Everyone could be or has been a manager of a project, but some people are more natural PMs than others, and different projects require different skills and behaviors. I recently experienced a stressful situation that was resolved though good project management.
My son had a winter wedding scheduled Saturday, January 23, 2016. The bride had planned every detail for the perfect “destination” wedding: everything from the music for the father/daughter and mother/son dances to the 8 bridesmaids’ hair and makeup appointments; from the hotel rooms to the chair covers. Her wedding day was going to be just like she always imagined it.
But then everything went wrong.
The winter destination wedding wasn’t in a tropical locale, but in northern Virginia. The odds were good that it would go well because the weather is typically moderate at that time, but this particular weekend turned out to be the Blizzard of 2016: the forecast called for 20-30 inches of snow. The contract with the venue called for cancelation of the event if the snow measured over 12 inches.
The Wednesday before the wedding, it was clear that their perfect day was looking less perfect. All the planning in the world could not account for the state of Virginia’s lack of snow preparedness. Tough choices were going to have to be made when faced with no venue, no attendees, and no vendors (photographer, videographer, DJ, etc).
These tough situations call for objective thinking. We needed someone who could separate the emotion of a personal event and months of planning from the reality of the situation at hand, but also had the authority and tact to get a solution. There was really only one person who could do it: the groom.
Luckily the groom had some engineering PM experience and a support network of people he could count on, including one who he knew could help: his father. Both could think objectively, logically, and unemotionally, and communicate tactfully under pressure.
The results were nothing short of memorable. That was the word used most by anyone who could attend. The local news covered the event, and the news segment was picked up nationwide:
The bride had the organizational skills and the vision to plan the perfect wedding, but with so much emotionally invested, she needed someone she could trust – someone who had complementary skills and understood her vision. While postponing the wedding might have been a typical choice, clear thinking and objective problem solving minds made the event happen.
When your company is looking for someone to act as a project manager, you need to consider the project. Does it require someone who does thorough planning and creates a vision for everyone to rally behind, or does the project require quick decisions, actions and objective thinking under pressure to make things happen? Don’t just look for someone with PM experience –look for someone with the right kind of PM experience, values, behaviors and skills. In rare cases, as the one above, you ultimately need both styles for a successful result.
Benchmarking the Project Manager job will identify exactly what is needed for the candidate to be successful in that position. The assessment process will identify the right person for the job and weed out those who only seem to be the right fit and might have been erroneously hired if not for a process that identifies the ideal candidates.