Behave As If You Own the Business

It really is your business ... so what are you waiting for?

by Neal Whitten, PMP, Contributing Editor

MANY PROJECT MANAGERS forever seem to be searching for that special tool or technique that can significantly increase their likelihood of success, both for themselves and for their projects. They spend a lot of time in the classroom learning the basic project management skills and practices. They attend seminars and read professional papers, magazines, and books to identify key soft skills that will make them better leaders. They perform apprenticeships under the supervision of experienced project managers or—more times than not—venture out on their own to make their own mistakes and pray that the damage to schedules, costs, quality and customer satisfaction will be minimal and repairable. But all the while they are seeking that special tip or motto
or tool that will help it all "click" for them.
Of the broad body of knowledge, skills, and special insights that I have acquired over the years—information that has greatly helped me become a more effective project manager—perhaps the most helpful piece of information to affect my thinking and behavior as a project manager is this: Behave as if you own the business.
The best project managers demonstrate a passion for driving their project to a successful completion. It is a passion born out of the position that the project rep-resents his or her own business—and that business has fewer than 10 employees. Why so few? Because most of us can more easily relate to a business that is small and one that we personally own. The small business model helps us to more easily understand the potential impact of our choices and behaviors on the overall outcome of the project. If it is the right thing to do for our business, then it is almost always the right thing to do for the project that we are driving.
Project managers are faced with making dozens of decisions a week. If we get in the habit of making these decisions as if we were making them for our own personal business, I assert that we not only would make better decisions overall, but that we would make them more quickly. If you have owned your own business—even if only part-time—or associate with some action or activity with which you feel personal ownership, then you are more likely to relate with this concept.
You see, something happens to most of us when we work for others. It seems the larger the company we work for, the more distant we become in truly believing and behaving as if it is our company. Our passion for making and meeting commitments, owning problems and their solutions, and demonstrating a true behavior of accountability seems to diminish proportional to the size of the company with which we work.
But if you own a small business of 10 or fewer employees—or imagine it so—most decisions that you face would seem far easier to make than if you worked for a larger company. Why? Perhaps the biggest reason is the view from which a small business per-son operates. That view associates every decision with a corresponding impact of the survival of the small business. Said another way: Every decision counts! Perhaps another benefit for thinking from the perspective of the small business model is that a small business person often feels the direct connection between each employee’s survival (mortgage payments, food on the table, saving funds for special dreams) and the overall success of the business.
Feeling ownership for something brings out the best that we each have to offer. This is why it is so important for bosses to "let go," and drive responsibility, authority, and accountability downward. As long as the managers (versus nonmanagers, a category in which the author includes project managers) across an organization or project insist on owning the plans, processes, documents, and the like, the full potential and passion that employees have to offer will almost never be realized.
As a project manager, the next time you must make a decision—big or small—imagine making the decision from a perspective of owning the project (business). See for yourself the positive effect that this mindset has as you lead the members of a project in putting together the best plans; in staying on top of the project’s biggest risks and mitigating those risks; in running meetings more effectively; in helping project members solve their problems; in con-trolling the creep of product function, schedules and costs; in ensuring the delivery of a quality product; and, of course, in satisfying your customers.

THE YOU-OWN-THE BUSINESS mindset works not only for project managers, it works for all employees at all levels of an organization. It is a powerful concept that must be practiced. You will get out of your business what you put of yourself into it.

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 (September 1997) 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 50,000 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. © 2000 Project Management Institute, Inc. All rights reserved.

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