One of the best things that a leader can do is invest in their team. Making sure that they have the functional skills to perform their job at the highest level and are constantly improving. It starts with setting clear expectations and providing constant preformance feedback with regards to hitting those expectations. This is something that was written for my team after talking with some of the best project managers that I’ve worked with. Full disclosure, this is stolen from this 20 year old essay by Ben Horowitz.
Good project managers know their audience. They understand the fans that we have and the ones that we want to capture. They know the team, the brand and the competition extremely well and operate from a strong basis of knowledge and confidence.
A good project manager is the CEO of the project. A good project manager takes full responsibility and measures themselves in terms of the success of the project in market. A good project manager knows the context going in (our football team, our fan sentiment, our funding, competition, etc.). They take responsibility for devising and executing a winning plan.
Bad project managers have lots of excuses. Not enough budget, the media team was slow, I didn’t get a clear answer from PR, I’m overworked, I don’t get enough direction. Coach McVay doesn’t make these kinds of excuses and neither should the CEO of a project.
Good project managers set a clear vision. And communicate it. Both verbally and again in writing. Bad project managers are happy to move forward with loose goals – generic objectives things like “grow fans” or “increase revenue”.
Good project managers inspire trust – trust that communication will come in a timely manner, trust that people will be held accountable, trust that they are honest and transparent. Bad project managers are shifty – people don’t know if what they’re saying is true or will be true tomorrow.
Good project managers don’t get sucked into politics. They don’t take sides. They don’t keep score. They don’t hold grudges. They don’t respond to tantrums or threats. They are patient, focused and positive. Bad project managers display stress, anxiety and anger. Bad project managers take things personally and bring down the mood of the team.
Good project managers aren’t a “marketing resource”. They’re the captain of the “get shit done” squad.
Good project managers know how we fucking make money. Bad project managers do things only for the love of the game.
Good project managers crisply define the goals, the “what” (as opposed to the how) and manage delivery of the “what”. Good project managers set a plan, but are flexible on how they get there. Bad project managers feel best about themselves when they figure out the “how”. They view the process as sacred instead of a tool.
Good project managers set a vision and drive people towards it. Bad project managers manage meetings.
Good product managers communicate crisply in writing as well as verbally. Good project managers don’t give direction informally. Good project manager gather information informally.
Good project manager create systems and leverageable collateral – share drives, presentations, Slack/Teams channels and update emails. Bad project managers complain that they spend all day answering questions and are swamped.
Good project managers send meeting agendas and written recaps. Bad project managers blindly expect everyone to pay close attention and take notes on an 30 minute call.
Good project managers see the road ahead and anticipates problems ahead of time. Bad project managers put out fires all day. Good project managers check in. Every. Single. Day. Bad project managers wait until the deadline to figure out if the deliverables are ready. Good project managers manage up when shit hits the fan. Bad project managers ignore the smoke, hoping it will go away. Good project managers raise their hand to ask for help. Bad project managers gut it out, stew and suffer without telling anyone.
Good project managers act as an ally to everyone. Bad project managers rely on a small group that they can trust. Good project managers lead by influence, not authority. Bad project managers get stuck on the fact that “Aaron is an asshole to work with”.
Good project managers focus the team on revenue and fans. Bad product managers focus team on what other teams are doing. Good project managers deconstruct and clearly define problems. Bad project managers combine all problems into one.
Good project managers err on the side of clarity vs. explaining the obvious. Bad project managers never explain the obvious. Good project managers define their job and their success. Bad project managers constantly want to be told what to do.
Good project managers send their status reports in on time every week, because they are disciplined.
- Christian