Management Studies: November 2011

Roles of Project Manager

Roles are the organized set of behaviors related to an identifiable position. The project manager is responsible for project results in a changing environment. His role is difficult because he is managing people who have dual responsibilities.

Leadership Role

The project manager is the chief of the project and leader of the project team.

the project manager provides overall leadership to the project by directing and influencing the project related activities of the people in the project. He is a coach as well as a facilitator.
The project manager as leader of the project team organizes and integrates people from various disciplines and departments. He motivates team members, manages conflicts, builds team loyalty and creates team identity. He directs team efforts towards project objectives.

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Conceptual and Team Building Skill

Conceptual Skill

Conceptual skill are the ability to relate the project to environmental forces with a systems perspective. These skills are essential for optimization of project performance. The project manager should have mission, foresight, judgment and intuition. Mission is the reason for performing the project work.

Team Building Skill

Team building skill are the ability to integrate people from many disciplines and departments into an effective team. The project manager should build and maintain effective team. He should create a conductive environment for teamwork by:

Setting guidelines and targets for team members and helping them to prioritize workloads.
Assigning responsibilities.
Creating commitment and strong sense of identity and loyalty for the project by sustaining team spirit and focusing on performance. Individual efforts should result in positive synergy.
Getting timely feedback and keeping everyone informed of project progress.
Maintaining accountability.
Showing concern for continuous quality improvement in the project. Revisiting work designs.
Leading and motivating team members to participate actively to attain project objectives. Shared leadership roles.
Managing conflicts. Creating functional conflicts.
Taking sincere interest in the growth and development of team members through training and coaching.
Taking risks in the project interests.
Providing a good work environment.

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Human Skill of Project Manager

The another skill required for the successful manager is human skill. It is the ability to get along with people and get the work done through other people. It is also the interpersonal skill. It is related to human factor of project management. They are:

Communication Skill: For the successful completion of project within the constraint of time and cost, there should be smooth flow of information from the top to bottom and bottom to top. It is the flow of information and understanding of meaning between sender and receiver. It keeps everyone informed about project progress. Active listening and feedback skills are important for successful project manager.
Motivation Skill: For getting work done through others, motivation is required. Motivation skill is required for successful manager to be work done. It induces project team for higher productivity to excel in achieving project objectives. It sustains employee involvement.
Negotiation and bargaining Skill: It is needed to acquire needed human and non-human resources from line managers. It sustains support of key stakeholders of the project. It manages interfaces to build favorable relationships. It is listening carefully and persuading.
Conflict Management Skill: It is the ability to resolve all kinds of opposition or antagonistic interaction in the project. Dysfunctional conflicts that adversely affect project performance are managed.
Stress Management Skill: A project manager is bombarded by various pressures that cause stress. He should have skills to manage stress. He should cultivate low stress environment.

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Managerial Skills of Project Manager

The most required skill for successful attainment of project goal remains on managerial skill. Managerial skill is the ability to practice management concepts, tools and techniques. The specific skills needed are:

Planning and control skills: Planning is ability to set targets and decide actions to achieve targets. Control is to measure performance to take corrective actions.
Organization skills: It is getting the project team together and assigning authority and responsibility to each member.
Decision making skills: It is to understand the problem, identify and evaluate alternatives and make a choice and implement the decision.
Human resource management skills: It is effectively utilizing the energy and potential of project team by managing people.
Leadership skills: It is directing and influencing the project team to achieve project objectives willingly and enthusiastically.
Budgeting skills: It is allocating, utilizing and controlling project resources.

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Technical Skills of Project Manager

Project manager is a single responsibility center with full accountability for project results. The success and failure depends upon the management done by project manager. Management of project is a challenging job. Proper handling of project will lead to success of the project. The skills required for project manager are as follows:

Technical Skills

Technical skills are the ability to perform a specialized task. Project manager must have some how technical knowledge but should not be the technical expert. However, project manager should be able to:

understand technology involve in the project.
evaluate technical concepts and solutions.
communicate in technical terms with project team.
assess technical risks, trends and innovations.

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Pages

Roles of Project Manager

Conceptual and Team Building Skill

Human Skill of Project Manager

Managerial Skills of Project Manager

Technical Skills of Project Manager