"Interpersonal skills of a Project Manager"

When company's recruits project managers human resource departments often emphasize on the project managers educational background and experience as project manager. Experience as a project manager and an education that matches the projects technical aspects does not necessarily mean that the candidate is the right person. Even a track record of many completed projects are not a guarantee that the project manager will not wreck the organization or be the cause of losing customers. The project manager performs through others such as stakeholders, project team, own organization therefore apart from technical and conceptual skill Project Managers must possess Interpersonal skills. When recruiting a project manager, apart from ability test, motivation, and aptitude test, the recruiter can issue a personality test emphasizing on interpersonal competencies.

There are many different personality tests, and to find the one that will test for the interpersonal skills required of a project manager can be difficult. Many of the tests are generic and are not be constructed with the purpose to test specifically for the sought skills. For instance Gehring, D. R. (2007). Applying traits theory of leadership to project management. Project Management Journal, 38(1), 44–55. Found that six different Myers-Briggs® types supported project leadership competencies.

This article will address interpersonal skills of a project manager and psychometric test for personality types to match these skills.

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The (PMBOK® Guide) – Fifth Edition describes the essential interpersonal skills as:

• Leadership
• Teambuilding
• Motivation
• Communication
• Influencing
• Decision-making
• Political and cultural awareness
• Negotiation
• Trust building
• Conflict management
• Coaching.

Leadership is the ability to envision a direction and lead a group of people towards a common goal and realize the result through others. The key elements of leadership are respect for others and a sincere belief that people attend their job with the purpose of doing their best every day.

Team building is creating a goal for a group of individuals and make them work together as a group to achieve the objective. In addition to creating goals, the project manager must set the scene for the group; who got the roles, what the responsibilities are, how to communicate internally and externality, how to handle problems, create an environment of trust and mutual respect. Most of all team building is about creating an identity for the team and a collective understanding of purpose.

Motivation is to give positive stimulus that aligns a person's intrinsic motivation such as desires to explore new things, to seek boundaries for one's capabilities, to obtain new knowledge. Some of the best motivators are; recognition for participation and achievement, give responsibility, the opportunity to personal growth, a possibility for advancement.

Communication with others is essential in projects. Project managers must; be able to effectively communicate at all levels from project sponsors to secretaries, communicate in a straightforward language and communicate concisely, build relationships based on trust and respect, actively listen to avoid misunderstandings and ensure a shared understanding of deliverables and common goals, promote cross-cultural understanding.

Influence is getting people to cooperate and work towards common goals by; fulfill commitments, lead by example, share and clarify how to make decisions, letting group members take part in decision-making when applicable, working for long-term collaboration, adjust own behavior according to different situations, influence instead of persuading persons.

Decision-making is an important skill to master, in projects, decisions are made on a daily basis and often without having the full picture of a problem, project managers, and project teams often use decision-making models

X3.6 Decision Making

There are four basic decision styles normally used by project managers: command, consultation, consensus, and coin flip (random). There are four major factors that affect the decision style: time constraints, trust, quality, and acceptance. Project managers may make decisions individually, or they may involve the project team in the decision-making process.

Project managers and project teams use a decision-making model or process such as the six-phase model shown below.

  Problem Definition. Fully explore, clarify, and define the problem.

  Problem Solution Generation. Prolong the new idea-generating process by brainstorming multiple

solutions and discouraging premature decisions.

  Ideas to Action. Define evaluation criteria, rate pros and cons of alternatives, select best solution.

  Solution Action Planning. Involve key participants to gain acceptance and commitment to making the

solution work.

  Solution Evaluation Planning. Perform post-implementation analysis, evaluation, and lessons learned.
  Evaluation of the Outcome and Process. Evaluate how well the problem was solved or project goals

were achieved (extension of previous phase).