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Pawel wrote a blog post called How to Suck as Project Manager which sparked this topic. Pawel specifically spoke out about how the most important part of a project manager’s job is keeping procedures. This is also true for me.
Many people believe that the “Monitoring & controlling” part of project management is the most important part of managing projects. It’s only a small part of project management, but it’s important in the grand scheme of things.
Here is my attempt to list some of the attributes that project managers should avoid. Please leave a comment to add your own.
The Enforcer
Rules, rules, rules.
Pawel said that the most important thing for you is that others follow the rules. You may not take action unless someone documents a process. Without it, we are powerless. You care more about how productive and valuable your team members are than whether they are five minutes late to work. ?Value is secondary to you, but process is your primary concern.
If people aren’t following the process, your first instinct may be to add some steps to it so they will. ?FAIL
The Modeler
The schedules and plans are often viewed as the project itself, rather than a model. You would rather see reality conform to your plans than have to adjust to reality.
Spreadsheets are your life. These models are your favorite toys and you will tweak and massage them all the time. This activity will take up most of your time.
Templates are essential to you, even at a pathological level. ?VERY IMPORTANT. It is essential that everything be started from a template and that everyone uses the same templates.
The Pushover
You react to the world like things are happening “to” you and/or your project. Unexpected changes can cause hands to fly up in the air quickly. You are in some ways the opposite of The Enforcer, as you don’t give feedback or take actions to ensure people follow the rules that add value.
You will be more likely to “fit in” additional scope without ensuring that there is enough money and/or the time to do it. Standing up to the man on behalf of your team is not something you are comfortable with.
The Emailer
Even though you may hate email, you really love it. Every whim you want to communicate?makes it easy to click “new” in your email program so that you can spread the good news to everyone.
Perhaps you realize that the message could have been discussed in a team meeting or you could have simply walked up and had a chat with someone for a few moments after clicking “send”.
You probably won’t.
Email is great because you can search through old messages and say, “See, I said so!” ?I clearly communicated this information to you right here. You couldn’t miss the?26th paragraph.
What are you waiting? Add yours below!