The role of project managers has evolved over the last decade. They're no longer just responsible for managing the project schedule and budget, but also for ensuring that projects are completed on time and within budget. The next few years will see an even greater emphasis on project management as organizations work to improve productivity, cut costs while maintaining quality and ensure compliance with industry regulations.
If you're looking to hire a new project manager or promote one from within your organization, here are some traits to consider:
Experience: A good project manager has a few years of professional experience under his or her belt. It's important that they've managed a team before because this is where you can learn how well they lead by example, communicate with their teams, and balance technical challenges with people issues.
Technical Abilities: Project management isn't just about managing people—it's also about managing budgets and timelines. You'll want someone who is good at solving problems quickly while keeping an eye on the big picture without losing sight of what's important (and what isn't).
Soft Skills: One thing I love about working with project managers is their ability to motivate others through encouragement and praise when needed—or even when it isn't! And nothing beats having someone who knows when not to take things personally as well as being able to explain why something was done a certain way so everyone understands why decisions were made in the first place.
Project managers are synonymous with meeting deadlines. Asking a candidate about their experience in this area will give you a good idea of how well they handle it when things go wrong. In order to get an accurate answer, you should ask them about a time when there was a deadline that was missed or shortened because of the project requirements changing. A candidate who answers “I don’t know” or makes up an example is not likely to be able to manage your team effectively if they can’t even manage themselves in stressful situations.
A good project manager must be able to communicate expectations clearly and consistently. It is imperative that the project team have a clear understanding of what is expected of them so that they can execute their tasks in an efficient manner.
A great communicator will be able to provide clear direction, while also listening attentively so as not to lose focus on the end goal.
A project manager should be able to handle project scope changes. He or she should know how to manage the scope change, and explain how they do it.
The candidate's ability to handle project scope changes is a key indicator of his or her potential success as a project manager. As you screen candidates, look for someone who can clearly articulate what they would do when faced with an unexpected change in your current project. Look for examples where this person has successfully managed such a change, and ask questions about what worked well (or not).
To assess a candidate's ability to lead, ask questions about their leadership style.
In order to best validate your candidates, you need to assess their soft skills and behavior. The best way to do this is by using behavioral-based questions. These are questions that ask the candidate how they acted in a specific situation and what their motivations were for acting that way.
When assessing candidates' behaviors, it's important that they can be held accountable for their actions and decisions. This is why it's essential that you define what good performance looks like for the position before beginning interviews so there isn't any ambiguity about what exactly constitutes success in your company or department. If there are no clear standards for success, then evaluating candidates becomes much more difficult because there will be no way of knowing if they're doing well or not until after hiring them!