Large projects require more than one hand at the helm in order to be successful. While you might head up the project as THE project manager, chances are good that you’re going to have one or more junior project managers working beneath you. Those junior PMs are more than just important assets; they can become valuable allies down the road. It’s in your best interests (and the best interests of your project) to ensure that you’re able to guide them through growth. What should you know?
Round Out Their Experience
One of the most important things you can do for your junior PMs is to ensure that you help them round out their experience. For instance, if one of your junior PMs has plenty of experience in other areas but is lacking in the realm of business operations, take the steps necessary to ensure that he or she is able to develop the necessary familiarity. Partner them with a business analyst, or team them up with another junior manager who understands the language of business. Do this for your junior project managers and you’ll find that they quickly develop stronger skills and greater confidence.
Invest in Ongoing Training
Another vital thing you can do for junior PMs is to invest in ongoing training for them. While they might have gone through basic PM training and earned their certificate, that’s often not enough for them to begin climbing the ladder toward the senior PM position. Company-specific training, management training, team management training and numerous other options exist. Sit down with the junior PM and determine what their weakest areas are. From that point, you can determine what ongoing training will be necessary.
Personal Help
If you find that one of your more promising junior project managers needs a more personal touch with training and growth, don’t be afraid to take them under your wing. This works well for developing protégés, but it can also be used to help those who you need in other areas of the project. Let them be your shadow. Explain management tips, techniques, tools and systems to them. Show them how your specific PM software works and what its abilities and limitations are.
Foster Ownership
In order for any project manager to be successful, there has to be a sense of ownership. You (or the junior PM in question) need to feel that it is YOUR project. That implies accountability for mishaps and problems, but it also implies developing an entrepreneurial mindset. Entrepreneurs don’t fall back and assume that someone else will take care of a problem. They solve it. They don’t pawn responsibilities off on others. They do them. Fostering an entrepreneurial mindset in your junior project managers can have profound benefits down the road.
With the right care and the right steps, you can begin turning your junior project managers into potential senior management candidates. It only takes a little time and a helping hand, and you’ll see your projects succeed, and watch as those you’ve trained go on to achieve things on their own.

Ensuring that you have the right skillset and tools is an essential step to becoming the consummate project manager. No matter what industry you work in and regardless of the scope of your project, having the right skills will allow you to lead your team to success. Here’s a brief overview of the skills you’re going to find the most valuable. Cultivating them now can save you time, headaches and failures down the road.
The Ability to Lead
As a leader, you have to have the ability to lead. Leadership skills aren’t inborn, they’re learned, which is good news for those who find they aren’t natural leaders. Leadership requires several different things, including accountability on your part. You also have to be recognized as the leader, which requires more than just holding a PM position. Your team needs to know that you have the knowledge and experience required to successfully guide the project, answer their questions, anticipate problems and conclude the project.
Communication Skills
There are few skills you’ll find more in demand as a project manager than communication skills. You must be able to communicate with a wide range of individuals, from team members to stakeholders within client organizations to your own management. What’s more, your communication has to be accurate, timely and direct. You will need to have the right communication tools to help, as well. Email, instant messaging, project management software and even smartphone/tablet apps can help. Communicate successfully throughout your project, and you’ll find you’re much more successful and that problems are not as insurmountable as they would otherwise be.
Solving Problems
While your team should handle many problems on their own, there will be many instances where you’re called upon to solve an issue. Having strong problem-solving skills is essential for project managers. That means you need to be able to analyze a problem, determine what’s going on and what elements are involved, and then plot a course that gets around the issue. Being able to develop alternative solutions that still move the project forward and align with the organization’s goals is also an important part of this.
Organization
If you’re not organized, you’ll find that leading a project to a successful conclusion is an uphill battle. Keeping track of myriad documents, sorting and passing along essential information, tracking project progress towards task and milestone completion and maintain a schedule are only a few of the things that you’ll have to do. As with communication, the right tools and software will help here. Collaborative software, programs designed to help you track and store documents and many other helpful options are available for those who aren’t natural organizers.
By cultivating these skills and ensuring that you have the right tools at hand throughout the course of your project, you will not only see better success in your immediate project, but be able to be more successful in the future as well. Becoming the consummate project manager requires skills, but you’ll find help, tools and training available.