What Skills and Qualities are Needed to be a Building Project Manager?

In construction, one of the most important roles is that of a project manager. Building is something that can be stressful and challenging, and a lot of organisations are required to make sure that everything goes well with it.

A project manager is an important piece in the jigsaw when it comes to ensuring the smooth running of the project – from speaking to machinery suppliers like this cotswold-machinery-sales.co.uk/euromac-bending-machines/horizontal-bending-machines/ for Euromac bending machines, to ensuring that the deadlines are being met for certain parts of the project. An essential skill of a project manager is good communication, as there are many people throughout the building project that they will need to be liaising with to ensure that the work is done, and so that they can pull together the many parts of the building work. Doing this properly means that the clients are satisfied with the end result.

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Problem solving and decision making are other skills that are an essential part of being a good project manager. As much as we would like things to go well all the time, inevitably there are many things that can go wrong with building, such as supplier issues (something that we have seen a lot of due to supply chain disruptions and lockdowns affecting manufacturing). This means that being able to think quickly and clearly and make the right decisions in order to solve these problems is incredibly important for a project manager. Being able to keep a cool head is all part of the job!

It is also something that is important from a safety perspective. A building site can be a dangerous place and needs to be well supervised and managed to reduce the risks of accidents. There are high platforms, lots of dangerous machinery and equipment, as well as vehicles moving around, so good organisation from a project manager is not only important for the success of the building itself, but also for the safety of the people who are working on it.

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Project managers also need to be aware of the costs and the financial side of the building work. Being able to keep to the budget is very important, and delays and hiccups can cost money as well as time.