16.6 Personal Attributes

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Professional characteristics appear to come as much from adapting to prior experience as from those attributes one might clumsily call "built-in." This next class is personal and, as such, may not be the result of intentional learning. Still, they are quite interesting to look at with an eye toward self-improvement, despite my earlier joke that project managers are born, not made.

16.6.1 Builder's Mentality

Projects are all about building new systems or remodeling legacy processes. This almost sounds like a general contractor in the home construction industry, does it not? If you were planning on remodeling or building a new home, how would you pick your general contractor? After going through the phone book, evaluating references, and possibly reaching out to someone whose work impresses you, in the end, you probably select someone one you can trust, someone who just appears to be competent at what he does for a living. Not everyone can read a blueprint and turn it into a valuable asset. Can you?

16.6.2 Problem Solving

Most people's knees buckle when the obstacles begin to pile up. The key to problem solving is being able to see that mountain as a big pile of dirt you can move one shovelful at a time. If the hill is really big, the problem solver shrugs his shoulders and ponders whether he needs:

More shovels
More time
Dynamite

We all panic when the enormity of a new issue strikes us, but the more competent among us soon turn analytical. For some, that may indicate the blessing of composure, but for most of us, it is the challenge that motivates us to see things through. If you are interviewing, ask your candidate for an example of a difficult scenario they were able to turn around. Listen for how they analyzed and facilitated resolution. If they cancelled a vacation to write code, this sounds like a dedicated worker, not the capable leader we are seeking. Good problem solvers go all the way back to the beginning and take a sharp look at the assumptions underlying the path to the problem. Oddly enough, therein lies the most probable key to success. More, even, than devising a brilliant workaround, although that is not too shabby, either.

16.6.3 Common Sense

Leave the rocket science to NASA. Although it is nice to know that you can plug local area network (LAN) and analog connections into the same network switch, the "whys" surely do not matter. What does matter is having the common sense to ask whether the switch going down cripples your network, phone, and fax communications all at once, or what. The answer might surprise you and definitely could matter.

I encourage people to ask common sense questions in the face of complex technical or logistical issues. If you look back at the Big Thirteen interrogatory, I doubt there is one question a neophyte in technology or big projects could not ask. Sometimes I feel out of my depth, but I remind myself that if the answers to my simplistic questions fail to make sense, perhaps it is the answer, and not me, that is wanting. Persistence in follow-up questioning will solve this riddle.

Common sense, to me at least, is closely linked to problem solving skills. Have you ever sat in a project meeting when the team is trying to come up with a solution to a serious problem, and had to stifle exasperation over some of the ideas that get advanced, ideas that were impractical if not over the top? Testing interview candidates for the quality of common sense is not easy unless you go right after it. I find the hypothetical scenario best, and I usually ask how they handle projects where the technology is new to them. This will give you some insight into how close to the ground their feet truly are.

16.6.4 Maturity

It is all about learning from your mistakes and growing as a person and a professional. That implies a capacity for tolerance, self-examination, and humility. Given the current youth movement going on in the workplace, whence the more experienced, pricey employees are "taking the package," we cannot all be temperate and sagacious, but it would surely be helpful if someone was willing to assume the role of Project Adult. Getting everyone home safe and sound is far more important than getting an award for the accomplishment.

Maturity is not necessarily age-related, just as tenure does not ensure skill. I test for it in strangers by assessing how comfortable they appear to be in their own skin. Do they look you in the eye, are they self-effacing, is their humor pleasant, do they speak warmly of family or associates without prompting? Maturity is a quality that should not be inferred from sophistication in dress or speech.

16.6.5 Equanimity

True, this is but one sign of maturity. It is singled out because although it is understandable that I raise up on my hind legs in the heat of battle, might I consider it better to react to everyone else's stress by managing the chaos back toward harmony? If I cannot do that for myself, how do I propose to settle down the team ?

16.6.6 Tolerance

In the business world, tolerance is the ability to be even-handed when dealing with the diversity of people around us, even though we are more comfortable with, and appreciative or trusting of, some kinds of people over others. That is your business with after-work friendships, but shortsighted and self-limiting on the job. In the workplace, we must interact effectively with those we do not like, or possibly cannot understand, whether those differences stem from ethnicity, culture, lifestyle, or personality.

16.6.7 Self-Confidence

Can you look someone in the eye, give them bad news, and enlist their partnership in making the darkness go away? Can you tell your boss about a team triumph without dwelling on your personal contribution? Can you take your hunches seriously and act on them before they turn out to be true? ^[4] What self-confidence is about in our business, ultimately, is your willingness to pull the trigger the minute it is appropriate, based on decisions that others might find risky or presumptive.

Projects are special in that way, particularly when you compare them to the operational side of the IT world where quick, proactive decisions are hardly the norm. Implicit in this aggressiveness is, of course, the willingness to expose yourself to second-guessing, ridicule, or worse if you happen to be wrong. I have defended myself after such inglorious moments by reminding the kidders that if the job was that easy, then anyone could do it! Seriously, you need to do your homework, and trust the right people before going out on these limbs. On the other hand, lacking confidence wastes these assets that you undoubtedly worked hard to accumulate.

Self-confidence is critical for another reason. In Chapter 12, I carried on a bit about gaining team members' trust as a key to opening up honest and useful communications pathways. I also warned you that this could also lead to you getting buried under an avalanche of other peoples' problems. There is one more potential exposure with this open door policy that I failed to mention.

Being open and accessible leaves you vulnerable to manipulation, because you are relying on others to keep you enlightened. There is a subset of corporate citizenry who will use this as the opportunity to influence you for the purpose of their agendas, particularly in the realms of funding, assignments, and recognition. You must have enough self-confidence to not only recognize that which we do not care to perceive in others, but to get over the disappointment you naturally feel after discovering you have just been bamboozled. I used to get angry with this. Now, I make note of the offender and in the future handle them in a more circumspect manner than I would generally find necessary.

16.6.8 Energy Level

It is quite all right to need a cup of coffee in the morning before you can function effectively, just like a freight train needs time to rumble up to speed. Project managers need to be one step ahead of the pack, be eternally vigilant, and pounce at the right moment. You might find it interesting that many times the appropriate initial response to unhappy news is to project a calm and reassuring demeanor. That prevents others from panicking and buys you time until you can conjure up an attack of brilliance. Being alert and engaged is key to that, which, in turn, requires a fairly high energy level.

Some people, when assessing others in this regard, can mistake high anxiety as positive high energy. We all know this type: the "nervous Nellie" who is, in fact, about as productive as a dog chasing its own tail. The other trap you can fall into is to not give the more composed enough time to loosen up during an interview. If you chat with someone long enough, his guard will come down if he truly is full of it and raring to go. If the interviewee remains dispassionate for too long, however, that placidity might actually be a woodenness that is a desirable trait for a Buckingham Palace guard but not for a project manager.

16.6.9 Goal Orientation

We all run into managers who occupy a box on the organization chart without contributing all that much. Of course we want polish, good manners, excellent communications skills, and all that, but in the end, it is the desire to dive across the goal line with the ball in an outstretched hand, possibly having lost one's helmet in the process, that shows the passion for success that good project managers possess. A disdain for winning is wonderful for intimate relationships, but a bit troubling in our profession.

Having made a big deal about maturity, however, induces me to hedge a little. An apparent or professed thirst for winning at all costs is not necessarily an indication of goal orientation so much as it indicates a desire to win at all costs. The truth is that we must sometimes acknowledge and accept defeat, not as a habit or an expectation but as a concession to reality.

Effective business leadership has a give and take component to it. Sometimes we must partner with past, present, or future adversaries. Most people are uncomfortable doing this, so engaging potential adversaries is a skill people must cultivate. Having said all this leads me to the conclusion that seeking goals is not exactly the same thing as chasing victories, which can be Pyrrhic. Such was the case after World War I when the sanctions imposed on the losing Kaiser's Germany by the victorious Allies caused disastrous Teutonic financial ruin and patriotic resentment. Hitler's subsequent rise to power was fueled by his gruesome oath of vengeance for these humiliations, despite the repugnant goals he espoused and tragically achieved. I have never met a project manager of this ilk, thankfully; however, I have been associated with a few individuals who consistently ran roughshod over others - almost is if it were a sport.

16.6.10 Superman Factor

If you are interviewing prospective project managers or thinking about how to present yourself, it is wise to be on the alert for those statements that allege infallibility, invincibility, or omnipotence. The truth is that we imperfect human beings toil in an imperfect world. So it does not make sense to suggest otherwise or to be drawn to those who make such claims. I generally take them as an indication of insincerity and other traits too indelicate to mention in a professional book.

There is another piece to this. A dear friend of mine loves to talk about an interesting lesson she learned from her therapist when her long marriage sadly found its way into divorce court. She felt a lot of guilt over the break-up, despite the fact that most observers felt her soon to be ex-husband was demonstrably more culpable. Her therapist tried numerous ways to help free her from this misguided shame, but did not fare too well. Until one day, that is, when he challenged her by saying, "Well, then fix it!"

"Excuse me?" she responded.

"Sure, if you made it go wrong, then make it right!"

The point is that imperfect project results will result despite the best of intentions. All projects have bad moments and many underachieve, to say the least. Those of us who are conscientious take these as our own fault and resolve, "never again!" I am a big fan of self-examination, out-hustling the next person, and so on, but I need to get a life on this point myself.

There is no Superman, even though many of us should admit that we would like to be that powerful. In fact, none of us is Superman. Appreciable honesty, humility, and humor indicate that the possessor has a good handle on this. In contrast, the danger with the Superman complex is someone with that self-image can become obsessive and brutish. This type of person tends to manage projects in a way that no one wants to suffer his meetings, return his calls, or read his e-mails.

^[4]If hunches about good things really worked, we would all hang out at the racetrack.

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