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The day may have 24 hours of equivalent length but author Laura Vanderkam says not every hour is created equal. Drawing on her own research, surveys of executives, and the latest science on willpower for her forthcoming ebook What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast, Vanderkam argues that making smart use of the early morning is a practice most highly successful people share.

From former Pepsi CEO Steve Reinemund's 5 a.m. treadmill sessions, to author Gretchen Rubin's 6 a.m.

Being a successful project manager takes an investment in your own skills and a dedication to getting the job done, but there are other qualities you must have in order to have a stellar career as a project manager. One of the leaders in Project Management training, ESI International, conducted a poll of industry leaders in project managementto ask them what qualities they look for in an effective project manager. Here are some of the responses.

Clear Vision

A successful project manager must be able to have a clear vision of how they want a project to proceed.

The Project Management Institute defines project management as "the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements" . To sum up, project management is all about making the project happen. It is a discipline of initiating, planning, executing, and managing resources with the goal of completing specific deliverables within budget and time.

A successful project manager is one who can envision the entire project from start to finish, and have the prowess to realize this vision.

The best project managers are those who consistently deliver, on time and within budget, projects that meet or exceed stakeholders' expectations. Those project managers understand that leadership and people skills are even more important to good project management than a sound methodology and project tracking tools, says Fumi Kondo, managing director of Intellilink, a management consulting and training company that specializes in technology implementations.

"The more experienced project managers understand that if you don't get the people side of project management, it doesn't matter how

If you're having trouble with your boss during these tough times, the deepest postwar recession to date, you're not alone. Let's face it - with unemployment hovering at 9.5 percent, even angelic bosses can be jumpy at best, as they must invariably be pondering their own fate.

The problem is when jumpy turns into angry, stubborn or impatient - and you're in the line of fire. You want to stand your ground, but you really like having a paycheck right now.

Most of the questions I get from employees today have to do with how they can cope with all the fear and drama in the office - because