Surviving in a Start-up (With No PM Structure or Leadership Support)

Sarah is a experienced project manager and professional development enthusiast. In addition to managing projects, she has a background in training, professional development and employee engagement.

  Leadership  

When I interviewed for my current job two and a half years ago, my boss warned me that the company was still very much in start-up mode. There were still a lot of policies, procedures and processes being created, and there was a lot of ambiguity throughout the company.

As a certified project manager by trade, I had a lot of questions about how the company approached projects and accomplished objectives in such an environment. She made it clear that there was not an established project management structure and asked if I felt I could thrive in such a chaotic environment.

I remember telling her if I had to just sit in the chaos and deal with the ambiguity indefinitely, then no, I could not thrive in that environment.

However, if I could help establish the ways of working and help to shape the PM structure, I would relish in that and be thrilled with the challenge.

What I didn’t know at the time is that it wasn’t as simple as establishing a PMO, hiring PMs, developing tools, providing training…all of that was “easy” in my eyes. I came from a company where I had been integral in doing just those things. That was my jam, and I was here for it!

What I quickly learned was the leadership of the company was not onboard with that approach. Streamlining project management was not a priority. And worse, the very idea of formalized project …

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