The human factor is one of the most important elements for the development of a Project, since it is essential for its total achievement, so it is necessary to examine the skills that a Project Manager must have, from the development and adequate management of human resources.
The modern profile of the Project Manager must take into account this need, the same one that was not conceived with due importance in times past. A good Manager must develop certain skills that allow him to have a good relationship, both with his staff, and with external actors involved in the development of social, environmental and / or economic development projects.
Communication skills, understanding of other people's problems, affective and emotional participation in the environment, the ability to achieve a good performance of teamwork and synthesize from the experiences of others, are qualities that allow a Manager to achieve professional success and continue an outstanding activity.
These aspects mentioned above, as well as others that are necessary to achieve good Project Management, among which we can mention: teamwork, leadership, effective communication and negotiations, are developed in this work.
- goals
- To present in summary form the conceptual framework resulting from a process of reflection resulting from the successes and failures that I personally have had in 10 years of management, study and analysis of social, environmental and business development projects;
- Evaluate and present the importance of devalued "human factor" for the success or failure of projects, considering those variables that should be considered when suggesting possible "managers", "directors" and / or "coordinators" of projects;
- Generate a framework for reflection and feedback that allows consultants and project managers to evaluate what has been done and outline new positions to optimize their position regarding social, environmental and business development projects.
- E project, consultant and manager
- The project
There are many definitions of what a project means, however the one we consider to be the most appropriate is the one included in a translation of the Project Management Institute (PMI) Guide for Project Management, which is used by INCAE, more as a motto than as a concept, »Temporary effort undertaken to create a unique product or service» (PMI-UNI, year 2000, 16).
3.2 The Consultant and the Project Manager
The Consultant is a qualified and competent professional capable of objectively focusing all the data of a problem and being able to solve them adequately by applying technical, economic and human principles; He is an independent professional, without commercial, ideological ties and broad technical criteria.
The services provided by a consultant are basically specialized consulting, prevention studies, feasibility studies, definitive studies, works supervision, study supervision and project management. As a common denominator, it can be seen that the consultant will have to carry out a managerial task in which he will have to interact with personnel, both from his own company and from others. That is why one of the main tasks of the consultant is closely linked with project management, specifically with proper management of the human factor.
3.3 The human factor
Individuals and organizations are involved in the projects, which must be fully identified, as they can influence its results. This task is not usually easy, however, it could be said that they are generally: the Project Manager, the Client, the Executing Organization, the Project Team Members and the Sponsor. Likewise, suppliers, contractors, team members, government entities, the media and society as a whole can be cited.
In this context, achieving the success of a project has a lot to do with properly managing the expectations of those involved, which can be difficult because they may have different objectives and interests that could conflict.
To achieve this goal, there is information on how to deal with people in a context such as the one described above, some of the important issues being those of leading, communicating, negotiating, forming teams and dealing with conflicts.
These topics are directly related to guiding and directing people in projects, so the manager of a project must know it, since its success may depend on it.
3.4 Project management
Project Management implies achieving the objectives through the correct execution of processes, understanding as a process the series of actions that cause a result; Project Management processes can be organized into five groups: start, planning, execution, control and closure. For the management of a project, six basic elements should be considered:
- Project Management, which covers the activities related to the project in its different phases; Design, which considers what is related to the documents that make up the Technical File of the Project; Contracting, which consists of planning and preparing contractual documents; Operationalization or implementation, which is physical execution, administration of physical, human, logistical and financial resources; yInternal and external coordination.
Likewise, the person in charge of managing a project must bear in mind the following main areas during the development of the service:
Designability: the adequate and correct interpretation of the needs of the donor, cooperator or that entity that finances the environmental, social and / or business development project, must be described in graphic form and written in the Technical File, basically taking into account three aspects in its conception.
Constructibility: It should be reviewed, verified and coordinated so that a conceptual and operational design of the project is carried out taking into account the social, economic and environmental details; incorporating these aspects into the original design allows for a cost saving balance.
Contractibility: Carry out an economic optimization of the contractual aspects for contracting contractors, foreseeing a flexible formula in which the donor or financier has an adequate participation.
Management: Carry out management by services, verifying that the concepts of design, constructability and contractibility have been adequately introduced into the project. As can be seen, both in the processes in which the Project Management can be organized, as well as in the basic elements of a service that includes the management of a project and in the main areas that must be taken into account for its development,.
3.5 Abilities to optimize relationships with the human factor
Konosuke Matsushita said : "For me the ideal employee is someone who has a great capacity for personal development, someone who can grow not only within the job but also together with the same job."To paraphrase it, I would say: The ideal manager is someone who has a great capacity for personal development, someone who can grow and grow their staff, not only within their work but together with the same job. There are skills that basically favor personal development, among which we can mention emotional intelligence, empathy, confidence, proactivity, assertiveness and motivation. There are other skills that allow us to improve interaction with the people we work with. Therefore, it is necessary to know how to work as a team, be good leaders, carry out effective communication and know how to negotiate.
3.5.1 Emotional Intelligence
It is common to see how some people who have occupied the first places in their respective college promotions, do not perform what was expected of them in their work centers and have a mediocre life in the professional, family and social fields. On the other hand, people who did not excel at school, who did not have a high IQ, turn out to excel in their work, occupying important positions in the companies they work for.
In this regard, in research related to this topic, it was found that these people had a great capacity to act appropriately and faced adverse situations with satisfactory results. The responses of these people obeyed behaviors in which they handled their emotions: They did not give impulsive responses.
Communication skills, understanding of other people's problems, affective and emotional participation in the environment, the ability to achieve a good performance of teamwork and synthesize from the experiences of others, knowing how to ask and consult, are qualities that allow a person, despite not having a high, but if enough, IQ, to become a real winner.
These characteristics make up what has come to be called Emotional Intelligence, which are aptitudes that take into account the relationship between emotions and reason; mastery of feelings and the ability to express them; self-assessment; control of health and the family and social environment; the readiness for teamwork. A balance between the emotional and the intellectual is necessary for success.
3.5.2 Empathy and Trust
Empathy is the personal ability to establish positive, fast, authentic relationships and with great ease being able to put yourself in the situation of the other, tuning in to their feelings, so that it is possible to emotionally understand the person. Have the quality of relating positively and productively with others.
Whoever develops empathy may not need others to verbally communicate their feelings; You can tell by the tone of voice, face expression, gestures, body posture or gaze, your feelings and personal moment.
In a relationship between two or more people, there is a factor that is very important for it to work, trust. Without it it is difficult to maintain a good relationship since it is the basis for achieving it. A person who builds trust is a person in whom people believe and must be willing to answer all queries that are made. It must be taken into account that trust has a personal component: self-confidence. Based on it, it is possible to assume and face challenges with the certainty of being able to meet them.
3.5.3 Proactivity
When a person contributes and goes ahead to improve the results with his effort, his work, his attitudes, his scale of values, his actions, he is said to be a proactive person. If there is something that differentiates the proactive person it is that she decides about her own life, she chooses instead of feeling obligated, she determines her behavior and she does not let others or circumstances determine her, she does not look for guilty or justifies herself
The human being has a space to decide, a space of freedom because he is the only living being that has four fundamental characteristics: self-awareness, creative imagination, moral awareness and independent will. It is these characteristics that make the person determine her own actions and can take responsibility for herself.
A nontrivial aspect is that of our affective and emotional world. Proactivity not only recognizes feelings but also channels them appropriately to achieve the goals set. The proactive person moves fundamentally by values, not by feelings, not by people, and even less by circumstances. It is concerned with contributing so that the results are increasingly better, not only in one of the areas of her life but in all, contributing at all times, in any circumstance and with all people.
3.5.4 Assertiveness
Assertiveness is known as the ability to express our thoughts, feelings, emotions, ideas, opinions or beliefs to others, in an effective and comfortable way that does not alter or affect our relationship. It is the ability to be timely in our expressions.
However, it is not easy to become assertive; Studies on the subject indicate that the evidence shows that there is no correspondence between knowledge of what to do and what is actually done in a situation that requires assertiveness.
As Aristotle quotes in Nicomachean Ethics: »Anyone can be furious, that is easy, but being furious with the right person, at the right time, for the right reason and in the right way… that is not easy» (Year 2001, Book Eighth); phrase that still has validity and is currently used to focus on the issue of assertiveness, being very useful in solving social conflicts.
3.5.5 The Motivation
Motivation is considered as the engine for action. It is characterized by putting the person in a predisposition to act, to do something. Motivation is a state that provides energy to the body to carry out an action and achieve the set goal. When a person wants to get something and is really motivated, he prepares to act and carry out what is necessary to achieve it.
We can delimit two great fields, according to how the goals are centered: When the person presents a greater interest in acquiring knowledge and developing what he has (intrinsic motivation); and, when the interest is focused on the compliments that are obtained as a result of learning (extrinsic motivation).
In intrinsic motivation there are three basic components:
- Self-determination, which comes to be the personal feeling of being yourself responsible for your actions, The feeling of competence, which is the idea you have of your own ability or competence to learn and perform a task; yThe feeling of satisfaction, which is the consequence of carrying out a certain action by oneself, in which one learns and feels competent.
3.5.6 Teamwork
The man participates in activities with other people or groups of people, being his first participation with his family group, to later form other groups to play, learn, work; from birth it is integrated into a system of coexistence, be it through family, cultural, religious, social, political or other ties.
However, it is very common to confuse a group with a team, so it is necessary to note the difference between the two: a group is a group of people who have common characteristics and come together to interact with each other; while a team is a group in which people have complementary skills, they are committed to a common goal, with clearly defined goals and a way of working and acting for which they feel responsible.
Something important for a team is synergy, that is, the team's achievement is greater than the sum of the achievement of individual efforts, since differences are valued and diversity is appreciated. Likewise, it is necessary that there are norms, which come to be the set of rules of conduct initially agreed by the members, for the conduct of work meetings, in order to achieve efficiency and effectiveness.
3.5.7 Leadership
When people who understand a leader are asked, many answers flow, such as a nice, charismatic, committed, trustworthy, risky, sociable, credible, confident person, with knowledge of a certain topic, and other adjectives. We could define the leader as "that person whom we would follow to a place where we would not go alone." Definition that shows the importance of trust and credibility in the leader: I trust and believe in him.
Relationships of trust are built with ethical behavior, with which it is possible to influence others and inspire the desire to be followed. That is why the leader must be focused on principles, striving to keep and fulfill his commitments. People admire and tend to follow those who show integrity and are able to remain true to their core values and principles.
Principles are natural truths that exist and do not need to be recognized by human beings for their validity or existence to be demonstrated. Honesty, fairness, liberty, honor, loyalty, responsibility and dignity are examples of principles. People assume some of these principles to base their behavior, so these principles become values, with meaning for that person, constantly nurturing them to finally turn them into their personal values.
3.5.8 Effective Communication
Communication basically involves exchange of information and understanding between two people. It is in two directions, the sender being responsible for making the information clear, unambiguous, concise and complete, so that the receiver can receive it correctly. The recipient is responsible for ensuring that the information is received in its entirety and is understood correctly.
Regardless of the medium used for communication, there are eight steps to communicate: development of an idea by the sender; encoding the message into symbols suitable for transmission; transmission through certain channels; receiving the message; decrypted, making the message understandable; partial or total acceptance or rejection of the message; use that the receiver gives to the information; and feedback, which completes the communication circuit.
It should be borne in mind that there are interferences capable of limiting the understanding of the messages, acting as barriers that can cancel, filter and exclude a part of the communication, or even give it an incorrect meaning.
These barriers can be:
- Personal: which are interferences coming from emotions, values and bad listening habits; Physical: that are interferences that are present in the environment where communication takes place; and Semantics: that arise from the limitations of the symbols through which we communicate.
3.5.9 The Negotiations
Negotiation is the process of reaching an agreement with those involved in a project regarding aspects inherent to it. It is a persuasive process and one of the skills necessary for the success of a project. Project managers negotiate with clients, contractors, suppliers, other managers, professionals, and team members, on issues such as client needs, design, budget, execution, each other's responsibilities technical, administrative or management issues.
In a negotiation process it is important to identify the objectives, for this you must have a strategy focused on the interests of the parties, addressing difficult problems and trying to obtain approaches that generate mutual benefit. Also, one must prepare for the negotiation and learn from each negotiation carried out; It is necessary to develop skills for managing cultural aspects, such as beliefs, religion, language, education or politics, since these influence the negotiation strategy.
In a negotiation for mutual satisfaction, that is, in the style of joint problem solving, we must:
- explain in moderation and admit that it is possible to be wrong, try to see the problem from the other party's point of view, listening with empathy and avoiding absolute terms in the answers; and, harmonize or reconcile needs.
- 6 Values
The values come to be the principles or guidelines that serve as guidelines to establish the behavior and lifestyle of people. We will deal with ethics and honesty, however, it is worth mentioning that professionalism is also included as a value, which formally may not be, but it is necessary for the behavior and way of acting that a manager should have.
3.6.1 Ethics
Ethics is the part of philosophy that deals with the morality and obligations of man, understanding as moral science that teaches the rules that must be followed to do good and avoid evil, with good being the supreme value of moral. The idea of good must govern our actions.
It is usually related to ethics with religion, however in Emotional Health, the famous intellectual Daniel Goleman quotes the Dalai Lama noting: “… a relatively small number of people have a religious faith that offers them an ethical basis for living. My main concern is to promote genuine human qualities among people, as the most effective method, without requiring a religious connotation. " (1997)
It is important, then, to have certain rules and moral guidelines that serve as a pattern of conduct, regardless of the religious beliefs that one has, so that these can be followed by the majority.
But something very important that we must take into account is that engineers receive the social expectation, and therefore we have the responsibility, to offer security in our projects, to take care of life and health, as well as to take care of the well-being of the society. Likewise, we must take care of the environment where we live, avoiding causing damage to nature, a source of resources for development. An ethical procedure, then, will be not only to act with decency and honesty, but it must also be a procedure that is derived from an action directed to fulfill that social expectation.
- The honesty
Honesty is generally assumed only from an ethical or moral perspective and one comes to think that it is a subject reserved for philosophical reflection. It even carries a religious connotation, as if honesty could only be expected from someone who professes a religion. Another way to see honesty is by relating it to the truth; For most, being honest can consist of not missing the truth, not lying.
From the point of view of human development, we must recognize the importance of honesty, with oneself and with others. By being honest with oneself, one manages to be recognized but the sensation of not being as one wants to be can be and feel with an external pressure that ends up giving up your own personal identity.
To be honest is to bring out the best in yourself, under any circumstances, before anyone. Know how to recognize affections and feelings, whether or not they are pleasant, without wanting to hide or overlap them. Being honest with yourself means not deceiving yourself and being distracted by excuses and justifications.
On the other hand, being honest with others is not always easy, since it means confronting them acting and speaking honestly, which gives a level of trust in interpersonal relationships. It is important to maintain a commitment to be honest, both privately and in public. Mainly in privacy, since she is the basis to be honest with others.
It should be noted that honesty is not something that is inherited, it is something that is acquired with practice. It is a lifestyle that one freely chooses. It is not a matter of liking or disliking. It is simply a personal decision.
- Professionalism
Profession is understood as the employment or work carried out by a person that usually requires theoretical studies. It is also the set of interests of the community of people who exercise the same trade. Profession is also understood as the action and effect of professing, understood as professing, exercising an art or science, or teaching it.
In this sense, professionalism must be intimately linked to the theoretical studies of the professional and to the common interests of the group of professionals, these being the people who exercise an art or science, or teach it, and it is both a job or a job. According to Grenwood, quoted in The Ethical Engineering of H. Gallegos (Year 1999, 49), some of the attributes of a profession are:
- Be of vital importance to society, by meeting essential needs; Act on a high intellectual plane; Possess sophisticated skills, not routine or standardizable or mechanizable; Be independent and autonomous; Perform with judgment; Act within the framework of discretion and confidentiality.
It should be noted that a professional must be permanently updating their knowledge; In addition, you must analyze what your weaknesses and strengths are, in order to know what areas of improvement you should reinforce and what opportunities you can take advantage of. This is basic to the professional's practice and must be inherent in professionalism.
- Modern project manager profile
As it has been seen during the development of this work, the Project Manager should not only have knowledge of his profession, organization, administration, finances, marketing and planning. You should also have knowledge of other areas as you will be directing staff. For this reason, you must know how to work as a team, what work meetings should be like and what are the meetings that are usually handled, how to be a leader, how to carry out effective communication, how to negotiate.
Likewise, a Project Manager must have a great capacity for personal development, someone who can grow and grow his staff. For this reason it is important that you have skills that promote personal development, among which we can mention emotional intelligence, empathy, confidence, proactivity, assertiveness and motivation. These are skills that are learned and developed.
- Conclusions
Among the main conclusions that can be reached in this data sheet, we can mention:
- Man is by nature an eminently social being who requires his environment to achieve comprehensive development. Being this basically social environment, it is necessary that you develop skills that allow you to have satisfactory and effective interpersonal relationships. Taking into account that the success of a project depends on the people in charge of the conception, development, execution and completion, the Manager depends directly on Your relationship with them. Professionals are usually not aware of many of the skills that seek to optimize relationships with human resources, therefore, they do not practice them, thus losing the opportunity to gain a competitive advantage with their use. skills mentioned in this work can be learned,and since training is a fundamental instrument for this, it is necessary to encourage participation in courses and workshops in which not only the theory is developed, but also the exchange of experiences and the application of specific cases of these skills, improving the quality life of the people who know and use them.The success of a project, and as a consequence of its Manager, lies in the balance between quantitative aspects (techniques, tools, methodology and standards) and qualitative aspects (adequate relationships, effective communication, empathy and emotional intelligence); Knowing how to manage using these aspects will facilitate the success of those who practice them. The Project Manager must be a professional with a great capacity for teamwork to take advantage of their synergy,valuing the differences and managing diversity properly. The Project Manager who knows negotiation techniques, has an advantage compared to those who do not know them, since he will finally manage to reach agreements that favor the project he is managing. It is important recognize how relevant it is for a Manager to become a good leader, who transmits confidence, who knows how to motivate his staff, who uses his creativity and adapts to changes, who has a great capacity for personal development, who can grow and grow your staff, without forgetting the importance of values such as ethics and honesty; always acting with professionalism and dedication to service, taking into account the great challenge it has for society.The Project Manager who knows the negotiation techniques, manages to have an advantage compared to those who do not know them, since he will finally manage to reach agreements that favor the project he is managing. It is important to recognize how relevant it is for a Manager to reach to be a good leader, who transmits confidence, who knows how to motivate his staff, who uses his creativity and adapts to changes, who has a great capacity for personal development, who can grow and grow his staff, without forgetting the importance of values such as ethics and honesty; always acting with professionalism and dedication to service, taking into account the great challenge it has for society.The Project Manager who knows the negotiation techniques, manages to have an advantage compared to those who do not know them, since he will finally manage to reach agreements that favor the project he is managing. It is important to recognize how relevant it is for a Manager to reach to be a good leader, who transmits confidence, who knows how to motivate his staff, who uses his creativity and adapts to changes, who has a great capacity for personal development, who can grow and grow his staff, without forgetting the importance of values such as ethics and honesty; always acting with professionalism and dedication to service, taking into account the great challenge it has for society.Since he will finally manage to reach agreements that favor the project he is managing, it is important to recognize how relevant it is for a Manager to become a good leader, who transmits confidence, who knows how to motivate his staff, who uses his creativity and adapt to changes, have a great capacity for personal development, that can grow and grow your staff, without forgetting the importance of values such as ethics and honesty; always acting with professionalism and dedication to service, taking into account the great challenge it has for society.Since he will finally manage to reach agreements that favor the project he is managing, it is important to recognize how relevant it is for a Manager to become a good leader, who transmits confidence, who knows how to motivate his staff, who uses his creativity and adapt to changes, have a great capacity for personal development, that can grow and grow your staff, without forgetting the importance of values such as ethics and honesty; always acting with professionalism and dedication to service, taking into account the great challenge it has for society.that you use your creativity and adapt to changes, that you have a great capacity for personal development, that you can grow and make your staff grow, without forgetting the importance of values such as ethics and honesty; always acting with professionalism and dedication to service, taking into account the great challenge it has for society.that you use your creativity and adapt to changes, that you have a great capacity for personal development, that you can grow and make your staff grow, without forgetting the importance of values such as ethics and honesty; always acting with professionalism and dedication to service, taking into account the great challenge it has for society.
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