If Steve Jobs stopped you in the elevator and asked, “How do you, as a Project Manager, add value to this company?”—what would your 30-second answer be?

I connect the dots and make the whole better than the sum of its parts. (Jobs appreciated simplicity and elegance of design so hopefully the answer would make sense to him!)

If Steve Jobs stopped me in the elevator, I'd have a lot of questions for him...

I've been at companies where I'm not sure I could have answered this question. It felt like we accepted every project that was proposed, and that most of them did not align with company objectives, if I even knew what the company objectives were.

At the company where I got my start in project management, one year, my Director shared the annual company objectives, by department, with me. After reviewing the document, I shared with him my findings on the areas where the other departments were going to need our assistance. At that point in time, I would have said that I add value to the company by ensuring project success on projects that support company objectives.

The following year, I asked my director about the strategic plan and he informed me the CTO said it could not be shared with anyone below Manager level. At that point, I could not say how I added value. Doing things right is nice, and all, but when there is no transparency - if you don't know how your projects add value beyond keeping the loudest voices temporarily satisfied - you can't really know how you add value.

At another company, where I was hired to help stand up the PMO, I would have said that I added value by helping to develop and standardize project management processes to ensure consistency and quality of project outcomes. That is, until the PMO Director left and I found out that nobody above her was interested in more than a binder full of processes and templates that they could point to, as if that made projects more successful.

In my current role, which admittedly does go beyond project management, I add value by building relationships and understanding 1) the needs of my stakeholders within the context of both strategic and departmental objectives, 2) what I can do to help meet those needs, 3) coordinating efforts to meet those needs, and 4) driving conversations and processes related to strategic position, work intake, prioritization, and value realization.

As a Project Manager, I add value by making complexity simple and ensuring that the right ideas become reality. I align strategy with execution, translating vision into concrete roadmaps, keeping teams focused, and removing obstacles so talent can shine. My role is to deliver outcomes that matter: products that reach customers faster, with higher quality and lower risk, while making sure every effort directly supports the company’s growth and innovation.