WHILE DELIVERING PROJECTS ON TIME, scope and budget are key parts of every project, success ultimately comes down to the right people doing the work.
It's the intangible qualities—interpersonal skills, communications and the like—that consistently rank as the strongest indicators of project success across organizations, industries and regions. According to the 2012 Workplace Issues Report by training firm Six Seconds, those who use emotional intelligence as a basis for leadership outperform their peers by 32 percent in leadership effectiveness and development.
“The project manager is the central hub of the project team, holding together team members from different groups, different organizations, with different goals and even different languages,” says Murray Duke, PMP, portfolio manager at insurance firm ING Life in Tokyo, Japan. “This is done through the project manager's people skills.”
But unlike technical skills that can be easily quantified, people skills often are more difficult to gauge, particularly during the hiring process. “During the interview, it's easier to find out if a project manager has good technical skills than to evaluate his or her soft skills,” says Eric Pepin, PMP, PgMP, human resources director at video game developer Ubisoft in Shanghai, China.
—Deborah H. Herting, PMP, The Deborah Group, Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA
For senior-level project leaders, program and portfolio managers, and project management office (PMO) directors charged with hiring project managers, knowing what to look for—and what not to look for—in the interview will help find the right people person.
WHAT TO TARGET
The people skills that helped a project manager flourish at one organization may be very different at his or her next stop. Before identifying which skills to target in an interview, you must first define the high-performing project manager for your particular organization.
“Take a close look at the organization and current projects underway,” Mr. Duke suggests. “Different projects will require a different set of people skills.”
An individual with strong cultural intelligence skills may be ideal for leading a project using virtual teams, for example, whereas a creative leader might be the right choice on a project with a tight timeline.
Once you know the skills you're targeting, you can identify the right questions to ask in the interview, says Deborah H. Herting, PMP, founder and CEO of The Deborah Group, a project and talent management advisory firm in Doylestown, Pennsylvania, USA. For example, “How did you address a challenging project where a problem needed to be solved quickly, and why?”
“The candidate's answer will lend visibility into their communication styles, behaviors and workplace values when faced with an issue out of the norm,” says Ms. Herting, author of The Power of Interpersonal Skills in Project Management.
Try these five questions in your next interview with a potential project professional to determine if he or she possesses the people skills you seek:
Can you describe a time when you devised an innovative approach to complete project deliverables? “You are looking for demonstrated behaviors in their responses—specifically, the competency demonstrated by the situation or task, the action that he or she took and the forthcoming results,” says Corey Sullivan, PMP, human resources business partner for technology company Riverbed Technology in San Francisco, California, USA.
If you could build a “perfect” project team, what would it look like? The answer: “There is no perfect team. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses,” Ms. Herting says. “It's important to have a project manager who can build a diverse team by using co-workers' strengths and partnering them with areas of weakness.”
How do you share a project's status with your team? The response gives insight into how the project manager communicates with his or her team, Mr. Pepin says. For example, which tools does he or she use? Does he or she do weekly status meetings with team members? How are project team members updated about progress?
How do you deal with two project team members who don't get along? This question helps identify if the candidate has dealt with this type of difficult situation and how it was handled, says Mr. Pepin. The story should demonstrate the person's maturity. Is the project manager capable of dealing with difficult people without losing focus on project deliverables?
If the canvas were blank and you could shape your position, what would it look like and why? Interpersonal skills such as teambuilding, communication and leadership are as crucial as executing the triple constraints of scope, schedule and budget. “The preferred response includes understanding that both art and science are important to achieve project and organizational objectives,” Ms. Herting says.
WHAT TO AVOID
Knowing what not to look for can narrow the search, too. “A red flag for me is when project managers are unable to explain a problem in a clear way,” says Mr. Pepin. “If they are not able to explain the problem, I wonder how they can communicate well with their team.”
Ms. Herting searches for warning signs of subpar communication skills by paying attention to body language, voice and tone. “Is a candidate articulating well, but also actively listening? Do they know their audience? Are they respectful and do they appear to try to connect with the interviewer?” she says.
Other warning signs include:
Does the candidate's previous experience indicate trouble working well with others? “Does the candidate speak disrespectfully of someone or a previous organization?” Ms. Herting says. If so, he or she is unlikely to earn the trust of team members and respect them in return. The candidate should appear to make an effort to connect with people and want to work collaboratively. At the same time, they shouldn't avoid making a decision when necessary.
Does the candidate shy away from conflict or immediately escalate problems to senior management? Ask candidates how they have handled a contentious team member; be wary if they passed the buck without tackling it first themselves. “This may be a red flag that a candidate is weak in people skills and relies too much on technical skills to deliver a project,” says Mr. Duke.
Does the candidate seem to manipulate circumstances in order to control an agenda? “Look for emotional versus resilient characteristics by asking scenario-based questions,” Ms. Herting says. For example, ask how a project challenge affected team dynamics. “Was the issue resolved and were people happy, or did tempers fly and were people blamed? What role did the project manager take in resolving the issue?” she says. Follow up with a question about the project manager's style: For example, does he or she resolve issues by gathering a consensus or make unilateral decisions?
Has the candidate missed deadlines? “A project may have been delivered late due to last-minute or incomplete communications by the project manager, and not because the technical skills were absent,” says Mr. Sullivan. “In most situations, a project manager must use his or her interpersonal skills to get team members to do things they wouldn't otherwise know to do.”
Once you find a well-rounded project manager with a balance of interpersonal and technical skills, you've likely spotted a good candidate for the job. After all, projects don't occur in isolation; they are delivered by teams. “Focusing on a candidate's technical skills and experience over attitude and people skills is a mistake that could haunt you and the project team for a long time,” Mr. Duke says. PM