Have you noticed how functional and technical specialties have project manager in their titles? Why? A few years ago, Fortune Magazine called project management the ‘number one career choice’ of professionals.
If you go through the classified section in the paper, project manager positions may be the most popular job. You see project management titles in construction, product development, law, performing arts production, movies, telecommunications, bioengineering, small business, and most start-ups. Tom Peters, the guru’s guru, declares that if you don’t spend up to 70% of your time on projects, you’re sushi. Pretty tough words.
The up side? Projects give you visibility, wide experience, opportunities. Tom Peters capitalized on the trend that we’ll all be itinerant free agents. He’s trademarked the phrase, ‘The Power of You.’TM Smart. Real smart. So, If each of us is evolving into a self-directed project manager in a virtual team or projectized organization, what will our work future look like?
The down side? While project management is hot, there are downsides:
- Little administrative support.
- Possibility of changing priorities.
- Multiple work flow paths.
- Simultaneous and conflicting projects.
- Control and power conflicts.
- High overhead due to parallel costs.
- Additional organizational layers.
- Group think, excessive management, or decision making by consensus.
- Focus on process, instead of products and customer requirements.
- Multiple and maybe conflicting policies and procedures.
- Communication and coordination conflicts.
Life Lesson Earned: A number are called to serve as a PM but few excel.