PM - A cheerleader, a manager or the captain of the team?

 

What is the leadership role that a project manager needs to play to navigate the complexities in today’s business environment? A cheerleader, a manager or the captain of the team. Is that a constant or needs to be adapted according to the situation?

In order to answer these questions, let’s take a cue from the medical industry. A varying ECG shows we are healthy and a seemingly straight line shows we aren’t. Even an ECG has to keep changing to show everything is fine, so how about ourselves: do we change or remain the same?

When we internalise change, we would be less anxious about the external changes as we are countering the external changes by our own internal force of change, so instead of showing inertia as in the Newton’s First Law, we are actually playing along with the change activating a Force multiplier!

Having established beyond doubt that change is vital, we could explore the reality that we have reached a point of inflection, wherein technology adoption has increased so exponentially that human processes have not been able to catch up. In all this, what does the Project Manager do or change to make his projects click?

Well, the key lies in making the human connections work! No matter what structures we put in place, what latest technologies we adopt, what new management principles we adopt, the improvisations will fall flat if the human factor is discounted. A Gallup study in 2020, showed that only around 15% of global workforce is effectively engaged at work. So how do Project Managers address this huge gap? How do they keep the team engaged, improve team productivity at the office or in a Work-from-home scenario and ensure fulfilment of project outcomes?

It all boils down to the Project Manager’s relationship with the team. It becomes all the more important that the PM is capable of seamlessly transitioning across the roles as a cheerleader, a manager and the captain of the team so that the team feels more engaged, empowered at all times and never feels let down.

A Project Manager as a cheerleader encourages the team to keep looking for ideas and solutions for challenges, cheers them on and creates a supportive work environment.

As a Manager, the PM establishes the structure of work, working on the communications, allocating resources, exhibiting accountability and responsibility for the Team performance.

As a Captain of the Team, the PM leads the Team from the front, navigating effectively through conflicts, facing challenges head on gaining the Team’s trust and respect.

These roles keep evolving and the Project Manager also needs to evolve as per the situations at hand, humanizing their interactions so they become more collaborative rather than transactional in nature. Instead of the conventional roles and responsibilities, the new age roles equip the new age leaders better to complete their projects successfully and lead their teams to success.