Hanh VuPrincipal Project Manager| solo.ioChurchville, Md, United States
Could someone share with me your experiences in going from being Project Manager of an organization to being a manager of a groups of Project Managers?
If you had gone through this transition, did you enjoy it? do you have regrets? do you wish you had more time managing projects rather than developing people? How different are the two jobs? Do you still do project management? or do you completely become people manager?
I am presented with an opportunity in a couple years to lead a group of PMs. A caveat is that I would need to spend time developing existing non-pm staff into PMs. My hesitation is because: (1)I dont know how to do this type of training. I suppose I can learn, if need be. But more importantly (2)I'm not sure if I'd enjoy this line of work, developing other's professional development.
I've been all about getting projects across the finish line. The project teams i've worked with are almost always skilled and experienced. I haven't had much experience in training anyone besides myself. I'm not sure where to start to even assess the idea of managing and developing staff.
I'd really appreciate any insight and experience you could share! Saving Changes...
Hi Hanh. This is an important opportunity that can lead you to great experiences and success. It is all about being a leader of team leaders. What you need is:
- A clear vision of the organization's mission and goals, and, more importantly, who reports to who.
- Information and knowledge of the projects
- Strong communication and interpersonal skills - and time management skills.
I used to work as a senior project coordinator and I supervised more than three project leaders. My main task was to make sure that had a clear understanding of their goals, deadlines, their budget limitations. I helped them to gather the RIGHT resources that would lead the project to success. Together we evaluated the common external and internal factors that would be at the project benefits or could lead to potential obstacles. My best experience is the part when I had to create progress tracking and reports for each project since they were different from each other. We had endless communication and interaction: with them, with the board of managers and directors, and of course the stakeholders on every step of the project life cycle.
I can tell you more, any questions do not hesitate to contact me.
success!! Saving Changes...
Hanh,
First off, congratulations! The fact that this opportunity presented itself demonstrates that your skills and knowledge are appreciated enough that your employer wants to grow their organization, with you as the model of excellence.
In my opinion you are starting off by asking the right questions, and you'll probably find that the "Is it right for me?" question is the one worth thinking about most. The most significant part of that role transition is about putting aside much of the fun work, where you get to demonstrate why they wanted you to teach it to others.
Lacking knowledge in training most likely won't be a problem. I'd advise giving yourself a crash course in how to develop a learning plan, like you would a project plan. Even though you're not teaching like a course instructor, having a strong sense of what the lesson plan would look like can serve as a good guide. You can find templates for formal mentoring plans and get a good feel for what you need.
On the personal side, some people love it, some hate it, and that can change daily. There are day's where you will go home with great satisfaction that you're personally making an improvement in people's lives both professionally and personally. There are other days, when you will wonder how one person could possibly make your life so difficult.
The worst case scenario is that you decide you like the PM role more and move back into the technical side with a more diverse resume.
I went through that transition earlier in my career so can certainly appreciate the challenges.
A couple of things to consider:
1. It will be a good opportunity for you to test your delegation skills - to help your new PMs "grow" you will need to give them the opportunity to (safely) fail without constantly intervening on their behalf.
2. You may want to find the "right" training company to partner with for providing foundational PM training as you probably won't have time to build a curriculum yourself. Of course, this assumes you have sufficient budget for external training.
3. Don't take on all the mentoring/coaching work yourself. If there are more seasoned folks within the team, see if they are willing to buddy up with some of the more junior ones.
Financial Management Specialist | US Peace CorpsYaounde, Centre, Cameroon
Mar 03, 2021 7:08 AM
Replying to Kiron Bondale
...
Hanh -
I went through that transition earlier in my career so can certainly appreciate the challenges.
A couple of things to consider:
1. It will be a good opportunity for you to test your delegation skills - to help your new PMs "grow" you will need to give them the opportunity to (safely) fail without constantly intervening on their behalf.
2. You may want to find the "right" training company to partner with for providing foundational PM training as you probably won't have time to build a curriculum yourself. Of course, this assumes you have sufficient budget for external training.
3. Don't take on all the mentoring/coaching work yourself. If there are more seasoned folks within the team, see if they are willing to buddy up with some of the more junior ones.
Good luck!
Kiron
Hi Kiron,
Thanks for this response esp point #2 Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
I see this as natural evolution. You get good at what you do and the company wants to benefit from your experience and knowledge as much as possible. The thinking being 'if you can deliver one good project - you can show, and help, others how to deliver 10 good project. Problem is its takes a different set of skills. Too often this results in "promotion beyond capabilities" which hurts the individual as well as the company. Furthermore, once the step is taken its hard to go back - stigma of demotion or failure from both perspectives. In your case the company has decided, hopefully after analysis, to take the risk, you must do the same.
However, after all said and done, its not that you would be moving away from being a project manager, you would be managing a different type of deliverable, the new deliverable being the development of project managers. I found the sense of accomplishment in delivering project managers very satisfying, more so than delivering a building or process. Additionally you develop long term relationships and, as with buildings, you can have pride in saying "I was part of that". Saving Changes...
Hanh VuPrincipal Project Manager| solo.ioChurchville, Md, United States
Thank you all for you advices and insights. I really appreciate them. This helps me with thinking this through. Saving Changes...
David Alan DaugerdasIBM Certified Executive Project Manager| IBMPalatine, Il, United States
Congratulations on being presented with this opportunity; I went through a similar process myself. You will find that developing other's professional development will result in a further development of your own as well. Bear in mind also that if you are your team's people manager from a human resource standpoint, you will also have to work through salary planning, skills evaluations, promotions/demotions, etc. These are not PM-related but a part of the job that can be very challenging. Saving Changes...
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