The Project Manager is the face of the project.
His role is to lead the project and facilitate the team so that team can accomplish the project expectations. He is accountable for the overall project success or failure.
As a project manager, if you continuously deliver the project results then you become dependable and the organization management looks to have you as the project manager on important projects.
Here are some of the activities that make a project manager dependable:
- Lead the project and provide a clear direction to the team;
- Act as a (smooth) bridge between the project sponsor and the team;
- Create a clear + neat + actionable Project Plan, get it signed off by the project sponsor and get it executed by the team;
- Regularly update the project stakeholders with Project Status Reports and work-in-progress deliverables. Weekly Updates is appreciated by most clients.
- Make sure that every project stakeholder has a deep understanding of the scope — so when a Change Request comes, everyone’s expectations are managed
- Be a good listener + problem solver: No matter what the problem is, focus on solving it if it impacts the project’s delivery. Team problems, tools problems, organizational policies related problems are some of the known problem categories that a dependable project manager deals with.
- Leverage the tools that help project progress smoothly. Brainstorming sessions and informal standup meetings are used effectively by many dependable project managers.
- When the project is delivered as per the expectation, ask for testimony from the project sponsor. It lifts the team morale and helps in sourcing the next project.
- No project is going to be a super-predictable smooth sail. Challenges are inevitable and learned lessons too. A dependable project manager communicates the lessons learned to all the stakeholders in a constructive way.
A normal project manager manages the project but a dependable project manager runs it. Know the difference between two and be a dependable project manager.
