ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Yogi Schulz
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
The role of project sponsors is to champion project managers and their teams to help them deliver successful projects. Unfortunately, some project sponsors willfully neglect their role. They’re motivated by the worst executive instincts that include:
- Political one-upmanship.
- Running away at the slightest sign of project difficulty.
- Burnishing their reputations by pushing others aside.
- Grandstanding to impress their boss.
Here are some ways project sponsors behave counterproductively and how astute project managers turn such difficult situations around.
You can explore these and other tips to help project sponsors and 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.
Criticizes the project
Some project sponsors criticize their project publicly. They may express that the project is taking too long or that they could lead much better. They believe they could perform better than the team.
To avoid such criticism undermining project team performance, project managers must discuss the project sponsor’s concerns privately and diplomatically.
Project managers can point out that the project sponsor’s association with the project is widely known. The criticism could backfire on the sponsor when employees wonder why the sponsor lacks the management savvy to address the issues with the team privately. Project managers can ask about the basis for the criticism and offer to correct it.
Challenges the project benefits
Some project sponsors challenge the project benefits in discussions with other executives or the project manager. The motivation for the challenge may be a misunderstanding or an effort to distance themselves from accountability for the project.
To avoid undermining the organization’s political support for the project, project managers must contest the project sponsor diplomatically.
Astute project managers will recognize that the project sponsor may not understand the benefits and will schedule a review with them. The outcome of the review is typically one or more of the following:
More…
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How to cite this article: Schulz, Y. (2024). Is Your Project Sponsor Counterproductive? PM World Journal, Vol. XIII, Issue XI, December. Available online at https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/pmwj147-Dec2024-Schulz-Is-your-project-sponsor-counterproductive.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 IT World Canada and for Engineering.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 as a member of the Board of Directors of the PPDM Association for twenty years until 2015. Learn more at https://www.corvelle.com/. 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” Also available on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Project-Sponsors-Warp-Speed-Guide-Performance/dp/1637424833
To view other works by Yogi Schulz, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yogi-schulz/
