The Neal Whitten Group

No-Nonsense Leadership and Project Management

Public appearances…

I rarely mention my many public appearances, but there are two recent events I would like to share.

  1. The PMI chapters that reside across Ontario Canada recently decided to experiment with a special event they dubbed the Ontario Roadshow. I was the first person these chapters selected to test out the concept. The plan was to enlist a proven “named” speaker with multiple seminars from which to choose and have that speaker conduct a road trip across Ontario speaking to one chapter after the other near the end of March. Five chapters chose to participate and I conducted two different seminars and one evening presentation to these five chapters across 5 days. The Roadshow was a lot of fun and, based on feedback from the participants, was highly rated. This is a concept other chapters could possibly learn from. Danelle Peddell, President of the PMI South Western Ontario Chapter, demonstrated admirable leadership in working with the other nearby chapters in pulling this event together.
  2. I recently conducted (first week of April) one of my popular 1-day seminars for the PMI Champlain Valley Chapter in Burlington, VT. The chapter has about 250 members but there was a record-breaking165 attendees for the all-day seminar. Hats off to Allan Cruz, the chapter’s President, and Michael Schmidt, Co-VP of Programs, for leading this successful event. I was honored to have been selected to be the presenter.

See https://nealwhittengroup.com/appearances/ for the date and location of my upcoming public events.

Making mistakes can be an asset.

I have been asked a number of times, “Are the best project managers those who have made no big mistakes?” Not necessarily. I applaud those few PMs who have made no significant mistakes; you are a minority. However, I think mistakes have great value, as long as you are learning from them and not repeating them. No one intentionally makes big mistakes, nor do they want them in their work history, but adversity can help sharpen one’s work habits and character. I have made some big mistakes, and white I would not want to relive any of them, I believe that I have far more to offer others as a trainer, consultant and mentor because of them. If a person consistently makes only small mistakes, I question his or her willingness to take personal risks and stretch himself or herself on behalf of the project and organization.

How is a senior project manager different from a project manager?

I authored a one-page article for PM Network® magazine that briefly addresses this question. The full article, called “Great Expectations,” can be accessed here. I expect a lot from a senior project manager, far more than I expect from a project manager. Extracting information from my article, here is my response to this often asked question.

Although I often hear it said that the main difference between the job description of a project manager and a senior PM is the size and complexity of the project they run or the number of projects they run, there is much more I expect from a senior project manager.

Listed here are 10 expectations that I have of senior project managers. This is not an exhaustive list but, nevertheless, does reflect many of the major differences. Whether you are hopeful to become a senior PM or already are a senior PM, how do you stack up against these expectations?

  1. Mentor less-senior personnel. There is no better way to learn a craft than with assistance from a mentor—especially when you are first starting out. Senior project managers should mentor those around them in aspects of the profession such as leadership, methodology, tools, people skills and navigating politics.
  2. Evaluate performance.  A senior PM has the skills to know what is expected of a PM and should be able to help evaluate that person’s performance—especially since management often seeks their skills, opinions and recommendations.
  3. Identify PM-related training needs. They should be able to evaluate the readiness of a project team or organization and then recommend the related training required to ensure the effective application of project management and leadership principles.
  4. Conduct training. A senior PM must be able to teach many of the skills—both hard and soft—that are required for the successful planning, execution, delivery and support of projects and their products or services. They must also qualify project management training vendors and monitor their delivery and effectiveness.
  5. Perform project reviews. They should have the ability to either individually assess the health of a project or lead a small team in doing so. It is important for the senior PM to be able to net the review findings so that the most important problem areas, as well as most noteworthy areas for praise, are clearly identified.
  6. Turn troubled projects around. Any project manager with satisfactory performance should, for the most part, be able to turn around small and some medium-sized troubled projects. But a senior PM should be able to turn around any-size troubled project in his or her industry.
  7. Help hire or place project managers. A senior PM can significantly contribute in the interview and selection of new project management hires. Moreover, he or she can be called upon to determine the placement of project managers onto specific projects.
  8. Make continuous improvement a priority. They should have a solid grasp of basic and many advanced project management principles, along with having experience in successfully applying and advancing those principles. Continuous improvement is a distinctive characteristic of high-level project managers.
  9. Think like a business person. Project management is mostly about business. A senior PM should understand the business need for each project and make on-going decisions based on what’s best for the organization—even if that means challenging senior stakeholders on critical success factors.
  10. Be a role model for integrity. Integrity is not optional. However, many project managers are shaky in taking the initiative to ensure a project is always being run effectively and with proper governance. Senior project managers should champion the promotion of integrity in all endeavors.

In closing, a senior PM’s performance is viewed by peers, management and other members of a project or organization as continually adding value across an organization—unless that senior PM is exclusively focused on a single major project. Senior PMs are highly valued organizational assets and represent respected leadership positions in any progressive organization.