Good to Great Project Managers

NK Shrivastava and Phillip George, RefineM LLC

Good project managers can be valuable assets to a company. Creating effective project plans,
performing diligent monitoring and reporting, and delivering projects successfully are all part of being a
good project manager. What, however, separates good project managers from great project managers?
Skills displayed by great project managers include strong leadership and interpersonal skills, ability to
build teams and develop their skills, and ability to effectively communicate project status and outlook,
among others. In this article, we describe what makes project managers great and what they can do to
make the leap from good to great.
What makes a project manager great, and how do project managers transition from good to great? Jim
Collins, author of Built to Last, wrote Good to Great to address the question of how good companies
become great. Good to Great is an analysis of factors that took seemingly average companies to heights
where they outperformed competitors and the market by a wide margin. Collins isolated several
differentiating factors, including leadership, team setup, and ability to perform strong self-analysis. In
this article, we will examine factors from Good to Great and how they can apply to project managers.

www.refineM.com contact@refineM.com 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

What Makes Companies Great?

In Good to Great, seven key traits of companies that make the leap from good to great are examined.
Collins and his research team provide examples for each trait. While reading Good to Great, we were
struck by how many of the traits could also apply to project managers and their journey from good to
great. Collins and his team identified the following traits1:
1. Level 5 Leadership. In the section Level 5 Leadership from Good to Great, Collins defines Level
5 leaders as those who display a combination of personal humility, professional will, and
determination to accomplish the companys strategic goals regardless of cost.
2. Team-building skills. In the chapter First Who, Then What? Collins argues that team-building
depends on assembling committed people who buy into the company vision, excluding others,
and helping the team grow while they carry out their responsibilities.
3. Ability to assess the company. This corresponds with the chapter Confront Brutal Facts (But
Dont Lose Faith!) in which Collins describes companies who were able to face upcoming
changes and respond successfully to them because they confronted the facts of their reality.
Although the moves were sometimes painful, like overhauling store designs or closing factories,
long-term outcomes were better because companies did not retreat from brutal facts.
4. Ability to assess strengths and weaknesses. Collins introduces this trait in his chapter, The
Hedgehog Concept, where he describes how companies succeed by identifying the intersection
of their competencies, passions, and economic drivers. By acting on these three concepts,
companies can develop more effective strategies for growth and for dealing with problems.
5. Dedication to continuous improvement. In the chapter The Flywheel and the Doom Loop
Collins describes how companies succeed by small pushes of positive momentum, and also how
sudden strategy changes and other factors can stop that momentum.
6. A culture of discipline. In Collinss view, a culture of discipline can help a company achieve great
results without a heavy hierarchy. Discipline involves not only consistently performing good
habits, it also means dropping bad habits. When discipline is combined with entrepreneurial
spirit, companies thrive and grow quickly.
7. Technology accelerators. Great companies are careful to adopt only the technology that they
feel will help them the most. They do not rely primarily on technology as their driver, but do not
pass up opportunities to improve their operations through technology in a way that makes
sense for the company.
Each of these traits was found in the companies examined by Collins and his research team. Out of these
traits, we feel that the first six can apply very well to project managers. In the following section, we will
describe how each of the first six traits can be applied to project managers and what steps they can take
to go from good to great.

Collins, Jim (2001). Good to Great: why some companies make the leap . . . and others dont. New York: HarperBusiness.

www.refineM.com contact@refineM.com 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

What Makes Project Managers Great?

Although Good to Great primarily examines companies, many of the traits of company success can
translate to a project managers professional life, including:
1. Strong leadership. Leadership skills help project managers align the team to key goals and clarify
the project plan and purpose. The concept of level 5 leadership combines several important
interpersonal skills of a project manager. First, by showing personal humility and keeping their
egos out of the way of key decisions, project managers display strong emotional intelligence.
Project managers who display strong emotional intelligence radiate leadership without trying,
which helps them build trust with team members and stakeholders. Second, by exerting
professional will and an unwavering faith in the project, project managers carve out a greater
position from which to influence without authority. This ability is one of the most important
interpersonal skills for a project manager because he or she often has to manage the project
without a lot of authority.
2. Team-building. Great project managers are also skillful at assembling the right people for a
project and helping them develop their skills. In his section First WhoThen What, Collins
reports that companies who were able to build high-performing teams, with people who were
invested in the companys strategy and vision, were better able to transition from good to great.
For project managers, this means building the right project team and putting them in position to
succeed. Through the right mix of stakeholders, subject matter experts, and team members, the
team can refine the project objectives and deliver the right project for the company in the most
effective way.
3. Realistic project assessment. Great project managers are able to accurately assess the state of
their projects, including current status, past trends, and future outlook. Being able to report the
status of a project, whether it is good or bad, is a skill expected of any project manager and is
also expected from PMI, which includes honesty as one of the four traits of ethical conduct in
project management2.
Where great project managers separate themselves is their ability to report the status and
outlook of the project. Great project managers not only have a strong grasp of any projects
brutal facts; they are also able to develop plans to get the project back on track. They
accomplish this goal through actively monitoring and controlling during project execution. They
can do this using earned value management (EVM) to create trends and forecasts, or by other
methods. Great project managers recognize that no project plan is executed perfectly, and they
are prepared to manage changes throughout any project.
4. Realistic self-assessment. Project management activities can be classified by the process groups
(from initiating to closing) or by knowledge areas (risk management, communications
management, and others). It may take many years before a project manager is sufficiently
skilled in all of them to call himself or herself a master.

2 http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/~/media/PDF/Ethics/PMI-Code-of-Ethics-and-Professional-Conduct.ashx

www.refineM.com contact@refineM.com 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

Even without full mastery of project management, project managers can start assessing their
strengths and weaknesses, either on their own or with the help of others. By knowing their
weaknesses, project managers can identify resources to help fill gaps. For example, project
managers lacking necessary business analysis skills can seek out a business analyst. Seeking out
this help aids the project in the short term, and aids the project managers long-term learning.
5. Dedication to continuous improvement. Because no project manager can be expected to solve
every possible project problem, continuous learning and improvement are both important.
Good project managers capture lessons learned for each project, but great project managers
also turn the mirror on themselves and determine what they can do better next time to ensure
project delivery success and keep their own flywheel spinning. Continuous learning can take
the form of self-analysis from project lessons learned, as well as seeking out professional
development opportunities to refine technical, business, and leadership skills.
6. Discipline. Great project managers build a culture of discipline not only for themselves, but also
for their teams. Building discipline involves not only deploying processes consistently, but also
monitoring project execution consistently. For example, a good project manager will create a
risk register, but a great project manager will also monitor and update it regularly as new risks
emerge and new information on existing risks becomes available. By using processes
consistently and following through on them, project managers get the most value out of each
process and also improve their skill with each process.
Project managers can build discipline for their teams through consistent reporting and regular
meetings. Giving team members a regular chance to discuss their status and share their
concerns promotes collaborative problem-solving and reinforces project management
processes. By keeping regular status meetings and updates, great project managers build
consistency, which translates to a culture of discipline.
Table 1 is a summary of good and great project managers with tips on how to go from good to great:
Good Project Managers . . .

Great Project Managers . . .

How to Become Great

Exhibit leadership

Exhibit Level 5 leadership

Practice interpersonal skills

Build the right team

Help their team grow

Think of team success first

Report project status

Report status and forecast

Use forecasting tools like EVM

Know their strengths

Know strengths & weaknesses

Seek feedback from others

Capture project lessons learned

Capture own lessons learned

Analyze own performance

Create project plans

Follow through on plans

Regularly monitor for updates

Table 1. Summary of good to great project managers.

www.refineM.com contact@refineM.com 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762

Conclusion
Great project managers make project management seem simple, but it only seems this way because
they have invested in their practice to get as close to perfection as possible. By putting their projects
and teams above themselves, exhibiting strong leadership and assessment skills, and displaying humility
and willingness to examine themselves, they make the leap and become great project managers. They
also build a culture of discipline for themselves and their teams.
One final point to remember about great project managers is that they all started as good project
managers. Making the leap from good to great takes a lot of time, effort, and dedication. This idea is
true not only for someones professional life, but also their personal life as well. We enjoyed reading
Good to Great and recommend that project managers reflect on the books concepts. Seeking mastery
of those concepts, as well as following the tips from this article, will help you make the leap and become
a great project manager.
References
1. Collins, Jim (2001). Good to Great: why some companies make the leap . . . and others dont. New
York: HarperBusiness.
2. Project Management Institute (2015). Code of ethics and professional conduct. Retrieved from
http://www.pmi.org/About-Us/~/media/PDF/Ethics/PMI-Code-of-Ethics-and-Professional-Conduct.ashx

www.refineM.com contact@refineM.com 405 N. Jefferson Ave, Springfield, MO 65806 417.763.6762