Unit VIII, Being An Effective Project Manager

Patrick Hardy

Managing Project Teams

Being An Effective Project Manager
A project is a group of interrelated tasks to be performed within a certain amount of time with cost and other constraints (Brown & Ayer, 2010). It is carefully planned to achieve a particular objective. Some projects have the objective to create or change protocol, goods or services while others produce events, information or solve problems. A project can be large or small or in between. Projects exist in all fields of business.
A project is temporary and consists of teams within or across organizations. The project team is a group of individuals assembled to perform the activities that contribute to achieving a common task related objective. Many organizations put together a project team consisting of skilled workers from the same or different functional areas to work on an important project (Brown & Ayer, 2010).
Project management is the process and activity of planning, organizing, motivating and controlling resources, procedures and protocols to achieve specific goals. Project management occurs in five phases. These are selection, initiation, planning, delivery and control and closure and handoff to the customer. Not all projects follow these phases in sequential order.
In today’s business world, managing projects can be a difficult job. It is imperative that projects are well managed. The most important thing about being an effective project manager is the fact that your job is to manage the project. What does it takes to be an effective project manager? An effective project manager will be knowledgeable and equipped with all of the skills required to handle projects (Brown & Ayer, 2010). There are some innate characteristics that are necessary to be an effective project manager. These characteristics are divided into core capabilities and essential skills and tools. Core capabilities include visionary leader and detail-oriented manager, technically savvy and interpersonally and politically astute and disciplined and flexible. An effective project manager will be able to balance these core capabilities and be able to recognize their dominant orientation. Essential skills and tools include communication, persuasion and influence, negotiation, meeting management, conflict management and motivation (Brown & Ayer, 2010). An effective project manager will use these essential skills and tools in order to successfully execute the five phases of project management.
An effective project manager will have a vision and the ability to convey the vision clearly to all team members. An effective project manager will have the ability to see the big picture and not lose sight of it. The visionary project manager will thrive on change and being able to articulate change. An effective project manager will enable the project team members to feel like they have a real stake in the project (Brown & Ayer, 2010). They empower the project team members to experience the vision on their own. They offer the project team members the opportunity to create their own vision and to be able to explore what that vision will mean in their jobs and lives and to be able to envision their future as a part of the vision for the organization. The detail-oriented project manager can break down large tasks into smaller, more manageable ones, which enables them to be able to focus on necessary detail without becoming bogged down with small irrelevant issues (Brown & Ayer, 2010).
An effective project manager will be technically savvy and interpersonally and politically astute. Technology is constantly evolving and changing. For this reason, it can be difficult at times to stay up to date with information technology. However, staying up to date with information technology is essential to project success. The project manager who is not technically savvy will not be able to perform