Written by Kimi Hirotsu Ziemski, PMP – President of Energizing Enterprises – Turning behaviors into benefits
You want me to manage what?!
Relationships.
And no, I don’t think you’re a teenager. You’re a professional, an adult, and often in the position of working with a number of people who have the potential to have even more differences of opinion than there are people on your team. As a project manager you actually manage relationships all of the time. The question is:
“Do you do this in a way that is both ethical and professionally productive?”
There are loads of books on the subject of influencing, on negotiations, and what you should do to increase your level of power.
What all of these books have in common is that they take the things that you sometimes do already. The author will give a breakdown, show you why it works, and how to replicate it consciously.
Repeatable success.
So, in just a few minutes – catalog the people who are in the stakeholder community for your most strategic project and then list whether your relationship with each individual is:
• Strong – there is a high level of trust and influence
• Medium – there is either a level of trust or a level of influence but not both at a relative level
• Soft – there is either no level of trust or influence or a very low one of whichever is present.
Now you can decide what to do – first you have to know where, what, and who will be affected by your actions.
Managing relationships…managing risk…managing projects. It’s about knowing the impact of your actions on your environment – it’s about being a project manager.
If you have any questions or suggestions on this topic please don’t hesitate to contact Kimi at kimi@energizingenterprises.com.