Project management as a science and art is undergoing key transformations as a result of countless stories of failed projects, cost overruns, and canceling that project that took 2 years of your employee’s lives. These scenarios not only cost money, time, and lost opportunities, but also have a longer-term impact on the overall morale of a workforce.

Though there is no remedy to these inevitable outcomes, it’s important to look back on the cornerstones that define effective and success-prone project management.

Here are some key attributes of the Project Manager mentality:

1. A solid understanding and vigilant life-long learning the discipline, the science, and the arena of project management along with its key knowledge and practice areas.
2. The experience and understanding of being able to pick out the appropriate tools for improving implementation and the planning of the project.
3. Understand the dynamics of a team and serve as the glue that holds the members together.
4. The ability to incorporate the new methodologies effectively.
5. People, People, People! An aptitude for understanding how to communicate effectively with your team members as it relates to project changes, overall progress, and transcribing the overall vision for the project throughout its duration.

Overall the skills required to achieve the project manager mentality are:

• Being flexible
• Possessing strong oral/written communications
• The ability to think strategically and solve problems on your feet
• Team building and interpersonal skills
• A sense of accountability for yourself and your team members
• And finally, the technical credibility to lead the project in question.

Ultimately project management like most disciplines, requires just that-discipline. This discipline of mindset far outweighs any single tool, or management trend with a catchy name.