Internet Survey Results
Why
Project Leaders Succeed: Project Leader Skills Survey Results
Fred Friend, CCM
Associate
IN SUMMARY:
Of the 82 respondents, 55 were Project Leaders
and 27 were Managers Of Projects Leaders. The Project Leaders were relatively junior, with
65% having 5 years or less experience, and we assume technically educated since 45% lead
IT or Consulting Engagement Projects. Contrast this with the Managers of Projects Leaders,
59% had at least 5 years and more than 10 years experience. Given these demographics, a
relatively junior group of project leaders talking about their needs and the perspective
of a seasoned group of their managers who have undoubtedly coached and mentored many
project leaders, the following are even more compelling:
| Skills: |
90% of the respondents rated "most
project leaders" technical skills as average or good and 75% rated interpersonal
skills as average or poor. Technical competence and skills are not the issue, what is? |
| Key interpersonal skills: |
85% or greater of the
respondents said the following were the critical skills needed to be a successful project
leader: |
|
|
Listens to others
ask questions, to stimulate thinking
clarify roles, expectations
establish trust
recognize individual accomplishments
develop a sense of teamwork |
| Top four people skills for
project leader success: |
Define & communicate
goals/sub goals
Clarify roles, expectations
Listen to others
Establish trust. |
| Training for the Project
Manger role: |
1/3 had no formal training, 1/3 had some related workshops,
and only 1/3 had formal training by college degree or
PMI or equivalent formal programs. |
Here’s the picture, a great need for help
with little or no training being provided. Our guess is that organizations assumed that
technical competence and skills would generalize to the skills needed to be a Project
Leader. Unfortunately, the organization probably lost a good technical resource and gained
a struggling Project Leader. Here’s the things they don’t teach you in college:
| Greatest people challenges: |
Dealing with lack of commitment, lessened
sense of mission, alignment of everyone’s understanding and efforts, and
accountability by project team members. |
| Top four people skills for
project members: |
Listen to others
Ask questions to clarify
Develop a sense of teamwork
Establish trust. |
| Top three things
Managers-of-Project Leader can do more of: |
Support, be attentive,
listen, protect, mentor, recognize, reward.
Communicate, work closely, give
clear goals, ask question, listen, provide feedback.
Delegate and allow, clear goals, allow
trial and error, protect. |
| Recommendations: Training,
training and more training! |
The preponderance
of responses from relatively new project leaders should underline the crying need for help
in: |
|
|
Interpersonal skills:
coaching, team building, establishing trust, and gaining commitment without the use of
formal authority.
Communications skills: with team members
(listening, asking questions), peers and mangers as well as presentation skills.
Project planning/manage process skills:
Clarifying roles and expectations, defining goals/sub goals, recognition of
accomplishments. |
DETAILED RESPONSES FOR EACH QUESTION
Here are the detailed responses that lead to
these conclusions and recommendations. We welcome your comments on our conclusions and
additional conclusions and recommendations you would draw from this data.
| 1. Title: |
33% of you were Managers-of-Projects 67% of you were Project Leaders |
| 2. |
Years of Experience: |
Project Leaders |
Managers-of-Projects |
|
23% had less than 1 year
experience42% had 1 - 5
years
19% had 5 - 10 years
17% had more than 10 years |
13% had less than 1 year
experience25% had 1 - 5
years
21% had 5 - 10 years
38% had more than 10 years |
| 3. |
General Product Types |
26% were from Information
Technology 19% were from Consulting Engagements
8% were from Marketing Product Launch
7% were from Product R&D
39% were from All Others (Advertising, Aerospace,
Construction Management, Education, Finance, etc.) |
4. Three Greatest People Challenges
| By asking the "If
only people would . . ." questions we get data that let's us draw conclusions about
the "people issues" project leaders need to address to be more effective. In
general they said, "If only people would - |
|
communicate" take
more initiative / responsibility"
focus on the end"
have better skills"
manager themselves better" |
| Some particular conclusions we
drew from the "Three Greatest People Challenges" responses were: |
| A. |
In a project (team) environment, there may
often be a lessened individual sense of mission, ownership, commitment, accountability,
motivation and responsibility. Dealing with that was the most frequently mentioned
"people issue". |
| B. |
It is not a primary role of the project
leader to be an omnipotent subject matter expert; their primary expertise is project
planning & management processes - methodologies and people
management (group dynamics, teambuilding, coaching, communicating). |
| C. |
Alignment is a common concern for project
leaders regardless of who they were thinking about (team members, managers, outsiders,
other departments, etc.) |
| D. |
Project leaders need to facilitate
communication within the team and communicate with others outside the team |
| E. |
A major role/responsibility of the project
leader is to facilitate teamwork and gain synergy;
in most cases it does not occur naturally when individuals are marshaled from various
backgrounds. |
| F. |
The general categories of concerns they
mentioned were mirrored in the skills they think are important |
| G. |
There are established processes and bodies
of knowledge that will improve project results by investing time and money in formal
training (OJT and trial-and-error are expensive alternatives) |
5. Key Inter-personal Skills for Project
Leader
Here are the interpersonal skills you said were needed
to be successful project leaders - listed by the percent-of-respondents-who-checked-this-skill.
| 89% |
listens to others |
| 89% |
ask questions, to stimulate thinking
|
| 85% |
clarify roles, expectations |
| 85% |
establish trust |
| 85% |
recognize individual accomplishments |
| 85% |
develop a sense of teamwork |
| 83% |
define & communicate
goals/ sub-goals |
| 82% |
motivate others |
| 81% |
gain commitment |
| 79% |
get others to feel accountable |
| 79% |
facilitate group problem solving
|
| 78% |
help others develop |
| 76% |
communicate with upper management
|
| 76% |
get commitments to actions
from others |
| 74% |
follow up, be persistent |
| 74% |
value diversity |
| 74% |
facilitate change |
| 72% |
get others input |
| 72% |
give productive feedback |
| 71% |
deal productively with resistance
|
| 71% |
manage disagreements |
| 71% |
provide direction |
| 69% |
envision and explain outcomes
|
| 68% |
acknowledge others concerns |
| 67% |
ask questions to clarify |
| 65% |
influence others |
| 64% |
make effective presentations |
| 63% |
reassure others |
| 61% |
defuse defensiveness |
| 58% |
define & communicate
needed actions |
| 3% |
other |
6. Top people skills most important
for your success
| Based on order of
occurrence, the top 10 critical people skills for project leaders are: |
|
Define & communicate goals/
sub-goals Clarify roles, expectations
Listens to others
Establish trust
Develop a sense of teamwork
Motivate others
Gain commitment
Follow-up, be persistent
Communicate with upper management
Ask questions. to stimulate thinking |
7. Top 10
People skills You Recommended for Project Staff Members
| Listen to others Ask questions to clarify
Develop a sense of teamwork
Establish trust
Clarify roles, expectations
Follow-up, be persistent
Define & communicate needed actions
Define & communicate goals / sub-goals
Value diversity
Ask questions to stimulate thinking |
8. What can Managers-of-Project-Leaders do
to help
General
summary of common themes in the comments are: |
|
Support; be attentive, listen, protect,
mentor, recognize, reward, etc. Communicate; work closely,
give clear goals, ask questions, listen, provide feedback, etc.
Delegate and allow; clear goals, allow trial and error, protect,
etc.
Have realistic expectations; be clear, provide resources,
protect, communicate, etc.
Resolve barriers, conflicts, politics, etc.
Set framework, insist on use of project methodologies |
9. What concerns / issues do you have with
outsiders/contractors
| General summary of
common themes in the comments are: |
|
They need a better understanding of our business Alignment of agendas, interests, goals, efforts
Living up to their commitments |
10. What concerns / issues do you have with
others in your organization
| General summary of common
themes in the comments are: |
|
Alignment of agendas, interests, goals, efforts Eliminating "we versus them", competition, individualism, etc.
Appreciating the value of the project to the company / them
Living up to their commitments |
| 11. |
How would you weight
the importance of interpersonal skills versus technical knowledge skills 52% rated people skills more important
(52%)
17% rated people skills somewhat more important
(69%)
28% rated people skills equally important (97%)
3% rated people skills important, but not equal to
(100%)
0% rated people skills not as important
Average rating was 4.2 on a 5 (high) scale |
| 12. |
Rate most project leaders on their
technical skills 9% rated them Very
good ( 9%)
39% rated them Good (48%)
42% rated them Average (90%) i.e. 90% rated their
technical skills as average or above
10% rated them Poor (100%)
0% rated them Very Poor
Average rating was 3.5 on a 5 (high) scale |
| 13. |
Rate most project leaders on their
interpersonal skills 6% rated them
Very good ( 6%)
19% rated them Good (25%) i.e. 75% rated their people
skills as average or below
41% rated them Average (66%)
33% rated them Poor (99%)
1% rated them Very Poor (100%)
Average rating was 2.9 on a 5 (high) scale |
| 14. |
What training have you received to
specifically prepare you as project leader 16% said NONE
17% said OJT, Experience, Self-Study Books/Tapes,
Mentoring/Coaching, Observing Others
36% said Related Workshops (negotiations, conflict resolution,
time management, communications, teambuilding, facilitating, project planning, estimating,
scheduling, contracting risk management, etc.)
14% said Formal Education (degree programs)
17% said Formal Project Management programs (PMI, etc.) |
| 15. |
Other comments, general
summary of common themes in the comments are: Project teams are being used more in companies looking to be leading edge
/ world class
It is a tough job (coaches don’t play the game, they direct
strategy and tactics from the sidelines; but, they can get fired if results are not
produced)
Team management is difficult; especially matrix relationships
There are pressures from all sides on the traditional issues;
(Time - Quality - Cost)
It takes more than project skills to generate additional
benefits; (Synergy - Creativity - Productivity) |
|
