Finding the right sponsors. The ideal project sponsor is one who brings two important factors to the table: they’re aligned with or support the groups who will reap the largest benefit if the project is brought to fruition, and they have the clout and the seniority to successfully negotiate for or ensure approval of sufficient resources. You may need to seek out multiple sponsors to gather the right mix of those interested in the project’s benefits and those able to get adequate funds and staffing allocated. Start with the department heads and work your way up.

Keeping sponsors excited. The vetting and approval process can sometimes be quite lengthy, and keeping sponsors interested and supportive is occasionally a challenge. However, this situation also presents you with a handy bit of persuasion—the longer the project doesn’t happen, the longer your sponsors can see how inefficient and expensive their operations are right now. Use that data to continue reminding sponsors about the project’s long-term capacity to save time, save money, increase efficiencies, and improve your organization’s competitive advantage.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

Getting team members on board. If a project has a natural group of team members who should be involved, often because of expertise needed, or the project’s type, size, or timing, then your selection process will be straightforward. For less straightforward projects, you’ll need to assign team members or ask for volunteers. Carefully match members against the project’s requirements and who stands to learn the most through their participation. Even if the project doesn’t get a green light, your team will have gained valuable expertise.

Maintaining team enthusiasm. Your team’s zeal for a project may wane for a number of reasons, including an approval process that’s longer than expected, a string of challenges to the project’s approval, and data gathered as part of the submittal process that is disappointing and could derail the project’s ultimate fate. Delays are probably the most difficult to deal with, as they’re often out of your PMO’s hands. Focus team members’ attention onto other projects during these slow periods, so they can come back to their early-stage projects with renewed enthusiasm. Challenges to the project should be seen as opportunities to hone your team’s persuasion and presentations skills. Even disappointing data points offer crucial learning opportunities—the ability to objectively evaluate data and determine when anticipated returns aren’t worth a project’s costs will be a useful skill throughout any PM’s career.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.

How

Your delegation methods will help to set your team up for success.

Delegate completely. That doesn’t mean you delegate everything—instead, it means that you need to trust that your team can take on the new tasks and succeed at them. Don’t micromanage, don’t hover, and don’t take back a task unless you’ve exhausted every other option.

Be available to help. Your team members may have questions about the tasks you’ve given them, and it’s important that you don’t see that as a bad thing. Answering their questions and providing direction is how your staff will learn and gain expertise.

Why

There are a couple of primary reasons you should delegate within your team.

Workload. There’s too much work for just one person. Your team needs to rely on the combined skills, expertise, and energy of all its members in order to accomplish everything on the schedule.

Improving skill sets. There’s no better way to nurture new talents than to put them to use. When your team members are given tasks that test their abilities, they’ll have the opportunity to improve and expand their skill sets.

What to delegate

Use these guidelines to determine which tasks you should keep and which make sense to delegate.

Tasks that don’t require your attention. There are many issues that only YOU can deal with, either because you have specific expertise or as a result of your seniority or authority. Any task that doesn’t fit that criteria should be considered for delegation. Remember, though, to keep your team’s workload reasonable and equitable.

Fun stuff. Yep, it’s time to recognize that fun stuff really does exist in project management, and your team deserves to enjoy some of it. If you only delegate boring or unpleasant tasks, you’re drastically undermining your PMO’s sense of team. Farm out the fun stuff and everyone will be more eager to pitch in when the mundane tasks crop up.
Difficult tasks. Too many managers keep the hard stuff for themselves because they aren’t sure their team is up to the task. It’s better in the long run—for you and your team—if you learn to delegate tough tasks while also assuring your staff that you’re available to help if they need it. You’ll free up more of your own time to focus on higher level issues, you’ll be providing your team with fantastic growth opportunities, and you can still shepherd tasks along as your staff learns the ropes.

What to keep for yourself

As you evaluate the tasks and issues facing your PMO, you’ll find some that aren’t good candidates for delegation. Below are a few examples.

Supervisory issues. Anything related to the management of your direct reports is your responsibility (and yours alone). A matrix reporting environment doesn’t change anything—you’ll only be doing your employees a disservice if you delegate the supervisory tasks that belong to you.

Budget accountability. Final responsibility for submitting accurate budgets, meeting budget objectives, and preventing cost overruns in your area(s) isn’t something you should delegate, even if others in your group share some of those tasks along the way.

Documentation oversight. It’s likely that others in your group have day-to-day responsibility for contributing to or maintaining your PMO’s documentation, but the overall task of ensuring accuracy, completeness, and compliance should remain with you.

PMAlliance uses a team of highly experienced and certified professionals to provide project management consulting, project management training and project office development services.