You’re starting a project. You need the right team with the right skills for the job. This could be a technical haul that takes a host of developers, engineers and analysts to complete.
Before even getting to that point, though, every project must start with a firm base. It all begins with the Project Manager. This is the person that holds everything together, from top-to-bottom, left-to-right, and start-to-finish.
No matter how decentralized the work environment gets with this new remote-work trend, nothing will get accomplished without a high-level supervisor with some knowledge of every facet of a project.
Sure, you could hire and manage a team on your own. But why would you want to do that when you could hire an entire person to do all of that for you? Maybe this person has even specialized in one or two of the roles required to complete the job.
Every project needs a project manager. And you’re not going to find one if you don’t know what you’re looking for.
Here are a few things to consider when hiring a project manager.
Look for Specialized Know-How
Roles are becoming increasingly specialized as work places become more decentralized. At the same time as having a more individualized role in the group, every person will also necessarily need to have some knowledge of what others are doing in case they ever need to fill in.
What does that mean for project managers, then? It means they have to be even more acutely aware of the top-down elements of a project.
This might seem like asking a lot, but there is really no other way to go around it: you need the perfect balance of both a technical expert and a leader.
Technical knowledge should be a given for any project manager role. But they should not be sought at the expense of the non-technical.
Leadership, teamwork, morale and such things might sound like fluff at first, but these are what ultimately make or break a project. Really, when it comes to technical and non-technical skills, you can’t have one without the other if you want a “good” project manager.
There is a difference, however, between how you go about spotting leadership skills and technical skills.
Technical skills are tough to spot from the get-go. They are much less interpersonal and more about the resume.
Hiring for technical skills requires you to be able to judge a resume aptly. You want to look for the person with the most experience, but you also want it to be quality experience.
The answer here is to never blow through resumes, and never neglect calling references. In fact, if you’re ever tempted to hire someone without checking references, make it anyone but your project manager.
Make sure your PM is someone of good report. Don’t merely ask if they were nice to work with. Ask if they could get the job done. Ask for examples specifically pertaining to your current project.
Milk that phone call for everything it’s worth. Take notes. Cross reference those notes with the resume, then what they talk about with you in the interview.
Once you build a foundational understanding of your candidate’s technical know-how, then you can safely judge their potential for being a sound leader on your project.
Here is how you can separate the wheat from the chaff in the leadership world.
Is Your Project Manager a Natural Leader?
Though technical skills are the first thing you should look at while hiring for a project manager, they are inseparable from the more abstract, interpersonal qualities you want from them.
You can pick up on this from the reference-checking and interview process. Do they strike you as a leader? Would you take direction or criticism from them?
See, this is obviously tied to the technical expertise, because you wouldn’t take direction from someone who appeared to know less than you. However, it is also a particular set of skills that makes a good leader, versus a good technician.
One of the most vital components of a solid leader is communication skills. This should be universal across your whole team. And it begins with your project manager.
While interviewing a project manager, propose a scenario for which they can articulate a plan. See if they can do it clearly and concisely. If you think the candidate’s manner of speech is digestible enough to set the tone of communication for an entire team of people, then you can move forward in the process.
Another trait you want to look for in a potential leader is self-awareness. How well can your candidate articulate their own strengths and weaknesses? Does their description match those of their references? Does it match what you see yourself?
Lastly, you want a project manager with an ability to delegate. It might sound obvious, but many project managers arrive at their positions without this skill.
This is typically a case where, instead of being a natural leader, a born technician waited their turn for years to be in control, and by sheer luck, they assume a leadership position with no ability to delegate.
This often leads projects to their doom, as purely technical minds can tend towards micro-management. Micromanagement leads to a tense morale, which prevents creative problem-solving in team projects.
Make It Easy to Find a Project Manager
Deciphering whether your potential project manager has all the right characteristics could take weeks and months of calls and paperwork.
Believe it or not, there are companies out there that do all that research for you.
NIA is one of those. This is a team that takes all the technical and non-technical know-how in the world and puts it through an air-tight matching and hiring process to find exactly the talent you need.
It’s both fast and effective. It’s efficient.
Get in touch with a global network of project managers averaging 15 years of experience.
