The Top Habits of Successful Project Managers

Good morning, everybody. Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper.

When we started this series a couple of years ago now, really had a focus on project managers and superintendents, how 
they could do their job better. So going back to the past a little bit, I wanted to sort of think about and refresh on the top 
habits of successful project managers. And I've had the opportunity now in 20 years of being outside and inside the 
construction industry to see a lot of folks and hear a lot about how they achieve their success. So, I'm going to today focus 
on just five top habits of some of the best project managers that I've had the opportunity to witness.

So, first habit of top project managers is they know their job. All right? They know their job inside and out. And what I've 
always heard from the top folks, they say the first thing they do when they get a job is they take it off again. All right? Oh. 
So, the estimating department or the pre-con department did their takeoffs and all of that. What the top project managers 
almost all did to a person is they took that set of plans and they approached it by scratch. I've also noticed that those top 
folks use a lot of colored highlighters and they'd be highlighting a lot in the plans and in the specs and all of that and in
the contract. They would be highlighting all of these things as they took it off again and learned the job really from the 
basics, as opposed to just hearing from it from the estimating team and then trying to take it from there. So, first habit of 
the top EMs, know their job, and most of them do that by taking it off again and going through all of that detail.

The second thing I've noticed about great project managers is they're organized. And not only are they organized, they're 
organized in order to prioritize. All right? I've had a lot of folks complain to me lately, a lot of top leaders, that many of 
their project managers don't know what a priority is or don't know how to prioritize. So, they end up doing the wrong 
things, doing the wrong things first. Well, top project managers are organized to prioritize. They keep lists. They prioritize 
those lists. They check off the most important things first and then get to the things that are less important. One of the 
great quotes I remember from the past was, "Never let the most important be at the mercy of the least important." So 
top project managers are organized. They get organized in order to prioritize.

Number three, top project managers don't assume. Assuming gets you into trouble. Many of you probably know the saying 
around assuming. We won't go there. But if you don't assume, what does that mean? That means you ask. You ask the 
questions. You investigate. All right? Top project managers ask, investigate. They document. They inform. Sometimes the 
information that they have to inform folks with might not be pleasant. It might even be a little bit of conflict involved 
there. So, you have to make sure you inform in a nice manner so that folks aren't taken aback, and you create other 
problems. They also don't assume in the sense that they cover their tracks. They document what's going on. So, there's 
not a problem later. We don't assume that the owner's going to be okay with these delays just because they didn't make 
a big deal out of them. We make sure the reason for those delays is documented and that folks are informed, so that in 
the end, if it comes down to what's in the contract, we have the ammunition to take care of what's in the contract. So 
good project managers don't assume. All right?

Great project managers are not the lone wolf. All right? What do I mean by that? The lone wolf, maybe the person that 
thinks they know it all. They don't want to ask other people for advice and questions. They don't necessarily want to 
collaborate. They want to be the smartest person in the room. Well, trying to be the smartest person in the room is 
probably the quickest way to be the next unemployed person in the room. All right? That is not the way to get the best 
results in today's world. So don't be the lone wolf. Learn how to ask questions, collaborate, get the best information from 
the folks who have it, bring people together as a team, and you'll have a lot more success.

The next thing and the final one about the top habits of project managers is they get personal. All right. What do I mean 
about getting personal? Well, the opposite of the top project managers, some of them hide behind their computers and 
their phones and they manage solely by text and email. Well, unfortunately, while that may be important, we talked about 
documenting, informed and all of those things, that's important, but they don't neglect the personal side. They get on the 
phone. They talk to folks. They recognize where there's potential conflict and they work through it on a personal basis. 
Again, we talked about collaboration. They establish trust. They establish friends, so that when they need advice or they 
need collaboration or they need cooperation, they can get that. So, the top project managers definitely are personal. They 
use relationships to their advantage. They know how to communicate with people. And while they do document and do 
all of that stuff, the personal really matters much more.

So, five top habits, quick reminder. Know the job. Be organized to prioritize. Don't assume. Document. Don't be a lone 
wolf. It's a team game out there. And number five and most importantly, remember the personal side. It takes 
relationships and people to get things accomplished.

Dennis Engelbrecht, Digging Deeper.