May 8, 2002
In my columns over the last two months, I have discussed the challenge of migrating from doing to managing and the need for the project manager to also be an organizational leader. While the need for this may be viewed as highly desirable, and to a few may appear an obvious requirement, the far greater challenge is how to actually reach this project management nirvana.
To some, the answer may be similar to the response received in
One of the biggest challenges in developing leaders begins with how we approach the education of project managers. Take a moment to ponder this: Think of someone you know that is in your view a tremendously successful and effective project manager. Someone that "gets it." A project manager that is respected by their teams and customers, someone who delivers the goods. Now, with that person in mind, ask yourself: What differentiates them? How are they able to manage more effectively than others?
Your answers to the above question will typically revolve around some variation of: "excellent communication skills," "ability to connect with people at all levels of the organization" and "able to collaborate to develop effective solutions." Expertise in Microsoft Project, Rational Unified Process or conceptual data modelling probably didn't even make the top 10.
Yet in terms of most project management training approaches today, the emphasis is on "hard" skills: methodologies, processes and tools. While communications and people skills are acknowledged as being important, they are typically written off as "too fuzzy," "too hard to teach for" or "something that can't be developed; people have them or they don't."
The reality is that the effective project manager is made, not born. Most of us do not pop out of the womb with the innate ability to solve complex problems, manage difficult situations and readily communicate with others regardless of situation, status or hierarchical position. And for companies to benefit from exceptional project management abilities, they need to radically re-think their approach to developing project managers. For project managers to become organizational leaders, they need the same coaching and development opportunities that we use to cultivate our up-and-coming executives and senior managers.
For starters, this means an ability to communicate effectively. For many that became project managers as a result of rising through the technical ranks, this may in fact be the greatest challenge. Those that have a predisposition to technical roles are often more interested in logical problems than social ones. This is, admittedly, a generalization--but it is one that has more than a grain of truth.
To communicate effectively, we must first understand ourselves: Are we introverted or extraverted? Do we have logical or emotional decision making style? Do we view the world in conceptual terms or concrete ones? The astute readers will recognize in these questions the framework of Carl Jung's psychological types (see "People, Perception and Personality: What Colour is Your Project Manager?"). And this is a good place to start. Know yourself first, and then seek to understand how you can adapt your style to most effectively communicate with others. Work on developing individual communication skills, as well as group presentation skills.
The next challenge in becoming an organizational leader is being able to think like our customers. For many, this is going to be perceived as needing to be expert in their field of endeavour, yet while familiarity with a customer's field of expertise is desirable, I would argue expertise is not essential. Even where you have deep expertise in a customer's business area, my advice to project managers would be "pretend you don't". The more you plead ignorance, the more your audience will take pains to explain their specific needs and requirements. If they assume you already understand an area, they will gloss over it or address it only superficially. This, to a project manager, is deadly. We need to understand the nuances and details of how this customer functions; assuming they do things in just the same way as the previous 32 customers can lead to dangerous conclusions and overlooked requirements. As the character in the movie said, "Explain it to me like I'm 6 years old."
And the last critical skill is the ability to creatively solve problems. Again, this is often a skill that is assumed to be innate and that cannot be taught. The reality is that it can be taught, and can also consciously be developed and refined. Again, the most effective problem solvers are those that don't have depth of expertise, but do have a breadth of experience. The most creative and innovative solutions are often those that are able to adapt and integrate ideas from wildly divergent fields and apply them in a way that makes sense in the context of the problem at hand. Cultivating this capability requires exposing ourselves to different experiences, and opening ourselves to new subjects, ideas and fields of endeavour.
It is no secret that most effective senior managers are generalists, not specialists. It is these same qualities that are essential in transforming the project manager into an organizational leader. As much as it pains us, we need to let go of our strengths and embrace the uncertainty of the unknown. But by developing our communication skills, consciously learning the perspective of our customers and broadening our base of problem solving, we make ourselves more effective and more valuable. We don't just manage; we begin to lead.
Next Month: The perceived need for specialist project managers: myth or reality?
Mark Mullalyis president of Interthink Consulting Incorporated, an organizational development and change firm specializing in the creation of effective organizational project management solutions. Since 1990, it has worked with companies throughout