What skills does a project manager need?

What is the role of a project manager and why are they so vital to companies? A project manager is hired to help people stay on time. Their job is to make sure people are meeting their deadlines and that they are following the rules that have been laid forth by the company. Since it can be challenging to ensure deadlines are met, having a person who's only job is to focus on this is a great asset to your business and it's bound to help you run a successful franchise.

The ultimate success of the company and of any project you take on will lie in the hands of this person. You want to make sure that you have a talented individual that can manage multiple personalities and will be able to help everyone see what the importance is of each project and why they need to put in some extra effort.

So what are the skills you need to look for in a quality project manager? It starts with communication. How well does this person interact with the rest of your company? Are they forming a positive working environment or do you feel that they are degrading and belittling your employees if they aren't working as hard as they'd like them to? Not everyone works at the same pace but when employees respect their leaders, they will work a lot harder and put in extra work so they don't look bad. A project manager must be a person that is easy to talk to and is open to suggestions and other things. They need to have flexibility with deadlines but still get people to try their best to meet the original deadline. Setting it a day or two early is a great way to plan for anything that could happen and cause you to miss the deadline.

In addition to communication they have to command the room they are in. They need to be a leader. This doesn't mean they walk in and have everyone fearing them, it means people will know they are in charge and they will respect them and try hard to please them to the best of their abilities. There are so many personalities in any office and educational backgrounds that this person must find a way to relate to all of them. They need to be skilled to have everyone look to them as the leader and need to get everyone involved.

A project manager must always be aware of the budget. They need to know what the costs are and what they can do. What will the organization allow and what is the cut off point. The project manager is aware of their resources and they need to ensure that they are doing everything they can to stay on budget and on time. Motivation is a big part of getting the team to work hard. Rewards can help to motivate people and it can also help to keep everyone working at an efficient pace. Staying in touch with them through meetings and email communication in vital to the project to grade it's timeliness.

Setting goals that can be achieved are another big thing. This person is taking on a monumental task in the first place but they have to find a way to set goals that will impress their staff. The goals need to be something that they can achieve or they will lose the respect of their staff in a hurry.

Read through your project manager job description and consider making a few tweaks to it if it looks like it needs a little adjusting so you can find the right person for the job.