Management Ps and Qs
December 5, 2007 by Miki Saxon
My buddy Bob over at ProjectManagement411 wrote a post to which I take partial exception. Essentially, he seemed to say that managing a group was boring in comparison to managing a project where one has no actual authority because when one has authority there’s no real challenge.
First, let me say that I’m not minimizing the difficulties faced by project managers; it is indeed the ultimate matrixed management position—responsibility sans authority, i.e., no leverage.
Managers’ traditional leverage—do it or you’re fired—doesn’t work very well on today’s workforce, whose reaction is more likely to be updating their resume.
Granted, there are many abusive managers out there who believe that their authority gives them the right to order people around, but it’s less and less effective. That’s especially true when creativity, innovation and productivity are requirements for getting the job done.
What it boils down to is that PMs can’t give orders by dint of their job description whereas managers can’t give orders by dint of their workforce—and neither one is going to change any time soon.
The advantage PMs have is that they don’t have to learn a new way of doing things.
What do you think?
As a PM, my current role sees me leading without official authority, but I have had roles where I have had it. It can happen in two ways, as I’ve seen it.
1. I piggy back on the functional managers authority (i.e. the FM basically says do what this person says as if I said it).
2. The part of, or the entire team is made up of temporary staff, either hired by my client or brought on by me. In this case, I’m also taking care of day-to-day management of these people.
Despite being a PM now, I started as an FM and one of the best teams and most rewarding positions I’ve held was as an FM. The roles are different, but they’re more alike than some may think.
Yes, and both are subject to the vagaries of the human race, since robots aren’t ready for prime time—but that’s what makes it interesting.