From project manager to Super Project Manager!

Here’s what’s stumped me. A person’s ability to manage a project used to correlate very well to one’s age. Don’t get me wrong. People were just as smart in the past and had many mentors to guide new managers; however, today a lot of focus has been placed on putting together a project management framework that doesn’t require as much experience to master. The PMP and PRINCE2 frameworks have raised the bar in managing projects. So what does a veteran project manager do? How does someone with years of project management experiences take it to the next level? Here are three things that you need.

Soft skills – Getting things done through influence

The main difference I see between the younger project managers and their older counterparts are in the ways they go about getting things done. Although technically more savvy than the older manager, younger managers rarely are able to get their team to form as quickly or communicate effectively with the project sponsors. The difference seem to be in the way that more experienced project managers employ a wider range of psychological know how, either consciously or subconsciously. Soft skills like, persuasion, negotiation, and conflict resolution seem to require someone to have gone through the experience before to be able to do well at it.

Deep industry experience

Although the perception of a great manager is that he/she is able to handle projects across any industry, I find that like any service professional, great project managers have deep industry knowledge. In my experience, a project manager who has served an industry for many years will almost always outperform a person who has been a project manager for a diverse set of industries. This is counter-intuitive to the idea that seeing how projects are managed across many industries should give one a more holistic idea of how to better improve one’s project management skill. The value I notice from project managers with deep industry skills are that they truly understand the business direction and trends of the industry, and align the project with the strategy as opposed to managing the project by the book. Sometimes, knowing when to change the process to fit the strategy is what is needed.

Strong network

Another advantage that time gives to a more experienced project manager is the ability to build a strong network of other project managers. Having access to a support network to bounce ideas off and also to learn from is invaluable.