Maintain calm in the face of chaos. Readers who work or have worked in managed environments are all too aware that a trickle-down effect occurs. If a manager is uptight, upset, negative, emotionally labile, hypercritical, or unreasonable in any other way, members of the team will often pick up on those traits. A successful project manager maintains his or her calm, is professional, communicative, and stands firm with kindness and grace. Motivate through acknowledgment rather than through threats or inducement of fear.
Management is an art that demands professionalism.
Managers who use fear or threats to motivate teams create unhappy work environments and cause undue upset for the individuals with whom they work. I had a team manager at Microsoft who used to threaten to take our contracts away if we didn't perform. A good project manager is honest about problems, but equally honest about successes, and gives credit for the contributions of every team member. We're all aware that Web development is a challenging profession. Every day we must learn new methods of approaching problems, incorporate new technologies and standards, and balance a wide range of concerns with style.