TheBlueShirt

One of the qualities of a project manager is confidence. Successful project managers let their team know that they are confident in the course taken. Confidence is not about lying to your team. If a project is going to fail, the best course is to acknowledge the difficulties, rally around the team, come-up with a good strategy, and stand behind it. These actions show confidence.

A project manager shows-up to meetings first, when appropriate takes the lead, supports the team’s ideas, and fosters discussion. The benefits of a confident project manager mean that team members will focus on the job at hand instead of second-guessing the project manager’s approach.

At a previous job there was a management change that shook the status quo. Some team members got nervous and suddenly lost focus of their work. The project manager in charge gathered everybody for a quick meeting.

The team held two views in this meeting; the management change was no cause for concern and that their jobs were on the line. The project manager acknowledged the situation, expressed the same concerns that some had and was confident in re-assuring the team that this would not have an impact on their jobs. A positive net result was gained from those 15 minutes. People that were anxious and lost their focus were re-assured that everything would be okay. The teams focus switched back to the project at hand and countless productive hours were saved.

As project managers we walk confident and not much shakes us but we have to have empathy to be able to react to situations where the team needs re-assurance. Being a confident project manager and projecting confidence will make you a strong leader.

How do you project confidence?

You know who they are.  They’re the guys in your IT department that everyone looks to when there’s a fire; the go-to guys who get the job done, no questions asked.  Every IT department has it’s Supermen or Wonderwomen, as the case may be.  As the PM, your project will live and die with how you leverage their expertise and dedication.  Finding the right balance between project coordinator and project leader can be a fine art, but its essential to gaining the trust and admiration of the citizens of Geekdom. 
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As a project manager your job entails talking to people, they might be clients, developers, executives, all with different communication approaches. There’s one behavior that’s hard to deal with; when people don’t let you talk. Well, maybe that should be re-phrased as: when people love to hear themselves talk. read more »

As the project manager, you know that the only chance you have of responding to risk is if you are made aware of the risks inherent in your project by your team. Too often, the PM is left to brainstorm the risks themselves and maintain the risk log as a personal document or a formality.  That practice is just as dangerous as leaving risk completely out of the methodology because it creates the illusion that risk is being managed.  read more »