Management by Example

Management by Example Andy Jordan July 19, 2010

Project Management

We all know that project management requires a multitude of different skills. In previous articles I have described a project as a business in microcosm. A project really does have elements of most business disciplines about it, and as project managers it is all ours to manage. However, that’s not all that project management is. We are also leaders of our teams, and that’s a responsibility that we shouldn’t take lightly.

A moment of epiphany
Let me start this article by sharing my personal epiphany--I am sure that many of you will have similar experiences. Early on in my project management career I took over a project from another PM who had left the organization for another opportunity. After a few weeks, one of the team members came up to me and said that they really enjoyed “watching me manage the project”. I wasn’t sure quite what she meant, so I asked her to explain a little more. She said that the way that I ran status meetings, negotiated with stakeholders and worked with team members individually made her feel that the project was being well managed.

This was a real eye opener for me. I didn’t consider myself as being monitored by the team; I was just trying to do my job as well as I was able.