By Manish Limaye
Real-world project managers bring with them the right skills and experience to juggle a myriad of interests and agendas — all while conducting the fundamental day-to-day activities that guarantee project success. The fact is this: an initiative’s success or failure rarely depends on the technology. Instead, project management plays the pivotal role in determining which projects go down in a blaze and which projects are hailed as watershed moments that lead to the ultimate success of the company.
More artists than scientists, good project managers excel at managing not only expectations, but also relationships. In the best cases, they can:
- Lead and motivate to ensure that all team members move with purpose towards a common goal
- Establish peer-like camaraderie with staff, thereby bridging power distance between supervisor and subordinate
- Manage stakeholders, customer, and sponsor expectations to ensure success at every level
- Recognize the power-alley (i.e. stakeholders, customers, and other individuals or groups with the most influence on the overall success or failure of the project) and take the actions required to secure and maintain sponsorship
Goal setting, project planning, execution and monitoring are the hallmarks of an effective project manager. And those traits are often considered “commodity” skills in today’s environment.
Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the case of change management. Changes to project scope are inevitable in any long-term initiative. Good project managers rely upon the standard mechanisms (i.e. change management processes, etc.) to facilitate the decision on whether to execute a change in the project. Unfortunately, competing agendas and differences of opinion often sidetrack and hamper the process — resulting in the potential for poor decisions that may do more harm than good.
Through skilled negotiation and influence, exceptional project managers are able to minimize conflicts. As a result, their decisions are more likely to be made for the benefit of the project and company as a whole.
Ultimately, real-world project managers possess the uncanny ability to keep the project interests at heart — while at the same time making sure that every constituency stays satisfied.
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