Using Participative Management in Consulting Projects

Brian is a Senior Project Manager with over 17 years of progressive project management and business process improvement experience working with team members, at all levels, in the delivery of projects and strategic objectives. He has also instructed project management and related courses.

  Career Development   Communications Management  

If you are a project manager who likes a lot of project variety, you may find yourself well suited for a career in consultant-based project management services. As a consultant, you may be managing a high-profile project, or a lower-level, component-based project. Regardless of the priority within the organization, it is important to select the right management style with the new team and project stakeholders.

The first thing a contract project manager usually wants to do is show their worth. They want the customer and stakeholders to have the image that they picked the right person--and that the job is getting (and will get) done. Some might go into it with what they perceive as legitimate power: “I was chosen as the project manager, so I am the boss.” As a consultant, you want to be careful with this approach. Chances are that the project staff is also on the staff for other projects (at varying levels of priority), and you may get some blank stares during your initial meeting with the team--as if they are silently giving you the gestural middle-finger. This is especially important if you are contracted to deliver a project that another project manager got pulled off of, or one that another project manager could not bring to conclusion.

In all cases, I have found that leaving the “I have the power” attitude at the door is a good choice. In …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.