The best laid plans do not always guarantee a successful project. But strong project management leadership can help identify the issues and help the project team address these issues earlier before they might lead to delays and additional costs.
In a ProjectManagement.com article, Vision, Vigilance, and Intuitive Judgment in Project Management Processes, Emerson’s Sal Zafar highlights skills in what makes a highly successful project leader.
Sal identifies 4 characteristics of effective project managers.
- Effective project managers fully recognize the importance of equipping themselves with key tools and techniques throughout the project life cycle
- They consistently adopt and utilize the appropriate skill sets at opportune times
- They use effective time-management strategies to produce cost-effective measures and, hence, deliver a quality product or service within the parameters given by clients
- They unfailingly demonstrate strong, positive leadership during the project life cycle
On top of these, highly successful project managers demonstrate clear vision, extra vigilance, and intuitive judgment.
A clear vision is key to always keep and widely communicate the project end goals and the vision on achieving these goals to the project team. These effective leaders:
…delegate tasks to the appropriate team members and, while they are open to suggestions, they have the foresight to realize which suggestions will work and which ones would hinder the project.
Understanding and communicating this vision is important through the project lifecycle including the project management plan, issue log, risk register of potential risks, project documentation, and communications.
If you’re involved in projects, consider creating a free account on ProjectManagement.com. You must be logged in to read Sal’s full article including his thoughts on how effective leaders display extra vigilance and intuitive judgment.
Visit the Capital Projects section on Emerson.com for more how Emerson’s Project Certainty methodology can help digitally transform your project through modern project management strategies, innovative engineering practices and digital technologies. You can also connect and interact with project management experts in the Services group in the Emerson Exchange 365 community.