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JR COMPANY’S TOP TEN THINGS
THAT CAN GO WRONG
ON A CONSTRUCTION PROJECT
By Michael DiMercurio
NUMBER 7: PROBLEMS WITH SENIOR MANAGEMENT
Senior management and the project manager are in partnership if things are set up and running correctly.
The main thing that senior management brings to the equation is the confidence in the project manager. It takes courage to allow a lower level project manager to run the job for the company. Too often, senior management clamps down on project managers out of fear that the project manager will make the wrong decision because he is insufficiently qualified or inexperienced. This lack of confidence is one reason why project managers are awash in reporting requirements, forecasts, cost-and-status reports, weekly conference calls and other forms of invasive accountability, when the entire reason that the project management position was created was to allow senior management to focus on bigger picture issues and leave the details to lower level project managers.
Human nature, unfortunately, is that people are great at doing the last job they had as they grow into a current position, and when senior management personnel are ex-project managers themselves, they see issues through the lens of what they themselves would have done as project managers. Senior management may have done things differently when they were PMs.
In the ideal situation, senior management will hire, appoint and train project managers so that they represent exactly how management want projects built. Even better is when senior managers have close relationships with individual project managers, allowing them to bridge the gap of the natural inclination of PMs to be independent and to resist taking “rudder orders” (detailed direction or “management at the task level”) from senior management.
Construction projects go wrong when senior management acts to undercut the project manager’s authority, perhaps out of insecurity that the PM has the capabilities, experience and loyalty that he should have. PMs who are then forced to live with extreme reporting requirements to allow senior management to “project manage remotely” become figureheads. Project teams immediately sense when the PM on their project has become a “remote unit” for distant, out-of-touch, imperial senior management. When that happens, nothing the PM says carries much weight, and the project can collapse when no one does what the PM orders. Gutting the PM’s authority is not the answer – if senior management lacks full confidence in a project manager, it is their duty to replace the PM with someone in whom they DO invest their unreserved confidence.
Acting as senior management over the level of project managers for capital construction projects is not a job for the faint of heart. A blunder on a construction project not only “blows back” on the PM, but on his reporting seniors as well. If you’re the V.P. of Projects, one project manager’s mistake could cost you your job between breakfast and lunch, which is why it is so important for senior management to train PMs and communicate well with them – while never undercutting the PM’s authority. But underlying all this is that senior management in addition to wisdom needs courage most of all, because they walk the continual tightrope. Micromanage the PMs to avoid mistakes, and the PMs become useless figureheads, the projects go out-of-control and disaster strikes. Manage too loosely and the PMs may start making decisions that are far above their paygrade to the detriment of the company and the company’s resources.
The sweet spot is in the middle. Senior management must manage the PM with enough force so that he knows what the company expects, but gently enough to preserve his autonomy.
Senior management is also in business to act as the referee between what is good for a project and what is good for the company, and frequently those goals conflict. There are times when what is good for one project is disastrous for another project, and no matter the decision, one project will suffer. At that point it becomes a matter of which action will damage the company’s goals less.
Senior management therefore must possess the wisdom of Solomon and the courage of a lion. Very few people have the skill set to do this, but when they do, it is a beautiful thing. Sometimes, people do their jobs so well that it is a pleasure just to watch them work.
Let’s hope your job has senior managers like that.
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