Triple A: Three Intangible Skills to Make You Successful
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Project management can be stressful, because in addition to knowledge of project management principles, it requires a variety of intangible skills. If some of these intangible skills are lacking or underdeveloped, the job can be overwhelming.
What takes a project manager beyond adequate performance to excellent performance are intangible skills. If you were to list all the intangible skills that benefit a project manager, the list would be so long it would trivialize each skill. Here are three overarching intangible characteristics that are the result of the application of several intangible skills. The three intangibles with underlying skills are designated as “Triple A” for Anticipation, Action and Adaptation.
The first A - Anticipation
Anticipation means as a project manager you have the ability to predict future outcomes. This is a skill gained through the ability to understand; to read people; to read the data and the circumstances surrounding a situation. Anticipation cannot be achieved if you are not trustworthy and have established trusting relationships because this is the basis of clear, honest communication. Clear communication is required to properly interpret people and circumstances.
Wisdom regarding human behavior is also required because human beings are not logical, but they are predictable. The committed project manager is a lifelong student of human behavior so he or she can be a better predictor of human behavior. Exceptional project managers use anticipation to quickly see through a lot of ancillary information to the heart of a matter. The ability to anticipate means less surprises both in number and magnitude. Anticipation allows the development of more through and purposeful solutions because there is more lead time to develop them.
The second A - Action
Action is the ability to make things happen and inspire others to make things happen. Two key intangibles that support action are passion and creativity. Passionate project managers get things done because of their strong belief in themselves; the project; the deliverable; the organization or a combination of these. This belief is a driving force that creates action. In fact, the strong belief cannot stand inaction and will not allow it.
Creativity is required to find new ways to motivate, new ways to accomplish tasks and new ways to remove bureaucracy and obstacles that stand in the way of project objectives. In a perfect world, work identified in the Work Breakdown Structure would simply be assigned and executed by the team. In the real world you have to motivate people to execute and put them in a position where nothing prohibits or inhibits that execution.
The third A - Adaptation
Adaptation is the ability to respond positively to bad decisions and unfortunate circumstances. A team member may make a mistake, a vendor will be late, a consultant may not work out. There is a seemingly endless list of bad things that can happen in a project, but the exceptional project manager positively adapts to these situations and takes ownership of the situations that he or she contributed to. Emphasis on positive!
If you are a project manager and you are making decisions in a timely manner, then some of those decisions will be wrong. Adaptation means you learn from the mistake, but you also have the confidence to continue to make aggressive decisions, knowing full well that the mistake just made was not your last mistake and the worst mistake is to be passive and not make timely decisions. When it comes to fixing unfortunate circumstances you are resolute and do not get discouraged. The supporting intangibles to adaptation are having a positive attitude and being accountable for providing solutions to unfortunate circumstances regardless of their origin. The plan must always be adapted to deal with the circumstances of the project.
Project management may not be for everyone, but for those of us who love it the intangible attributes of Anticipation, Action and Adaptation are necessary for high levels of achievement as project managers.
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