Evaluating Project Managers: How Can We Measure Their People Management Skills?

Hi, I would like to know a few evaluation parameters to judge if project managers are good people managers. Delivery managers are usually concerned about meeting deadlines and often lose focus on people management and employee engagement. We are trying to devise parameters that can evaluate these line managers as future people managers. Does anyone have any views on this?

Regards,
Nchalil

You can get feedback from the project team itself. The personality parameters for a leader are the same whether it's HR, projects, or any other field, apart from the specialized skills of the domain. How well did he complete his tasks? How many people have left his team? How is the team morale? ...etc., etc. I myself was a project coordinator before I was offered an HR role.

Feedback on Evaluation Parameters

When someone asks for apples, one must not give them oranges instead!

Any manager cannot accomplish things without a team. During the interview, you can ask them about their team size and how many of them were reporting to the person, through which you can determine the minimum requirement of team management. During the discussion, if the person talks more about the team, they should be a good people manager.

Regards,
Sreekumar N Chennai.

There is no need to change a project manager to a people manager. If you are talking about task orientation and people orientation, a manager needs the appropriate mix of both. Being high on either of these orientations has flip sides. He or she must be able to change the leadership style based on follower readiness (refer to the SITLEAD model). You may try tools like workplacebig5 to evaluate where your managers stand right now. Before administering the tool, you should define the preferred level of competency for the identified role. For example, a manager for a retail outlet has to be high on detail orientation and relatively good on people orientation as well. A negotiator should be high on detail orientation and low on people orientation.

If you can successfully define the preferred competency levels for identified roles, then you can evaluate candidates using a profiling tool. Good luck :)

Hi,

Few things you can focus on are:

1. Building and Enabling Trust
2. Understanding the importance of growth of reportees
3. Assertive Communication Skills

Depending on what projects your managers are working on, you first have to decide what mix of people skills and production orientation they should have. Then organize training (short and numerous workshops) to impart the required skills.

I am currently working on a similar project with a lot of success. Do contact me if you want to discuss this in detail.