The words “project management” might have been used in passing in your job description. Project manager isn’t in your title and you certainly haven’t done any formal project management training. But it seems like you’re heading up an awful lot of projects. Are you becoming—gasp—a project manager?
Really, it’s nothing to be ashamed of, it happens to a lot of us. In these days of trim organizations, formal project managers aren’t always part of the equation. This means that more often than not, the people doing the work are also managing the projects. To be successful, you need the right tools and techniques, like a Visual Approach to Project Management.
But how do you know that you’re becoming a project manager?
5. You’re a cat herder
Are you the one getting everyone together for meetings, making sure that they are communicating and collaborating, and helping to settle disagreements? Constant cat herding is a good sign that you’re becoming a project manager.
4. You suddenly have a “team”
Wait, did you just say my team? I don’t have a team. Well, it turns out you do. With the large volume of small projects that we see today, you might suddenly find yourself managing several ad hoc teams as you take ownership of multiple projects. Starting to sound awful project manager-y, buddy.
3. You take the blame, but not the credit
When things start to come off the rails, you don’t just take responsibility, you get it all back on track too. Then, when a project comes together and you have a success on your hands, you make sure that high-fives are handed out to everyone who helped before acknowledging all the work you did. Sounds like something a good project manager would do, right?
2. You’re a consensus builder
You know that without consensus projects stall, and it bothers you to see egos get in the way of reason. But you’ve got a real knack for getting people to focus on what’s important to moving projects forward and to stop all the nit-picking.
1. Someone just called you the “project manager”
OK, so you’re a bit of a project manager. Don’t worry, you’re still an engineer, an IT manager, a Marketing VP—whatever your actual job title is—that’s still your main responsibility. But if you think you need to be more efficient and spend a little less time on the gritty details of managing projects, check out our Guide to Overcoming 3 Big Challenges to IT Project Success whitepaper. Even if you’re not in IT, it can help you see a new way to project success.