The Project Book

CHAPTER 63 HIRE AND PICK YOUR PROJECT MANAGER

Axelos’s Directing Successful Projects with PRINCE2 guide is really, really clear about one thing: ‘One of the most important decisions a newly appointed [sponsor] will make is who to appoint to manage the project’.

All aspects of a project need to be taken into consideration, it adds, including its complexity, the political environment in which it exists, its size and a clear understanding of what’s required, before matching it to an appropriate — and available — person.

One of the most important decisions.

That’s how essential it is for your project that you get exactly the right person to lead it. Not the person ‘given’ to you by IT. Not a member of the accounts team because no one else wants to do it. The right person. A person who knows what it means to lead, build a team, create a strong plan, manage upwards, find ways to get things done in order to meet the expectations of you and your steering committee.

What you don’t want to do is pick someone who isn’t any of those things or who will simply tell you what you want to hear. Seth Godin calls these people Sheepwalkers. Staff who’ve been ‘raised’ to be obedient. That’s the last thing you need on a project.

In his book Start with Why, Simon Sinek says, ‘The goal is to hire people who believe what you believe’. Richard Sheridan, in his book Joy Inc., suggests you ‘hire humans, not polished résumés’.

For the past 10 years résumés are just how we’ve hired project managers. We’ve ...