Are you a boss? Congratulations, you’re a project manager!

Photo by Pablo Varela on Unsplash

I have been doing a lot of thinking about project management lately (it comes with the territory of starting your own project management consulting firm). And, lately, I’ve been struck by a realization: everyone is a project manager.

Now, hear me out. I’m not saying that everyone in the world has a project management job title. Definitely not. But, the thing is, whether we realize it or not, each and every one of us is doing project management every day. I’m making the argument similar to how Daniel Pink argues in that everyone is a salesperson in his book To Sell Is Human, whether or not they have the requisite job title.

I haven’t done the research [yet] to back up my theories in a book, but I thought I’d take the opportunity in this blog to spell out some of my thinking on the topic. Over the next few weeks, I’m going to explore several different jobs and roles, and how they each use project management in their day-to-day. Why? Because, I think we could all stand to improve on how we are doing our project management. And furthermore, if we did, I think we’d all get a lot more done than we even realize is possible. So, buckle up- these next few weeks are going to be a journey of exploration!

WHAT EXACTLY DOES BEING A BOSS HAVE TO DO WITH PROJECT MANAGEMENT?

In a word, everything. I’ve been in management positions for close to 15 years at this point, and the number one thing I’ve used to help me manage a team is project management. How? Well, to start, I need to be organized in my approach. Project management at its core is all about organizing a complex series of tasks in a way that makes logical sense and finding a way to assign work to many different people. If you have ever created a spreadsheet that tracks who on your team is doing what project, congratulations- you’re using a project management tool and skills.

If you’ve ever had to report to other people about work your team is doing, how it’s progressing and whether you need additional help or resources, you’ve been employing project management tools and skills.

If you’ve ever had to jump in with a team member who is struggling to get things done, find them other people to help or get them more time to meet a deadline, you’ve been employing project management tools and skills.

The thing is, I don’t think anyone’s talking about it like that. We in the project management world talk about “status reports,” and “dashboards” and “risk registers,” and that sounds like a foreign language to a lot of people. If we talked about things like reporting out on how the team is doing, reporting on reality vs. what our plan was, or addressing problems and finding solutions, I think more and more people would understand that project management is something they do, something that’s understandable, and ultimately, something that can and should be done by everyone in the workforce. Bosses especially would benefit from thinking more about whether and how they use project management tools, as organization, transparency and data bring better clarity about what is happening on the ground, what can or should be done to fix it, and what the best next step will be.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Are you a boss? Do you consider yourself a project manager? Do you have a boss? Are THEY a project manager? How would better focus on project management help the bosses at your company succeed? Leave me a comment or a DM with your thoughts! I’d love to hear from you!