Navigating Executive Sponsor Conflict: One Program Manager's Survival Guide
With 20+ years leading projects and programs, Marc is a team-first professional focused on delivering results while minimizing political disruption as best as possible. He has learned as much from his challenges as from his successes and is taking a leap of faith to share these with the wider professional community.
As program managers, how do we effectively navigate executive sponsor conflicts that threaten project success?
These situations require nuanced approaches tailored to your specific organizational context. I'm sharing this case study to gather insights and alternative perspectives from colleagues who have faced similar challenges. While sharing past mistakes opens one to criticism, I believe there's tremendous value in earning from our collective experiences.
The Case: When Executive Sponsors Clash
I once led a program where two executive sponsors from competing organizations were in constant, open conflict over direction and approach. Both held equal formal authority, placing me directly in the crossfire of their disputes. The program team, comprising members from both organizations, inevitably began mirroring some of these conflicts.
The lack of alignment and occasional hostility shown by the executives created an extremely challenging environment that significantly impacted implementation by:
- Stifling open communication
- Limiting essential partnership opportunities
- Undermining collaborative problem-solving
- Slowing key strategic decision-making
Despite establishing a strong program structure, with identified resources responsible for projects and subject-matter experts involved in different work packages, I hadn't anticipated the …
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