Aug 23, 2023
In the dynamic world of project management, where professionals transform dreams into reality, breaking through leadership barriers is a common challenge. PMI CEO Pierre Le Manh recently sat down with Laura Barnard, Chief Impact Driver at PMO Strategies, at the PMO Impact Summit to discuss practical strategies for reaching new heights of leadership.
Project professionals turn dreams into reality by getting things done. But even in a profession centered around the ability to turn ambitious ideas and strategies into tangible outcomes, we continue to see a gap for project managers in reaching higher-level positions of leadership.
I recently had the opportunity to share some of my thoughts on how project managers can rise to new heights of leadership with Laura Barnard, Chief Impact Driver at PMO Strategies, at the PMO Impact Summit. The Summit is devoted to bringing together PMO and delivery leaders in sharing ideas and best practices for elevating their roles and impact.
As Laura said, “A common challenge for project professionals is being seen as a strategic leader. I can’t tell you the number of times that project professionals have come up to me and said, “My executive says I need to be more strategic, but I don’t know how to do that.” We talked about some of the common barriers and challenges that project professionals face in elevating their roles.
Some takeaways from our discussion:
It is critical to clearly communicate the value of project management to senior executives in language that resonates with them.
Beyond traditional metrics like schedule, scope, and risk, project professionals must be able to clarify how their work aligns with broader strategic goals and how it makes an impact on the whole organization, both financially and non-financially, but also to express them in a very simple language, avoiding jargons or even words that senior executives may use differently, such as “value.” In short, think through the CEO perspective and what outcomes an executive would prioritize.
Project professionals must continue to enhance their own leadership skills and expand their opportunities to take on more responsibility.
You don’t need to be a CEO to lead. I have seen so many leaders who may never hold a CEO title, but they’re very effective at what they do and very fulfilled. On the other hand, we should all carefully reflect on whether a role like CEO is the right fit for us, regardless of the prestige. In a McKinsey article, Michael Fisher, former CEO Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, said, “If the main reason you want to have the CEO title is for ego, that’s unlikely to be a sustainable motivator over time.” CEOs are bound to spend the vast majority of their time focused on transformation, and that level of ambiguity and complexity is important to keep in mind for anyone considering a CEO role.
With that caveat in mind, there’s still a lot any of us can learn from the pathways of those who ascend to higher leadership roles. Harvard Business Review published a study called The Fastest Path to the CEO Job – a 10-year examination of more than 17,000 C-suite executive assessments. The research identified some ways that you can take on more responsibility and amass more varied experiences, no matter where you are in your career path:
In short, whether project professionals work in a non-profit, a government body, or a corporation, learning to speak the language of ROI will help them elevate their profiles, skills, and pathways to leadership.