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Emerging as a Project Manager - Don’t Follow Stars

September 30, 2009 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Musings

Emerging as a Project Manager - Don’t Follow Stars
By Rob Redmond

When you are promoted to take over a team of people that you used to work with, you might imagine that your situation could not be more frustrating. People who are used to thinking of you as a friend they go to lunch with now have to answer to you as their boss. Wouldn’t things be easier if you took over a group you were not familiar with? Does not familiarity breed contempt?

The project managers who have it the worst are not those who are promoted from within. The project managers who have the hardest time are those who are brought in from the outside, and those who try to fill the shoes of a rock star.

Behold the inevitable and yet informative 2×2 matrix below:

New Project Manager

Following Stars vs. Following Dogs

Your chances are worst when you are an outsider hired in to fill the shoes of someone who was truly a great project manager. As you can see from the clever icons above (marketing!), the worst possible situation you could ever find yourself in is to be hired in from the outside to replace someone who was thought very highly of.

If you are promoted from within to fill the shoes of a great man, you’re still going to end up in a tough situation, especially if that person is still hanging around or has been promoted and remains your boss. There will be no speaking ill of this person tolerated by anyone, and no one will want to hear about any problems you found that needed fixing. You will be seen as riding on golden coat-tails.

Things get easier when you follow in the footsteps of someone who was considered a dog. Bad project managers are good people to follow. They set expectations so low that all you have to do is set up one on one meetings and give people decent goals to aspire toward, and you will accidentally sneeze your way to stardom. If you are an insider who follows a dog, you cannot lose. You will always be seen as better than the man you replaced and a certain fear will surround the idea of you moving or leaving.

Why is this? The first answer lies with Robert Greene in his book The 48 Laws of Power:

  • Law of Power #41 Avoid Stepping into a Great Man’s Shoes

    What happens first always appears better and more original than what comes after. If you succeed a great man or have a famous parent, you will have to accomplish double their achievements to outshine them. Do not get lost in their shadow, or stuck in a past not of your own making: Establish your own name and identity by changing course. Slay the overbearing father, disparage his legacy, and gain power by shining in your own way.

A smart leader avoids following a star. You don’t want to be the president that follows Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, or Teddy Roosevelt. John Adams, James Madison, Andrew Johnson, or William Taft. The difference between the first five names and the second five is that the first five followed dogs into office and the second five followed stars. Washington ascended the presidency after Cyrus Griffin (ever heard of him?) was the last president of the Continental Congress under the Articles of Confederation.

Poor Taft was so reviled that the man who made him, Teddy Roosevelt, turned around and ran for a third term against him as an the leader of the Bull Moose Party in order to kick him out of office. Imagine replacing a manager and then having everyone boo you so publicly that they cry for the person you replaced to knock you back out of office and send you packing!

When you come up through the ranks, you make friends and allies along the way. Your social network supports you and acts as a catalyst for your ideas to take form into action. Your network within the company gives you power and makes you difficult to remove except from high above or by hired guns who will not have to endure the political backlash for having harmed you.

When you come in from the outside, the greatest power any project manager has, the power of relationships, is not available for protection or to create an aura of success. The only thing an outsider can do is build relationships as quickly as possible.

So, if you have come up through the ranks, and you thought your job was tough because the people you considered peers are now your employees, it is time for you to realize that you have it easy. If you are struggling, it is because you are that inexperienced and that unskilled, and you have some studying and some learning to do about managing people. Your previous peers are the easiest bunch you could ever get your hands on.

Rob Redmond studied sociology, psychology, and political science as an undergraduate before entering the workforce. Returning to school, Redmond earned an MBA from Georgia State University in June of 2000. Rob is currently employed as a manager of IT of a large technology company. Rob runs the struggling manager blog where he posts about his experience in both management and project management.

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