ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Yogi Schulz
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Most projects flounder when sponsors are absent, hiding, or unsure of their role. Project managers and teams suffer dysfunctional consequences when project sponsors interfere or shirk their roles.
Ideally, project sponsors collaborate with project managers and stakeholders to position projects for success, reduce risks, and mitigate the impact of issues that arise as projects progress.
Here’s a list of actions project sponsors can take to help project managers and teams.
You can explore these and other tips to help project sponsors and project managers be more effective in our new book, A Project Sponsor’s Warp-Speed Guide – Improving Project Performance. It’s available from Amazon at this link.
Champions project benefits throughout the organization
The project sponsor and steering committee members must enthusiastically communicate, sell and defend the project benefits in meetings and informal discussions throughout the producer organization. If these individuals fail to champion the benefits or, worse, challenge the benefits or criticize the project, the project is doomed.
For example, they remind the organization of the project’s value proposition, such as lower operating costs, and maintain its commitment to the project at various management meetings or town hall events.
When this visible public support is absent, project managers provide project sponsors and steering committee members with brief talking points to encourage greater communication.
Provides support and guidance for the project manager
The project sponsor provides support and guidance for the project manager. The project sponsor offers organizational insights to the project manager, who often lacks sufficient seniority and reputation for the producer organization to accept necessary but unwelcome recommendations.
When project managers feel neglected, they can reach out to project sponsors to reconfirm the following best practice points for their relationship:
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How to cite this article: Schulz, Y. (2026). How can project sponsors help projects succeed?, PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue III, March. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/pmwj162-Mar2026-Schulz-Project-sponsors-help-projects-succeed.pdf
About the Author
Yogi Schulz
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Yogi Schulz has over 40 years of Information Technology experience in various industries. Yogi works extensively in the petroleum industry to select and implement financial, production revenue accounting, land & contracts and geotechnical systems. He manages projects that arise from changes in business requirements, from the need to leverage technology opportunities and from mergers. His specialties include IT strategy, web strategy and systems project management.
Mr. Schulz regularly speaks to industry groups and writes a regular column for Engineering.com and for TechNewsDay.com. He has written for Microsoft.com and the Calgary Herald. His writing focuses on project management and IT developments of interest to management. Mr. Schulz served on the Board of Directors of the PPDM Association, the global energy data professionals, for 20 years, until 2015. He can be contacted at yogischulz@corvelle.com.
His new book, co-authored by Jocelyn Schulz Lapointe, is “A Project Sponsor’s Warp-Speed Guide: Improving Project Performance.”
To view other works by Yogi Schulz, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yogi-schulz/
