Why projects lose project managers

Projects are inherently stressful. The role of a project manager can be incredibly rewarding, but any seasoned project manager will tell you that it’s a real up and down adventure. Those down moments are often where the toolkit is added to and sharpened, even though it might not feel that way in the eye of the storm.

Organisations are all too familiar with a project seeing multiple project managers do their time. Sometimes this isn’t through anything dramatic, especially when the programme or project spans many years. BUut there’s plenty of instances wherein which project managers leave abruptly or before the end of the project (or even before a key milestone).

This can be hard on everyone. The organisation loses some momentum on the business initiative, the project delivery team loses a leader and stakeholders across the business need to get to know a new manager.

Burning out

Burning out is no small deal. Luckily in today’s world, matters of mental health are taken much more seriously. But the demands of work are still high, and without care, can lead to anyone burning out. A project manager’s role demands a huge variety of tasks, responsibilities and relationships to juggle. Even the most seasoned of PMs can encounter a combination of factors that lead to prolonged stress which is one of the ingredients of burn out. These factors can include:

• Overwhelming workload
• High conflict work environment
• Excessive work hours

Burn out can lead to a PM being out of work for weeks or even months. For many PMs who are on contract, there’s little in the way of stress leave which can strain finances. And it means that projects are without direction until a new PM is found.

Preventing burnout is what we’d consider a team effort. To start, there’s a need for project managers to learn strategies for setting healthy boundaries, not taking on more than is actually possible, and to ensure they have the support in place to deliver the project’s milestones. Then the organisation should foster a culture of realistic workloads and a maturity around project scope, budget and resourcing that doesn’t put any one person under undue pressure.

Lack of resources

Who wants to be set up to fail? No one. Project resources are one of the most critical aspects to get right. When there’s not enough people, support or even tools in place to deliver to an objective, the pressure points are often on the project management office. Imagine giving a builder 50% of the materials required to build a deck and being upset when it’s half-finished? The same applies for project managers.

Now, it’s not always solely on the business to identify and determine resources, especially if a project manager is brought in at the start to help scope. The project manager should have the ability to demonstrate where and why resources are needed.

Project managers may sometimes leave a project if they’re simply not equipped with the pieces of the puzzle. And in many cases, that i’s avoidable if there’s clear lines of communication between the project management office and leadership.

Not enough support from leadership

Projects and programmes are designed to bring about a strategic business change that’s been set by leadership. It’s important therefore leadership and project management are connected. A project manager will typically have a steering committee or group where decisions or challenges can be discussed. There may also need to be discussions with senior leadership in some cases. A project manager doesn’t need close supervision or hand-holding. By nature a PM knows how to take initiative and get things done. But it’s inevitable that there will be challenges that require bringing in leadership to navigate through.

Project managers may only need this backup a few times throughout the project, but it’s felt deeply when that support isn’t there. In a time where project management resources are light as it is, this issue can be enough to push a PM to find a different contract. And those same issues won’t be resolved no matter who the next PM is.

Unclear expectations

Expectations on a project manager might seem standard across the board – hit milestones on budget and meet ultimate acceptance criteria. But it’s rarely this simple. Each project has its own unique needs and expectations from across the business. One of the more common issues is the divergence between SLT strategic objectives and the day to day needs of business units. This is why project scope is important – without that central reference point for the project, different expectations can derail a project’s progress. Even with a good scope, all stakeholders need to respect this, otherwise the project manager can spend too much time defending the scope instead of delivering to it.

Unclear expectations on a project manager can come from any direction. Goals can be conflicting – new requirements without budget change, or conflicting priorities from different stakeholders. If these expectations are continually unclear or unrealistic, a project manager may decide to move on, looking for an environment where they have much more clarity on the business’ expectations.

As a business, it’s important to focus on both scope definition and communication – these two things combined can help to alleviate a lot of murky waters that a PM otherwise needs to wade through.

Getting stuck between stakeholder politics

A project manager needs to work with lots of different personalities as part of the job, each with their own KPIs and perspectives. There’s no getting around this, and different ideas actually help to make project deliverables even better if managed carefully. Where it becomes an issue is when broader politics or conflicts seep into project delivery needs. Maybe the most typical of these is where business units have disagreements through the conduit of the project manager. The PM can inadvertently become the ‘messenger’ for conflicting ideas. This can erode the relationships the PM builds with stakeholders through no real fault of their own.

If there’s no avenue to escalate the issue or connect stakeholders directly to resolve internally, these politics can become all-consuming for a project manager, who may decide to search for a role that has fewer angles. With that said, there are ways that the experienced project manager can actively resolve these tensions, although the line between a PM’s job and leadership can become blurry sometimes.

Sometimes it’s just not the right fit – and that’s okay

The departure of a project manager doesn’t always need to mean there’s a deficiency in the business or with the project manager. Sometimes the needs of the project simply aren’t aligned with the experience and skills of the project manager. Knowing project managers as we do, they’ll give it everything to make something work, but maturity in business is sometimes calling out an issue before it becomes major.

Organisations should do their best to frame a project’s requirements and the environment in which it will be delivered in order to ensure they find the best fit in project management resources, including the manager. Over time project managers will develop the ability to ask the right questions and determine if they’ll be a good fit, too.

Can we help deliver your project with our known to be good group?

JPL’s Known To Be Good Group is a team of proven, seasoned project delivery and rescue specialists, including project managers. We’ve assembled this team over years of programmes and projects, allowing us to bring only the best project team into your organisation. We’re also known for our ability to steer a project through difficult challenges, including the ones mentioned above. If you’re looking for project management or a delivery team that can guide the organisation towards its objective, we want to chat.