Developing Professional Project Managers: The Myths, and What Works!

Developing project management capabilities is a challenging task. The solutions are often entangled in difficulties that lack a coherent framework of resolution. In the project management world, we experience this issue as a source of endless arguments and debates throughout the industry. There are countless examples of CxOs reduced to tearing their hair out, as their best intentions in developing (or hiring) seemingly professional project managers lie in ruins, in the face of ineffective performance.

In our effort to concoct the perfect recipe (read an effective reference framework) for developing professional project managers, we have gone through several iterations, each of which has involved diving deeply into our widespread training experience while working with organizations in the project management space. It’s a recipe that has been liberally spiced and flavoured with thoughts and concerns of experienced project portfolio managers from organizations worldwide.

Along the way, we encountered a few myths that are entrenched in the mindsets of some leading industry practitioners. Here is a dispassionate look at some of them.

Where things can go wrong!

Push the guy into the deep end, and he will learn how to swim!

Myth 1This sounds great in theory! And it’s an approach that is not without its benefits, which is why a number of organizations use it. However, without a mentor, rookie project managers tend to under perform and can be surprisingly ineffective. The reasons are manifold but the main one is the absence of relevant, constructive feedback. Feedback from a practicing PM makes a huge difference to the development of a professional project manager. However, there are no programs that offer aspiring PMs this opportunity (formal training and on-the-job mentoring).

Certification is a reliable indicator of requisite skills

Myth 2 While certification may be on the must-have list of all recruitment managers, they are hardly a reliable way of assessing a Project Manager’s practical capabilities. In the current scenario, there is widespread insecurity among aspiring PMs which has led to a rush towards certification. With certification becoming a prerequisite to get an interview call, development of PM professionals is caught in a vicious cycle. A formal introduction for many candidates in PM happens in an exam preparation program, which covers the competencies required with, at best, a narrow exam-oriented focus.

Project Management is mainly about great interpersonal and soft skills!

Myth 3 Time and again, we have interacted with CxOs and senior management, who emphasize the importance of soft skills, but assume that core PM skills are a given. This only adds to the confusion of aspiring PMs, who then tend to believe that development of great interpersonal skills is good enough to be a good PM. Not that soft skills are not important (they most certainly are!) but without the core PM capabilities in place, it is more like trying to make an omelette without an egg.

Anyone with the requisite skills will become a good PM professional!

Myth 4 Not necessarily. There are other things besides skills that matter. Talent, the right attitude and a proactive focus on using feedback consciously for continuous self-development are also vital requirements in terms of creating professional PMs, but these tend to be overlooked especially in organizations that focus on developing and promoting talent predominantly from within.

One size-fits-all training will create good PMs!

Myth 5 We have consistently observed and also demonstrated that contextualized training that is relevant to organizational and even role contexts (as opposed to generic plain vanilla programs) is crucial to creating successful PMs.

How to set it right - Project Management Competency Development Framework

While formal training and learning settings provide the aspiring manager with the appropriate knowledge and theoretical background, it is the combination of this knowledge with competencies that needs to be applied and evaluated in the context of the project and organizational setting.

What exactly is a competence?

Competence is a demonstrated ability to perform activities within a project environment that lead to expected outcomes based on defined and accepted standards (Crawford 1997).

Competence has 3 dimensions:

Knowledge Competence: when professional managers know the application of process, tools, and techniques.

Performance Competence: how the manager applies the knowledge to meet requirements on most endeavours, most of the time.

Personal Competence: how the manager behaves while performing activities within the environment; her attitude and core personality characteristics.

Our experience has led us to 8 core professional competencies which are a key requirement for any PM who aspires to be professionally effective. These have been culled after extensive research, which included industry standard frameworks such as PMI Competency Development Framework – Second Edition, GAPPS (Global Alliance of Project Performance Standards), IPMA Competency Baseline, among others.