Project management and political correctness
Warning - contains some strong language and lacks political incorrectness (maybe put on some headphones!).
I believe that this little piece of humour aptly describes an affliction that some project managers and senior managers have and where they see their priorities.
There is often conflict between senior managers and project managers over what their boundaries are during the course of a project delivery. Both need to understand that the end-game is to get the project brought to a successful conclusion to the benefit of the projects customer and for the best result in their business.
Senior Manager – not taking the project managers concerns seriously or indeed even taking the time to listen to the project manager in the first place. In this instance, the matter is the name (intentionally trivial)- but of course can be any valid concern that a project manager has.
Senior management in any business, in the context of project management, are there to help the project manager if any difficulties are encountered. I have heard a number of stories in the last few weeks where the senior management have only become visible to either;
- Take the limelight from the PM because the project went well or
- Have used the PM as the scapegoat when things have not quite gone according to plan.
A project manager will generally only look for help if its really needed preferring to use their own capabilities to sort the issues within their remit. However, there are certain things that PM’s do not always control such as resource availability or particularly political/awkward customer situations.
A project manager needs to be able to rely on their senior management team to act decisively to resolve the issue appropriately so that the PM can get back to the job of managing the project.
Project Manager - worrying more about he/she will “look” if delivering a project as inappropriately named as this one or refusing a project because of personal preferences (poor Maureen!). Again, simple examples to make a point.
A project managers role is to deliver a project to meet a need for the business – not to make themselves look good. If everyone only were ever given the “big juicy” projects, none of the smaller, tactical projects would ever be run.
All projects are critical to the success of the business and if a project manager does a good job, appreciation follows regardless of the scale of the work. The project customer will be grateful and this will get fed back which in turn should lead to larger projects down the road.
A project is there to deliver benefit to your customer and your business – everything else is secondary to that.
Do your managers and project manager have the correct focus?
Tags: business management, Project Management, Project manager, Small Business
