Identify The Skills, Attitudes And Behaviours You Believe You Need As A Project Manager

If you've read my book or been to any of my seminars

, read any of my Blogs, you will know that I believe that successful Project Management is about 20% 'hard skills' as they relate to Planning, Organising, Monitoring and Controlling and about 80% 'soft skills' as they relate to attitudes and behaviour.

One of the important things that I believe Project Managers should do is identify what attitudes and behaviours they believe they need to have to be a truly great Project Manager and they need to work hard to achieve them. By the way, if you are a Project Manager why would you want to be anything other than a great one. I'm sorry, I'm going off on a tangent here but I think Project Managers should work to be the best they can be. Most people like people who are striving to be their best. After all, how many records do you think Tina Turner would have sold if her hit single in the 80's was named, Simply the Average? I can tell you - not many. It was named, Simply the Best for a reason and it sold millions! So, I believe Project Managers should work to be the best they can be.

To be the best they can be, they need to have an absolute working knowledge of the Hard Skills of Planning, Organizing, Managing and Controlling. And they have to have and practice Soft Skills. Some of the 'soft skills' that have come up when I've asked my audiences to tell me what Soft Skills they believe are required by Project Managers are Enthusiasm, Energy, Honesty, Professionalism, Good Communicator, Empathy, Openness, Approachability, Sense of Humour, Fairness, Passion, Go For It Approach, Commitment to Excellence, Commitment to Success, an Extra Miler, Caring, Good Listener and Motivator. You may come up with different 'soft skills' and that's ok.

Whatever you come up with, identify the top 8 characteristics you feel you need to be successful and grade yourself for each characteristic on a scale from 1 to 10. 1 being so poor at it you almost get suicidal thinking about it and 10 being so good at it that people throw rose petals in front of you as you walk into the office. Don't spend too much time on analysing where you are on the 1 to 10 scale just mark it by your gut feelings. Once you've done this, you will have a list of attitudes and behaviours that you (not someone who has told you but you) believe you require to be a truly great Project Manager and you know where you should, if you want, devote some time to getting better.

I once had a Sales Person who did this exercise on one of my seminars and marked herself a 10 on all of her 8 characteristics. She lasted about a month with me. She had a real false sense of her ability.

I would use your analysis of your characteristics as the basis for a Personal Development Plan. I suspect that you rated yourself somewhere between a 3 and an 8 on most, if not all, of your characteristics. So you could really improve in most areas. Search for those things that will help you get better in the areas where you really need to get better. Start studying, reading, listening to CD programs and watching DVD's recorded by some of the truly great Personal Development speakers and authors. Practice what they recommend and then every 6 months or so go through the same exercise of rating yourself and see how you are doing compared with your previous scores.

Suggest to your Project Team that they do it also. In fact, why not lead them through a facilitated session in setting up their Personal Development Plan. By the way, I think that the Personal Development Plan should not be shared with others. It is a personal matter and I believe it should be kept that way.

I believe that once you start doing this you will see yourself becoming the best Project Manager you can be. This will help you become more successful in dealing with people and in managing your Projects.

Enjoy the Journey

Richard

by: Richard Morreale

POST COMMENT

People have a good attitude towards moncler jackets Helmet Mohawks - Helping Riders Show Off A Little Attitude The Most Significant Change We Can Make Is A Change In Our Attitude Bringing The Attitude To The Clothes People have a good attitude towards karen millen jackets How To Create Long-term Success With The Right Attitude Cobra Group Uk: The Right Attitude, The Right Perspective The Right Attitude For Your Personal Development Journey Personal Development Process Step One - Have A Positive Attitude How To Achieve Your Targets By Developing Positive Attitudes PMA - Positive Mental Attitude Verbal Emotional Abuse - Attitudes And Actions Of Verbally Abusive Partners Make Your Softball Hitting Skills Perfect With The Right And Positive Attitude