A bad project manager is a nightmare. He or she is someone who prevents work from getting done, who creates an atmosphere of fear and anger and who hogs all the glory on top of it. You might think that these descriptions have nothing to do with you, but the truth is that being a project manager can lead you straight into one of these tropes very, very easily. If you don’t want to be the person that is being muttered about angrily at the water cooler, make sure that you consider these six attributes you need to get rid of.
1. Anger Every Day
Being a project manager is stressful. There really isn’t an alternative. Your name is attached to the project, and it is very easy to feel like one more small thing is going to tip you over into psychosis. At the end of the day, however, no matter how much you want to tear your hair out and start ranting, you must never do this!. You will not make anything better by getting angry. Smile, find a solution and then go home and take it out on a punching bag. Anger has no place in a project manager’s office.
2. Lack of Availability
If you are a project manager, that means that everyone wants to touch you. Put less shockingly, you are the point of contact for every part of the project, including the people who are not involved with it. If you have ever tried to run someone down who could not be found, you know how frustrating this is. Putting up your email is great unless you are bad about responding to emails. Let people know when they can come to look for you in your office, when they can call you and where you will be. This can make things a lot less trying for your workers.
3. Micromanaging
Micromanaging is a common thing in the office world, and it is easy to see how people get there. It’s a very short jump from asking a team member how they are doing to signing off on their every move. At the most basic level, micromanaging is a sign that you do not trust your team. If they are on your team, they are on it for a reason, so let them do the job that they were hired for.
4. Glory Hogs and Their Eating Habits
One of the benefits for taking on the responsibility of a team project is that your name will be attached to it forever if the project does well. That means that your face and your name are going to be heading the project. When someone gives you a compliment, do some serious name dropping. Let them know who was behind the killer code or the incredible social networking campaign. This is noticed, and it is always appreciated.
5. Clamming Up
If you are taking on a project, you need to be a pane of glass. If you get information, it needs to get out there to the rest of your team. Not only will this help people feel safer and more confident in what they are doing, you’ll find that it will help them create innovations that will improve the project as a whole. No one does their best work when they are in the dark.
6. Ignoring the Problems
If you are a project manager, it is your job to tackle the problems in a project. The issue is that so many project managers seem to think the problems will go away if they ignore them! If you see a problem, whether it is with the project’s structure or a personality conflict, head it off at the pass.
Consider what you can do to weed out these bad project manager attributes. It really will pay off in the long run.