Project managers must have many leadership qualities in order to improve team effectiveness. This matters in any field of activity. Below are the qualities of project managers that require close attention:
- Ability to hire. Few decisions are as important as hiring decisions. The need to find the right job for each person is obvious, but it is an intractable task.
- Ability to interact with the customer. The ability to avoid hostility in the relationship between stakeholders is a prerequisite for success.
- Ability to make decisions. The definition is fuzzy. In an infinite number of management books, no clear definition has been given. However, it is necessary to remember the principle: no one needs the right decision, made at the wrong time.
- Ability to create a team. Teamwork requires the manager to be able to establish trusting relationships, combine different opinions within a single direction of teamwork.
- The ability to persuade. The project manager must convince all interested parties (including himself) of the correctness of the decisions made and priorities set, to prove that the achievements correspond to the goals set. In practice, persuasion requires lengthy negotiations and not always easy and simple compromises.
The second question of system analysis:
"Why is the problem solved?"
- To implement the project, its idea must be formulated in the form of a goal.
- The success of any project depends on the clarity of the formulation of goals and objectives: what goals the organization pursues, what results and in what form the organization plans to receive.
- The result of the project is formulated in the form of a goal.
- The articulated goal is what we want to achieve.
- Setting the right goal is more important than finding the best way to achieve it;
In addition, when formulating project goals, it is necessary to take into account the goals of all stakeholders, both explicit and hidden. Neglecting this rule is bound to have a negative impact on the implementation of the project.
In order to define the objectives of the project and express them quantitatively, it is necessary to decompose the goals, that is, to break the global goal into sub-goals, etc.
The specialist who is responsible to the authorities for the final result of the project is called the project manager, whose duties are to make responsible decisions to achieve the planned result. They are chosen carefully because this position implies the presence of responsibility due to robots in conditions of risk and various restrictions.
The candidate should be active and constantly generate ideas to improve the efficiency of the work. The work lies in the ability to organize the work, plan everything accurately and move the idea to a successful end. Below we will consider the requirements that are imposed on the figure of the project manager and his functional duties.
Who Is a Project Manager
The work is based on the coordination of the actions of subordinates. The position of a project manager is naturally managerial, because a specialist of this profile must successfully complete the task received while monitoring the timing of the work and its quality. The manager must fully adhere to the wishes of the customer in order to meet his requirements with strictly fixed financing and a limited number of assistants.
Work involves high responsibility, since the quality of the result depends on the proper organization of processes, time and work. A person who can prove himself in this field is inevitably waiting for career growth and job offers in projects with a large budget and, as a result, a significant increase in wages.
Before the start, the duties of the project manager include the selection of employees in his team, for the work of which he will be responsible to the superiors and the customer himself.
Each team member should be selected in such a way as to worry about the common cause and work for the result. That is why one of the main qualities of a project manager is sociability and the ability to find a common language with freelancers, the ability to competently and clearly answer written questions, and so on.
For example, the project to launch a women's magazine, obviously involves a staff of: editor, copywriter, designer, layout designer at least.
The editor thinks over the headings of the magazine that will interest future readers, organizes the material, takes care of the interview, etc. The designer is responsible for the appearance of the magazine and its design, copywriters for the quality of the content and so on.
Each specialist is responsible for his direction, and the project manager makes sure that there are no failures, that everyone does his job qualitatively. The manager connects each link into a single whole and is responsible for the implementation of the project without delay, and so that the team works at full strength and does not stand idle.
In addition to the above duties, the project manager assumes responsibility for making decisions on all incomprehensible moments or failures that arise in the process of work, he is obliged to explain to the team how to act in a particular situation, therefore he is obliged to understand the intricacies of the work of each specialist of the recruited team. In addition, the presence of taste and flair is welcomed, which will allow you to highlight the winning options and reject the unsuitable ones, which can become a utopia. Such knowledge does not mean that the project manager should pull all the work on himself.
Job duties and place of work
- Conduct the project from and to (control the quality of the work issued, strictly adhere to the agreed deadlines, does not depart from the approved budget and Calculate all sorts of risks, varying between them);
- Conduct a dialogue with the customer, discussing the subtleties of the requirements, drawing up a work plan and a list of expenses;
- Manage every part of your team;
- Maintain and update project and technical documents (plans, technical specifications, requirements, expense reports, etc.);
- Take part in tenders, as well as in the processes of concluding contracts;
- In addition to supervising projects from customers, carry out additional sales of products.
Some companies in the process of finding a project manager want him to additionally perform the tasks of a sales specialist, namely: looking for new customers, developing new commercial offers, concluding contracts and negotiating with customers.
To date, the project manager is one of the most popular vacancies in the labor market in a variety of industries such as: IT-sphere, financial services, construction, pharmaceutical enterprises, insurance, sports and event services.
Initially, the demand for project managers began with the IT sphere, where the demand for highly qualified managers is constantly growing. Now every large business needs a project manager, which is at least economically profitable.
General requirements for a project manager
Naturally, the list of requirements differs from what field of activity the company is engaged in. Construction firms welcome some skills, itsphere- others, and financial institutions - others.
But regardless of the nuances, each customer puts forward the following general requirements for applicants for the position of project manager, namely:higher education (specialization corresponding to the employer's work profile is welcomed), minimum work experience of a year, and in serious organizations from 3 years, skills in the preparation of technical and project documentation, experience in a managerial position, sociability.
Some employers require a good knowledge of English, both spoken and written, a willingness to go on long business trips, and minimal knowledge of project management principles.
What it takes to become a good specialist
As mentioned above, the required knowledge directly depends on the scope of the company's activities. Let's turn to the construction industry for an example. So, in order to hold the position of project manager in a construction company, the applicant must have a higher technical education, as well as work experience of at least a year in other construction companies (preferably in senior positions).
Mandatory skills include the ability to manage a team of employees from three people in order to establish effective work, the ability to negotiate with customers, where to defend their point of view and have a high resistance to stress.
Wages
Depending on the place of work and the experience of a specialist, his salary can be set in the range from 20 to 150 thousand rubles per month. In addition to the rate, companies often offer their employees bonus allowances for intensive work, bonus payments and interest from the conclusion of profitable transactions.
Thus, as a result, the amount received at the end of the month may be significantly higher than the established salary. A mid-level specialist may well receive 50 thousand rubles and this is without taking into account bonuses and premiums.
Memo to the manager
Project customers can be managers of any firms and the project manager simply must become the right hand of his customer and devote the bulk of the working time to the project. It is to the curator that the customer gives the authority to distribute the start-up capital for the development of the idea and support of the project. The specialist is obliged to develop the statutory documentation of the project, must be able to resolve controversial issues in the process of work, make changes to the plans after their approval by the customer and perform many other tasks.
It is not always possible to perform the task assigned to your team flawlessly clearly, especially in cases where the project manager lacks experience or the project department is at the development stage. No matter how much literature is studied, even adhering to the job description exactly can be wrong and the lead project manager. The duties of such a specialist are quite broad and at the first failure you should not give up.
The project manager should be able to ask the right questions in the process of dialogue with the customer in order to achieve clear tasks and build tactics of action. Thus, you can protect yourself and your team from wrong decisions and avoid various pitfalls in the process of curation of the project. Often, the framework and exact tasks that interest the customer are not fully understood, which causes misunderstanding, and this is very bad. Instead of assumptions, it is recommended to put accurate questions during negotiations in order to get comprehensive answers to them.
In order for the final result to satisfy the customer, the work should not be based on assumptions. It is impossible to build an effective work on bare enthusiasm, and in times of economic instability, it is worth thinking about the benefits for your company. And the benefit can be calculated not only in monetary terms, it can be measured in improving reputation, acquiring invaluable experience or even saving the company from bankruptcy.
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