Managing projects for innovation and enterprises

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary
Introduction
Qualities of a good project manager
Whether Lena Merrall is a good choice
Conclusion
References

Executive Summary

The report focuses on qualities of a good project manager and how these depend on project-type. Additionally, the report applies these findings on Lena Merrall in order to assess whether she was a good choice for project manager. Literature shows that a valuable project manager must have general management, leadership, communication, negotiation and influencing skills.

The person must apply these skills differentially because crises, inertia, and selling can manifest in different ways. Lena was a wise choice for project manager because she led, communicated, influenced her way into project acceptance. She also demonstrated strong time management, supervisory and team-building skills.

Introduction

Project managers require more than the typical functions of project management; that is, planning, coordination communication and control. Traditional hierarchies in organisations may not matter and sometimes staff members have to develop the details of their project work.

Nonetheless, project managers are still accountable for the success of their initiatives and must find a way of delivering results irrespective of the external circumstances. The report will focus on qualities of a good project manager and how these depend on a project-type. Additionally, the report will apply these findings on Lena Merrall in order to assess whether she was a good choice for project manager

Qualities of a good project manager

A project manager ought to have conventional management skills. These are the skills needed to keep an enterprise going. They include strategic planning, finance and accounting skills, knowledge of organisational skills, supervision, team-building, time management skills, research and development skills, and sales and marketing expertise (Turner & Muller 2003).

An effective project manager is one who is a leader. A substantial difference exists between management and leadership. A leader is one who establishes direction for the organisation by developing a vision (El-Sabaa 2001). He or she should back the vision with a strategy for accomplishing it. A leader ought to align people by communicating the direction through verbal and non verbal means.

This will garner cooperation from the group. The leader must also motivate and inspire others in order to help them overcome obstacles, such as bureaucracy, politics and resource shortages (Jiang et. al. 2002). Leadership is one of the key characteristics that can either boost a project or blight it.

Successful project managers must also be good communicators. They must have the capacity to decide on how, in what form and when information should be conveyed (Crawford 2004).

In close relation to this quality is negotiation. Project managers must confer with others concerning a range of issues. These may include resource allocation, the terms of their contract, project scope, goals and schedules as well as project assignments (Ruuska & Vartianen 2003).

A valuable project manager should be a good problem solver. The person ought to make strong associations between the cause of a problem and its solutions; sometimes these could be internal or external. One must know where to find the solutions, how to implement them and the right time to do so (Blackburn 2002). Another important characteristic of a project manager is influencing the company.

This element entails achieving tangible results. In these circumstances, the project manager should have knowledge of politics and power. He or she should reconcile divergent interests and other negative forces that may come in the way of successful project outcomes (Loosemore et. al. 2003).

Different project types require different project attributes because a project manager’s job is time-bound. Such a person has no opportunity to perfect his skills, so he must get it right the first time (Lampel 2007). Additionally, each project requires it own set of professionals, who may be working towards different goals.

Therefore, while negotiation may have worked for one project team with alpha personalities, problem solving may be more effective for technical teams. Project work does not allow project managers to access feedback concerning their efforts, especially in the early phases of the initiative. In this regard, a project manager will have to rely on different parameters to gauge the success of his input in any stage of the project.

Projects are laden with uncertainty and crisis. An oversight in one area of the project may lead to dire consequences in another phase. Since it is difficult to predict when these shortfalls will arise, a manager must have all the skills at hand.

One crisis may be sparked by inadequate commitment to the project while another may be triggered by poor work flow. Negotiating skills may be useful in the former case while the latter one may necessitate communication skills. Similarly, inertia can arise at any time, and the project manager will have to apply influencing skills to overcome it (Dolfi & Andrews 2007).

Variations within a project can occur haphazardly. Project managers ought to have the ability to discern which areas require emphasis. The right balance between time scheduling, budgeting and performance must be maintained, depending on the external situations (Kerzner 2013).

This occurrence requires utmost flexibility on the part of the manager. Sometimes a project manager must sell the project to sponsors even after initiation, so this should be done effectively.

Whether Lena Merrall is a good choice

Lena Merrall is a wise choice for project manager; she is clearly a leader. Not only did she notice that her organisation was facing a declining market share, but she found a strategy for dealing with the decline. She outlined the vision she had for the company and got almost all members of the organisation to support her (Cheng et. al. 2005). Lena also displayed effective negotiation skills when she sold the project to the Board.

She managed to get past the bureaucracy in the institution, and garnered their support through several vetting processes. She demonstrated influence in the organisation by identifying potential sources of resistance and overcoming them. For instance Lena knew that heads of Information Services and Support Services were not needed at the beginning of the project, but she included them in the preliminary team anyway.

This was proof that she had foresight concerning potential project resistance. When a project manager foresees impending challenges and tackles them accordingly, then she is a person who gets things done; Lena has influence over the organisation (Fulmer et. al. 2000).

This individual was a wise choice for project manager because she had sound knowledge of team working. Not only did members of the organisation come up with ideas for the project, but they were also responsible for its implementation. This meant that they were immensely committed to its goals and would carry it through to the end.

Lena also demonstrated a few other general management skills that were crucial to the success of the project initiation phase. First, she was a good strategic planner because she oversaw project development quite effectively (Cicmil et. al. 2006). When it was necessary to focus on the budget, this is what her team worked on; alternatively, when they needed to identify roles, she also took care of that.

She also had impressive time management skills when she delivered the project plan on time. Her supervisory skills were also quite extraordinary. She did not micromanage the CEC team but was still aware of all developments.

Conclusion

A valuable project manager must have general management skills, leadership, communication, negotiation and influencing skills. The person must apply these skills differentially because crises, inertia, and marketing can manifest in different ways.

Lena was a wise choice for project manager because she led, communicated, influenced her way into project acceptance. She also demonstrated strong time management, supervisor and team-building skills.

References

Blackburn, S 2002, ‘The project manager and project network’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 20 no. 3, pp. 199-204.

Cheng, M , Dainty, A & Moore, D 2005, ‘What makes a good project manager?’, Human Resource Management Journal, vol. 1 no. 1, pp. 25-37.

Cicmil, S, Williams, T, Thomas, J & Hodgson, D 2006, ‘Rethinking project management: Researching the actuality of projects’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 24, no. 8, pp. 675-686.

Crawford, L 2004, ‘Senior management perceptions of project management competence’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 23 no. 1, pp. 7-16.

Dolfi, J & Andrews, E 2007, ‘The subliminal characteristics of project manages: An exploratory study of optimism overcoming challenge in the project management work environment’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 25 no. 7, pp. 674-682.

El-Sabaa, S 2001, ‘The skills and career path o an effective project Manager’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 19 no. 1, 1-7.

Fulmer, R, Gibbs, P & Goldsmith, M 2000, ‘Developing leaders: How winning companies keep on winning’, Sloan Management Review, vol. 42 no. 1, pp. 49.

Jiang, J, Klein, G & Discenza, R 2002, ‘Pre-project partnering impact on an information system project, project team and project manager’, European Journal of Management, vol. 13 no. 4, pp. 87-90.

Kerzner, H 2013, Project management: A systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling, Routledge, New York.

Lampel, J 2007, ‘The core competencies of effective project execution: the challenge of diversity’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 19, pp. 471-483.

Loosemore, M, Dainty, A & Lingard, H 2003, Managing people in construction projects: Strategic and operational approaches, Spoon Press, London.

Ruuska, I & Vartianen, M 2003, ‘Critical project competencies: A case study’, Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 15 no. 8, pp. 307-312.

Turner, J & Muller, R 2003, ‘On the nature of the project as a temporary organisation’, International Journal of Project Management, vol. 21 no. 1, pp. 1-8.

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