There are a number of qualities a good project manager needs.  A lot of these are so-called ‘soft skills’.  Let’s have a look at some of them.

• Be organised.  A large part of project management is keeping track of the project, and making sure the right things happen at the right time.  Naturally, being organised is a great help in making sure that this happens.
• Be a two way communicator.  You will be overseeing a disparate team, who all need to clearly understand their goals and responsibilities, to be given information about their performance, and the performance of the project, and to understand the expectations of the project and its customers.  But part of being a good communicator is also taking information in – it is important you can bring in feedback, and handle it correctly.
• Be a team builder.  Project teams are often temporary creations, and melding people who may or may not know each other into an effective unit can be vital to the success of the project.  You must be able to bring people together.
• Show integrity.  Your actions must demonstrate a commitment to the project, to the team, and to behaving ethically.  Showing and using these values will help bring everyone together.
• Show empathy.  You will often be working with a team you have no line management responsibilities over.  You will need to bring them together into a team, and one of the most important ways to do this is through showing you understand the needs of the team members.  This doesn’t mean you should be a pushover if someone tells you they aren’t going to finish a task assigned to them, but you do need to understand their position, and perhaps see if you are indeed asking too much.  Put yourself in their shoes.
• Be calm.  A project manager should strive to be calm at all times, even when the pressure is really starting to build.  Having confidence in your team and yourself to cope with problems, a self-assurance that can be seen, gives a boost to the whole team, and helps build their confidence also.  There will always be problems that face a project, there will always be stressful situations.  Having the right attitude to tackle them will help immensely.
• Delegate.  You simply cannot do everything yourself!  Often you will be brought in to work on a project which, for the actual nuts and bolts work, requires considerable technical knowledge you may not possess.  Equally, there are a number of tasks in project management which should be delegated to project support personnel, or to a project office.  You must be able to demonstrate your trust in other people by allowing them to get on with the work they are best suited for, allowing you to work on the tasks that really need you.
• Be a creative problem solver.  Project management is about solving problems.  Part of it is about making sure the right things happen at the right time.  There will often be barriers stopping this!  You must be able to look at issues and see the way around them, often needing to find novel approaches to do this.  Believe it or not, creativity is an important quality in project management!

What about you?  What other qualities do you think are needed?  Post below!