Project Manager Competencies and Personality Types

Project Management is fundamental to modern organizations and businesses of all sizes where competent project managers are increasingly needed. Successful projects are linked to..... Some literature and case studies argue that a project manager is a major factor related to the success or failure of projects. Project Managers are facing major challenges in planning, organizing and motivating efforts as a combination of personal characteristics and areas of competency is needed.

From a statistical point of view significant relationships between project success and a project manager's competencies have been identified. Some of those competencies are linked to a variety of personality types. There are studies which discuss the general personality type distribution among the population and others identify personality type distributions within certain populations, e.g. within project managers. Researchers could identify a unique personality type distribution among project managers which distinguish them from the normal population.

This article will take a look at the personality types of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and at general project manager competencies so as to examine the relationship of project manager competencies to certain personality types. In addition, the article will focus on identifying the most relevant competencies with the associated personality types and the resultant contribution to project success.

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a psychometric questionnaire designed to enable classification of a persons's traits according to four dichotomous types: (1) Extrovert vs Introvert; (2) Sensing vs Intuitive; (3) Thinking vs Feeling; and (4) Judging vs Perceiving. The method was developed by Katharine C. Briggs and her daughter Isabel Briggs-Myers based on the personality theory of Carl Jung. In world War II, the MBTI method was used to assist in fitting a person to a job and vice versa. (1) With these different dichotomous types, any person can be classified in 16 personality types (see table/figure XY). The first three dichotomous types, also known as preference of the general attitude, were introduced by Jung where he argues that people develop a dominant and an auxiliary function for balance. Myers supplemented the theory by proposing a fourth dichotomous type to determine weather the judging or the perceiving function is dominant or extraverted. (2) The following description of the dichotomous types are based on the theory of Gardner & Martinko and Cohen et al (2) (3).

Extroversion (E) vs Introversion (I)

The extroverted attitude is focused on the outside world and gets its motivation from interaction with other people and by doing things. These types of people are characterized by having a breadth of interest and like to get to know and communicate with people. Moreover, they have a highly sociable and outgoing personality.

People with an introverted attitude have a personality focused on the inner world and gets its energy and motivation from thoughts, information, ideas, and concepts. They are usually good at personal interaction, stay calm and focused and can concentrate intensely.

Sensing (S) vs Intuition (N)

The Sensing perception includes people who decide based on facts and rely on facts, figures and details. Decisions are made by an objective point of view without involving feelings. They focus on facts, data and details and tend to be practical, concrete and reality-based.

People with an intuitive perception decide based on intuition, relationships and speculations as well as focus on meanings, associations and speculations. They tend to be more theoretical, creative and future-oriented.

Thinking (T) vs Feeling (F)

A person with thinking as a judging function decides by logic and unbiased analysis of cause and effect. Decisions are made by an objective point of view without involving feelings as much as possible. They tend to be analytical, rational and they carefully weigh alternatives.

A person with feeling as a judging function decides with emphasis on the expected effect upon feelings of others and the self. The decision may be based on gut feeling, tries to harmonize and satisfy others. They are characterized being a warm, empathic and persuasive person and draw out feelings of others.

Judging (J) vs Perceiving (P)

People having a preference for judging easily take sides, decide and judge quickly and want to be part of the game. They are more organized than spontaneous and are in general decisive, conscientious and reliable.

People having a preference for perceiving try to be a spectator by leaving themselves all the options open as long as possible and are very slow to judge. They are characterized as being open-minded, spontaneous and tolerant.