Selection of a Project Manager

A note to senior management: It is rarely a good idea to select a project manager from a list of engineers (or other technical specialists) who can be spared from their current jobs at the moment. Unfortunately, in many firms this appears to be the primary criterion for choice. We do not argue that current availability is not one among several appropriate criteria, but that it is only one of several—and never the most important. Neither does the list of criteria begin with “Can leap over tall buildings with a single bound.”

The most important criterion, by far, is that the prospective PM, in the language of sales people, is a “closer.” Find individuals who complete the tasks they are given. As any senior manager knows, hard workers are easy to find. What is rare is an individual who is driven to finish the job. Given a set of such people, select those who meet the following criteria at reasonably high levels.

1. Credibility

For the PM, credibility is critical. In essence, it means that the PM is believable. There are two areas in which the PM needs believability. The first is technical credibility, and the second is administrative credibility. The PM is not expected to have an expert’s knowledge of each of the technologies that may be germane to the project. The PM should, however, have expertise in one or more areas of knowledge relevant to the project. In particular, the PM must know enough to explain the current state of the project, its progress, and its technical problems to senior management who may lack technical training. The PM should also be able to interpret the wishes of management and the client to the project team (Grant, Baumgardner, and Stone, 1997; Matson, 1998).

While quite different, administrative credibility is just as significant to the project. For management and the client to have faith in the viability of the project, reports, appraisals, audits, and evaluations must be timely and accurate. For the team, resources,
personnel, and knowledge must be available when needed. For all parties, the PM must be able to make the difficult trade‐offs that allow the project to meet its objectives as wellas possible. This requires mature judgm ent and considerable courage.

2. Sensitivity

There is no need to belabor what should, by now, be obvious. The PM needs a finely tuned set of political antennae as well as an equally sensitive sensor of interpersonal conflict between team members, or between team members (including himself or her­self) and other parties-at-interest to the project. As we will see, open and honest intrateam communication is critical to project success. Also needed are technical sensors that indicate when technical problems are being swept under the rug or when the project is about to fall behind its schedule.

3. Leadership, Style, Ethics

A leader is someone who indicates to other individuals or groups the direction in which they should proceed. When complex projects are decomposed into a set of tasks and subtasks, it is common for members of the project to focus on their individual tasks, thereby ignoring the project as a whole. This fosters the dreaded suboptimization that we mentioned early in this chapter. Only the PM is in a position to keep team members working toward completion of the whole project rather than its parts. In practice, leaders keep their people energized, enthusiastic, well organized, and well informed. This, in turn, will keep the team well motivated.

At the beginning of this chapter, we noted that the PM’s role should be facilitative rather than authoritarian. Now let us consider the style with which that role is played. There has been much research on the best managerial style for general management, and it has been assumed that the findings apply to PMs as well. Recent work has raised some questions about this assumption. While there is little doubt that the most effective over­all style is participative, Professor Shenhar of the Stevens Institute of Technology adds another dimension to style (1998). He found that as the level of technological uncer­tainty of a project went from “low tech” to “very high tech,” the appropriate manage­ment style (while being fundamentally participative) went from “firm” to “highly flexible.” In addition, he found that the complexity of the project, ranked from “simple” to “highly complex,” called for styles varying from “informal” to “highly formal.” To sum up, the more technically uncertain a project, the more flexible the style of management should be. The more complex a project, the more formal the style should be. In this context, flexibility applies primarily to the degree that new ideas and approaches are considered. Formality applies primarily to the degree to which the project operates in a structured environment.

Professor Shenhar’s work has the feeling of good sense. When faced with technologi­cal uncertainty, the PM must be open to experimentation. In the same way, if a project is highly complex with many parts that must be combined with great care, the PM can­not allow a haphazard approach by the project team. In the end, the one reasonably sure conclusion about an effective management style for PMs is that it must be participative. Autocrats do not make good project managers.

Another aspect of leadership is for the PM to have—and to communicate—a strong sense of ethics. In recent years, the number and severity of unethical practices by busi­ness executives (and politicians) have increased dramatically. Because projects differ from one to another, there are few standard procedures that can be installed to ensure honest and ethical behavior from all parties-at-interest to the project. One has only to read a daily paper to find examples of kickbacks, bribery, covering up mistakes, use of substandard materials, theft, fraud, and outright lies on project status or performance. Dishonesty on anyone’s part should not be permitted in projects.

Due, however, to the increasing number of multicultural projects, it is easy to make ethical missteps when managing a project in an unfamiliar country. Jones (2008) notes that what may be common practice in one country may be illegal in another—paying (bribing) a government agent to fast-track an approval, leaving out obvious information in a bid, inviting a client (or being invited) to dinner, and so on. Discovering another culture’s ethical standards is difficult. One can engage local partners who have demon­strated knowledge of a local culture and are willing to share their information. Organizations should ensure that their employees are trained to recognize potential ethi­cal issues and to communicate anything that seems amiss with their superiors. Insisting that employees follow the highest ethical standards, both domestic and foreign, may result in the firm having to abandon a project or a bid when it compromises those stand­ards, but having a solid reputation for integrity will be a strong long-run benefit to the firm.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) has developed a Code of Ethics for the profession. The Code is the thoughtful result of an extended discussion and debate on ethical conduct in the project management profession. A new version of the Code, resulting from even more extended discussions, appeared in 2006. It is roughly eight times the length of the earlier version, including two Appendices. The new Code is available to anyone at the PMI website, www.PMI.org.

The new Code should be read carefully by anyone contemplating a career in project management. It accents behavior that will lead to high trust levels among team mem­bers, and between the team and the client and senior management as well as other stake­holders. The section titled “Honesty” should be reread . . . and reread . . . and reread. We will revisit the subjects of honesty and trust throughout this book.

4. Ability to Handle Stress

Throughout this book we have noted and will continue to note that the life of the pro­ject manager is rarely serene. The PM is surrounded by conflict (discussed in more detail later in this chapter) and trapped in a high-stress occupation.

Kent (2008) identifies six signs of excessive stress in the workplace: (1) inability to switch-off work issues, (2) disturbed sleep, (3) lack of pleasure in non-work-related lei­sure activities, (4) difficulty concentrating or making decisions, (5) tendency to anger quickly, and (6) lack of energy. There are ways to deal with excessive stress. It is best if the organization is attuned to the problem and monitors their PMs and employees for work overload. Also, as we discuss shortly in the context of EQ, the PM should be self­aware and spot the danger signals early. Kent suggests several ways to control stress:

1. Keep a journal, taking time to reflect on the events of the day.
2. Prioritize all tasks facing you, eliminating tasks that do not really need to be done, transferring or delegating what you can, delaying low priority items, and minimizing the scope of any subtask that is not crucial to your overall task (the online Appendix to this chapter provides a primer on effective time management).
3. Give yourself time to unwind from high-stress meetings, perhaps by taking a short walk or doing 15 minutes of exercise or meditation. Avoid meditating on the high- stress meeting.
4. Engage in after-work physical activities that take your mind off the tasks.
5. Improve your physical surroundings so they are pleasant, enjoyable, and comfortable, helping you to relax.
6. Become aware of the control you do or do not have over events. One of the great laws of living is “Do not develop anxiety about things over which you have no control!”

One way PMs try to handle excess work is by “multitasking.” But as Hunsberger (2008) points out and as is discussed in Section 6.6, this does not work. In fact, multi­tasking is a misnomer. What you are doing is switching back and forth between tasks. You lose time whenever you do this. Her advice is to divide your tasks into small steps, prior­itize them on a to-do list, be proactive by tackling and completing tasks as soon as pos­sible, and then cross them off the list (see the online Appendix for additional ideas on effective time management). If you can’t finish in one sitting, leave notes that trigger your memory about where you were when you were interrupted.

There are numerous factors in life that cause stress, and project managers are as sub­ject to them as other humans. There do, however, appear to be four major causes of stress often associated with the management of projects. First, some PMs never develop a rea­sonably consistent set of procedures and techniques with which to manage their work. Second, many simply have “too much on their plates.” Third, some have a high need to achieve that is consistently frustrated. Fourth, the parent organization is in the throes of major change.

This book is primarily devoted to helping the PM deal with the first cause of stress. As for the second cause, we would remind the PM to include him/herself as a “resource” when planning a project. Almost all project management software packages will signal the planner when a project plan calls for a resource to be used beyond its capacity (see Chapter 6). Such signals, at least, provide PMs with some evidence with which to discuss the work load with the appropriate senior manager.

Concerning the third cause of stress, Slevin (1989) points out that stress results when the demands made on an individual are greater than the person’s ability to cope with them, particularly when the person has a high need for achievement. It is axiomatic that senior managers give the toughest projects to their best project managers. It is the toughest projects that are most apt to be beset with unsolvable problems. The cure for such stress is obvious, except to the senior managers who continue the practice.

Finally, in this era of restructuring and downsizing, stress from worry about one’s future is a common condition in modern organizations. Dealing with and reducing these stresses as well as the stress resulting from everyday life is beyond the scope of this book as well as the expertise of its authors. Fortunately, any bookstore will have entire sections devoted to the subject of stress and its relief.

Source: Meredith Jack R., Mantel Jr. Samuel J., Shafer Scott M., Sutton Margaret M. (2017), Project Management in Practice, John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 3th Edition.