The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Stereotyped Project Manager
From the Voices on Project Management Blog
by Cameron McGaughy,
Lynda Bourne, Kevin Korterud, Peter Tarhanidis, Conrado Morlan, Jen Skrabak, Mario Trentim, Christian Bisson, Yasmina Khelifi, Sree Rao, Soma Bhattacharya, Emily Luijbregts, David Wakeman, Ramiro Rodrigues, Wanda Curlee, Lenka Pincot, cyndee miller, Jorge Martin Valdes Garciatorres, Marat Oyvetsky
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By Conrado Morlan
If you’ve been a project practitioner for a long time, you’ve probably heard a variety of opinions about you and your colleagues. Many of those opinions may have reflected an oversimplified image of the project management profession. In other words, you and your colleagues were stereotyped.
The project management profession has given me the opportunity to travel across three continents and to work with people from different cultures and generations. I lost count of all the different stereotypes I was associated with, which involved my country of origin (Mexico), the country I lived in (the United States) and people’s previous experience with IT project managers, But many of the stereotypes were common despite the different situations where I worked.
Being stereotyped gave me the opportunity to change people’s oversimplified idea of me and my profession. On top of my daily duties, I had to transform that bad and/or ugly perception into a good one. Even when my title was IT project manager, my role was not purely technical—in many projects, the business function was also part of the project team.
Working with business and technical functions put me between a sword and a wall. On the business function side, people stereotyped me as too technical, while on the IT side, co-workers assumed I was not technical at all and too structured. In many meetings with business functions and IT team members, I had to show that the “real me” did not fit the stereotype they had in mind.
My credentials exacerbated the situation a couple of times. When team members learned I had several certifications, they feared I was going to “play by the book” and make them change the way they had been working.
Instead, I merely promoted discussions in which the team realized there were areas of opportunity in their way of working that could be improved.
The “manager” stereotype popped up quite often. Team members openly told me I was not their direct-line manager and did not have authority over them. I had to address this stereotype and help people understand I was not there to manage but to lead.
So I held meetings with team members and their managers, in which roles were defined, the importance of the project was communicated and lines of communication were established.
At the end of the day, it’s incumbent on projects managers to face the stereotypes that are out there and work to change negative perceptions. As a project manager, how do you react to stereotypes? What are you doing to erase the stereotype you have been associated with?
Posted
by
Conrado Morlan
on: June 18, 2016 09:43 AM |
Permalink
Comments (8)
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Sometime you need to prove yourself and show your worth. This is quite often. We have people who do not value certifications but still narrate their views just on PMBOK lines. I just endorse the ideas to help Organization grow without telling the, that these are found in PMBOK. Simply you have to take a practical approach and find the way out of rough.
Renee Pineo
PM II| TerraTherm
Little Compton, Ri, United States
I have definitely run into this stereotyping as being a project manager and even more so with being a female in a male dominated profession. I agree with Pravin and found that the practical approach works.
Rajarajan Dhayanithi
Project Engineer| Tecton Engineering and Construction
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Renee, I feel for you - I work with IT Professionals, mostly a male dominated field. I seem to get more push back from particular technicians than my male Project Management colleagues. I will say it seems to be less-and-less as time goes on.
Roberto Toledo
Managing Partner| Alpha Consultoria SA
Mexico City, Df, Mexico
Great article Conrado, thanks!
Julia Cunningham
Manager Project Management| Battelle
Richland, Wa, United States
I love the graphic. Thanks for it and the article.
Labels for cans, I'm fan of the image. Thank you for sharing!
Luis Branco
CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª
Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal
Dear Conrado
Interesting is your perspective on the topic: "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: The Stereotyped Project Manager"
Thanks for sharing
Important point to note: "At the end of the day, it's incumbent on projects managers to face the stereotypes that are out there and work to change negative perceptions"
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