PART I
For the Project Manager
CHAPTER 1
Preparing to Work with Your Sponsor
How many project managers get to choose the projects they manage? Not many. The project allocation process in most companies just doesnât work that way, does it?
Now, how many project managers get to choose the project sponsors they work with? Probably none. Again, it just doesnât work that way in most, perhaps any, organizations. You wonât get the opportunity to ask a sponsor for her rĂŠsumĂŠ and put her through a formal interview processânice as it would be to say, âIâm sorry, but I just donât think that this is the job for you right now,â if she isnât a great fit for the position.
But perhaps you can, through your experience and your relationships with executive management, request a particular person you know you can work effectively with to partner with you once again on your next project. You also can try to educate the decision-makers about how to select the best possible project sponsor. You may be able to influence the way the organization selects and assigns sponsors by sharing some high-level definitions and expectations of the sponsor role based on this book and other best practices. (Chapter 6 provides more information on these concepts.)
Even if you donât have the perfect sponsor, you can prepare to work with the one you have by knowing what youâre in for and making sure you get off to a good start.
WHO SHOULD SPONSOR YOUR PROJECT?
Make a judgment call on what competencies this particular project requires. Is the project simple or complex? Should you ask to be assigned the sponsor you want, or can you risk working with a new (perhaps good, perhaps not) sponsor on this project? There are probably several people within the organization who could be good sponsors for your project. The following criteria will help you work with executive management to appoint the person most likely to guide the project to success:
⢠Who has the greatest interest in the outcomes of the project?
⢠Who has the greatest influence with the high-level stakeholders of the project?
⢠Does this person have proven experience in sponsoring projects?
⢠Does this person have the capacity to be an effective collaborator and leader for the project manager and project team?
⢠Does this person have education and experience in project management best practices?
⢠Does this person trust those around him to act in the best interest of the project?
If the same person is named in your responses to questions 1 and 2, and you can answer yes to the remaining questions, you have your sponsor.
If the person named in your answers to 1 and 2 is not capable of sponsoring the project, look for a trusted delegate to assign as sponsor, or negotiate and document the roles of the delegate (the more capable person) and the sponsor (the more influential person).
If you name different people when answering questions 1 and 2, select the more appropriate sponsor based on the answers to the remaining questions.
Remember that lacking competencies can be mitigated through sponsor education. Help the sponsor understand what is in it for her and how these competencies can maximize the chance for project success.
ASSESSING YOUR SPONSOR
Letâs say youâve been assigned a project and a sponsor, and that is that. Youâre left to deal with what youâve been given. It is said that you cannot manage what you donât measure, and that is as true for project sponsors as it is for anything. So letâs start there: how can you assess your project sponsor? In this book, we give you a variety of checklists to help you to understand your project sponsor (see later chapters and appendixes). Below, we detail other tools you as the project manager can use to better understand your sponsor and then to adapt your communication style and project approach to make the most of her skills.
THE POWER GRID
You can use the power grid shown in Figure 1-1 to assess your newly assigned sponsorâspecifically her interest in your project (from high to low) and her actual power in your organization (also from high to low). This may well be challenging to determine early onâespecially if you have never worked with this sponsor beforehandâhowever you can update your assessment as you personally get to know your sponsor better and you build a relationship.
FIGURE 1-1: Power Grid for Assessing Sponsors
Initially, though, you can use your past observations of this sponsor (if you have any), current discussions (that you are undertaking with the sponsorâyou are on that learning curve already), and peer responses (you can ask your colleague project managers about the sponsor if they have worked with her on past projects).
The power grid suggests general courses of action you can try to manage your relationship with any sponsor.
If your project sponsor falls into the âlow interest, low powerâ quadrant, you really have a problem. It is unlikely that this sponsor will ever support your project management endeavors; even if she could be persuaded to, her influence is so weak that her cooperation is not worth pursuing.
On the other hand, a âhigh interest, high powerâ sponsor can be very useful indeed. However, she will also have to be managed carefully, because her high interest in the project could lead to micromanagement and long, overly detailed update meetings. This is not something that a project manager wishes to encourage.
Letâs take a closer look at specific strategies for managing to the power grid:
⢠Manage closely. This sponsor is very interested in what is going on with your project and has great influence over it. As such, she should always have the most current information on project progress and challenges and should be able to provide the helicopter viewâi.e., whether it sits with the overall strategy of what is going on. Reporting to this sponsor may mean daily emails and weekly meetings. The danger of not âmanaging closelyâ is that trust will not be optimized, thereby creating a risk for micromanagement from the sponsor.
⢠Keep satisfied. Find out what your project sponsor expects and meet those needs. The goal is to provide enough information that she feels informed but not so much that she feels burdened. Make requests of her only when there are no other channels, and come armed with a completed analysis of options already considered.
⢠Keep informed. Interested sponsors require information, so make sure you have processes in place so they know about progress and challenges and how to easily gain further information of they feel that they need it. This includes weekly status updates and regularly scheduled meetings.
⢠Monitor. Ask questions of your sponsor to ensure she feels informed, knowledgeable, and included in the project. This sponsor may not be keeping up with the project progress and status, so your challenge is to make sure that she both understands and appropriately acts on project successes and challenges when needed.
TYPES OF POWER
All project stakeholdersâindeed, anyone in an organizationâcan hold one or more types of power. Which of the following does your sponsor have? Which do you have?
⢠Legitimate: power endowed by a formal title or position (authority)
⢠Reward: power held by those who are able to impose positive consequences (carrot)
⢠Coercive: power held by those who can impose negative consequences (stick)
⢠Financial: power held by those who control the budget (money)
⢠Bureaucratic: power held by those with knowledge of the system (intelligence)
⢠Referent: power endowed by association with someone elseâs power (network)
⢠Technical: power held by those who have technical knowledge relating to the project (skill)
⢠Charismatic: power granted through personality alone (character).
You and your sponsor can work together to use her (and your) power how and when you need to. But use it sparingly and use it wisely.
Letâs take a closer look at these types of power and how they can be used:
⢠Legitimate power. Regardless of the type of organizationâhierarchical or matrixâin which you work, the more senior a person is, the greater the opportunity to assert authority and cause things to happen. This power should be used sparingly.
⢠Reward power. Commonly used to engage resources and stakeholders, this power may be used at the start of a project as part of a marketing activity or later in the project to focus efforts and meet a deliverable milestone. Rewards can be offered directly from the sponsor or through you, the project manager, as fits the situation. Rewards can also be offered for good work or given as surprise âthank-yousâ to good contributors.
⢠Coercive power. Perhaps the least used type, this will likely achieve what you and your sponsor want but not gain ongoing cooperation. Often...