Leading People as a New PM

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.

  Career Development   Leadership   New Practitioners  

Fairly early in my career, someone said to me, “You aren’t a real manager, you’re a project manager.” That reflected the attitude to project management at the time--managers led people, project managers led tasks. Things have changed significantly since then (thankfully), and people leadership is one of the most critical elements of a PM’s role. In fact, I would argue that “project leader” is a better title than project manager--leadership is more critical to a PM’s success than management ability.

For project managers who are new to the profession, the people leadership element can be intimidating. Unlike most other project management skills, it isn’t black or white, right or wrong. That not only makes it harder to teach and learn, it makes it harder to assess if you are doing a good job. This is especially true for the significant proportion of new project managers who will be leading people for the first time.

As if all of that wasn’t enough, new PMs are almost certain to be leading teams of individuals who are far more experienced and knowledgeable on their project than they are. This all adds up to an intimidating environment that can easily go wrong. Here are some ideas to help ensure it goes right.

People are your greatest asset
“People are your greatest asset” has been said so many times, …

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