What defines the best project managers?

First of all best PM consistently deliver, on time and within budget, projects.
Second of all those projects meet and exceed stakeholders? expectations.

As we know communication is a manager?s primary tool. Best PMs understand that leadership and people skill are even more important to good project management than a ?sound methodology? and ?project tracking tools?. It is very important to get the people side of project management, otherwise it doesn?t matter how good your methodology or your tools are.

Analyzing best project managers we came up with 6 soft skills that are necessary to become a top PM:

1. Be able to foresight. Good project managers are able to anticipate and head off problems that can jeopardize deadlines, budgets and user acceptance.

2. Be organized. That means to stay focused on the big picture and prioritize competing responsibilities/ tasks. Critical aspect of what a project manager has to do is being able to prioritize work for the team.

3. Be a leader. Project managers have to interact with and influence a variety of stakeholders including their project teams and project sponsor. Since many project team members don?t report directly to the project manager, the PM has to find ways to motivate workers over whom they have no direct influence. It is also critical to be able to inspire the confidence of stakeholders and sponsors in the event the budget or timeline needs to be renegotiated or additional resources are needed to complete the project.

4. Be a good communicator. Effectively use e-mail, meetings and status reports to communicate ideas, get decisions made and resolve problems. Very important to have productive meetings with clear objectives stated up front instead ?information only? sessions.

5. Be pragmatic. Sometimes project managers can be too analytical, analyze things to the death before move ahead. Good project manager focus on results and getting work done with resources available to them.

6. Be empathetic. Crucial factor in project success is to understand what motivates stakeholders. As project managers rely on others to be successful they need to learn stakeholders? concerns about a project. Take those concerns seriously and address them.