Donnie MacNicol and Brenda Hales identify the behavioural traits the PM needs to develop and encourage in themselves and others to enhance their success

1. February/March 08 Construction Journal 7
Skills – Project management behaviour
Donnie MacNicol and Brenda Hales identify the behavioural traits the PM needs to develop and encourage in themselves
and others to enhance their success
A guiding hand
here is growing acceptance that relationship
skills are the primary differentiator of
successful PMs. The PM is at the centre
of an intricate network of relationships –
customers, suppliers, stakeholders, team members
– each with a different perspective on the project.
Within each of these groups are individuals
who have different personalities, values, styles,
interests and perceptions. Core skills such as
planning are important, but can be sourced
independently.
The primary role as PM is to ‘shepherd’
everyone in this network to contribute positively
to the objectives of the project and thereby
increase the probability of success. Here are
10 PM behavioural traits that underpin successful
project relationships.
1. Be aware of how your behaviour influences
others. Understand yourself, e.g. what you do
when faced with conflict. You must be a positive
role model to the team, e.g. how you run your
team meetings will influence how your team
run their meetings.
2. Adapt to others. Remember that people like
people like themselves, so communicate with
others in the way that suits them. If working
with a reserved architect, raising design
changes at an open meeting without
discussing them in advance will only lead
to resistance.
3. Listen actively. It is easy to hear when people
are agreeing with you, but when disagreeing
with you the temptation is to persuade them
that you are right, creating resistance. If you
experience this within a client organisation
you may miss important requirements.
4. Be direct, particularly with what is likely to
be seen as bad news. Once you know that
you are going to miss a deadline, tell the client.
The vast majority of customers want someone
they can trust. You create trust by being open.
5. Encourage others to thrive on relationships.
Ask people about how their key relationships
are going and what they are doing to strengthen
them. This demonstrates that relationships are
important. When you have problems on your
project it is much easier to resolve them with
someone you have a strong relationship with.
T
6. Help everyone to own the vision and their
part in achieving it. Communicate how the
team’s efforts link to the achievement of the
overall objectives. Success is subjective and
context-specific so identify with your client what
success will be for them – what they will see,
feel and hear. Check regularly for any changes.
7. Accept that conflict is inevitable and often
needed. ‘Soft skills’ are not about being nice
and avoiding conflict. They are about supporting
positive behaviour and dealing with negative
behaviour. As PM, you may have to bring issues
into the open that team members would rather
ignore, e.g. underlying disagreements between
organisations that are affecting performance.
8. Work with resistance. Projects bring change
but most people resist most change. It takes
time, openness and directness to work with
people to appreciate and align their concerns
within the framework of the project. When you
experience resistance, ask whether you have
missed important activities or are they raising
risks you have not considered?
9. Adapt project management to suit the
context. Methodologies, processes and tools
should be adapted to work in the project
context. One project may require a high level of
control but if applied for another client, they may
perceive it as being overly prescriptive.
10. Give praise and positive re-enforcement.
It is unfortunate that people in the project
community deflect, reject or jokingly ridicule
positive feedback. It is therefore surprising that
one of the most common demotivators cited
by team members is to never have their efforts
appreciated. You know what you need to do.
Donnie MacNicol is Director of consultancy Team
Animation and Chairman of the People Specific
Interest Group at the Association for Project
Management. Brenda Hales is a Senior Consultant
with Team Animation and is a Project Manager and
Gestalt psychotherapist
donnie@teamanimation.co.uk
©JurgaRubinovaite