This week I’ll be writing about what it means to be a great project manager – from\u00a0the perspective of my own career and interactions with other PMs; from what i’ve heard executives say about what they value; and from\u00a0the unique, interesting and opportunity-filled career paths I’ve observed and heard about specific project managers pulling off!\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0As a sneak peek at the week, those aspects will hit on what leadership means and looks like in the PM role, what execs say they want in a PM (vs. what all those PM job advertisements might say), whether it’s possible to change someone’s perspective of a PM from “ho hum” or even negative to “great PM”, and what contributes to a PM being able to switch industries.\u00a0\u00a0 This all comes down to the concept of being VALUED as a project manager. We all want to be valued for what we do and contribute–but it’s not automatic!\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
To start, I’ll quickly cover\u00a0how my perception of what a project manager is and how to be a great PM evolved over time. Frankly\u00a0I feel like i got incredibly mixed signals all along the way!\u00a0 And I see this all over still – how do we know, and especially how do brand new project managers know, not just the tasks related to their job, but what it means to really excel, and what they might have to do to get there and be highly valued as a PM?<\/p>\n
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The evolution of my understanding of the PM job through the lens of my career:<\/p>\n
\u00a0– My first job was as an engineer on a large government-related electronics project.\u00a0 I was\u00a0handed down specs and schedules from\u00a0 a pretty much unseen (at my level)\u00a0program manager and asked to provide status slides for VERY SERIOUS STATUS MEETINGS with the customer.\u00a0\u00a0(PM = keeper of the schedules and reporter to the feared Customer.)<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n – Next in that company, I was a group leader for a new development effort,\u00a0now responsible for setting my group’s\u00a0schedules in the context of the program, working\u00a0 with the\u00a0program manager. (PM = integrator of the schedule puzzle and sync-meister of a very complex set of stuff going on all over the place).<\/strong>\u00a0 OK, i\u00a0 was starting to get a little of the value that could be part of that job….<\/p>\n – I next jumped to the\u00a0commercial side, employee number 4 at a networking start-up, and built my own hardware engineering department.\u00a0 I set every schedule, managed my group to them, coordinated with software director, coordinated with manufacturing…. eventually managed full product releases too.\u00a0 No titled PM in site, it was just part of our functional Director jobs.\u00a0 (PM = just part of the management job to get things out the door).<\/strong><\/p>\n Interim comment – looking back at\u00a0what i’ve written so far: ho hum, pretty standard stuff, no great shakes\u00a0impression of “huge positive value”, just necessary,\u00a0 gotta get it all done…<\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0– Same start-up company, couple of years down to road – Acquisition!\u00a0 And now the new parent company gave us a Project Manager of our very own.\u00a0\u00a0 All of a sudden, new paperwork to do\u00a0– charts, reports, etc etc.\u00a0\u00a0Parent company had PMs as coordinators and status reporters.\u00a0 \u00a0(PM\u00a0= someone who makes us fill out paper we don’t think we need).<\/strong><\/p>\n \u00a0– Move to Division Senior\u00a0Project Manager\u00a0for 4 engineering divisions of the parent company.\u00a0 Now it gets more interesting.\u00a0 Complex releases, lots of scattered cross-functional departments to work with,\u00a0resource conflicts, PMs in each\u00a0large functions\u00a0(engineering, marketing, manufacturing etc.) across\u00a0divisions worked behind the scenes to resolve issues, alert each other to issues, make it flow.\u00a0 Still did schedules etc.\u00a0\u00a0 But now —\u00a0“PM = creative facilitator and solver of complex interdependencies through good working relationships with people.”<\/strong>\u00a0 I was\u00a0REALLY starting to like the feel of this now.<\/p>\n – Jumped the corporate world to do contract PM.\u00a0 Ha!\u00a0 Even the companies that thought they needed “some kind of help getting this project done” were not sure what that should look like and\u00a0even a little suspicous of someone called a project manager.\u00a0 The execs just wanted\u00a0more hands keeping it organized and telling them it COULD and WOULD get\u00a0done;\u00a0 the people doing the work were skeptical that it would be just one more person watching them and causing more paperwork.\u00a0 (PM = split personality – someone execs wanted to trust, someone workers didn’t naturally trust, PM = might be just overhead without value add.)\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0 Slowly, working with the people in each instance, I started to get the feel for where people naturally saw me as adding value vs. what they didn’t get.\u00a0 I developed my own perspectives of how to be a better and better project manager….\u00a0 PM = flexible enabler working with lots of individuals to and get things done in spite of often hairy problems.<\/strong><\/p>\n – Eventually started doing coaching of new project managers and interfacing with their executives to agree on\u00a0expectations and then support the new PM in their very new role.\u00a0 Over and over,\u00a0my key contribution ended up being getting rid of preconceived hard-wired notions about “I’m supposed to make them do these kind of schedules”,\u00a0“I’m supposed to\u00a0do these kind of status meetings”…and the fear and uncertainty that came with\u00a0it.\u00a0\u00a0 (Yes, fear!\u00a0 If you feel you’re “supposed to” do something that doesn’t\u00a0feel right – cognitive dissonance, reluctance to act, fear of\u00a0things not going well for reasons you can’t even articulate…)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Instead,\u00a0helping the PM think through what would be the most effective way to create schedules, communicate, understand progress etc. FOR HIS TEAM,\u00a0HER COMPANY.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This enhanced my own understanding of\u00a0 PM as\u00a0facilitator of a team of specific people just trying to do their best towards an important project goal, creatively making PM tools work for very particular people and unique goals.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0 Hmm COULD this really be part of becoming a great PM – this continued emphasis on\u00a0flexibility and creativity?\u00a0WHO’d A thunk it, when I started out being told it was about schedules and status reports?\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0This other emphasis\u00a0was certaintly feeling more and more fulfilling to me!<\/p>\n – <\/em>As I coached PMs and did methodology work inside companies (mostly to get PM and development processes actually WORKING for teams as opposed to being so much paper – and countering the impression of PM as someone who makes us fill out all that paper in the dreaded “Big Process Binder” –\u00a0<\/strong> I\u00a0had to work with executives more and more.\u00a0\u00a0It was fascinating to hear them talk about what they wanted the methodology to do for their teams and the coaching to do for their PMs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n “I\u00a0just need teams to not repeat stupid mistakes we should know how to avoid – the methodology simply provides guidelines for\u00a0doing that.”<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n And \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n “I need the PMs to LEAD their teams through tough decisions.\u00a0 We can never do it all – so tell me how we can meet the most important company goals with the people and the money we’ve got. Then work with all the different personalities and abilities we’ve got to get us there and use the right tools from\u00a0the methodology to get us there.<\/em>\u00a0 <\/strong><\/p>\n