires many hours of work which is not ideal. Project managers are high performers and usually work in a deadline industry, which means the job is complete when you finish your work. That sometimes means that you might have to put crazy hours into your work to meet the deadline.
Therefore, being flexible on the hours and the environment can help you progress a lot in your career. This is usually related to being committed and believing in the value of your work. Moreover, it is likely for a person to tolerate harsh work conditions if they really enjoy what they do, so you should always follow your passion.
Even if you are a flexible person, you should possess the right attitude to stay motivated. By believing in your work mission, you can increase team productivity and help deliver work with no errors. A good attitude can help keep you motivated and boost your chances of doing an excellent job.
This work ethic gives you the perspective you need to succeed as a project manager. Mindset plays a critical role in this trait, which means that you need to have some sort of flexibility with your time and have a positive attitude toward the hardships of the job. Usually, things do not fall in place in project management and are expected to go sideways. Therefore, having a positive mindset can pay you dividends in hard times.
6- Having the right technical skills
If you are a project manager in this day and age, half your value lies in your technical skills. This means you need to be highly knowledgeable in computer programs, specifically those that help run your projects. Companies will not hire someone if they lack the technical skills required.
Companies do not expect their employees to know every software, but they expect you to be a fast learner to adapt a specific program into your arsenal. This is why you need to be computer savvy and can handle yourself and learn things independently.
However, I found that companies will not tolerate someone who does not know how to use Microsoft Office apps. Those apps such as word, excel, MS projects, and outlook has become the industry standard for project management.
Therefore, if you think you are not as good with Microsoft office apps, I suggest taking courses or reading books such as the books below. You will be surprised how small hacks can make a tremendous difference in your productivity.
As a project manager, I realised that being productive with managing emails helped me be extremely time-efficient where I am taking control of my time. I have made a list of the best tips you can implement today to use outlook more effectively: 10 Tips To Use Outlook More Productively And Work Smart.
As a project manager, the most used apps for me are Excel and Microsoft projects. Those two apps are used widely in project management for project pricing and program. The more you enhance those skills, the more efficient you operate.
7- Able to work under pressure
While we can not deny that project management can be an extremely fulfilling career, it is also a high-pressure job. If you have been doing this for a while, you will start to realise that stress and pressure are common in project management due to project difficulty and sometimes the long work hours.
The bigger the project, the higher the stake and responsibility. There is no easy path to adapt to high pressure. The following are a few tips to help you cope with pressure:
1– If the pressure is due to long working hours, which usually happen at the end of the project, you should consider taking time off work; this can positively affect your mental health.
2– If the pressure is due to project difficulty, you should be honest and ask for help. If you work in a big organisation, you will be surprised how much help and support you can get if you are stuck with something. In general, people like to help just be honest and accept the help when given.
3– If the pressure is due to underperforming in your duties, you probably need to educate yourself and gain more experience. It will help if you have a mentor that can coach you and guide you to be a better version of yourself. Focus on the experienced people in your organisation and ask them for help when needed.
4– If the pressure is due to disconnection with your job or loss of interest, you probably need to examine yourself and reflect on what makes you hate your job. Find a way to work around it. If you do not get results, take those issues to your human resources or your manager if you trust them enough. See if you can work through these problems.
If you can not work through the issues, you either completely lost all interest in the job, or you do not find the job as challenging as before. You might need to think about either changing your career or taking on more responsibilities within your organisation.
Sometimes the job can be extremely challenging, and we can feel stressed and pressured. Most often, I suck it up and keep working hard, which is the best solution to overcome challenges. The experience has always made me better and stronger.
The Bottom Line
Project managers oversee projects to ensure the highest quality for the finished project. The project manager must have personality traits to succeed in the job, such as effective communication and problem-solving skills.
Knowing those top 7 personality traits does not guarantee success as a project manager; it is the commitment to applying those principles that makes all the difference. The project manager should have a sound understanding of their daily tasks to succeed. To learn more, read: What Are The Daily Tasks Of A Project Manager? Tips For Excellent Project Management.
