I was involved in interviewing a candidate for a project
management position when one of the interviewers asked, “Do you consider
yourself a project manager or a project leader, do you lead or manage the
projects your responsible for?” I found this to be an interesting question, one
that I’d not heard before. The longer I consider the question the more I
embrace the importance of the word “and”. Working in a world of “or” tends to
create a right or wrong mentality, a good or bad judgement filled arena.
Creating the possibilities of good and bad as well as right and wrong allows the
cultivation of a workplace filled with differing possibility, one in which we
can review actions looking for what works and examining what doesn’t work
rather than judging actions as correct or incorrect. In my experience, a
project manager who manages but does not use leadership principles to manage or
leads but does not use management disciplines is not as effective and
successful as one who manages and leads.
What is the fundamental difference between the two? Let’s
look at the basic definitions of both. A manager is a person responsible for
controlling or administering all or part of a company or similar organization.
The definition of a leader is that they are the one in the charge, the person
who convinces other people to follow, who inspires confidence in other people
and moves them to action. These definitions are similar and yet,
certainly not the same. A manager is focused on creating efficiency through
process and procedure, to organize the plan, and to ensure the result is attained.
They do this by managing the team and the activities through the plan, ensuring
risk is identified and mitigated, and by reacting to change as circumstances
change. Leaders are focused on inspiring the team to attain the result, looking
ahead to see what opportunities exist, identifying change to be used to improve
the result, and ensures the team has what is needed for them to be successful.
Leaders facilitate progress, decisions, and outcomes. Managers create the plan
by which progress, decisions and outcomes can be realized. Leaders have
followers, managers have team members.
Clearly, there is a difference between managing and leading.
The management disciplines needed to become an efficient project manager are
outlined in The Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK). Being competent
in Scope, Schedule, Risk, Cost, Resource, Communication, Procurement, Quality,
Stakeholder, and Integration management is necessary. Fundamental to being
successful is the ability to create an actionable plan, to identify those
involved and be able to communicate effectively to manage risk and scope, and
to manage cost. These administrative disciplines are required for successful project
managers and mastering them is a life-long endeavor. What works on one project
may or may not work on another. Every organization and team will be different and
requires a different approach. The fundamentals will not change, how the
disciplines are applied will change based on the circumstances of the project.
That is where being an effective leader becomes most important.
