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 Organisations
need project managers who can create a culture of openness, eliminate
fear from the team and allow problems to surface. Pradeep Pendse
highlights the various competencies of project managers
Good programmers need not make good project leaders.
Quite often we have seen that a very good programmer is promoted
since he has reached the limit within the present salary scale.
Such a promotion is only a means of retaining a person. The possibility
is that the person continues to the perform the same role as earlier
and not be able to live up to the new title.
As a result the organisation loses a good programmer
and creates a bad manager. What is even more worrisome is the decision
to choose a bad programmer may be easy to rectify but a bad choice
of a project leader/manager could be disastrous and could have long-term
effect on the organisation.
In this article, I therefore tried to take a
look at some of the important competencies which a person must possess
or acquire in order to be a successful project leader/manager.
Each job requires certain competencies. A competency
is a combination of inherent traits, skills, attitude and behaviour.
Hence mere knowledge of the job or mere willingness to take up an
assignment, or merely entrusting a new role without adequate time
and developmental input may not make a person fit for a specific
job title.
This also explains why only a few people seem
to be successful as project managers. Those who do not make the
grade, either lack in terms of inherent traits or who have not been
groomed into the role properly or lack the specific skills such
as communication skills, the work domains or may simply fail in
terms of attitude or behaviours.
Competencies of a project manager
From my previous articles, I have picked a few
important ideas. Each of these ideas point to one or more competencies
/behaviours expected of a project manager as shown in the table
below:
From the foregoing it would be clear that to
be a good project manager one needs to succeed at every stage in
the lifecycle of the project and each stage requires specific skills,
behaviours and competencies.
Project managers’ views on competencies
During the course of the workshop on Behavioural
aspects of Project Management, I usually conduct a perception survey
on project management competencies.
The participants are asked to brainstorm and
list out the competencies which they think are important and then
rate themselves on each of these competencies on a scale of 0 to
10.
The following table summarises the competencies
which over 250 mid and senior projects managers from leading IT/software
companies have identified.
During the survey on competencies, I used to
ask participants to rate themselves on a scale of 10 on each of
the competencies. They just gave a perception about their own competencies.
Ideally, it should have been done in a 360-degree manner. However,
despite these limitations the survey was quite revealing.
What I discovered was that many project managers
tended to rate themselves quite low on vision, risk-taking, transparency
and emotional balance. During the discussions, which followed these
survey, I have heard some the following interesting comments,
- “I am a project manager for the software
maintenance line of business so it’s ok if I score low on vision.”
- “I do not wish to waste time explaining
the broad scope of the entire software being developed to the entire
team—it is a waste of my time—I feel that team mates should
be given only
enough information which is required for their
immediate task at hand.”
- “I get very upset with my team mates and
tend to get angry and raise my voice during most tracking and review
meetings.”
What is interesting in all these comments and
the low average rating on the competencies mentioned above is that
these are exactly the core project leadership issues facing the
industry today.
We actually need project managers who can create
a culture of openness, eliminate fear from the team and allow free
discussion and allow problems to surface.
We need project managers who have the vision
and foresight and have the ability to take calculated risks and
manage them effectively.
I would welcome you to rate yourself on the above
competencies and do make it point to be honest to yourself while
rating.
Having understood the competencies needed to
be a successful project managers, we need to look at ways to improve
oneself in those competencies where we have a poor rating.
But that would be subject of another article.
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Idea/Concept related to Project Management
Planning:
A Plan a statement of VISION for a project- It outlines a
path for achieving the stated goals;
It outlines how the project would flow;
What situations to expect and how to handle them;
Plan must be achieveable yet challenging.
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Required Competencies/Behaviours Vision, foresight,
attention to detail, past experience of projects, goal seeking
behaviour, create stretch, risk taking |
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Managing delivery, tracking and review:
Tracking must be done regularly;
Tracking depends on available information;
Must have his ear to the ground;
Tracking is best when problems are allowed to surface;
Tracking should focus on early identification of problems
and finding solutions and not for blaming;
Tracking is to be used to link with the overall project delivery
and goals;
Tracking should help in restoring the energy, excitement and
motivation in the team;
The project manager should create a culture of openness, transparency
and commitment oriented work ethos;
Productivity is elastic to demand.
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Discipline, rigour, desire for quality and standards,
goal focus, problem solving and analytical skills, process orientation,
high energy, staying power, eye for detail, past experience,
a sixth sense or foresight, risk taking, hands-on approach,
interpersonal skills & rapport, resourcefulness, ability
to flex leadership style, ability to excite and align people
to a shared goal, empathy & listening skills |
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Managing customer needs and expectations:
See the problem the way the client sees it;
Systems study meetings should be used for shaping client expectations;
To understand requirements it is better to not to rely entirely
on user description but verify it by inspecting transaction
documents and experiencing the work environment;
Identifying all direct and indirect stakeholders and how they
are affected by the system;
Various conceptual models such as Alfred Chandlers Strategy
Trilogy, Critical Success Factor analysis help in deriving
real business needs of the customer;
Create a relationship based on trust - The client is likely
to share his problems more openly;
The delivery includes the product itself plus other things
such as documentation, etc, all channelised through a proper
quality process;
In case of goof-ups, accept the mistake and keep the client
posted;
Clear and unambiguous requirements documents reduce misunderstandings.
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Foresight, formal written and oral communication
skills, interpersonal skills, openness, transperancy and credibility,
systematic/methodical, analytical skills, Audit skills, ability
to influence, energy and enthusiasm, empathy |
Managing implementation and change:
provide answers to each stakeholder in terms of 'What's in it
for me';
Implementation should be planned meticulously and executed in
limited time window;
Resistance to change depends on the level at which the change
is to be effected-If the change impacts the very existence of
the user the resistance would be high;
Correct mapping of source of energy for the project ensures
smooth implementation. |
Foresight, decisiveness, communication
skills, interpersonal skills, ability to influence, persistence,
energy and enthusiasm
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| Ownership |
Takes personal responsibility for the
work and the outcomes;
Puts his heart and soul into it since he sees it as his own.
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| Communication |
Written and oral communications skills;
Active listening & empathy |
| Energy & staying power |
Tireless, radiates positive energy which
is infectious |
| Analysis |
Ability to read a situation, ability
to interpret, ability to diagnose and suggest solutions |
| Rigour |
Meticulous, painstaking, strives for
perfection, thorough and details oriented |
| Risk-taking |
Ability to judge inherent risk in any
situation;
Willingness to weigh risks against rewards and take controlled
risks. |
| Resourcefulness |
Ability to think on his feet, ability
to initiate multiple actions which lead to controlling of the
situation;
Ability to acquire and deploy a variety of resources, including
tools, techniques, people and contacts to resolve problems |
| Goal-orientation |
Ability to define and focus on goals;
Ability to keep his head above the clutter of details, diversions
and adversities and stay on course |
| Creativity |
Ability to contribute to the thought
process;
Ability to find unique solutions for various problems;
Thinking out of the box. |
| Decisiveness |
Ability to take a decision quickly and
effectively; |
| Initiative |
Procrastination over decisions is a contra-indication.
Proactive at every step…does not wait for others to prompt…does
not wait till the last minute, etc;
Becomes the first to initiate a new idea or process or practice,
etc. |
| Develop People |
Team-building , encourages
and supports others;
Counsels people |
| Change |
Sensitive to and can adapt to the need
for change, both in himself as well as the environment;
Ability to influence others and drive change. |
| Emotional Balance |
Ability to manage one's emotions despite
adversities, extended hours and interpersonal conflicts;
Ability to use emotional intelligence to influence others. |
| Transparency & personal integrity |
Transparency in all dealings;
Openness in communication;
Credibility and incorruptibility.
Foresight as is required in planning, sensing risk; |
| Vision |
Vision for forecasting technology, products,
trends in business domains; |
| Interpersonal skills |
Ability to visualise solutions and products.
Ability to relate to others in a dignified manner;
Accessibility;
A team player |
Pradeep Pendse is Senior Associate Dean—Systems
& E-Business, Welingkar Institute of Management Development
and Research. E-mail: pendse_pradeep@yahoo.com
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