The job of an IT project manager is not an easy one. Their skill set needs to include both the technical and the management capabilities, to ensure smooth running of the project.

The technical competency of an IT project manager is usually a given. However, besides that, a broad overview and strong leadership skills are also required, in order to guide their team and manage multiple tasks.

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It’s a mixed, challenging job that makes or breaks the success of projects they are running.

Below, we put together 5 traits a successful IT project manager needs to have to effectively guide their team.

1. The ability to communicate with people from diverse professional backgrounds. Communication is easier said than done. A good IT manager needs to know how to talk to in order to get through to professionals from various areas.

2. Coordination of the group and of the multiple issues and tasks. A successful project manager is a competent coordinator. They need to have an overview of every member, their performance and strong parts, and also of all tasks to be accomplished.
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3. Ability to delegate work to the other project members. Too often we see project managers wanting to do everything, mostly because they want to have the control. But also because they don’t trust their team to do the task, and consider it would be faster to just do it themselves. Delegation would free up their schedule, and would allow them to focus on other management issues.

4. They need to be dependent. The team members need to know that they can go to the IT project manager with any problem, and that they will be offered an answer. The manager needs to be there for his/her team, both as a person and as a professional.

5. Negotiation skills represent some of the most useful traits to have. A project manager is constantly negotiating. Whether it’s the team’s schedule, the time allocated for shared resources with other departments, or the completion of a project – the IT project manager needs to constantly and effectively arbitrate multiple areas of their job.

If your PM is lacking one of these skills, do you see your projects hurting because of that? What other key skills would you include? What skill does your own PM have that’s not included here, and you think it’s crucial?

Written by: Monica Nastase.