Andrew…Part One

In my coaching session late last week Andrew, a quite senior project Director, confided to me, “ . . and this would have to be my most frustrating  Project  yet!”. When I dug deeper, it turned out the core issue was that it is his Project Sponsor’s first time in that role. A highly placed executive, she had joined the organisation, as a senior  exec, from a  company where she had had no exposure to projects. “And”, my colleague continued, “She doesn’t communicate!”

“H’mm”, I thought! “Do others who work with her complain about that too?”, I asked.

His “Not at all! To the contrary!” answer said it all. Like many other Sponsors, she probably didn’t know what the role is about; how to interpret the information she is getting from the project; what questions to ask her PM; how the relationship between Sponsor and PM should work, and how critical that is to project success. Organisations which rely on project success to get their new initiatives into the market ahead of their competitors often pay too little attention to supporting their Sponsors in this aspect. Add to that, Sponsors, lacking that insight, don’t realise they should be spending time gaining the skills!

“So”, I said to Andrew, “it’s going to be an extra task for you! And no doubt, your biggest obstacle is going to be convincing her she needs to talk with you on a really regular basis. Give that some thought and we’ll have coffee next Tuesday and discuss your strategy”.

Has anyone else experienced this? I’ll keep you posted on Andrew’s progress.

John Coulton