The work was progressing nicely and the building was teaming with workers, all scurrying around wearing hard hats and conferring with each other and occasionally with the project manager. The little girl was clearly impressed. Finally she had a question.
"Daddy," she said, "do all these people report to you?"
"No," he replied, "they have their own supervisors."
"Well what do you do if they aren't doing what they should be doing?"
"I talk to their supervisors, and they take care of it."
She thought for a moment, then with her face beaming, said, "Oh, you're a tattletale."
While her view of a project manager is definitely a bit warped, it is true that a project manager is forced to play the role of tattletale in matrix projects. We have no direct authority over the team so we have to build good relationships with both the workers and their direct supervisors in order to have the work flow smoothly.
It is this relationship management part of projects that eludes some individuals. It is so important that projects sometimes fail because the project manager doesn't handle it effectively. Although is is obvious, some miss the fact that your entire success as a project manager depends on the performance of all those people who don't report directly to you, so a significant part of your time needs to be management by walking around, showing genuine interest in what they are doing and asking if they need anything from you. That bit of effort will pay huge dividends in the long run.
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe and share your thoughts and experiences in the comment section. All the best. Jim
