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PM Myth #3: “A PM Must Have All the Answers” — Project Management Myths We Should Rethink Zakaria Botros Community Champion Project Manager | Driving Clean Energy Innovations for a Sustainable Future| Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ontario, Canada PM Myth #3: “A PM Must Have All the Answers” — Project Management Myths We Should Rethink Thanks again to the community for fueling these myth-busting conversations. Let’s talk about a common pressure many PMs feel — the belief that they need to have every answer at all times. Sure, project managers are expected to lead, guide, and provide clarity. But being a good PM doesn’t mean being an all-knowing oracle. In reality: 👉 Strong PMs ask great questions 👉 They rely on team expertise, not just their own 👉 They facilitate decisions, not dictate them 👉 And they’re not afraid to say: “Let me find out.” 💡 Leadership isn’t about knowing everything — it’s about creating the space for the right answers to emerge. Trying to be the sole answer source often leads to: ⚠️ Bottlenecks ⚠️ Burnout ⚠️ Missed opportunities for collaboration True PM strength lies in enabling others — not in pretending to know it all. ✅ When have you leaned on your team’s knowledge to move a project forward? ✅ What helps you stay confident in uncertainty? Drop your stories — and keep the myth suggestions coming. One might be next week’s post! Saving Changes... Posted: Jul 5, 2025 9:49 PM

Sort By: Newest First Chronological Votes Luis Branco CEO| Business Insight, Consultores de Gestão, Ldª Carcavelos, Lisboa, Portugal Zakaria Botros This perspective is crucial for anyone leading complex projects today. The myth of the “all-knowing PM” often lingers as a legacy of command-and-control management, but high-performing teams know that the real power of a project manager lies in enabling collective intelligence, not providing all the answers. Recent project experience demonstrates this: when the PM openly frames a tough issue — for example, by facilitating an A3 thinking session or structured problem-framing workshop — the team feels safe to contribute candidly. In one project turnaround, this approach revealed key insights that would have been missed if only the PM’s view had been prioritized. The result wasn’t just a better solution, but stronger buy-in and accelerated learning across the team. As Amy Edmondson’s research underscores, psychological safety — the freedom to say “I don’t know yet” and to ask for help — is the foundation of innovation and adaptive execution. By making uncertainty explicit and inviting input, the PM shifts from a bottleneck to a catalyst for team growth. It’s vital to move beyond outdated expectations. Modern project managers build environments where questions drive progress, frameworks like Lean A3 make thinking visible, and shared sensemaking becomes routine. For the community: What practical tools or approaches have helped you foster this culture? Let’s keep challenging these myths and sharing what works — the next breakthrough might come from your story. ... 1 reply by Zakaria Botros Jul 15, 2025 1:51 PM Zakaria Botros ... Absolutely agree — the shift from the “all-knowing PM” to the enabler of collective intelligence is a game-changer. Saving Changes... Posted: Jul 6, 2025 3:56 AM Kiron Bondale Retired | Mentor| Retired Welland, Ontario, Canada Zakaria - It comes down to what each role is responsible for and should have the answers to. It is reasonable for senior stakeholders to expect that when they ask the PM to provide them an update on the status of the project that the PM can do this confidently and at an appropriate level of detail. However, if the PM is asked about the best way to resolve a technical issue which has just cropped up, unless the PM happens to have that information at their fingertips based on a recent team discussion, it would make sense that the PM use the "I'll get back to you on that" life line to give them a chance to get the info from the best source. Kiron ... 2 replies by Md. Golam Rob Talukdar and Zakaria Botros Jul 06, 2025 8:19 AM Md. Golam Rob Talukdar ... Thanks for adding your insights, Kiron! You've hit on a crucial distinction: the level of detail and type of information expected from a PM. It's absolutely spot-on that we should be able to report on project status to stakeholders confidently. That's core to our role. Golam Jul 15, 2025 1:52 PM Zakaria Botros ... It really is about clarity of roles and knowing when to lead with information vs. when to facilitate the right conversations. Saving Changes... Posted: Jul 6, 2025 7:59 AM Md. Golam Rob Talukdar Community Champion Project Manager| AWR Development (BD) Ltd. Cox's Bazer , Bangladesh Jul 06, 2025 7:59 AM Replying to Kiron Bondale ... Zakaria - It comes down to what each role is responsible for and should have the answers to. It is reasonable for senior stakeholders to expect that when they ask the PM to provide them an update on the status of the project that the PM can do this confidently and at an appropriate level of detail. However, if the PM is asked about the best way to resolve a technical issue which has just cropped up, unless the PM happens to have that information at their fingertips based on a recent team discussion, it would make sense that the PM use the "I'll get back to you on that" life line to give them a chance to get the info from the best source. Kiron Thanks for adding your insights, Kiron! You've hit on a crucial distinction: the level of detail and type of information expected from a PM. It's absolutely spot-on that we should be able to report on project status to stakeholders confidently. That's core to our role. Golam Saving Changes... Posted: Jul 6, 2025 8:19 AM Zakaria Botros Community Champion Project Manager | Driving Clean Energy Innovations for a Sustainable Future| Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ontario, Canada Jul 06, 2025 3:56 AM Replying to Luis Branco ... Zakaria Botros This perspective is crucial for anyone leading complex projects today. The myth of the “all-knowing PM” often lingers as a legacy of command-and-control management, but high-performing teams know that the real power of a project manager lies in enabling collective intelligence, not providing all the answers. Recent project experience demonstrates this: when the PM openly frames a tough issue — for example, by facilitating an A3 thinking session or structured problem-framing workshop — the team feels safe to contribute candidly. In one project turnaround, this approach revealed key insights that would have been missed if only the PM’s view had been prioritized. The result wasn’t just a better solution, but stronger buy-in and accelerated learning across the team. As Amy Edmondson’s research underscores, psychological safety — the freedom to say “I don’t know yet” and to ask for help — is the foundation of innovation and adaptive execution. By making uncertainty explicit and inviting input, the PM shifts from a bottleneck to a catalyst for team growth. It’s vital to move beyond outdated expectations. Modern project managers build environments where questions drive progress, frameworks like Lean A3 make thinking visible, and shared sensemaking becomes routine. For the community: What practical tools or approaches have helped you foster this culture? Let’s keep challenging these myths and sharing what works — the next breakthrough might come from your story. Absolutely agree — the shift from the “all-knowing PM” to the enabler of collective intelligence is a game-changer. Saving Changes... Posted: Jul 15, 2025 1:51 PM Zakaria Botros Community Champion Project Manager | Driving Clean Energy Innovations for a Sustainable Future| Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Ontario, Canada Jul 06, 2025 7:59 AM Replying to Kiron Bondale ... Zakaria - It comes down to what each role is responsible for and should have the answers to. It is reasonable for senior stakeholders to expect that when they ask the PM to provide them an update on the status of the project that the PM can do this confidently and at an appropriate level of detail. However, if the PM is asked about the best way to resolve a technical issue which has just cropped up, unless the PM happens to have that information at their fingertips based on a recent team discussion, it would make sense that the PM use the "I'll get back to you on that" life line to give them a chance to get the info from the best source. Kiron It really is about clarity of roles and knowing when to lead with information vs. when to facilitate the right conversations. Saving Changes... Posted: Jul 15, 2025 1:52 PM

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