Different Personalities of Project Manager

It is interesting to read and feel this topic if you, yourself is a project manager and else, it is always good to know the personality of your project manager.  It is very important to understand these personalities as this gives you understanding and provide you with the information about the gaps which are to be filled in your own personality or improve certain things which you considered missing.

Let us discuss few personalities of project managers.

A kind of a person who wants to do pre-research & past analysis before starting any project and mostly, every time. These researchers are creative, innovative thinker and always like to explore things and experiment with new approaches and styles.

• Creative - Always try to find out new ways, strategies to solve a problem and find its solution with new tactics. You can easily identify them by looking at their approaches as most of them fail and does not work in the way which normally should in the case of creativity.

• Visionary - Try to find the end result for the project and its effects and consequences both, and always wonder that if this project gets successful what are we going to achieve as individuals and company as a whole; is it a client relation, new projects, bonuses, rewards or new positions in the company.

• Explorer – He is the one who is always after exploring competitors’ strategies, working style, methodologies and keep on exploring those things regularly which are related to his project; it does not matter much whether the relation is direct or indirect.

He is the one who follows protocols and methodologies as given in writing, and stay focused on his work and tasks for short period of time and try to achieve the results as expected by the seniors. They are least concerned about the success of the project, its working or growth analysis. To be precise, they are not into research tasks. The main focus is to finish the job which is assigned to him.

• Focused - Clearly understands the scope of the project and its objective, does all the efforts in a similar fashion which leads to achieving it; from team formation, resource gathering, allocation to distribution of tasks; all are executed based on the predefined rules.

• Milestone & Deadlines - Achieving milestone and deadline is the primary concern and never likes to miss it, although he will not think to do something else which can further improve the project, or find out other methodologies which can be adopted to maintain the deadlines.

A most wanted by everyone; be it a team member, seniors, juniors, subordinates and of course, the management. These are the persons who identify the environment well and analyze the people around them, and then act accordingly, keeping the work intact and people happy; doing both of these simultaneously is a very difficult job, but somehow they are able to do it. They posses certain qualities which we are discussing further.

• Resourceful – Very active in building relations and maintaining them as well which makes him a very resourceful person who can arrange things for its team in a fraction of second for or people around, say it a manpower, communication and network, materials, credits and most of the other things which can be managed at his level.

• Balanced – A must needed trait by all project managers as they need to balance their Human Resources and plan the work load accordingly for each team member. This quality also helps in maintaining a perfect balance between the personal and professional life, making him a star at company and home both.

• Helpful – Kind hearted person who understands people well and always ready to help a team member or someone outside the team and is thus is always loved by people.

• Mentor – Always ready to teach and guide his juniors and colleagues in professional and personal life both, irrespective of his own gains and does not have a feeling of fear to see people climb higher in lives or job (even, above him).

• Adaptable – Flexible enough to adopt new things and changes, sometimes it may occur on the crucial day and last hour but still able to adapt things quickly and manages it well with his team. More importantly, to pursue this quality, one needs to have a support of his team.

  This is the personality trait which is found in the new managers who are struggling to manage the team and get the job done from the members of his team. Although this can be a permanent personality trait of the project manager but often seen to be changed with the course of time and experience. He is the person who is trying to pull the complete project on his own and does not able to get optimum utilization of resources.

• Hard Worker – A hard worker who always comes office before time and leaves late, putting all his energy and efforts to make the project successful. The major reason for this approach is because he is not able to take work output from the team member & so to maintain the pace, have to do lot of things on his own. 

• Team Oriented - Inclined towards his team members and think for them before him or work. It is difficult for him to ask people to do work or refuse to grant leave or ask for an explanation. He is team oriented and tries to share team members’ load; although he himself is quite loaded with work. The team loves him a lot but the management is suspicious about him on the quality to manage the team.

  A person with a quality of getting work done through people and a real good manager in broader sense. He asks for explanations, for almost everything and pushes people to perform the task and duties correctly and in defined time limits.

• Smart Worker – A smart worker indeed, who knows the priorities well, understands his team and knows how to get the job done through them. Also, manages his own time and work well, with smart moves and tactics which help him to spare some time to accomplish extra things, more than just a project and achieve higher goals in life.

• Work Oriented – Less worried for the team as he knows that they are grown up enough to manage themselves. He is more inclined towards the work and its day to day performance instead of getting worried for team members and their behaviors, talks and other things. He analyzes the project and task well and not the team members.

These are my experiences with different project managers and I have tried to put them in simple words. You are welcome to comment and share your views.

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