Project Management Styles

As we’ve stated, Project Management is about the management of people and personalities. Because there are different types of people there are of course different types of project managers and different styles of management. Some of these are as follows –

Reactive

Otherwise known as crisis management. Lurching from one problem to another with never enough time to get on the front foot. This is caused by not taking the time to set the project basics in motion at the start. It is compounded by a lack of proactive follow up of tasks that require completion by stakeholders.

Force

My way or the highway. The project manager who tries to get what they want by threatening and contractual coercion. Whilst I acknowledge there comes a time when a good bollocking of a stakeholder is well deserved and has the desired effect, it is very rare. Generally this style of Management is a symptom of the Project Manager who has difficulty accepting change. As a Project Manager if you can’t accept and deal with change in such a dynamic industry….then find another career.

Responsibility

This one is my favourite. The old ‘It’s not my problem’ attitude. Sorry to say but as the Project Manager EVERYTHING is your problem because you have been engaged by the client to make sure the project is delivered. I recently was in a meeting where a Project Manager from a national company, working on a very large retail project, said to the builder “I don’t mean to be harsh...but not my problem”. So instead of working with the stakeholders to get an outcome, he just looked to lay blame at the end of the project on who didn't do their jobs. What a waste of time and money.

Big Picture

It’s important as a project manager to keep your eye on the big picture. It’s easy for some to get caught up in a particular area of the project they like or know well and forget about the ‘Big Picture’. However there are also the project managers who take such a ‘helicopter big picture’ view that they are so far above the project they can’t see what is going right and what is going wrong. This then leads to Reactive management.

Proactive

It seems logical to say a good project manager is a proactive one, but being proactive to many PM’s seems to mean addressing an issue as soon as it arises and getting a resolution quickly. No…being proactive means understanding the process, understanding the scope of works every member of your Team is required to perform, having a clear and detailed program of critical milestones, and a system of project management that identifies Risks before they become problems, and actioning a system of Mitigants that aim to reduce the risk to the overall project before any risk events occur.

As a Project Manager you can’t do all this on your own, you need specialists in each field to bring all this together, but it is your job to manage those specialists in a proactive manner, ensuring that what they are delivering is on Time, within Budget and Scope, and is all aligned with the ultimate goal of the Project outcomes.

The Art of Project Management (Part 2)