Lessons Learned of a Woman Project Manager
by Sylvie Nina Thiam Size, PMP, ITIL
Recently there seemed to be a heightened interest in women in leadership position. In particiular, how good women are as project managers. Aspects of these issues were published in reputable publications such as The Wall Street Journal (The World Street Journal, 2011) and the PMI (PMI, 2013). Many of these articles discuss about broad issues such as whether women or men are better project managers or leaders. These are well and fine but they do not provide any tips or helps to women project managers who are facing with many challenges in their work.
As a women project manager, I was confronted with many challenges throughout my career. I have successfully tackled some of the challenges while flopping on other issues. In this article, I will share some lessons that I learned on coping with some issues due to gender differences.
Take Gender Differences as a pinch of salt
Fifteen years ago when I started as network technician, I was always the only female in the Information Technology department of the company. The memory that still rattles me is the one that occurred in 2010 during my end of year review with my manager. By that time, I was IT consultant and leading the implementation of integrated management system for a micro-finance institution network. He said, ''you done a great job although we were not expecting that much from you.” Normally I should be happy but I was hurt to be discriminated against. I politely and professionally thanked my manager and walked away.
Although the number of women in Project Management is rising, there are still many challenges that women workers have to face more than our male co-workers. Regardless of gender, no one gets a free pass into leadership position. You always have to work for it and earn it. Thus I took the remarks of my managers as a pinch of salt and I would not allow it to dishearten me. After some reflections, I thought it was best to use the discriminating remarks as an inspiration for me to excel. I hope the sharing of this episode will motivate more females, and of course men, to strive to improve their effectiveness.
Accidental Project Manager
My transition from a technical specialist to a Project Lead was very tricky. Suddenly, I found that I needed to master the skills of managing people, budget and stakeholders. I was ill prepared for the job as my company did not provide adequate training or guidance for me to take the role. I am an accidental project manager – at least that’s how I felt.
My first project in this position was a disaster. I was leading the setup of the network infrastructure of an enterprise comprising LAN, PABX, Cables, switches, servers, routers, NAS and many other technology products. We agreed upon a deadline with the customer with little planning (Mistake #1) and without visiting the customer’s premises (Mistake #2). As a result we have to work overtime on many occasions. All the while we assumed the electrical and cooling system were okay (Mistake #3). After two months of hard work, we were ready to test the setup. There was a power surge during the testing and it blew away a quarter of the devices! The morale of the team was at the all-time low. The team was frustrated as much time and money were wasted.
Although it was exciting to organize and perform projects, I learnt a valuable lesson that one must be ready for it to succeed. In my case, I was not ready to take on the role of Project Lead. My company did not provide me with relevant training at that time. I had to learn from my failures, learn by doing. I spent countless hours reading all types of articles on-line to build the right skills, initiating tools and templates for the projects, looking for better ways to improve things.
As project managers, we need to understand our own weaknesses. Learn from experience (every project teaches a lesson), learn from others and do not stop there. We have to continually learn, do (or practice), reflect and improve in order to become a more proficient and effective manager. Failure is not the end of the world. It is feather in your cap of becoming a better project manager.
Lesson learned: "Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill.
Leadership Is More Than Sisterly Act
For an inexperience woman leader, it is quite natural to equate leadership to the role of a big sister. In my initial years as project leader, I used to spend all my day showing my team members how to do their job. However, my own job such as status updates and progress reports are falling apart. As a result I have to work overtime and during the weekends to complete my own work.
I initially blamed it by saying that I didn't have the right resource. The truth revealed when I reflected on the following questions, as a leader:
- Did I create an environment of responsibility, and ultimately accountability?
- Did I gain my team’s commitment?
- Did I as a PM communicate effectively to the team members not just what the project is, but why it is worthwhile and important for this project to be a success?
Needless to say, my answer to all these questions was NO.
As the leader, we are accountable for the success of our projects. We have to get team members with the right skill and attitude on the job. If necessary, we should develop our team to equip them with relevant skills and competency. Sometimes we have project team members who require too much babysitting and are not productive, displaying rogue behavior, or not staying on task. In these situations a project manager should bring the issue to their immediate manager’s attention and either get the behavior rectified or have them replaced on your team.
Work and Life Balance
Women more than men are more concerned with work and life balance. I am from that generation where the traditional concept of a woman is “home keeper”. As a Project Manager, I have to work long hours in order to practice and master the craft of leadership. The reality is that after working you have to rush back home to do the chores such as cooking, washing and running the household. It is quite a challenge to strive for “Work Life Balance”.
Still it is no fun being Wonder-woman! Luckily with our project management skills, we can go over this by
- Building a team (Kids, husband, helper are part of it and everyone has a responsibility and is accountable for its success)
- Applying business skills to manage the family (as we do at work - motivating, developing and supporting)
We should try as much as possible to not let the myth of “Women should be dedicated more to their family than to their career” continue to hold us off the leadership ladder. Project management skills can also been applied at home.
CONCLUSION
Project Management is the art and science of achieving goals and getting results. From my own reflections, I believe that a woman project manager should not allow perceived disadvantages as set-bhacks in her career. Instead, these should serve as motivation to learn and acquire new skills to become a more effective project manager and leader. Success awaits those who proactively prepare themselves and not afraid to tackle challenges head-on.
Donna Fitzgerald, Research Vice President from the Gartner Group concluded that Project Management is a great field of equal opportunity work (Fitzgerald, 2011). Regardless of gender, a Project Manager should continuously build his/her skills, focus on whatever it’s going to take to deliver the results the sponsor and stakeholders are looking for, be open to feedbacks, learn from successes and failures and he/she will do GREAT.
Works Cited
Fitzgerald, D. (2011, 8 28). Advice for Young Women Entering Project Management. Retrieved 1 24, 2014, from gartner.com: http://blogs.gartner.com/donna_fitzgerald/2011/08/28/advice-for-young-women-entering-project-management/
PMI. (2013, 4 21). Do Women Perform Better than Men? Retrieved 1 24, 2014, from http://pmperspectives.org/: http://pmperspectives.org/article.php?view=full&aid=3
The World Street Journal. (2011). How Can Young Women Develop a Leadership Style? Retrieved 1 24, 2014, from wsj.com: http://guides.wsj.com/management/developing-a-leadership-style/how-can-young-women-develop-a-leadership-style/
About the author
Sylvie Nina Thiam Size is an IT and Project Management professional with over 10 years of working experience. She started her career as an IT professional in Cameroon and since then has held various management and consulting positions in the IT & Project Management arena in Africa. Sylvie is also very passionate about volunteering her service for social goods and sharing her experience with fellow professionals. She currently lives in Singapore and is a member of PMI Singapore Chapter.