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Good Project Management Can Get You In Trouble

Gary C. Hinkle - President, Auxilium, Inc.

 

An increasing number of organizations are managing projects more professionally by employing seasoned project managers and by applying best practices.  Results from a recent survey sponsored by the Project Management Institute (PMI), found that utilization of professional project managers increased globally from 73% in 2004 to 76% in 2005 among companies included in the study.  Over 95% of U.S. companies surveyed currently employ professional project managers.

 

Though 93% of the executives who participated in this survey strongly agree that project management is a valuable asset, very few have data that quantifies the value in terms of productivity and meeting budget and schedule performance.  A lot more data is available related to unsuccessful projects.

 

Excessive focus on "Project Management" can be a factor that hinders projects.  Balance in many areas needs to be achieved, and overemphasis on project management can be an obstacle in achieving this balance.  With the increased application of professional project management, the level of project management talent is also increasing.  Engagement of top-notch project managers can lead to overconfidence, causing issues outside the scope of Project Management to be ignored.  

 

House Maintenance as an Analogy

 

If a homeowner does a great job hiring workers to protect the house from pest damage, keeping the roof from leaking, and making the house look nice with fresh paint and landscaping, it's like having a good Project Manager (PM) in charge of a project.  An effective PM will do a lot for a project's success, and will ensure that the effort looks good to peripheral stakeholders (like fresh exterior paint makes the house look good on the outside).  A certified Project Management Professional (PMP) credential helps the project look even better – like nice landscaping.  "We have a PMP assigned to this critical project" sounds good when business managers speak with their stakeholders.

 

But what if the same house has a leaky pipe, aging appliances, an inadequate heating system, and flooring issues?  Maybe none of these issues is so severe that it needs immediate attention, but at some point they all need to be resolved.  Even the most talented PM can't fix all the analogous project issues like inadequate staffing, lack of funding, poor practices, teamwork issues, and the many other things that can plague projects.

 

Project Manager Expectations

 

PMs should be held accountable for project results, and it's reasonable for expectations to be higher with more experienced PMs.  Expectations should also be in line with support mechanisms outside of a project team's control such as funding, allocation of shared resources, company processes, and corporate communication practices.  If support is lacking but PMs are expected to work miracles, it might be an indication of poor executive leadership.

 

I worked for several companies where PMs were miserable at work.  As a functional manager I participated in project review meetings where a line of PMs would individually get up in front of review teams led by executives, and would routinely have to deliver bad news.  An executive's reaction to bad news could be so embarrassing to PMs, that some PMs would spend days figuring out how to avoid delivering the news or spinning it so situations didn't look so bad.

 

In this particular environment, the bad news rarely justified any form of reprimand or embarrassment because the issues were typically outside of the team's control.  It was simply a matter of too many projects without adequate resources, which impacted all projects.  Executives understood this, but accountability was inappropriately passed to PMs and morale suffered.  The PMs were well-compensated so they rarely quit, but some would transfer to another group only to find that they would still take a beating for issues outside their control.

 

When PM expectations are too high, it might be very difficult to influence change.  Portfolio Management (management of all projects within the business group) and Pipeline Management (optimizing finite resources across projects) are examples of issues outside the scope of typical PM responsibility.  Strong PMs might be expected to overcome problems in these areas, which is unreasonable.  Stakeholders with strong leadership ability should be influencing executives to resolve issues that are outside the control of PMs.

 

The Leadership Role on Projects

 

In our experience working with project teams we often see strong emphasis on professional project management, but very little emphasis on project leadership.

 

Projects need management and leadership.  Rarely will you find a single person who does an exceptional job both leading and managing a project.  Leadership and management responsibilities should almost always be distributed between two or more competent people.

 

What's the difference between "project leadership" and "project management"?  This isn't easy to explain in a few words, but the short answer is this:

  • Project Management focuses on five major project-related process groups: Initiating, Planning, Executing, Monitoring/Controlling, and Closing.

  • Project Leadership is mostly about providing good direction and influencing others for positive outcomes.

 

Leadership external to projects must also be effective.  If external leadership is weak, project management practices will have minimal impact but strong leaders internal to a project can have success influencing external decision-makers for the benefit of the project.

 

During a recent Essential Skills for Engineering Project Leaders workshop, we were discussing the differences between leadership and management and I asked the class, "What's more important – leadership or management?"  As usual, the consensus was "both" but then someone asked the question, "Which is more difficult?" and that prompted some lively discussion!

 

One of the participants had a convincing argument for leadership as being significantly more difficult, mainly because project management can be mastered by learning and applying the mechanics that are documented in the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK).  Many classes are available that teach the mechanics of project management.

 

Leadership is not a mechanical process.  It requires emotional intelligence (EI) and strong interpersonal ability, which are much harder to master than mechanical processes.  Earning the PMP credential does not require EI or interpersonal competency.

 

Distributed Management and Leadership

 

Implementing one of several common models can help distribute project management and project leadership responsibilities:

  • Project manager plus one or more technical leaders

  • Project manager and co-manager who distribute responsibility according to individual preferences, strengths and weaknesses

  • Formally assigning one person as Project Manager and another as Project Leader

  • Functional manager providing leadership/management with some leadership/management responsibilities delegated

  • No designated PM or Project Leader, but leadership/management roles and responsibilities clearly defined and distributed throughout the team

 

Other arrangements can also work.  The most important thing is to understand the elements of good management AND leadership, and to make sure all bases are covered.

 

Using Teambuilding to Distribute Responsibility

 

After project teams are formed, team members should go through the "norming" process which includes reconciling roles and responsibilities.  Factors other than skill should be considered such as desire to perform the role, availability, and fit towards long-term career goals.

 

It's worth taking the time to use tools and techniques that are available not only for reconciling roles and responsibilities, but also to increase understanding and trust among team members.  Quick and easy tools include Role/Responsibility Matrix, conflict profile assessment, conflict norming, and teambuilding exercises.  More in-depth teambuilding can be accomplished using facilitated assessments such as MBTI® and teambuilding workshops.

 

Investment in teambuilding activity at the beginning of a project can avoid costly problems that may arise later.  This investment specifically helps in defining roles and responsibilities because without deep understanding of each other and a high level of trust, it's easy to have the wrong person performing a role.

 

The level of teambuilding investment should be inversely proportional to the level of trust established.  If trust is very low, teambuilding activity should be very high.  Trust among project sponsors and external stakeholders should also be high, so those stakeholders might need to be included in teambuilding activity.

 

Project Leadership Development

 

Covering all aspects of project management and project leadership is difficult even with the most capable leaders and managers because the requirements for exceptional leadership and management are broad.  A team must have good understanding of the breadth of competencies required.  External resources with management and leadership expertise and a different perspective can help teams improve their management and leadership performance.

 

Assessments focused on performance in key project leadership positions can help organizations that are serious about continuously improving project outcomes.  This also benefits individuals by providing career growth opportunity.

 

Project Management as guided by the PMI and other industry resources is a valuable asset which should be utilized by all project teams to the extent that makes sense under given circumstances.  Project management practices are evolving to serve changing industry needs, and are starting to emphasize leadership and interpersonal competencies more than in the past.  Regardless of how recommended practices advance, humans will not soon evolve to the point where the average person can perform exceptionally as a project manager while also providing exceptional leadership.

 

The PMP credential does not qualify a PM to perform as a project leader, so even if your organization is loaded with top-notch PMPs, make sure there is also focus on the leadership aspect of running projects.  Invest in developing people to perform the leadership functions that successful projects require.

 

© 2007 Auxilium, Inc. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. All rights reserved.