From today’s Tipoffs. We encourage you to offer your thoughts on professionalism in the Comments section.
“Leave it to the professionals” is a nice way of telling someone undertaking a fault-riddled task that the matter is best left to someone with the requisite expertise. In the case of professionalising project managers, it would make sense to go straight to the veteran project managers that ooze expertise from their pores. All of them in way or another share their expertise willingly via the modern social media tools, and welcomed the opportunity to join in the discussion.
In essence, to gain a comfortable level of diversity in opinion, voices advocating project management throughout the world need to be heard. Americans, Continental Europeans and Australians as well as project management personnel from the UK chimed in when I asked them, “What do you believe it means to be ‘professional’ as it pertains to your work and appearance as a PPM practitioner?”
Here’s what they told me:
Craig Brown, Better Projects: “There are a couple of dimensions I like to draw out in this discussion.
The first is that if you become a professional you can command higher rates, but this is still capped by what people can afford and the value they can pull out of a project. PMs already command a fairly good rate of pay. How much will it go up?
Secondly, with great power comes great responsibility. As a professional you need to be accountable for the advice you give and the way you run a team. If you screw up you are personally liable to the client. Given most problems with projects tend to originate on the client side how much do you think clients want to get your professional advice? My thinking; Some will, some won’t and the ones who will pay up will be better clients to work for. And your professional indemnity cover will be going up.
Thirdly, professional accreditation doesn’t eliminate the need to continue to learn and improve. In fact it probably accelerates it. So it should be good for the industry as a whole.”
Peter Taylor, The Lazy Project Manager: “Is this person I see before me now a ‘professional’ project manager?
- Are they confident (an easy check) and are they competent (references and time can tell you this)?
- Are they honest and caring (about the project, about the people and about the customer)?
- Is there clarity in their communications and actions?
- Are they practical and realistic?
If they are then whether or not they are a ‘professional’ I reckon you will be able to work with them in a productive way.”
Cornelius Fichtner, PM Podcast: “To me, professionalism means that I have an unwavering focus on courtesy and honesty in my interactions with customers and project stakeholders. It also means that I accept personal accountability for the projects that are assigned to me and that I go ‘the extra mile’ for my project and demonstrate excellence that goes beyond what is usually expected.”
Andrew Filev, CEO of Wrike.com, Project Management 2.0: “The one context independent and broad advice that comes to my mind is to love your job, try to excel in it, and continuously improve based on past experience. This way your chances of behaving professionally not only increase significantly at any given moment, but also grow with the time. The answer matches the original question in its degree of generalization.”
Josh Nankivel, PMStudent: “First, there is a difference between a ‘professional’ and a ‘profession’. I would say that I am a project management professional; but I would not say that project management is a profession.
“‘Professional’ is really a more generic term meaning that you earn a living doing something. (A professional basketball player, football player, etc.)”
“In order for project management to attain the status of ‘profession’
- There must be a standard licensing board that certifies knowledge and competency (most likely, country-specific)
- There must be a rigorous educational requirement before certification (akin to medical school, law school, internship over the course of years, etc.)
- Individuals must not be allowed to practice outside of an educational/intern setting unless they are certified (look at medicine, law, and other true professions)
- There must be some kind of formal fiduciary responsibility placed on the licensed, certified project manager (akin to law, financial services, etc.)”
Derek Huether, The Critical Path: “I think to be professional is to never forget what your job is, never forget who your customer is, and never forget who your team is. I constantly remind myself of those things. Why? Because each has a different perception of the other, based on perspective. It is my job to bridge the gaps between each, ensuring value is delivered and our mutual goals are achieved.”
Elizabeth Harrin, Author and Blogger, A Girl’s Guide to Project Management: “My view on how to be professional is simply to do what you say you are going to do. If you say you’ll do a status report every Friday, do it. If you promise a phone call within the hour, do it. Delivering on your promises is the best way (in my opinion) to be seen as credible and professional. If for any reason you can’t do what you said you would, let the person know, explain the reason if it is appropriate and give them a new time that you will be able to meet.”
“Don’t let deadlines go whizzing past without either hitting them or explaining why you can’t – you leave people in the lurch and they won’t know whether you’ve done it and not told them, or just let it slip.”
Pawel Brodzinski, Software Project Management: “I think there are (at least) two perspectives one could use to percept professionalism in project management: one is very high-level opinion what is professionalism in general and another is very subjective and personal approach to a subject with all specific of fulfilled role, work environment, surrounding organization and, finally, own character.
If we try to define what professionalism is in general we’ll probably end up with something like doing what you’re told and expected to do and doing it well. Thinking about project management it would be following your methodology (whichever it is), performing tasks assigned to your role etc. All the boring stuff. If you still think it’s a bit too boring to call it professionalism, fine. After all project management isn’t about changing the world – it is about getting things done.”
