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Frank Stasiowski’s
“21 Traits of Powerhouse PMs”
By tracking the behaviors of outstanding project managers in A/E/C firms
across the country, I’ve identified 21 characteristics that make these
stars shine bright. Powerhouse PMs:
1.
Overcommunicate with the client.
The clients of powerhouse PMs are never surprised, and they never
feel neglected. A PM at an Atlanta engineering firm establishes a
time to call his clients every week. What would you give to get a
call every Tuesday at 2 p.m. from your doctor?
2.
Lavish praise on their team and show a daily interest in team
members.
How willing are your PMs to praise success and take blame for
failure? Great PMs make this a habit. They also nurture a close
relationship with team members.
3.
Possess a religious sense of duty to return calls and e-mails.
I know a PM who guarantees a response within one hour. And he
delivers!
4.
Believe each client is a friend, and the project is a stop along the
way in that long-term relationship.
These PMs send cards for clients’ anniversaries and their kids’
graduations.
5.
Keep fastidious records.
They know exactly how to put their hands on notes or records when
they need to get them.
6.
Strive constantly for self improvement.
A project manager who’s never satisfied—who seems almost to have a
complex that drives her to excel—is a winner. Average PMs complain
the firm never gives them enough training, great PMs go after
knowledge through courses, books, magazines, and more.
7.
Play hard with their team.
A powerhouse project manager takes time from his own personal life
to meet his team for dinner, breakfast, or a softball game.
8.
Focus visually on a schedule.
Project managers who never fail to get the job done have a mental
image of the project schedule in their head. Almost every powerhouse
PM prefers the more visual 8-1/2 x 11 bar chart or network diagram
of the project schedule to a milestone chart.
9.
Take a genuine interest in people.
Striking up a conversation with a stranger on an airplane,
volunteering at a soup kitchen, and belonging to a large network of
friends are typical of the powerhouse PM.
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10. Stay
physically fit.
I’m willing to bet your best PMs find time to exercise, sleep well,
eat well, and take pride in their appearance.
11.
Possess curiosity about the details of your clients’ business.
I call this going beyond the call of duty. Powerhouse PMs want to
know what it takes to get the client to move ahead. They learn the
clients’ business, their needs, and goals. This is all part of
building that long-term friendship.
12.
Never are satisfied with their own status.
A great PM isn’t content to remain a PM forever. This person wants
to be a principal, or a firm owner. Powerhouse PMs are workaholics, in that they do what it takes to move forward in their
career. They’re not “clock-bound” to an 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. schedule
like the average PM.
13.
Accept mistakes as part of a learning process.
They admit to a mistake, acknowledge its impact, then correct it.
After I learned of a PM who keeps “Crisis Files” on past mistakes
and solutions to them, I’ve encouraged every project manager to
create their own.
14.
Work hard to make clients look good.
A project managers job is to lead the client through the maze of
changes we define as a project. The project manager who can do this
by giving the client credit for successes, involving the client in
decisions, and keeping up strong communication with the client,
will win both herself and the firm a friend for life.
15.
Possess a passion outside the office.
The first architect I worked for loved building old sports cars. My
true passion is photography. What’s yours and your firm’s project
managers’? Having a source of pleasure outside the office gives
people a mission other than work and makes them more interesting
people.
16.
Synthesize new work.
With this, I mean great project managers create work out of
nothing. An average PM brings work in off an ad in the paper. A
powerhouse PM is always looking for new work and opportunities for
the firm in everything he does, everywhere he goes.
17.
Bring opportunities to their clients.
Clients don’t forget a project manager who has facilitated a
partnering arrangement with another firm or put together financing
opportunities.
18.
Embrace new technology for the firm.
This is in the best interest of the project manager, who can now
offer faster, more convenient service and better control projects.
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19.
Have a penchant for overcoming adversity.
An average project manager wouldn’t want to take on a job with a
loss already prescribed economically on day one, but a powerhouse
PM would! Top project managers love to take on a bigger project, a
tougher assignment, and find ways to make it all work.
20.
Grow easily bored with routine.
PMs with their eye on advancement stop performing routine tasks
over and over again by creating a sub-team to whom they delegate
the work. They still control and monitor this team, but get less
involved in repetitive tasks themselves.
21.
Seem to deal with minimal paperwork.
Powerhouse PMs write shorter e-mails, shorter proposals, and push
less paper, in general. They manage to accomplish everything
necessary, but seem to do it with 1/10th the volume of paperwork of
an average PM. The difference, the powerhouse PM doesn’t need to
“CYA” with paper!
Now that you’ve got the list, what are you going to do with it?
I have three recommendations to help you enable the transformation of
average project managers to powerhouse PMs.
First, help them focus on how they promise what they deliver.
Powerhouse PMs under-promise and over-deliver. Are your PMs making
realistic, understated, or overstated promises? If they promise more
than they’re capable of achieving, they’re setting themselves, and
your firm, up for failure.
Second, encourage your project managers to be as direct and honest as
possible in all interactions. Remind them that if they’re honest with
clients, those clients will want to enter into long-term relationships
with your firm. If your PM is direct about her ability to perform and
not perform, she’ll inspire confidence in others.
Third, ask your project managers about fairness. Are their actions
fair to themselves, their client, and your firm? No one in the world
can argue with fairness. It’s what everyone wants, and your project
managers can give it!
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