I once conducted a round of interviews for a vacant project manager position at an American Company with regional HQ in England.  Typically, I treat each candidate as an individual and try to have a conversation around their likes, dislikes, style of management and so on.  This interviewing approach is more demanding because you cannot follow a pre-defined script by asking each candidate a set of standard questions and compare responses.  However, I did have a couple of standard questions I asked all candidates just to compare them with one another over certain aspects of their job.  One question I used was: What do you think are the main attributes of a competent project manager?

Most, if not all, candidates gave revealing answers that enhanced my understanding of their way of thinking.  I say most candidates because there is always someone who surprises the hell out of you with the unusual way they see the world, which could be good or bad, depending on what you are looking for.  That day was one of those days when a candidate distinguished himself with the brevity of his answers, as though he was in a rush to catch a train.  This did not suit my interview approach of developing a conversation with the candidate who probably expected me to be like a quiz master on a TV show who seeks one short but correct answer to every question he has on his card.

As he was the last candidate to interview on that long day and before I fell into complete boredom I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and ask him the standard question by saying “take your time formulating your answer” to see if he was willing to elaborate, explain and set his answer out in a convincing argument.

Me: What do you think are the main attributes of a competent project manager?

Him: That’s easy.  I believe a project manager must be Omnipresent, Omniscient and Omnipotent.

Me: go on…

Him: That’s my full answer

Me: You are pretty much describing God here!

Him: Yes, I know

Me: You think a project manager should have god-like attributes?

Him: Yes

Me: Do you fit this description yourself?

Him: Yes

I gave up!

It was close to 7:30 pm and I felt tired and incapable of taking any more so, I took him back to the main reception, thanked him for his visit and said we would be in touch.

Needless to say, that particular candidate was not considered any further as he ticked most of the wrong boxes and a few of the right ones.  His final downfall was the last exchange we had about the god-like attributes he thought necessary for a project manager.

The following day, I had a debrief with HR and asked for two specific candidates to return for further consideration.  HR being HR, they asked about the ones I was no-longer interested in so they would write to them and explain why they have not made it to the final cut.  I gave reasons for all of them except for our “omni-frustrating” candidate and I explained what had happened the day before and asked HR to concoct a plausible and polite reasons as to why he too did not make the final cut.  However, the HR manager was a friend of mine and wanted to discuss this candidate a bit further.  He concluded that I got it wrong with him as he showed originality, strength and a sense of bearing responsibility for entire projects on his ‘broad shoulders’.

This exchange was shared with a handful of other managers in the company to see if there is a common consensus amongst us as to the suitability of such a candidate.  I was surprised that I did not have universal support however, I still won the argument 2:1 ratio.

In the light of day and following the discussion amongst a group of colleagues, I was able to encapsulate my reasons for rejecting the candidate as follows:

‘Project Management’ is complex and difficult; many of us can have a go and occasionally achieve a degree of success, only a few are effective and successful most of the time.  Like any profession be it a musician, a bricklayer, a medical doctor, etc., only a small percentage can be considered virtuosos, masters, renowned, and so on.  Let’s face it, we don’t always need the best of the best for every requirement we have so, competent professionals, craftsmen are good enough for most of our requirements.  The project manager’s vacancy I was trying to fill needed a competent project manager, rather than a god-like one.

This brings me to the ‘omni’ prefix of our friend who boiled it down to three elements of presence everywhere, knowing everything and being all powerful.  I question the validity of all three attributes even for the best of the best in project management.

Setting aside technical knowledge of the profession such as, planning, risk and issue management and delegation of tasks / activities to competent specialists on the project, the five human attributes needed for a competent project manager are:

  • Communication skills to keep various stakeholders aware of progress
  • Team building in order to align everyone to head in the right direction
  • Ability to delegate to individual specialists who are capable of delivering their elements of the project
  • Flexibility to adjust as unexpected events begin to influence the overall direction and ultimate delivery of the final outcome.In other words, the original project plan cannot always be adhered to, irrespective of reality as it unfolds during the lifetime of the project
  • Courage to face problems and difficulties along the way be it human made or natural causes

None of the above demand technical competence or superhero / god-like powers our friend espoused during the interview.

My first outing as a project manager when working in the IT department of a retailer needed me to deliver a relatively small project, which was estimated to require a month or so to deliver a specific sub-system, using a couple of internal resources to do the spadework.  The project delivered its expected output, within the allocated month utilizing the internal human resources without needing additional internal / external resources.  To say I was pleased with myself would be an understatement so, at the next available opportunity I went to see my boss expecting to be showered with flowers & champagne, even promoted.  He nearly fired me!  I pretty much set aside the five human attributes and focused purely on the mechanics of the job thus, upsetting many people who probably vouched never to work with me again.

I am lucky to have had the chance to improve my project management skills thereafter.

Do you have a different viewpoint on this topic?  I will be happy to get your feedback.