The Most Valuable Role of a Project Manager

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Recently, I was reading a discussion thread on this on the LinkedIn site. Someone had posted the question, “What is the Most Valuable Role of a Project Manager?” Someone posted that question along with a follow-up question…”And how can a Project Manager optimize that role?”

At the time of this writing, the discussion has been going on for 9 days and has 11 comments so far. Breaking it down by responses that actually tried to answer the question rather than just chime in on the discussion, here are the results (the number in parentheses is the number of that specific response):

• Communicator (5)
• Deliverer of change to the business (1)
• Ability to say ‘no’ (1)
• Leader (1)

So, out of 11 comments, 8 actually gave answers. And of those 8 (one was me), 5 stated that communicator was the key role of the project manager (and yes, I was one of those 5).

I find this interesting. And all responses were good responses. The discussion will probably continue for a while, but I find it likely that communicator will still be on top down the road. The other responses are important ones.

Saying ‘no’

The ability for the PM to say ‘no’ – especially to the customer who they are trying to lead to the right solution – is very important. If the PM can’t be strong – stubborn as I’ve often called it – and stand firm on the goals of the project and know when to say ‘no’, then the project is likely to face issues and the project scope is in constant danger of getting out of hand.

Leader

Likewise, the project manager must be a strong leader. The responder stated that a good leader will know when to listen, when to speak, when to encourage, and when to cry out louder. The PM is the leader in charge of many different backgrounds and personalities. The role as the leader is a given, but they must adequately fulfill that role in order to hope to achieve success on the project. Yes, I agree, leadership is critical.

Change agent

Anytime you’re delivering a project you’re delivering change to the business or client. The project manager is that change agent and sometimes has to work hard to knock down barriers to change. They must work well with others inside the business or with the client to make that change happen and to help that change be accepted. The PM is definitely a change advocate.

Communicator

However, I still believe – as I always have – that the role of effective communicator is the most critical role for the project manager. All project communication happens with the project manager – it all needs to go through this one position. And if it doesn’t – if critical communication routinely circumvents the process and goes around the PM, then the project is likely headed for disaster. The PM is the central point for project status, project meetings, emails, revised schedules, issues tracking, risk tracking, and budget management. If key pieces of project information miss the project manager, then they will likely miss other critical communication points and individuals as well.

A project manager must be an effective communicator and must maintain control over the communication process in order to give the project its best chance at success.

More on Project Communications Plans

As I’ve been stating recently, I feel it is necessary that both new and old project managers have access to as many potential processes and templates as possible – especially those working as consultants that may be acting outside of PMOs with their own processes and governing policies.

I’ve previously posted the article entitled “The Project Communications Plan” and have supplied actual communications plan documents to many readers over the past few months. The offer still stands – email me if you want a copy.

Carl Pritchard presents nice information on the details and uses of the project communications plan in his book “The Project Management Communications Toolkit.” For the benefit of our readers – mainly to give you different perspectives and templates to choose from, I am presenting Mr. Pritchard’s outline below.

The Communication Plan Defined

Purpose

The communications plan provides direction on which stakeholders should be discussing project business with which other stakeholders, the tools they should use, and the degree to which they should be sharing, documenting, and storing that information. Because of the number of stakeholders involved in a single project and their diverse roles, the communications plan orchestrates project communication through a cohesive approach to information sharing. It is a critical deliverable to the planning process.

Application

The communications plan is shared openly with all internal project stakeholders to help them understand how they should communicate and with whom. For external project stakeholders, the communications plan is normally filtered to present information only germane to their role and use.

Ideally, the list should be built in a spreadsheet program that allows the user to filter stakeholders by communications modes, contacts, frequency, or other category as appropriate.

The communications plan should reflect communications as dictated by the contract, memorandum of understanding, or statement of work, as well as any other protocols that became self-evident during the project’s evolution. Different project participants will use the communications plan in different ways:

• The project manager uses the communications plan to ensure that the various stakeholders are aware of their communications responsibilities to each other and to the organizations.
• Team members use the communications plan as a combination contact list and guide, with an interest in the types of communication preferred by the various users.
• Senior management and customers may use an abridged version of the communications plan to be clear on when to expect certain reports and documentation, and for contact information on their primary points of contact.

Content

The communications plan is a matrix of information, normally built in a spreadsheet program with the following data:

• Stakeholder name
• Primary contact
• Secondary contact
• Telephone
• E-mail
• Postal mail address
• Preferred communications mode
• Best time
• Frequency of communication

Because it is built in a spreadsheet format, the communications plan can be sorted and reordered in a variety of ways. If the types of communication (status reports, team meetings) are most important, they may be the first column, followed by frequency of communication and stakeholders (recipients and attendees, respectively). If physical proximity is an issue, the primary consideration may be the postal mail address, which can be sorted to determine which stakeholders are in common regions or locales.

Because communications breakdowns are frequently rooted not in miscommunication, but by a lack of communication, the notion of the “best time” for meetings, reports, contacts, and phone calls is crucial. If certain team members can only attend project meetings before 3 p.m. because of personal concerns, the project communications plan should highlight those interests. If a customer is never available before 10 a.m. for phone calls, such concerns should be noted as well.

Approaches

The communications plan is one of the most publicly available of the project documents. Because it serves as the framework for open communication among team members, the customer, and other stakeholders, complete and abridged versions of the document may exist, depending on the audience. If varying versions are used, some form of version control (e.g., 1.0 = complete plan, 1.1 = customer abridged, 1.2 = management abridged) should be applied.

The communications plan serves as more than just a phone directory. It provides information on the communications sensibilities and sensitivities of all of the personnel involve.

Considerations

While the plan is widely available, some stakeholders are proprietary about their contact information, and those concerns need to be respected. The communications plan should not become a medium for those who wish to broadcast information randomly to all project parties. It should be used to focus communications on an as-needed basis.

Weapons of Mass Distraction

You know those times when you forget what you are supposed to be doing because people keep dropping in on your unexpectedly and various pieces of technology keep beeping at you ceaselessly throughout the day?  Not to mention the pens, post-it notes, and ornery chickens flying around your office?

Oh.  Maybe it’s just me.

The dangers of multi tasking to project teams has never been more so. Now we have additional online services and mobile devices to deal with. What I wrote about back in January 2007 about Multi-tasking, Covey, and TOC is even more applicable now. Your project schedule should drive priorities, not a false sense of urgency in adhoc daily tasks.

Multitasking Kills by Daquella manera via Flickr

Raven blogged about this and embedded a video, the same one I’m embedding below. (If you don’t know about Raven’s Brain, you NEED to check it out. It’s kind of noodley and gooey, but well worth it!)

Weapons of Mass Distraction

As a project manager I feel it’s your duty to protect your staff from bad multi tasking.

Don’t expect your project team to be waiting for your email or IM and respond immediately. They have work to do. Encourage them and everyone else to only check email a few times a day, on a scheduled basis. Send them instructions to turn off the “auto-notification” sound/box whenever they receive a new email. For goodness sake, let them focus on their work! This goes for remote staff too!

Don’t wander around and interrupt people. I work with people who have no regard for this whatsoever. They’ll assume they can interrupt a discussion or pull someone off a focused task. It’s arrogant, annoying and a time waste because people have to switch gears. If you need to talk with someone, ask their permission before launching into a conversation. If I walk over and someone is in a discussion, I keep walking unless what I have is truly urgent and important. If they are engrossed in a project task, I’ll say something like “Hey John, could you stop by when you get to a good stopping point? No rush.” if I need to speak with them. This way they only have a minor interruption and can get re-focused rather quickly.

Lead focused and short project meetings. If everyone is not fully engaged in the meeting, then you are losing most of the value for them being there. Keep the pace fast and focused, and make sure only the right people are invited. If someone is distracting themselves, help them get engaged in the meeting by asking them direct questions about the topic at hand. Even better, as a part of your project meeting ground rules, outlaw all communication methods (IM, email, Twitter, texting, etc.) besides being engaged in the meeting.

Check out the video below, it’s funny because it’s mostly true!

Who Is Josh Nankivel?

I am the founder of pmStudent.com, a site dedicated to helping new and aspiring project managers succeed.

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