Thoughts on the Project Sponsor

I had a rather interesting conversation at work today. One of my projects was looking like it would take less of my time to manage than originally anticipated and so therefore I mentioned to my manager that I may be able to pick up something new.

I wasn't prepared for what came next though!

It is worth noting at this point that I have a strong and passionate interest in effective project sponsorship. I have had experience of working with different types of sponsors and fully appreciate the difference the sponsor can make, not just to the project, but also to your day to day job satisfaction and general sanity.

I've had sponsors who were excellent leaders, who would set out a clear vision, make clear decisions and go out of their way when needed to break down the obstacles in the way of the project. When this happens, life is great and you get a real sense of teamwork and shared vision for achieving the goal.

On the flip side, I've also had some very difficult sponsors to work with who seem to constantly surprise you. I once had to convince a sponsor (under some duress) that it was important to review a business case due to the project changing course in a substantial new direction. I've even had a sponsor directly reallocate my business analyst off the task on the plan (that was agreed by the self same sponsor a few days before) without telling me! This was particularly astonishing!

My current reading material is Strategies for Project Sponsorship by Ron Rosenhead, Peter Taylor and Vicky James (available here) and I would highly recommend it to anyone reading this who is interested in understanding how to work with different types of sponsor, as well as understanding your role and responsibilities if you yourself are a sponsor.

So, back to the story. My manager, to my surprise asked me how I would feel about being the Project Executive for a new project to implement a CRM, involving multiple departments across the business. It was then explained to me how the stakeholder management and board membership would involve some very senior people (much more senior than myself in the organisation) and that there would be inevitable conflict due to the fact that the project could not please everyone and a best fit compromise would be required.

After my initial surprise at the proposal, I thought about it a little more.

I am interested in taking on the Executive role for a project to take on a new challenge and stretch myself, but I feel this should only be on a venture that I truly feel I can drive and lead forward.

One of the things I believe which is critical to the project succeeding is at square 1: The appointment of the correct person by corporate management to fulfil the sponsor/executive role for this particular project. In this instance, I didn't feel I was that correct person. Far too often, the Executive role can seem to be appointed inappropriately or without any consideration.

This led me to ponder a couple of questions:

• Can a Project Manager easily transition to an Executive role?
• Can a Project Executive be effective and authoritive on the board when the other board members are much higher in the organisational hierarchy?

In terms of the first point, my view would be a resounding yes. After all, most of us have transitioned into project managers from previously being engineers or developers. We would have a deeper appreciation of the things like defining tangible benefits, ensuring continued business justification, mitigating risks, managing the communications etc. We would also be minded to ensure we don't step on the project manager's toes by reallocating resources off task!

For the second point though, I'm not too sure. I do believe teams can work effectively when the focus is on the role instead of the pay grade and have experienced this first hand in the past when working on a Six Sigma process improvement, but when this team is a group of headstrong and vocal senior managers at CxO level...can this still hold true?

What are your views? Has anyone else had experiences of this to share? Does the organisational hierarchy really matter nowadays? Does this differ on a company by company basis depending upon the culture?

In terms of my own desire to take on the Executive role, I think I will look to take this on on a different project coming up in the not too distant future to introduce a new project timesheet recording solution. This opportunity is much more suitable as I am very passionate about the vision coming to fruition as I know that it will deliver real, tangible benefits, and this is perhaps the best indication of suitability to the role.