3 Tips for Hiring the Right Project Managers

The importance of hiring the right project manager cannot be overstated enough. The project manager won’t necessarily be doing every last bit of work with regards to a project, but he or she will be the leader who takes the reigns of the proverbial ship and makes sure that everything is coming in on time and under budget.

If you hire the wrong project manager, the project in question is almost doomed before it ever has a chance to get off the ground. If you want to make sure that you’re doing everything in your power to hire the right project manager, there are three key things in particular that you’ll want to keep in mind.

Hiring the Right Project Manager: Find the Best Communicator

So much of project management involves making sure that every team member is not only aware of what they’re supposed to be doing, but how those tasks and responsibilities fit into the bigger picture of the project as a whole. In order for this idea to succeed, communication is one of the most important strengths that a project manager can have.

If you’re interviewing candidates who excel when working on their own, you may be looking at a valued employee but you are definitely not looking at an ideal candidate for the project manager position. A project manager needs to feel comfortable in a collaborative environment and communication will play a big role in that.

Look for Someone Willing to Share the Credit

As previously stated, project managers are collaborators by nature – they have to be in order to survive in such a high stakes position. If you’re interviewing candidates and you come across someone who talks all about themselves when discussing their strengths and past accomplishments, you might not necessarily be looking at someone who is right for the job. An ideal candidate for the project management position would be much more likely to talk about teams that they’ve been on in the past and how they contributed to the larger whole.

Cool Under Pressure

It’s been said before and it will be said again: risk is something that you can never truly eliminate  from a project, no matter how hard you try. One of the keys to finding the right project manager is not to look for someone who will try as hard as possible to eliminate risk, but someone who knows how to identify risk and understands the steps that will be required to circumnavigate these issues as successfully as possible. As a result, you’re going to want to look for someone who can prove that they know how to remain cool under pressure. 

So long as you’ve found the right project manager, you’ll find that the “hard part” of projects that your company is responsible for is almost already finished. A true project manager knows how to take control of a team of people and give them the space that they need to thrive. So long as you’re focusing on the right qualities while interviewing candidates, you’ll definitely find the right person for the job sooner rather than later.

Key Takeaways:

• By finding the right project manager, the “hard part” of completing projects is almost already done before you even start.
• A true project manager embodies a wide range of different qualities: they’re excellent communicators, for example.