What percentage of your time is spent managing projects and what percentage of your time is spent managing people?
As a part of ongoing career development at our organization, we have the benefit of meeting with an outside consultant specializing in coaching leaders, managers, and product teams. The end-goal is to broaden your horizons in the way you approach critical thinking situations related to internal projects and consumer-facing products (ultimately within the team or business unit you are part of).
Relationships management is different than project management
In my one-on-one discussion today, the question was posed to me: What percentage of your time is spent managing projects and what percentage of your time is spent managing people? After I thought about it for a minute, it dawned on me that the majority of my time is really managing relationships, not projects. This doesn’t necessarily equate to direct reports who you “manage,” but simply people/piers who you interface with on projects. It’s an important distinction to make because relationship management is considerably different than project management.
Relationship Management in a large organization
My previous job was at a small business with less than 25 employees (where I worked for nearly 8 years). A larger corporation is different in that you have to deal with a larger number of people (and personalities) to the point where you are focusing on relationship management more than anything. To get any large-scale project done (like a consumer e-commerce site), being able to work with the various departments the website touches is a critical component to success. Taking that a step further and understanding other departments is an important component to relationship management and what separates it from project management.
Managing Relationships is Good for Business
It’s interesting viewing the different styles of project managers in any business. Some are focused exclusively on the tasks of the project and at the end of the day, they measure themselves on their ability to complete those tasks regardless of what it took to get them done. I have seen this lead to major bridge-burning and damaging relationships with individuals/departments. While this may not affect the short-term health of an organization, it certainly does affect the long-term health and the ability to effectively work with each other.
Others are focused on getting what they need to get done while building relationships with other people and departments. Because when it comes down to it, you will probably need their help again in the future. Guess who’s going to be more responsive to helping you out or going that extra mile for you — the person who you steamrolled to get your project completed, or the person who you developed a relationship with? I know I am more inclined to help someone who will return the favor down the road.
Tying it back to online strategy
As online strategists, marketing managers, and even web developers, it’s important for “us” (I group “us” together as the people that build/manage/maintain/oversee websites) to communicate what websites can do for the company and develop relationships with internal departments so they keep the website top-of-mind.
A business that operates with the website top-of-mind values the efforts of the online team by viewing them as a strategic department, rather than a cost center. Strategic departments have the perception of adding value to an organization. Cost center departments have the perception of costing the organization money. Operating under the umbrella of “strategy” is much more healthy (and fun) for everyone involved as opposed to a “cost center.”
Tags:
career,
levolor.com,
strategy
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