In 1991, Tom Peters wrote a famous column titled “Pursuing the Perfect Project Manager“. This article inspired me in my study and practice of Project Management.
Tom Peters believed that the organization of the future will be a “collection of projects”. As organizations will compete to develop products, services and systems in an ever-changing network of vendors, intermediaries and customers, we can ask ourselves who will be in charge. The author observes that the project manager seems to be the most likely candidate for taking the leading role of moving the organization into the future.
However, a few challenges lie ahead. In a balancing act, the project manager needs to learn how to navigate masterfully through eight dilemmas of every-day project management:
1. Total ego/No ego. The author states that project managers need to be deeply involved, “consumed by the project”. Many times project managers (myself included) identify themselves with the project. We say “my project does good or bad” or “I have a project”. Project managers need also to be humble and egoless. We rarely have the level of authority to direct the project or to command the stakeholders involved so we need to achieve project goals through persuasion, collaboration and teamwork.
2. Autocrat/Delegator. The project manager needs to be aware when he needs to roll up its sleeves and put down the work and when he can delegate, assign work to other project contributors. There are multiple instances when fast, decisive action is required and others that are less urgent, require high expertise and can/should be delegated.
3, Leader/Manager. While it is critical to lead the project team, set an example, inspire, create a vision, and get their commitment, a project manager needs to be also a good manager. He needs to plan, execute and control, to ensure that the work gets done within the set parameters.
4. Tolerate ambiguity/Pursue Perfection. Fourth dilemma of the project management profession derives from the inherent complexity of project environment. A project should not be confounded with the routine operations of the organization, projects goal is to create a unique product or service. Most projects suffers from a good deal of ambiguity, and project managers have to deal with it. In this volatile environment, they need to create and maintain order and predictivity. Dealing with the projects complexity and ambiguity, they need to clear the way for the project team, helping them to be at their best.
5. Oral/Written. Communication is considered by many project managers as the most critical element of a project. Actually, this is what project managers are doing (or what they should do) most of the time. They are communicating with their team, with the senior managers, with the customers and vendors. Improving both oral and written communication makes a big difference for the projects they lead and how they are perceived as professionals.
6. Acknowledge complexity/Champion simplicity. As already mentioned, projects are complex. Tom Peters says that while project managers need to be able to handle this complexity, they need to be adopters and promoters of simplicity, trying relentlessly to contain the projects specific complexity. This is true in my experience as well, you get real benefits by making things simple and straightforward.
7. Think big/Think small. Making the analogy with the forest and the trees saying, Tom Peters says that project managers need to appreciate most. As a PM you do both grand schemes of multiple years and multiple streams projects, while you also need at times to check various reports details and communication for accuracy and consistency.
8. Impatient/Patient. Missing the formal authority of functional line managers, Project Managers need to balance their bias for action with relationship building and influence skills. Dealing with many equals within the project team and almost as many superiors within the senior stakeholders, they need to constantly adjust their approach and to compensate their required assertiveness with a constant awareness of their relationships within the project.
Out of the many articles and papers read about Project Management, Tom Peters’ column is always on top of my mind. He captures within a few paragraphs the essence of the Project Manager’s role, predicting back in 1991 the transformation of a large part of today’s organizations in a “collection of projects”.
You can find the original article here: https://tompeters.com/columns/pursuing-the-perfect-project-manager/
