Recently few of my network connections were interested in switching over to Project Management. I thought I’ll share my experience on this post why that’s a good decision. Wait, scratch that. That’s a fantastic decision.
If you are looking for a change in your career, whether you are in a technical role or a non-technical role, Project Management could be a great stepping stone.
I spent much of my career as a project manager and it has helped me gain invaluable lessons in my current role on the business side. As I look back in my career it was one of the best decisions I probably made.
Here are my five lessons:
Breadth. Project managers possess an end to end understanding of a project. You are likely the only person on your project team to have a complete picture of your project. Every other project member has the knowledge on his/her specific focus area that goes a mile deep. Project managers have an inch depth of expertise but a mile breadth of knowledge. Project Management gives you the unique opportunity to learn every aspect of the business. You interact with every key touch point to make the project successful. You learn what business problem you are solving, what does it take to fix, how to manage expectations of your sponsors etc. If there are sections of the business that you are not familiar with, Project Management provides exactly that.
Execution. Ideas are easy to come by. But execution of those ideas are not. A good friend of mine used to say “all you need for an idea is couple of beers”. As a project manager you will master the execution skills over time. For any idea to materialize, a slew of activities and an army of people need to come together to make it work. Project managers sift through the details, dependencies, risks and lead the army to achieve the business goals. Over time you will gain expertise to precisely execute a project. This skill is absolutely necessary no matter if it is a small project or executing a larger strategy.
Navigation. Project managers are the GPS of any organization. In order for you to deliver a project successfully, you will quickly learn how to navigate through the processes and systems. Larger the organization is, more complex the internal procedures and processes are. You will need to know who does what and how things get done. This is an important skill to have, as you move up in your career ladder. For example, let’s say you work to launch a new product, you will have to work with Legal, Marketing, Customer Service, Policy, IT, QA, Development, Operations, Product Management etc. You get the idea. Needless to say you build relationships over time.
Efficiency. By sheer nature of the role, project managers get bombarded with a million requests during the course of the project. You will learn to ruthlessly prioritize which ones are important and which ones are not. You do this not only to individual tasks but also to business goals. Prioritization, Efficiency and Productivity becomes second nature to you.
Communication. You become the team’s spokesperson. Communicating to all levels of stakeholders is very vital to projects of any size. You will get to hone your written and verbal skills and be able to adjust it to your audience. It is not only about what to say, but also how to say and when to say. Above all, you will get to learn how to deliver bad news during times of crisis in a non-threatening way.
To close out, there is a general misconception that Project Manager’s role is about scheduling meetings, taking notes and chasing action items etc. Project management is not just that. Their role is to lead the project to successful execution. What does that mean? To highlight a few it means
- Anticipating what risks your project will face
- Mitigating risks through remediation plans
- Preventing risks from not turning into issues
I’m not suggesting the role will be easy nor success will be quick. The stakes will be high. Pressure will be intense. But it will be certainly worth it. More importantly you will get plenty of opportunities to pick up new skills, to build relationships, to understand the business that you won’t easily get in any other role.
Are there other lessons that you learned as a Project Manager that you’d like to share? Please share your feedback in the comments below.
If you find this post to be of value, may I request that you share it within your network? Someone, somewhere might be needing a little help.
(Originally posted on LinkedIn)
