1. Unit III Essay
Katrina M. Crandell
Jan Tucker, MBA 6931, Project Management Strategy and Tactics
June 23, 2015
Columbia Southern University

2. Project managers should have many characteristics to ensure success, while some of
those should be taught, others should be inherent. In this essay, I am going to discuss the
following characteristics: knowledge, performance and personal. Project managers have become
so important to today’s business society that corporations and organizations are modeling their
organizations after the project management to set goals for the whole organization. Project
managers are the leaders of the organizations who build their team members. Often
organizations are set up to be learning organizations so that project managers and team members
can learn from each project and the organization can also learn from each project.
Project managers are the main organizers of the project and also work with project
sponsors to build the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The Project Manager also selects the
team members that he would like on his team. The WBS offers the structure that the team
members need to organize and schedule the project. It also gives the budgetary guidelines for
each stage of the project and the built-in review stages at different stages of the project. The
Project Manager is an integral part of the process because he has been selected to lead the project
and works closely with the Project Sponsor. He sets up the WBS and makes sure that the project
meets the schedule and budgetary guidelines as prepared. He also leads conversations with
stakeholders and team members about the project and makes sure that all objectives are met. In
this day and age, the Project Manager is essential to that one project and to the organization as a
whole.
A project manager must possess these three characteristics if he is going to succeed at his
career and at his particular project which are: knowledge, performance and personal. By
personal, I would think that this would mean that the project manager is personable and not
aloof. That he is relatable as an individual and as a manager. Having knowledge, means that the

3. project manager has gained experience and education to manage the project, he has a certain skill
set along with inherent knowledge gained by experience. Performance, as a characteristic,
means that the project manager can perform and excel at his job and also motivate his team
members to do the same.
To build or excel at these key characteristics of knowledge, performance and personal,
one must constantly strive at excellence in all fields of studies. The PMP certification allows the
Project Manager to gain knowledge while maintaining his certification. He also gains
knowledge through experience of each project he is a part of. To excel at performance, I have
learned that one must set goals and the project that are obtainable. Just today, I read that the one
word that is used to excel or succeed at any goal, task, career move or personal goal, one must
persevere. I tend to agree with this statement, as I have had personal relationships where the
other person has persevered when I was finished with the relationship. As a merchandiser for a
high-end jewelry line in small-town America, I have met my highest sales goal to date by
perseverance as well.
At the job I most recently left, I left because I had outgrown the job, saw no advancement
and was being held back from the life I had started imaging for myself. The Project Manager or
our direct manager gave us very little positive feedback and the feedback we gained was
negative. She also would only feed us very little information on the actual details so we were
actually left second guessing what the project needed or what she needed in order for the project
to succeed. As a result of poor leadership, the office has lost valuable employees, four within the
last year. All of which excelled at their jobs and had more knowledge than any of the others
about what they did. To me, this gives me personal satisfaction that I made myself invaluable to

4. the organization but because of bad management, they lost someone who had knowledge,
performance and personality.
Working for the government, there were many people who managed our projects. I
worked very closely with a team leader who managed my area of expertise and who back up my
knowledge of project management to this day. Even though she managed the Post Preliminary
Process for all of the states, she never made you feel like your questions were too big or too
small not to get some kind of feedback. If you raised a concern or if she did, there was a
conversation and a professionalism to make sure that the projects you were working on
succeeded. She also had all the characteristics we have talked about which made her a success at
her business and her career.
To be a successful Project Manager, once must possess knowledge, be able to perform
their job excellently, and be personable. A project manager must possess some of these skills,
but as this person is a leader, some of the knowledge he or she must possess is inherent and
cannot be taught.