Knowing When to Turn Your Project Manager Mode Off

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Leadership  

You’ve probably heard the phrase “just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” It (or variations on it) has been used in many different scenarios and by many different people. In my case, it’s something I have to try and remember when it comes to real-world project management.

I don’t believe that I am singularly focused on project management. I like to think that I have a mix of hobbies, and I also try to embrace hobbies that have more of a creative element to them as a counterpoint to project delivery, which…well, isn’t always creative. But I have to admit that I do tend to see the opportunity to view a lot of different aspects of life as projects.

Sometimes that’s a real benefit. Planning to relocate two people, four dogs and a bunch of possessions to a different country requires a degree of planning. As a project manager, I feel as though I can assist with that planning and potentially come up with a better approach than someone who doesn’t have a PM background. I would still rely on experts in things like transport logistics, but I would want to control the overall plan.

At other times, it’s not such a good thing. My wife is not a huge fan of me trying to plan out a day off to go and do something together. She thinks that should be more spontaneous, that we should be more flexible and adapt to …

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