Fresh approach for The project management career

thats really good one

So well put Ashish Bhansali. Totally agree that Project Management is all about leadership, influence and trusting teams to deliver. I have witnessed it so many times during my long career where Project Managers manage teams without much focus on the soft skills, not people orientated, paper pushing and flattering peers with impressive spreadsheets! It is all about connecting with your team sharing issues and resolving them, team work that can deliver successful projects for the whole team to feel proud of. Qualifications prove the academic ability however without experience and opportunity to learn, grow and develop Project Management will stagnate. What is of a concern many organisations have moved towards Matrix Management that can limit job opportunities and the scoping is greatly reduced for career development and advancement. The term Project Manager is applied right across the organisation to Technical, Developer, Operational disciplines, Project Managers are breeding. A Project Manager should not be regarded as the technical expert or developer a mistake that organisations make that greatly impacts and hinders the delivery of projects through the lack of leadership ability to deliver successful projects.

This reminds me of the truth that just because you put a group of people together doesn't make them a team. Just because you finished a leadership development class doesn't make you a leader. And just because you put someone in the role of a project manager doesn't mean they are willing or able to deliver projects. I greatly appreciate your emphasis that much of project management comes down to one's ability to lead. John Maxwell said that if you had to summarize leadership in a single word, it's "influence." Understanding what a WBS is without the skills to facilitate the creation of one with a team doesn't do much good. Creating a project charter without the political savvy for how to influence the process to get the project approved is paper-pushing. Effective PMs must be effective leaders (influencers). When our company develops PMs we focus as much on the people issues as we do the tools and templates for, at the end of the day, that's where the game is won or lost. Nice post Ashish Bhansali.............

This reminds me of the truth that just because you put a group of people together doesn't make them a team. Just because you finished a leadership development class doesn't make you a leader. And just because you put someone in the role of a project manager doesn't mean they are willing or able to deliver projects. I greatly appreciate your emphasis that much of project management comes down to one's ability to lead. John Maxwell said that if you had to summarize leadership in a single word, it's "influence." Understanding what a WBS is without the skills to facilitate the creation of one with a team doesn't do much good. Creating a project charter without the political savvy for how to influence the process to get the project approved is paper-pushing. Effective PMs must be effective leaders (influencers). When our company develops PMs we focus as much on the people issues as we do the tools and templates for, at the end of the day, that's where the game is won or lost. Nice post Ashish Bhansali.............