Role Clarification

Take advantage of a best-practice tool that can develop effective leadership skills among project managers and resource managers.

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

Project managers direct the planning and execution of a project and are held personally accountable for the success of the project. Simply stated, they nurture the project to meet its objectives.
Resource managers hire, fire, make job assignments, coach, counsel, evaluate, award, promote and secure future work opportunities for direct reports. In other words, they nurture people to both reach their individual potential and to meet their commitments on projects. Everyone in an organization works for a resource manager.
The project manager champions the project. The resource manager champions people. These are oversimplified definitions but the important thing is to understand the difference in the roles and responsibilities between these two critical leadership positions and how they can best work together for the mutual good of the enterprise.
The success of an organization is largely in the hands of the people who hold these two vital positions.
A best-practice tool for developing the leadership skills of people in these key positions is the One-Day Project Manager/Resource Manager Leadership Workshop. Here's how it works.
The attendees are a mix of project managers and resource managers, up to 20 participants. A week or two before the workshop begins, attendees are required to identify the top three work-related scenarios that they would like addressed in the workshop. These are compiled into a single list with duplications removed.
At the start of the workshop, a brief refresher of the roles and responsibilities of both the project manager and resource manager is presented. The list of scenarios drives the remainder of the workshop. They include:

  • Coaching and Counseling Employee Scenario--Should the resource manager stay abreast of his/her employees' performance against their project plans or is that the exclusive territory of the project manager?
  • History Repeats Scenario--Newer projects consistently suffer from the same old problems that were encountered on previous projects. Where's the problem? Who's primarily accountable?
  • Test Plan Scenario--A project has no test plan. Who's primarily accountable? Project manager? Test team lead? Test team lead's resource manager? The project manager's manager? Other?
  • Missed Commitments Scenario--A project member consistently misses his/her commitments. Who's not doing their job? Project member? Project manager? Resource manager? Other?
  • Escalation Scenario--When two parties are unable to resolve a conflict related to a project, what role should the project manager provide in resolving the conflict? What role should a resource manager provide?
  • Management Style Scenario--Which is worse: A project manager/resource manager overmanaging or undermanaging?

During the workshop, everyone is called upon to provide the "correct" answer to one or more scenarios. First-time participants likely will be surprised at the number of scenarios that they answer incorrectly. Coming into the workshop, many attendees assume they know what is expected of them in their job. One of the workshop goals, however, is to give people a renewed understanding of their roles and responsibilities as they relate to projects, people and the overall organization. These workshops both teach leadership behavior as well as reinforce effective leadership behavior already in play.
At the end of the workshop, the scenarios and their correct answers can be documented and distributed for reference and reinforcement. In relatively new, inexperienced or weakly run organizations, the workshop should be conducted monthly. As the experience of the project managers and resource managers improves across an organization, the workshops can be scheduled quarterly.
For senior managers struggling with the issue of whether leadership can be taught, this works! For project managers and resource managers, being the catalyst to adopt these workshops across an organization is a great demonstration of leadership. And the whole process proves that leadership happens at all levels--and if it isn't developed, the enterprise will not succeed.
Are you leading within your domain of responsibility, or are you waiting for others to lead you?

Neal Whitten, PMP, president of The Neal Whitten Group (www.nealwhittengroup.com), is a speaker, trainer, consultant, mentor, and author in project management and employee development. His books include The EnterPrize Organization: Organizing Software Projects for Accountability and Success and Managing Software Development Projects: Formula for Success.

This material is reprinted from PM Network magazine (February 2004) with permission of the Project Management Institute Headquarters, Four Campus Boulevard, Newtown Square, PA 19073-2399 USA. Phone: (610) 356-4600. Fax: (610) 356-4647. Project Management Institute (PMI) is the world's leading project management association with over 100,000 members worldwide. For further information, contact PMI Headquarters at (610) 356-4600 or visit the web site at www.pmi.org. "PMI" and "PM Network" are trademarks of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
© 2004 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

 

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