Head and heart project management
I was discussing with my current project team the other day what a capable Project Manager (PM) looks like. They said for some of the projects they experienced previously with other PMs, the project would probably have been just as successful, if not more successful, without the PM. Why is this the case? Doesn’t success rise and fall on the shoulders of leadership?
For starters, I don’t like to see myself as a Project Manager. I am a People Manager and cheerleader. My passion doesn’t lie in getting the project to the goal of within schedule and under budget, though that is important. Instead, I hold higher importance on the process of getting the team to a place of ‘I want to take hold of the vision that my PM has given me’.
Before you brush this aside thinking it’s too touchy feely, think again. What’s the point of having all the right tools and methodologies (which I do live by!) but you don’t have a team that is willing to support you in the delivery of the project, because you haven’t provided the support they need in the first place? In my view, support means when someone is struggling, you struggle with them, and when they have a win, you cheer with them.
My role isn’t just about aligning Gantt charts, balancing financials, documenting plans, being a task master, and following PRINCE2. Underlying this, it is about gathering the team, seeing eye to eye, building trust, having the gut feel of when someone needs help and is too afraid to say it, leveling out egos to ensure all are team players, and coming alongside so that it is not a ‘you versus me’ culture, but a ‘what are we doing to make this work together’ culture. In other words, it’s aligning what is in your head to the things of the heart. The things of the heart set the right foundations for a successful project to satisfy the things of the head.