The Most Important Characteristics Of A Good Project Manager

In order to define if something fits or suitable to another thing, the first step which we need to do is putting those two things side by side. Just like finding a shirt that fit us, we could not tell whether it would fit us unless we saw the shirt. In the same way, before I can tell if this shirt, namely “a good project manager” fit me, let us consider how it looks like first. Once overall picture of this shirt has been drawn by defining the responsibilities of project manager, looking thoroughly and trying by analyzing attributes and skills which a good project manager should have and comparing with my personalities and experiences are the final steps to determine if this shirt fits me.

According to Meredith and Mantel Jr (2011), project

Leader performance and personalities will affect team performance both directly and indirectly. One of the most important characteristics of a good leader is leadership by example. People may follow leader’s words if they are reasonable. However, those words will be more persuasive and have solid impact if the leader can prove that they are true and practical by implementing himself or herself. From my experience, almost all of managers and teachers who are admired and considered as great influencers have this characteristic. They can energize people, because they are energetic. They can persuade people, because they are motivated. They can successfully encourage team to work harder, because they are hard working. Almost everything which project manager do will serve as standard for the team. I strongly believe in this idea of being a good leader. I participated in many activities when I was in the college, and some of them, I served as a leader of the team. I found that it was easier to make team members to follow if I could do what I asked or suggested them to do. It is a very effective

Each person has different personality and point of view. Being active listener and open-minded are necessary. Conflicts are unavoidable when we work with other people. Conflict can be classified into constructive conflict which can improve teams’ decision quality and destructive conflict which occur when two people or group of people debate based on emotion. A good project manager should be a person who can understand both side and resolve the conflict. Not only resolving conflict, being empathy also can improve individual performance. Once project manager understands team member’s situation and feeling, he can give him or her advice, then the problem can be resolved. In this case, empathy is also one of my attributions. I have been in many places. For instance, a small town, where I was born in a developing country, and one of the center of the world as New York. Those opportunities provided me great chances to learn and understand point of views and roots of those thought of people.

After analyzing attributes and skills which a good project manager should have and comparing with my personalities and experiences, I found that there are many common aspects between them. In other words, this shirt, namely a good project manager fit me in many points. However, there are still room for me to improve myself along this way. Gaining more experiences, adjusting perspective and acquiring more skills would shape me to fit this shirt perfectly