How to act as a Project manager at work without being one officially, and outperform your colleagues
Why is it important? Very simple - it will launch you into a career.
Here is my story:
I worked in a large Operations Center of a large technology company. I started at the lowest level, and rose to supervisor and team lead 2 times, in 2 different departments. After each breakthrough, I was disappointed by how insignificantly different the pay was at the upper level. Despite this, I enjoyed my job, and was constantly proactive and full of ideas. I never stopped thinking about how to solve the problems of my team and even other teams we interacted with.
The time came and the need to buy new software for my team's work to become more efficient, the old one was already too old. For the project, we were given a Project Manager, part of the so-called PMO - Project Management Office, who was supposed to manage and successfully complete the project. I was the main expert in the project, only I and my team knew what we needed and what wouldn't work.
After 2 months of meetings, presentations with 'vendors' and the daily question from me - 'What's the next step', we had gotten nowhere, reviewed 5 options, collected several offers.
Along with the presentations I gave at the meetings, I drew diagrams, wrote technical documentation, initiated more meetings, and actively participated in the planning. I was determined to solve the problem my team was having with the old program we were using.
If I needed to talk to someone - I went to talk, if I needed to write an email - I wrote it, if I needed to give a presentation - I prepared it and presented it. I negotiated with the companies we were researching and calculated budgets. I didn't wait, I acted every day towards the goal.
I could already see that things might not happen, and from the beginning I had suggested a plan B: hire a programmer to touch the old software and maintain it so that it wouldn't fall apart.
I opened the list of ads to find the one for the programmer to share with my network, just to make things happen faster. Don't you want to, I saw another ad - IT Project Manager at my company. A short conversation with the hiring manager followed. He knew me well, we had worked together before.
He had seen my determination to act, to find a way, and to make things happen. I ran.
They chose me over candidates with experience and knowledge that I didn't have at the time.
My wife and I were expecting our second child, and it was clear that we needed a higher salary. I was amazed by the offer. At the time, I had no idea what field it was in or how much it paid.
During these 2 months, I watched as the Project Manager I was working with didn't put the same desire into getting the job done. I said to myself 'I could do this many times better'. And that's when it dawned on me - in the few years as a team lead I had turned the game around, and I was constantly thinking about what new initiative (I didn't call it a project back then) I could launch and solve more problems for the team, the department and the business. And I brought quite a few of them to a successful conclusion, and after the events described, I realized that all of these were projects.
I later realized that these projects would have gone much more smoothly if I had known how to manage a “textbook” project.
The lesson is that I didn't think or wait for the opportunity to come, but acted as a Project Manager at my workplace without being one. This opened the door for me and God was quick to bless me.
No matter where you are in life right now, you can
To apply Project Management skills and add value to your business and personal life
You can get a promotion because you have become better at the dynamics of daily work and you are the one who solves the big problems effectively.
You can start a career as a Project Manager, this will open many more doors for you
Even if your current job is your passion, project management skills will take you to another level of efficiency. You will achieve more, at a lower cost, and impress.
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