PM: Are you a Curator or Catalyst?

When coaching project managers to achieve higher levels of performance, I like to share “Craig’s PM competency hierarchy.”

After observing many levels of PM competency and performance, from novice to expert, I’ve found the following 4 categories sum things up pretty well. And, these levels correlate to what a PM might expect to receive for relative compensation.

Prior to answering the question: “Are you a Curator or Catalyst?”, which represent the 2 extremes in the above chart, it may help to share the generic definition of each of these terms.

Curator – a keeper or custodian of a museum or other collection.

Catalyst – a person or thing that precipitates an event.

If all we do is schedule meetings, provide an opportunity for the voices of the project to share their perspective and then simply publish notes on what was said we are merely a reporter or curator of information. This simply does NOT cut it, considering our main objective as a PM is to Make Projects Go Away!

To achieve our primary objective, we must be a catalyst, someone who actually causes the result of a successful project completion. This is not someone merely reporting the news on how things are going. They are someone who gets out in front, drives the team and makes the news!

To be clear, at times this means that we’ll need to get in someone’s face and ask uncomfortable questions. While we must always be courteous and professional, the traits of tenacity, assertiveness and critical thinking are required here.

That is, we don’t simply take superficial answers. We dig deep by scrutinizing every item relative to our project. When doing so, we approach it from a perspective of curiosity in our quest to best understand all the moving parts represented in our project. Said another way, we are NOT trying to tell someone how to do their job. We are trying to learn more about the job they are doing in support of the project and how it fits in to the overall scheme of things.

As I press for information and/or further clarity, I reinforce the fact that my goal here is to make “us” successful. And, the only way I can do so is by obtaining the information I’m seeking.

And, when (not if) we are met with an obstacle we do EVERYTHING in our power to remove it, go over it, around it, under it or through it. Said another way, obstacles do NOT stop us. They are merely stepping stones on our path to the project’s successful completion.

Remember we are not here to make friends. We are here to make projects go away! There is NO other purpose for a PM than this.

That being said, we need to take time to get to know our team-mates. What is it they actually do, what things keep them up at night, how do they feel about the project, their role and where we are heading? And, we can ask: what can I do for you to ensure success? By doing so, we’ll better understand their hot buttons and when we need to meet with them again, we can lead the conversation with what is important — to them!

We aren’t just meandering in and out of meetings, sending and reading emails with the hopes that the “professionals” on our team will somehow get everything done in an organized and timely fashion.

Instead, we are a force of nature: a catalyst, out in front of the pack, making sure that every single thing relative to our project is clearly defined and communicated, that we drive our plan and RAID log to ensure things are completed in a timely and satisfactory manner. We do this, all the while making sure our stakeholders remain fully engaged and in the know, because we own the narrative! That is, we are self-aware, take in all the available inputs and consistently render our expert opinion and guidance as to the state of the project and appropriate go forward approach.

Ah, the life of a PM 🙂

Let’s be that force of nature: a catalyst!

To keep ourselves in check, we can frequently ask ourselves the question: How will I Advance The Ball Today?

In closing, if you are seeking to up-level PM competencies in yourself, or organization, please reach out to discuss how we can help.

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