Project Management Qualities of a Good Project Manager: What You Need to Know

A good project manager is a master of many skills, but some qualities stand out as essential to success.

A good project manager is proactive, anticipating and preparing for potential issues.

Communication is key, and effective project managers are skilled at conveying complex information to team members and stakeholders.

They're also good listeners, taking the time to understand concerns and needs.

Good project managers are organized and able to prioritize tasks, managing multiple projects and deadlines with ease.

They're flexible and adaptable, adjusting to changes and unexpected setbacks.

A good project manager is also a good leader, inspiring and motivating team members to work together towards a common goal.

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A good project manager is all about effective leadership and communication. They spend a whopping 90% of their time communicating in some way, which means they must have excellent communication skills to lead projects to completion.

Communication is key to success, and most companies regard communication skills as extremely important, regardless of department or industry. In fact, 85% of job success comes from having well-developed soft skills.

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To communicate effectively, project managers should prioritize learning how to approach people, create meaningful relationships with co-workers, and articulate a clearly established vision of what they wish to achieve. Knowing how to effectively navigate negotiations is also crucial, and project managers may choose to apply different negotiation styles, such as compromise, collaboration, or competition.

Effective project managers know how to inspire and motivate their teams, and they do this by providing clear direction and fostering a clear sense of purpose among team members. They also need to be able to communicate and recognize when others need their support in doing so.

Here are some key qualities of a good project manager:

These qualities are essential for a project manager to be successful, and they can be demonstrated through examples of how you frame project tasks, invite collaboration, and get team members invested in a particular course of action. By highlighting these skills, you can show hiring managers that you are a good fit for a leadership role.

As a project manager, being able to solve problems and adapt to changing circumstances is crucial for success. Effective project managers are proactive, not reactive, using their critical thinking skills to navigate tricky or ambiguous projects.

They remain objective, analyze the facts, and evaluate options without bias, solving complex problems for organizations while delivering results on time and within budget. This is especially true in project management, where things can change rapidly.

A project manager's ability to anticipate issues and plan proactively for the future is a key characteristic of a highly effective project manager. This foresight enables them to mitigate risks and keep projects on track.

Problem-solving expertise is essential for project managers, who should be able to solve problems and anticipate potential issues. Highly effective project managers can devise strategic solutions before problems arise, minimizing their impact on the project's timeline and overall success.

Here are the benefits of effective problem-solving skills in project management:

Project managers need to be flexible and able to pivot their strategies and communicate this to their team. They should listen to any concerns their team has about changes before making decisions to ensure a smooth transition.

A good project manager knows how to bring teams together to achieve a common goal. This is known as collaborative leadership.

Collaborative leadership is about fostering a sense of team culture and working cross-functionally with different teams to make decisions and drive projects forward. Effective project managers need to inspire commitment, foster collaboration, and advocate for accountability and trust-building.

They need to listen deeply, take decisive action, and manage interpersonal relationships well. A technically-savvy project manager who is skilled at using resource management tools can preempt bad resource allocation decisions and manage teams more productively.

According to researchers Warren Opfer and Fred Abrams, effective leaders nurture a project team approach that balances technical project management with the flexibility to deal with uncertainties and change.

Here are some key traits of a collaborative leader:

These traits are essential for bringing teams together and achieving project success. By prioritizing collaboration and communication, project managers can create a positive and productive work environment that yields better results.

A good project manager creates a positive work environment for their team members. This involves actively saving them from interruptions, unnecessary meetings, and other distractions.

Effective project managers realize the need for team members to have large chunks of uninterrupted work slots, so they reduce interruptions and meetings. This significantly reduces stress and creates a happier work environment.

Meetings are a major source of stress for many managers, with nearly two-thirds saying they keep them from completing their own work. Savvy project managers use resource scheduling tools to check team members' availability and existing workloads before assigning new tasks.

Talking about your views on teamwork and a positive work environment during an interview is a great way to find out if you share mutual values with the hiring company. This can give you an idea of how you will fit into their existing work culture.

Empathetic precision is a characteristic of a highly effective project manager, allowing them to relate to team members' needs while maintaining a focus on the project's budget and timeline. This enables them to build strong relationships and address challenges effectively.

Project managers who remain calm and composed during chaos are essential to an organization's success. They drive projects forward, build forecasting reports, and predict resource bottlenecks to avoid major project overruns.

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A good project manager needs to be decisive and make timely, informed decisions to keep a project on track.

Decisiveness is key to resolving issues as they arise, which is crucial to preventing projects from falling behind schedule.

To identify potential problems, project managers should be aware of the changing landscape around a project and continuously assess risks.

Decisiveness is key to keeping a project on track. Without it, projects can fall behind schedule.

Project managers must assess the information they have to hand to make informed decisions. They also need to utilize the experience of the team around them to make timely decisions.

Decisiveness is essential for resolving issues as they arise.

Risk is an inherent part of any project, and effective project managers know that identifying and mitigating risks is crucial to success.

Project managers should continuously assess the changing landscape around a project to stay aware of potential risks.

Having good time management and organizational skills is essential for a project manager. It helps them meet project deadlines and manage multiple tasks efficiently.

A delay in one area of a project can cause delivery dates to creep further and further into the future. This is why it's crucial for project managers to have these skills.

Project managers have a lot on their plate, and they must maintain constant, rigorous focus to get everything done. This focus helps them empower and uplift the team, make complicated things simple, and set and monitor key performance indicators.

Time management and organizational skills can be determined through psychometric assessments, which can help identify potential project managers' strengths and weaknesses in these areas.

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Continuous learning and improvement are essential for a project manager's success. Highly effective project managers are committed to their ongoing professional development, understanding that it's essential to learn new methodologies and adapt to changing technology.

A curious project manager continuously seeks new insights, solutions, and approaches, fostering innovation and adaptability, which are key to project success. This curiosity drives them to stay on top of industry trends and explore new ideas.

Effective project managers recognize that continuous learning is a lifelong process, and they're willing to put in the effort to stay ahead of the curve. They understand that learning from their experiences and mistakes is crucial for growth and improvement.

By embracing continuous learning and improvement, project managers can stay up-to-date with the latest methodologies and technologies, leading to better project outcomes and increased success.

A good project manager is aware of competing priorities and proactive in aligning all stakeholders on what's best for the business and its customers.

This helps remove friction points and address concerns that may otherwise snowball into project delays. Businesses are limited by resources, so it's essential to prioritize and allocate them effectively.

For example, a company may have many engineers but a small marketing budget, while another has a huge sales team but not enough developers. Shortfalls in the wrong resources can jeopardize entire project lifecycles.

Good project managers use their unique, neutral vantage point to align all project stakeholders on a shared purpose. They steer conflicts towards a more customer-centric discussion, using data to highlight what users need.

This involves providing a high-level viewpoint that's less about individual workloads and more about maximizing overall team capacity. By doing so, project managers can energize stakeholders toward a common purpose.

A project manager should also make sure that business users are heard and understood rapidly at every step, and that the final product delivered reflects their feedback. This includes considering specifics like data used, variables, and KPIs.

By prioritizing stakeholder alignment and advocacy, project managers can ensure that projects stay on track and meet the needs of all stakeholders.

A good project manager needs to be familiar with operations to ensure their projects succeed. This involves managing business operations changes, which can be significant adjustments to components of business operations that need to be managed as projects before being delivered to operations managers.

Project managers also need to collaborate with operations managers to ensure a plan is in place for maintaining and delivering projects when they close. This is crucial for project success.

Having a plan for maintenance and deliverability is essential for project success. Project managers need to stay organized and pay attention to details to ensure products are delivered on time and within budget.

Here are some key operational tasks that project managers need to be familiar with:

A good project manager needs to be agile and resilient to navigate the ups and downs of a project. This means embracing an agile mindset, delivering clear communication of business objectives, and allowing teams the space to determine how to achieve those goals.

Effective project managers are adaptable to change, navigating challenges and pivoting strategies as needed. They're also comfortable with the unknown, able to respond to surprises and make sense of them.

Resilience is key in project management, and it's not just about pushing through challenges, but also about building trust and clear communication with the team. This allows them to navigate challenges effectively, adapt quickly, and support each other to keep the project on track.

Project managers need to be flexible and able to adjust to change without compromising business outcomes. They should be able to handle shifts in client needs, budget constraints, and team well-being, and apply the learnings from past projects to current ones.

Here are some key characteristics of agile and resilient project managers:

By possessing these qualities, project managers can navigate the challenges of a project and deliver successful outcomes.

As a project manager, you'll inevitably face conflicts that can snowball into bigger issues. Great project managers use both integrity and humor to resolve tense and conflict-ridden situations. Ambiguous expectations, poor communication, personal conflicts, project scope creep, or a combination of such factors can lead to conflicts.

The Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK) says managing conflict is one of the biggest challenges a project manager will face. Jason Gadsby, assistant vice president at AT&T, emphasizes the connection between leadership, trust, and managing conflict. He notes that successful PMs have both project management and leadership skills.

A PM who has the ability to inject lightheartedness at the right moment can keep the team motivated and reduce conflict among team members. Talking about a conflict and how you managed to resolve it opens up an opportunity to discuss your interpersonal skills in more detail. This will help you stand out from other candidates.

Here are five benefits of effective problem-solving skills in conflict resolution:

Asking questions is a great way to show that you're trying to fully understand the situation and gather all the necessary information to solve the problem to the best of your ability. If referring to your own experience, don't forget to include what you would have done differently to demonstrate what you learned from the experience.

Embracing innovation is a crucial quality of a good project manager. According to Harold Kerzner, Senior Executive Director for Project Management at the International Institute for Learning, conventional project management focuses too much on scope and forecasting, which is insufficient for managing innovation projects.

A good project manager needs to balance managing innovation with avoiding overruns in existing projects. They achieve this by performing accurate forecasting, planning, allocating, scheduling, and managing resources.

Innovative competitors, business models, and technologies are rapidly reducing the average lifespan of an S&P 500 company, making it essential for businesses to embrace change and innovation to improve their market share.

Project managers who can balance innovation with execution are in high demand, with communication, problem-solving, collaborative leadership, and strategic thinking standing out as top attributes of a project manager.

Here are some key skills for embracing innovation:

By embracing innovation, project managers can position themselves as strong candidates and deliver successful outcomes in a rapidly changing business environment.

Some project manager characteristics will always hold true, regardless of the project type, scope, or size.

No single exhaustive list of the must-have characteristics of a project manager exists, each project is unique and requires a unique set of project manager traits.

Some project manager qualities evolve over time based on market demands and environmental changes.

But some will always hold true, regardless of the project type, scope, or size.

There isn't a list of 14 characteristics of a good project manager that'll never expire, but it's a good idea to challenge yourself to develop the best traits of a project manager.

You can develop the best traits of a project manager by taking opportunities to work on projects that'll help you build the skill set you want to further your career in project management.

Business acumen is a key quality of a good project manager. It involves being able to tie project tasks back to key business outcomes, such as profit, customer satisfaction, and reputation.

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The best project managers use granular reports to keep track of billable hours and set project goals that align with overall business objectives. They gather anecdotal evidence on how project tasks affect customer satisfaction and reputation, and build forecast reports to show how these tasks impact profits.

Project professionals rated strategic thinking as one of the most important traits of a project manager in 2023, along with communication, problem-solving, and collaborative leadership. These power skills are essential for working with others and achieving business outcomes.

Accountability is key to being a successful project manager. A great PM feels a sense of ownership that goes beyond the tasks required to deliver the project.

Antony Demekhin puts it best, saying that a PM should become the "mini CEO" of a project, using high-level critical thinking to resolve challenges before they happen. This approach helps prevent problems from arising in the first place.

Aligning tasks with key business outcomes is crucial for project managers. According to PMI's Pulse of the Profession 2023 report, organizations that prioritize power skills, such as strategic thinking, are significantly better at completing projects that meet business goals.

Highly effective project managers tie project tasks back to key business outcomes, preventing resource constraints or technology limitations from getting in the way. They use granular reports to track billable hours and set project goals that align with overall business objectives.

Project managers should prioritize business outcomes over just completing tasks on time and within budget. As Sara Gallagher, president at The Persimmon Group, highlights, "Scope, schedule, and cost are important, but subservient to the 'big picture' results the organization is trying to achieve."

Here are the top power skills rated by project professionals in 2023, which are essential for aligning tasks with business outcomes:

By focusing on business outcomes, project managers can rally the necessary resources and make sound decisions that benefit the organization. This approach also helps to build trust with customers and stakeholders.