If setting your alarm for 6:30 am means you’re “sleeping in”…you might be a project manager.
If the time it takes to microwave your Lean Pocket in the breakroom and the time it takes to eat it are coded to two separate job numbers…you might be a project manager.
If you’ve fallen asleep on a status call with the offshore team…you might be a project manager.
If your client team hates you for taking too long to bring the project in, and your dev team hates you for not giving them enough time to bring the same project in…you may be a project manager.
If you’ve called someone a “scope creep” or “legacy hugger” under your breath…you may be a project manager.
If you are too tired to celebrate at Dave and Buster’s after the app finally goes live…you may be a project manager.
We don’t “hate” you… I mean, that’s a pretty strong word… It’s more of a visceral ‘grrrrrr’ feeling with not applicable word in English language… Just sayin’… We love our project managers. 8)
4. Stay out of the workload. Assuming you have a team around you, and aren’t managing and delivering the project yourself, it’s important to understand that as a project manager, it’s your job to lead and guide the project – not to do all the work. Many technical project managers get into problems because they try to deliver part of the project themselves. It’s understandable – you’re highly invested in the project and want it to succeed. But you can usually provide much more value by staying away from the “shiny toys” and concentrating on leading and reporting on the project.
You have a Project underway, or will do soon. It’s important enough for you to want to invest in it, because it’ll make a real difference. Why do it otherwise? You know that by definition your project means a new way of doing things, otherwise it would be ‘business as normal’, wouldn’t it?
A project manager knows she has a well-functioning when team members trust each other; have confidence in each other’s abilities; can count on each other’s promises; and communicate openly. A well-functioning team can devote all their efforts to performing their project work instead of spending their time dealing with interpersonal frustrations.
Communication skills are one of the most important skills every project manager should have. You can have the best resources on the job, produce the most technically advanced system, the most insightful report or fancy Powerpoint slides, but these are useless if you, as a PM, cannot communicate well with your stakeholders and team members.