Management Excellence by Art Petty

I’ve recently become immersed in developing a much better understanding of the role, challenges and contributions of Project Management to an organization’s success, and I cringe when recalling the many examples I observed of executives strong-arming the project process to fit their objectives.  In the spirit of candor, I recall one or two instances where I might have asserted executive will to try and change the forces of the universe and get a new product out the door faster than my project manager said was humanly possible.  I also recall that the Project Manager ended up being right.

As professional project management practices (and project managers) grow in importance to a firm’s success (see my post: Struggling With Strategy? Think Project Management), it is critical that top leaders learn how to support the process rather than beat it into submission.  And because as the saying goes, "it takes two to tango," Project Managers need to learn how to "manage" their executives to minimize unproductive involvement or outright interference. 

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