Interpersonal Skills – Project Manager: A Demigod? - Part 1

This Article has been originally published at
http://blog.simplilearn.com/project-management/interpersonal-skills-project-manager-a-demigod-part-1

“Effective Project Management requires that a Project Manager should possess the following competencies and characteristics

Knowledge – This implies the Knowledge about Project Management, its standards and processes.

Performance – Refers to what the Project Manager is able to achieve when applying the Project Management Knowledge to a Project.

Personal – This refers to how the Project Manager behaves when performing activities in the Project. It covers the Project Manager’s attitude, core personality characteristics and leadership-the ability to guide the project team while achieving project objectives and balancing the project constraints.”

        The above is as suggested in the PMBOK® 4^th edition.  The guide has more than successfully elaborated on what activities to do (Perform) and how to do the same (Knowledge) for achieving Project Goals. But, if we study successful and not so successful projects across the globe in different industry verticals, we find more often than not, that the Personal Skills of the Project Manager are responsible for the outcome of the Project.

The PMBOK® lists the desired Interpersonal Skills for a Project Manager as below

•    Leadership
•   Team Building
•   Motivation
•  Communication
•   Influencing
•   Decision Making
•    Political and Cultural Awareness
•    Negotiation

           Quite an exhaustive list, isn’t it? Can one mere mortal possess all the above skills that too at a level to always deliver successful Projects? In real world, unless you are the President of the United States, you don’t really have all those skills. But, what Project Managers need to understand are the basic theories around the desired competencies. This article attempts to give an overview of these same theories.  

Leadership -       Peter Drucker famously stated that "management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things." Leadership involves focussing the Team towards a common goal and helping them see the value in the work they do. The influence of a leader over his followers is often referred to as Power. A Project Manager can use any of the 5 kinds of Power elaborated below, as appropriate, to influence and Lead his team.

            Formal Power

Legitimate Power – The Project Charter Authorizes the Project Manager to a Project. This gives the Project Manager Legitimate Power. A Project Manager uses Legitimate Power when she or he assigns work to a team member.

Reward Power – This type of Power is conveyed when you reward a team member with bonus, increments, promotion, extra time off etc. Care should be taken to ensure that the Rewards are fair and that they are tied to specific goals. The Rewards should be designed so that everyone has an equal chance to achieve them.

Coercive or Punishment Power – This is exactly what is sounds like.  This is the Power you use to inflict Punishment for non-performance or poor behaviour.  Any reprimands should be in a closed door meeting.

            Personal Power

Expert Power – This comes from the Project Manager’s Skills, Experience and Knowledge. Having and demonstrating this Power goes a long way in positively influencing Team Members. Team Members respect you for your competencies and skills are more likely to follow your lead.

Referent Power – This kind of Power comes from being trusted and respected. Often a Project Manager wields Referent Power as he is seen to be trusted and admired by people in authority.

            A Project Manager demonstrating Personal Power over Formal Power has a greater probability of effectively influencing Team Members in achieving Project Goals.

Team Building-                  Team Building is much more than taking your team members for a night out. It involves helping your team members bond with each other resulting in an environment of mutual trust and commitment. Team Building requires definition of a common purpose supported by open communication, timely conflict management, motivation and leadership. Good Teams can be built by setting up ground rules and being open in decision making.  The Project Manager should focus on eliminating difficulties and obstacles which interfere with the team’s ability to perform.

Motivation-        Motivating your team is all about helping your team members be satisfied with the job they are doing, recognizing them for their efforts and keeping them challenged. Awareness of motivational theories can help Project Managers to maximize team performance.

a.       Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

All human needs are structured in a hierarchy and only when the lower needs have been fully met, will a member be motivated by the opportunity of having the next need up in the hierarchy satisfied. A Project Manager should therefore offer different incentives to team members in order to help them fulfill each need in turn and progress up the hierarchy (see below). Managers should recognise that all members are not motivated in the same way and do not all move up the hierarchy at the same pace. They may therefore have to offer a slightly different set of incentives from member to member.

b.      Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory

According to this Herzberg’s theory, there are  factors that would de-motivate a team member if not present but would not in themselves actually motivate her/him to work harder, also known as the Hygiene factors eg Paycheck.  There are also other factors, which a Manager can introduce which can directly motivate the members eg. Interesting work, opportunity for growth, extra responsibility, empowerment etc.

c.       McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y

According to Mc Gregor, theory X managers are those who assume that Team Members are inherently lazy and will avoid work if they can and that they inherently dislike work. As a result of this, this kind of manager believes that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed.

Theory Y managers assume that team members may be ambitious and self-motivated and exercise self-control. A Theory Y manager believes that, given the right conditions, most people will want to do well at work. They believe that the satisfaction of doing a good job is a strong motivation in itself.

d.      Expectancy Theory

The theory proposes that a member will decide to behave or act in a certain way because she / he is motivated to select a specific behaviour over other behaviours due to what she / he expects the result of that selected behaviour will be. The Project Manager needs to give people an expectation of a reward, which is achievable.

e.      McClelland’s Achievement theory

This theory states that human behaviour is affected by three needs - Need for Power, Achievement and Affiliation. Power is having an influence or control. Achievement is the urge to excel and to achieve success. Affiliation is being part of a group and having sociable inter personal skills.

Conclusion-        We elaborated on 3 areas of Inter Personal skills required for a Project Manager to deliver Successful Projects. In the concluding part, published separately, I will be talking the readers through some more Personal Skills.

Yogeeta Deshmukh   BE, ITIL, PMP

References

PMBOK® 4th edition

Head First PMP, 2^nd Edition – by Jennifer Greene and Andrew Stellman

http://pmworldjournal.net/article/challenges-of-managing-a-virtual-team-with-an-ocean-in-between/