Lesson 7: Developing Yourself as a Project Manager
People People People
It may come as a surprise that, according to James P. Lewis (whom we quite like), people skills rank as the most important skillset that a successful Project Manager must have.
This is indeed a galaxy far, far away from the traditional view of Project Managers as being technically capable, but not necessarily the kind of person you'd want to live next door to. It wasn't that Project Managers were trained to be evil, but rather they were, historically, trained to focus on the technical aspects of the plan: the budget, the schedule, the objectives. people were kind of the means to get things done.
Thankfully, we live in an emerging dawn of the new Project Manager; one who really needs to thrive on working with people.
This doesn't mean that you have to be hyper-social and "do lunch" all the time, but it does mean that you really need to see people as being invaluable and integralparts of a project. You also need to take a great deal of satisfaction in seeing people around you develop, thanks perhaps in some small part to your project management abilities (some of which they'll see, and some of which you'll do in the background, because you're just that kind of person, you big softie...)
So remember, people skills, such as coaching, negotiating, leading, facilitating, persuading, and conflict management are the most important skills that you'll need to develop within yourself in order to succeed in this wonderful field.
References used in this section (these books are available for order via the Resources link above):
The Project Manager’s Desk Reference, by James P. Lewis. Chapter 29.
