We often hear about poor sponsorship as one of the reasons for project failure, but in this post, the sponsors have taken their own back.
We often talk to project teams about the art of project management and the need to step into their safety zone and see the business as their customer not their victim, so here are a few of the characteristics that some of our sponsor clients have identified as making up the nightmare project manager:
- Talks in jargon whenever asked basic questions, defensive when challenged
- Focuses so much on process, they can’t think for themselves, love filling in forms
- Is a hero at heart and loves last minute firefighting to get the project over the line, it will be alright on the night
- Focuses on project management not the business outcomes
- Dives into technical detail about the solution rather than trying to understand the business challenges
- Sees stakeholder management as everyone’s problem but theirs
- Seen it all before, 25 years experience sadly it’s the same every year
- Believes that the “can do” approach will overcome their incompetence
- Planning is a pointless exercise because everything will change anyway, so what is the point
- Talks a good game, vanishes when the going gets tough