Tips for executives

EXECUTIVES IN THE THIRD Millennium will face a peculiar challenge: they'll be ultimately responsible for the success or failure of projects, yet will have less and less formal authority to command that things be done a certain way. Although executives theoretically possess power, in the modern era that power is more closely related to influencing through skillful articulation than it is to command-and-obey power. Even in military settings, where superior authority is theoretically absolute, the laws of nature sometimes refute the power of command: A ship captain's command to change course is obeyed, not instantaneously, but many minutes later when the straight-ahead inertia of the vessel is overcome by the power of the engines and steering mechanism. If nature resists authority even in command-and-obey settings, imagine the size of the challenge when the power is increasingly based on competence, political skills and communications.

When it comes to managing by projects, even the uninitiated executive can appear astute by asking timely, intelligent questions. The partially experienced can also benefit from the question approach, as can veteran executives well versed in the practice of managing projects. You can never go wrong by asking the questions reporters use when they prepare stories: who? when? where? why? what? and how? These words help executives formulate questions to themselves and direct queries to project managers and project teams. It's important that the question-and-answer sessions have a “show and tell” format. In other words, all of the answers should be documented in report or graphic form and reviewed jointly. Two question-and-an-swer approaches are presented in the sidebars.

Nature resists authority; better polish up your influencing skills. Asking the right questions will give you an edge.

Short and Sweet. The question-asking approach ensures that executives focus on the critical project issues. Yet questions alone aren't sufficient to make sure that projects are successful: some basic building blocks have to be in place to ensure a happy ending. For the busy executive, here's a thumbnail guide for making sure projects are done right. If these five executive actions are taken, success is a shoo-in.

Paul C Dinsmore, PMP, PMI Fellow, is the author of seven management books, the latest of which is Winning In Business With Enterprise Project Management [AMACOM, NY, December 1998]. Comments about column may be sent to [email protected].

1. Ensure strong executive sponsorship. Executive sponsorship means the ultimate caring and nurturing of the project from a strategic standpoint—making sure that the foundations for managing the project are in place. It also involves ongoing strategic alignment of the project within the organization's overarching business objectives (for more on this topic, see Chapter 3 of Winning In Business With Enterprise Project Management [AMACOM, 1998]).

2. Staff the project with the right manager and team. If the project is staffed correctly, most project matters will take care of themselves. A seasoned project manager is aware of the broad project issues that need to be dealt with.

3. Champion the cause for project team alignment. Team building takes place through inspired leadership, kickoff workshops, planning sessions, team integration programs and on-the-job training.

4. Ensure that project management methodology and support are in place. For the core project team to work effectively, the team members need a methodology coherent with the company culture and with the project's needs, and they require support personnel to look to for help in project scheduling and project administration.

5. Ask questions—the right ones, at the right time. For example, EDs has institutionalized the question-asking process: the company has a list of suggested questions for executives to ask at project approval time and during project reviews.

Promoting Enterprise Project Management. Although project sponsors are normally assigned to specific projects, in a broader sense all company executives are project sponsors, no matter what the formal relationship is to given projects. successful projects are in the interest of the company and thus all projects deserve support, aid, and guidance. This general sponsorship role is akin to that of “executive facilitation” where the role of executives is to clear away roadblocks and generally facilitate the pathway for those who do the work.

American Express is an example of an organization that takes upper-level project support seriously. “If your project fails, our company fails,” is the way American Express executives perceive their “partner” relationship with project managers. That relationship is bolstered by a “We will not let you fail” posture, according to Kathy Mayer, vice president for advertising and interactive business development. The function of senior management at American Express, according to Mayer, includes:

Communicating the project need clearly in the context of strategic direction

Ensuring alignment across functional lines

Ensuring access and senior management accountability to the project team

Underwriting success of all strategic initiatives.

Strong involvement in project work is clearly a part of the job profile for American Express executives. As Mayer puts it, “senior managers won't be senior managers much longer if they don't get up to par on managing projects.”

At AT&T and Lucent Technologies, hundreds of executives and professionals are certified as Project Management Professionals. This program was spearheaded initially by Dan Ono, PMP, now of Lucent Technologies, who influenced AT&T management to invest heavily in the program.

FOR EXECUTIVES LOOKING to take full advantage of the benefits of applying project management across an enterprise, following the format of the questions and suggestions given above is a good start. Executive involvement, through skillful articulation and intelligent questioning, sets the tone for boosting strong project management culture and ensuring a healthy bottom line for the organization.