What are the most important qualities for a project manager? Patience? Intelligence? No doubt those certainly come into play, but according to research by ESI International, these are the seven most important personal qualities that a project manager should possess:

1. The ability to inspire a shared vision

Project leader or project manager? For most PM’s, they need to be a bit of both, and project leaders need to be able to harness a vision of where they want to go, as well as being able to inspire others to see that vision too. Visionary leaders help others to feel that they have a genuine stake in the project, and inspire commitment of a whole level more than would otherwise be achievable.

2. Excellent communication

Being a good communicator goes without saying. Needing to communicate with team members, Joe Public, stakeholders and senior management effectively takes a great all round communicator. Not only that, but in order to ensure effective communication, project managers need to be able to develop and stick to a well-defined communications plan too.

3. Integrity

Project managers need to realise that their own behaviour sets the tone for the behaviour of the team. Good leadership means they need to commit to and to demonstrate the ethical practices that they speak of. They need to walk the talk and earn the trust of their team by setting a good example.

4. Enthusiasm

Project teams need little balls of energy to inspire their action and motivation on a project. Having a negative project leader is going to bring down the entire team, so whether you feel like it or not it is important to enter the room with a spring in your step and a can-do attitude.

5. Empathy

Empathy and sympathy are not the same things. Sympathy is a self-indulgent process where we are more focused on our own feelings than really caring about those around us. Empathy is about realising, understanding and reacting to the pressures, issues or personal problems that others are experiencing. It is important as a project manager that we all recognise team members as individuals, and acknowledge that they have a life outside of work too.

6. Competence

Project managers not only need to know what they are doing, they also need to be able to give everyone else the confidence that they know what they are doing. This doesn’t mean that you need to be a technical expert in the industry in which you work, as the ability to seek advice and challenge current thinking is all part of the competency test. Remember, you are an expert in project management, and that’s what counts.

7. The ability to delegate

Of course, with the multiple pulls on a project managers time, it would be impossible to do everything yourself. Being able to effectively delegate to the right people and in the right amounts is all part and parcel of managing your people and resources. This means being able to trust in other people and their abilities, otherwise you will only end up micromanaging or simply doing all the work yourself.

As well as these seven qualities, ESI found that staying cool under pressure, having team building skills and problem solving skills were also important, and we would tend to agree that these are great ways to improve your project management skills. However, these seven were the most important qualities and should give you food for thought the next time you are in the hot seat; they could be your secret to successful project management.

Document management focuses on storing and organising documents that support ongoing active work, including content creation and exchange within the organisation. When organisations do not have a formal document management system, content is often created in a non-administrative and decentralised manner in distributed files and individual hard drives. This makes it difficult for staff to find, participate and collaborate effectively. This also makes it difficult for organisations to use valuable information and company data in content. Today Document management systems are provided in full package softwares as well as add on modules.

Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 supports document management needs in your organisation by providing a wide range of document management capabilities that enable you to:

Store, organise, and locate documents.

The Document Centre site template enables you to create multiple sites that are optimised by you according to your benefit for creating, using and storing large number of documents. It is ensured that only one user changes a document at a time which is also recorded to ensure transparency and reliability.

Ensure the consistency of documents.

When the team members go to the documentation center to create a new document, each type of content will appear as a choice on the new button in the document library. Each type has its own content, so all user manuals and product details share a simple format. For example, all user manuals have descriptive data that applies to models. Each type of content can also have its own workflow, so that the team may think each user follows the same feedback and approval processes. Because other product types exist in existence, these documents can follow different processes and contain different metadata required columns.

Manage metadata for documents.

One of the basic ways to find information saved on a web site or document management system is by browsing or searching the saved metadata (document attributes) along with files. However, employees in companies often do not take the time to add or update the document assets when saving them.

Help protect documents from unauthorised access or use.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 provides many ways for companies to save documents saved to the SharePoint site from unauthorised access or use. Information management management (IRM) can apply to a full document library to protect the entire set of documents. IRP allows you to limit the actions users take on files downloaded from SharePoint lists or libraries. IRM encrypts download files and limits the set of programs and programs that are allowed to decrypt these files. Restrict the rights of users who are allowed to read IRM files, so as not to copy the copies of the printing files or copying the text from them. IRM helps your organisation to implement corporate policies that control the control and scope of privacy or proprietary information.

Ensure consistent business processes (workflows) for how documents are handled.

Office SharePoint Server 2007 offers built-in offices to support simple document related business practices, and can be used to manage tasks such as documents review, approval and signature collection. The workflow is defined as the automated movement of documents or objects through the actions or activities of the business process. Workflow will help to manage executive business processes more effectively because they can automatically track and manage human activities in these processes.