How to Become a Top Project Manager

11/16/2011

How to become a top
performing, highly-sought-
after Project Manager
Differentiating factors of the best project managers

Evans Munyuki, MPM, Cert.Dir – 4th Edition


How to become a top performing,
highly-sought-after Project Manager
Differentiating factors of the best project managers

Maybe you are a professional Project Manager, or maybe you are not a
professional Project Manager, but you are managing a key project and you’re
looking for that edge that helps you succeed.

This white paper seeks to highlight key differentiating factors which separate
and distinguish top-performing, highly-sought-after managers of projects.

The Project Management Institute (PMI) defines a project as a “temporary
endeavor undertaken to create a unique product or service.i”

Project management is defined as the discipline of planning, organizing,
securing, and managing resources to achieve specific goalsii (completion of the
project).

Though the project management profession has only become popular to many
of us over the past couple of decades, Project Managers have been around for
many years. In fact, project management has been around since early
civilization.

Setting the stage for project management
The Project Management Institute (PMI) was formed as far back as 1969, and
the history of planning and control techniques dates back to the 1800s to Henry
Gantt the father of planning and control (remember the Gantt Chart), and
even further back to the 1600s when architects like Christopher Wren ran their
own projects building and re-building churches in London.

Project Management has a wealth of history upon which top-performance can
be built. Today, it is barely possible to successfully build products without
leveraging the leadership of top-performing Project Managers.

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However, as we look at the profession of Project Management, it quickly
becomes clear that not all project managers are created equal.

There are Project Managers who make you want to hug your mother in law, and there
are Project Managers who make you want to kick your cat.

The Project Managers who make you want to hug your mother in law are the
top-performing, highly-sought-after Project Managers – the guys and girls we
can’t get enough of – the CEOs of their businesses (their projects), the breaths of
fresh air.

As I have taken on various job roles running
businesses and running information
technology organizations, I have observed
and concluded that good project
management leadership, governance, and
execution is a differentiator of project
execution, and ultimately it can be a key
differentiator for top company performance.

In my career, I have had the opportunity to work with many different types of
project managers whose personalities and execution I will associate with 6
archetypes (models of personality and behavior).

The 6 project management archetypes
The 6 project management archetypes which have caught my observation are:
The Dynamic Cowboys, The Peaceful Whiners, The Bulls in a China Shop, The
Diplomatic Diplomats, The Sleeping Beauties, and The Persevering Pilots.

The Dynamic Cowboys are Project Managers who understand that there is a
mission to be accomplished without fail. They ride their horses, take aim, and
shoot as and when necessary without allowing themselves to be slowed down
by the law (governance, policies and procedures). They can be a bit noisy
(metaphorically speaking), they have unconventional methods, but they get
the job done - fast. They run an operation which sometimes feels like a ride on a
rodeo bull, but at such moments they know how to keep one hand in the air
while the other firmly holds onto the saddle strap. Come what may, they get the

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job done. The project gets completed. The product gets built. When they are
done, you may have some clean-up to do, you may find areas where they
didn’t follow the right process, and you may find areas where you have to put in
place further risk mitigation steps as their actions (with good intentions) may
create other problems, but the job gets done.

Performance Opportunity: If you’re a Dynamic Cowboy, you have a
natural strength which helps you get things done. You may want to
capitalize on that strength by becoming aware of key processes which
you need to follow so you can decide how to handle them (during the
project or after the project).

The Peaceful Whiners have the unique ability to
quickly understanding the issues. They are very good
at understanding and highlighting all the problems
and risks you need to know about. However they are
likely to not suggest solutions to the problems. They are
also likely to stay fixated on the problems and if not
careful, they can get paralyzed by the volumes of
problems to the point where they themselves can
quickly begin to doubt the possibility of the project
ever reaching completion and ever achieving its objectives.

Performance Opportunity: If you’re a Peaceful Whiner, you have a natural
strength which helps you see trouble a mile away. You may want to
capitalize on that strength by surrounding yourself with people who can
help identify actions you can take in order to mitigate risks and potential
project derailers. You may also want to practice the attributes described
further in this whitepaper.

The Bulls in a China Shop can be aggressive and sometimes can be borderline
abrasive. They get the job done, but you are likely to get some collateral
damage along the way. Some of them don’t have high emotional intelligence.
They don’t really focus on the relational and softer aspects of their stakeholder
community. They can sometimes be heard in meetings as they issue instructions

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and communicate in ways that can make army generals look tame. However,
the job does get done! They achieve their objectives. The question is how many
more projects are project teams willing to work on with these individuals. It’s a
question of collateral damage – mostly unnecessary damage.

Performance Opportunity: If you’re a Bull in a China Shop, you have a
natural strength of momentum, strength, and focus. You may want to
capitalize on that strength by learning to be a bit more aware of the
china around you – the project team members and stakeholders. You
don’t want to break them apart as you focus on getting the project
completed. You want to be able to complete the project, and have a
team left which can help you with your next project.

The Diplomatic Diplomats - The Diplomatic Diplomats have very high emotional
intelligence. They seek to balance the needs of their various constituents. They
are great at using peace-based, carrot-based strategies for incentivizing
performance by their project teams. Diplomatic Diplomats can sometimes find
that there can be a lot of talk at the cost of getting things done.

Performance Opportunity: If you’re a Diplomatic Diplomat, you have a
natural strength which helps you bring people together. You may want to
leverage this strength to get the people focused, to get them owning
action items, and to hold them accountable for delivering on their
commitments.

The Sleeping Beauties are really pleasant to have around. They are gentle, they
don't make a whole lot of noise (metaphorically speaking), and they are
generally conflict-avoiding individuals. They try to get the project managed
without pushing anyone into a difficult position which in itself is not necessarily a
bad objective. However, some sleeping beauties don't really know what their
projects are about, and what benefits their project's business cases seek to
deliver. Some don't have Project Schedules and Project Plans. Some don't want
to upset people (which is not necessarily bad), and they gently hum along with
the activities at hand. They don't ‘drive different outcomes.' Rather they are
good at telling you what's happening - as if it’s a dream they are having with
little ability to influence the dream’s plot and outcome. Almost as if they are

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repeater stations in a radio network (as my awesome manager, Sue Lambert,
used to call them).

Performance Opportunity: If you’re a Sleeping Beauty, you probably find
project management to be a bit of a slippery slope as your projects may
tend to take lives of their own, like dreams – or should I say, like nightmares
upon which you have no control. You may want to take active control of
your projects – almost like a person who has a day-dream and influences
its outcome. You may want to practice the attributes described further in
this whitepaper. You may also want to surround yourself with people that
can help you compensate for your areas of weakness.

The Persevering Pilots show up for their flights before
the passengers board the plane. They show up with
predefined checklists of everything that needs to be in
order before they take the plane for flight. They realize
their dependencies on various key components which
include: their plane’s equipment, their flight crew, the
ground crew, the traffic controllers, the weather, and
their passengers. They create work breakdown
structures, and they create clearly defined tasks with
owners who know when to do what. They fly the plane. They monitor the
weather conditions. They monitor their risk profiles. They sense and respond to
their surroundings. Though they have a flight plan, they realize that weather
conditions do change, and they adjust their execution as the conditions
change. When they sense turbulence in the distance, they do their risk
assessments to ensure the plane can handle flying through it. If not, they find
alternate routes. They seek to make the flight as pleasant as possible for both
their flight crew (project teams) and their passengers (clients/stakeholders). They
stay in communication with their stakeholder community. Whatever happens,
they focus on getting you to your destination safely, on time, and in one piece.
They focus on persevering inspite of the conditions they meet in the skies. They
have the best of preparation, the best of tools, the best of equipment, the best
of stakeholder management, the best of focus on their target objective, and
even then, they know that anything can change, and they know how to adjust
their execution plans to the changing conditions which surround them. They sit in

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their offices (the cockpit) with a view to die for. They run their business of flight as
the CEOs of the mission. The Persevering Pilots are the perfect archetype for top-
performing, highly-sought-after Project Managers.

Becoming the big cheese in project management
So, how do you become a Top-Performing Project Manager? What are the
behaviours you should demonstrate in order to become a top-performing
Project Manager? What differentiates average Project Managers from the best
of the best?

What do Top-performing, highly-sought-after Project Managers do? How can
you become a top-performing, highly-sought-after Project Manager?

1. In order to become a top-performing, highly-sought-after Project
Manager, know and understand your business. As a top-performing
project manager, you must understand what business you are in, and how
your business makes a profit.

2. Understand what your project is about. Become the first ‘converted’
person who clearly buys into your project. If you don’t understand what
your project is about, you will run the risk of failing as you will probably not
know the key levers to drive in order to ensure success. By truly
understanding what your project is about, you are better positioned to
recruit top project team members.

3. Understand the business case behind your project and the benefits it
promises to deliver. Internalize it, and have skin-in-the-game to deliver the
benefits promised by the business cases. If your project business case
makes promises which can never be delivered on, go and speak with
your project sponsor (fast) so you don’t waste your time driving actions
which will never result in any recognized success.

4. Have a project schedule with clarity on key tasks, task owners, due dates,
and persistent follow-up on tasks. It is not enough to send someone an

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email with a request. Follow-up and keep following up until you get
completion of the task.

5. Upon taking on your projects, review and baseline the projects to ensure
the project is geared to succeed and has practical achievable
expectations. During this effort, if you find gaps in resourcing, schedule
expectations, or financials, address them to ensure project success.

6. Know and manage your stakeholders. Top project managers fully
understand that stakeholders can make or break a project. All it takes is to
have one overlooked stakeholder who comes from an unforeseen angle
and totally throws off the project. You must know and manage all your
key stakeholders. This includes your project team, project sponsors, project
supporters, project beneficiaries, and project haters.

The Chinese general & military strategist, Sun-tzu, once said: "Keep your
friends close, and your enemies closer." This principle is so relevant in
stakeholder management.

7. Learn to sell. You don’t have to become a fast-talking spin-doctoring car
sales man. However, at some point, you will find it necessary to convince
other people to exchange something of value (which they have) for
something else (which you offer) which is what selling is all aboutiii. The
‘something of value’ which you want could be executive support for your
project, resources for your project, funding to get your project launched,
etc. Learning the basic skills of getting people to buy into your requests is
a key skill.

8. Become a persevering pilot with a clear understanding of your flight
destination, your flight plans, where the weather is forecasted to be bad,
and what you need to do to manage your risks. Be on top of your project.
Know what’s going on. Know how to change the results and outcomes of your
projects. When you need help, ask. If unsure, ask. Surround yourself with
people that can help you achieve your project’s objectives.

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9. Learn to mitigate the key risks which your project faces. Just like a pilot
who monitors where the turbulence is, know where the risks are. Know
how to mitigate them. Know which risks you can transfer to someone else,
risks you can avoid, and risks whose likelihood of occurrence you can
reduce. Just like a pilot, at times you may chose to fly through turbulence,
but you only do so after careful assessment of the risk profile, possible
duration, etc.

10. Manage and Lead. Project Management can be one of the best training
grounds for top leadership talent because it forces you to learn the art of
leadership. As John Maxwell correctly points out, “Leadership is influence.”
Project Management teaches you to deliver results using resources and
people who mostly don’t even report to you – this is where the strength of
influence comes in – leadership. Influence the resources you have.
Influence the outcomes of your work efforts. Influence your deliverables so
they achieve the project’s objectives and deliver the promised benefits.
Embrace this opportunity to lead (influence) and make the best out of it.

11. Deliver the goods! Make your name the brand of execution upon which
delivery is built. Make your name a household brand which becomes
known for getting things done! Do what you said you would. Inspite of all
the challenges you may have faced with the project, and despite the
many valid excuses you could stand behind, deliver the goods. Deliver
the project. And close it off. Be known for delivering the goods – for
getting things done – for responding to communications – for being on
top of your game – for delivering the goods.

12. Don’t let power get to your head, don’t talk down on people, don’t
become full of yourself, be the kind of person you would want to work for.
Persevering pilots don’t show up late for their flight, and then spend time
trying to impress everyone with how important they are. Instead, they are
early, they swiftly allocate key tasks to their project teams (the crew),
everything is done swiftly, with grace, with precision, yet with authority, like
clockwork, while yet never giving passengers the impression that there is a
big-headed self-important dude running the show in the cockpit. The

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project managers I love most are the guys and girls who are able to get
the job done effectively and efficiently without losing their cool, without
throwing their toys out of their pram every other minute, without losing
their emotional intelligence, without losing people along the way, while
show true leadership qualities in their execution. You can be firm while yet
being a reasonable and pleasant human being to be around.

13. If you see team members who are stuck, give them guidance. Offer to
help your people – guide them. Coach them. Let them know it’s okay to
try things, and set the groundrules upon which it’s okay to make mistakes –
just remember there are mistakes you can get yourself out of, and there
are mistakes you can’t get yourself out of. Be clear with your teams on
your expectations. Ask them to alert you early if there are problems so you
can have a real opportunity at helping correct the problems. Support
your teams. Stand behind them. Let them know you’ve got their backs.

14. Be impatient with people who repeatedly don’t deliver. You might think
this point contradicts the point above, but it doesn’t. People will tend to rise
(or fall) to your level of (communicated) expectation. If you set ground-rules of
non-tardy delivery right up-front, and if you proceed to hold people
accountable, with clear consequences for non-delivery and clear
rewards for delivery, you will get better execution. If the person continues
to not deliver, get someone else. This task is hardest for project managers
because you have to use influence (leadership) in cases where the
person does not report to you.

15. Harvest the experience, knowledge, and insights of team members who
are smarter and more experienced than you. Don’t feel threatened. Don’t
feel you need to prove how smart you are. Put them to work. Get them
busy. Seek their points of view before you make decisions. Surround
yourself with people who compensate for areas where you are not as
strong – you won’t be able to get to everything anyway, so leverage your
team’s strengths. Welcome the differences which your team brings as
they help ensure a robust, balanced execution base.

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16. Less “I” and more “We.” If you are still busy trying to show your people just
how ‘clever’ you are, then you are probably not yet ready to lead. If you often
feel that way, you may want to get over yourself already, so you can
harvest the greater output from your team – you will get the credit
anyway ☺

17. EXTRA CREDIT ACTION (only for the really
serious top performers!): Go a step further - do
all you can to try and ensure that your project
delivers the benefits it promises.

This is much easier said than done as it gets you
into the deployment phases of your project. But
the sooner you get your mind around this
concept, the sooner you get yourself into more
strategic dialogue with key decision-influencers, decision-makers, and
project sponsors because:

a. it forces you to actually understand your project’s business case

b. It forces you to ensure the promised benefits are realistic. This can
help with the right levels of dialogue with key executives (who will
appreciate early warnings if things won’t be as they expect).

Assume that your project will deliver a software application which
enables a new product/service and enables your sales force to sell
$10,000 worth of these products/services per month. If your project
only goes live in October, at best, your sales force can only
generate $20,000 of revenue in the current year – not 12 x $10,000 =
$120,000 in the current year. These are common sense
considerations which sometimes get forgotten about resulting in
revenue promises which cannot be met, resulting in the project
getting blamed for the lack of realization of benefits which could
have never been realized.

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c. It forces you to think about tasks you can run in parallel. For
example, if you are running a software development project, life
doesn’t just end when the software release goes live there are users
to be trained; there are sales people to be trained on the new
product you are building; the sales people must start building sales
pipelines; there are client materials that need to be prepared to
inform clients of your new offerings; there is your company website
which needs to be updated with information regarding this new
capability which your project is building or enabling, and the list
goes on...

d. It forces you to be recognized by business leaders as a difference-
maker, a top-performer, and a person that is in touch with the
business.

Let’s look at 2 pilots: a regular pilot, and a persevering pilot. A regular
pilot may say that he flew a plane and landed it safely on time with
all 260 passengers aboard, and without expending more than 5% of
his fuel allocation.

In a totally different and refreshing conversation a persevering pilot
would say that she flew a plane with 260 passengers aboard, of
which 3 were medical doctors and 3 were business people. Upon
arrival, the medical doctors made it on time to the hospital where
they operated on 3 people each and saved 3 lives that day. The 3
business people made it on time to their client’s offices where they
closed 3 mega deals which resulted in the creation of 10,000 jobs,
thus contributing to the possible reduction of unemployment and a
possible increase in the number of tax payers.

This is the level of involvement I am proposing for ‘top-performing,
highly-sought-after project managers.’

This is not a Project Management 101 exercise because it is not easy
to do, but it is this type of thinking, influence, and execution which

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separates the top performers. You can find the business benefits nicely
documented in the business case (if your organization takes
business cases seriously).

Think “business benefits.” If your project delivers no benefits at all,
then question why you are doing it and try to align it with benefits
that a sponsor will care about.

As you think and focus on delivery of business benefits, you
broaden your organizational scope of influence. You become
relevant to business leaders.

Business leaders stop running away from you from fear of project-
management-speak of Work-Breakdown-Structures, Earned Value,
and Empirical Frequency Distributions for probability and statistics
involved in PERT ☺

Instead, when business leaders see you, they run to you because
they know you will deliver Revenue Growth (show me the money!),
Profit Growth (yummy…), Cost reduction, Operational Efficiencies, Risk
Avoidance and Mitigation (getting off unsupported software), etc. In
other words, Benefits, benefits, benefits.
As you practice these skills, along with your other key strengths, you will find that
you are well on your way to becoming a top-performing, highly-sought-after
project manager.

Best of luck as you continue to work on wow-ing your business with top
performance!

Feedback – Your thoughts?
You can provide the author feedback at emunyuki@gmail.com

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About the author
Evans Munyuki is the Head of Architecture for ABSA Bank and Barclays Bank (Africa) covering retail
banking, business banking, corporate investment banking and wealth management, as well as
bancassurance. The IT organization serves approx 42,000 internal system users & approx 14 million
customers. Absa’s retail bank is the largest in South Africa.

Before that, Evans was the Chief Information Officer (CIO) for ABSA Business Bank (ABB) - a large set of
13 Business Units in one of South Africa’s largest financial services groups, ABSA. Served approximately
4,000 internal system users. Evans and his team successfully delivered 73 key projects which de-risked
the bank, added new products & services, increased efficiencies, improved stability, and reduced costs.

Before that, Evans was the Group Chief Information Officer (CIO) at The Kelly Group - a listed company
with 11 companies in the USA & South Africa (SA) and 23,000+ employees. He and his team successfully
delivered 10 key large projects which drove new and diversified revenue streams, provided immediate
tangible cost savings, and enhanced operational efficiencies.

Evans was a nominee for the Visionary CIO of the Year 2010 Award. He was shortlisted as 1 of the top 9
Visionary CIOs in South Africa.

Evans was the Winner of the "Top Thought Leader Award" at the CIO Summit 2011 in Cape Town, South
Africa.

Before that, Evans worked for IBM in the USA and in South Africa for over 15 years where he held many
executive roles and key leadership roles driving P&L business leadership, business transformation, and
technology transformation. Prior to that, Evans held IT Manager roles in midsized companies in the USA.

Evans is a member of the ABSA Africa IT Leadership Team. He is a Non-Executive Director on the Board
of Directors for the Institute of Directors (IoD), and he is a member of the IoD Board Remuneration
Committee. Formerly, Evans was a member of the ABSA Business Bank executive committee, a board
member on the advisory board for the CIO Africa Summit 2011, The Kelly Group ExCo, The Kelly Group
Risk Committee, as well as a member of The IBM Global Technology Services ExCo in South Africa.

Evans holds 3 degrees in Electronics Engineering (Nash Community College USA), Business
Administration (North Carolina Wesleyan College USA), and in Project Management (Western Carolina
University USA).

Evans has held certifications as a PMI Certified Project Manager, IBM Certified Consultant, IBM Certified
Executive Project Manager, and an IoD Certified Director.

You can contact Evans at emunyuki@gmail.com and you can find him on LinkedIn
http://www.linkedin.com/in/evansmunyuki

You can view more of Evans’ publications on www.slideshare.net/emunyuki

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References

i A guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (3rd Edition, published by the PMI , 2004

ii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_management

iii http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selling

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