What Makes a Successful Project Manager – Part 5

Thanks for joining us for the last post in the ‘What Makes a Successful Project Manager’ Series. While there are obviously many other traits that are essential for a project manager’s success, we have discussed a set of traits that will assist any project manager to execute with skill, sensitivity and expertise.

Negotiation

Negotiation is a strategy of conferring with parties that have opposed interests, on the one hand, but have the desire to reach an agreement and an understanding on the other. Negotiation is an integral part of the project manager’s job. Successful project management can increase the probability of project success.
The following skills and behaviors are useful in negotiating successfully:

• Analyze the situation correctly and accurately
• Differentiate between wants and needs – both theirs and yours
•  Focus on interests and issues rather than on positions
• Ask high and offer low, but be realistic
• When you make a concession, act as if you are yielding something of value, don’t just give in
• Always make sure both parties feel as if they have won. This is genuine win-win negotiating. Never let the other party leave feeling as if you have taken advantage of them.
• Do a good job in listening.

 
Remember that the goal of the negotiation is to protect the relationship. The relationship between supplier and client is not a hierarchical relationship. It is a partnership.

You must remember that at the end of the day, your primary goal is for the project to succeed.

This is the time when the organization’s management must know how to choose the right projects and decide “what not to go for.” Management must choose the right project managers to manage the chosen projects.

Conclusion

Project managers must be proactive managers, marketers and salesmen. In effect, they must become the company CEO for the purpose of the project and make their mark on the projects’ success and the organizational heritage.

Now is the time to ensure that the project goals are in line with the organization’s strategy and help realize the organizational portfolio and strategy.

When addressing their teams, they must emphasize the importance of obtaining a follow-on project from existing and new customers. They must also communicate this throughout the organization as a whole.

Sometimes management must make “painful” decisions. This includes deciding which projects and plans must be given up, at least at present.