Have you ever wonder what does a Project Manager do? What are their responsibilities and what it takes to become a project manager. Then you have come to the right place. In this post I will cover in detail all your questions. I encourage you to watch the youtube video that I put together on this topic.

1. The roles and responsibilities of a Project Manager. 
2. The Day to Day activities for a PM
3. What does the organization expect from you as a PM and how can you excel in this career. 

So that by end of this video you have a clear understanding of the roles and responsibilites of a PM and the skills one must develop to manage a project or program.
PM’s are like the bird that show you way out of the forest, think of PM as the one who has hte vision and asume that you and your project team is walking through the forest, as a PM you have the vision of how to get out of the forest and the team members only see the tree , they swerve around one tree at a time but as a PM you guide them through the forest to get out. 
Roles and Responsibilities

• You are a leader, you provide the vision to the team. You dont have authority or control over the team to have them work for you, but you have to make them feel to work with you to get the project completed
• You are the facilitator – you as a PM may not know the in and out of the smaller details of the project, but that’s why you have subject matter experts. So you ensure that you ask the right questions, connect the gaps help complete the project
• You as a PM help organize things. People talk in the meeting and they will forget or they will get bombarded with other tasks so as a PM you document what was discussed, what were the action items and who has it and then follow up on those action to ensure completion. 

So what does a PM Do?

• Planning, Forecasting, Identify project Risks and Issues and keep a close eye on those. 
  
• Maintain the action log, risk and Issue logs
• Constantly follow up with team members inside and outside of project team
• Manage resources and Resource constraints with fair negotiations. 

As a PM you have to wear multiple hats 

1. Procurement – Need to understand legal, contract terms, rates, 
2. Finance – You are responsible for the Project budget, so need to understand hte finance workflow with regards to how the Invoice comes in , accruals, good receipt 
3. Presenter – You are often asked to present at the executive level or in the steering committee, So you need to be good with your presentation skills. 
4. Escalation 
5. Support your project team when things go wrong
6. You are responsible and accountable for the project success and failure 
7. Build relationship with multiple team within your organization

Key Skills that will help you excel in this career

1. Analytical Skill
2. Problem Solving Skill / Root Cause Analysis
3. Intregueness 
4. Working under pressure and stay calm
5. Commanding power 

Not everyone will have all these skills, but you can develop and practice those skills to bring in to your day to day job and that will definitely help you to grow as a PM.
These are my thoughts based on my experience managing projects, I would like to hear your perspective. Do you agree about the items I talked, are there other critical items that you do that I may have missed, let me know in the comments section below.