Project Management versus Relationship Management: Introducing APEX
By Michael Wilkinson, CMF
Managing Director, Leadership Strategies, Inc.
Do you have someone on your team who is a great project manager but lousy relationship manager? Do you have the person who is strong technically and fantastic at keeping the project on track, but who struggles with responding to client needs and managing client expectations?
I look at that person in your organization and I see myself 20+ years ago. Let me explain.
The Incident
I was working for one of the big IT consulting firms and managing the installation of a payroll system for a southeast company. It was my first time in the project management role. I found myself working until 8 or 9 pm just about every night because I wanted it to be the best payroll system ever implemented.
Near the end of the first month of the six-month implementation, the project sponsor came to me and let me know how disappointed he was in the job I was doing. The controller had come to him and was upset that he didn’t understand how the new payroll system was going to update the balance sheet accounts. He left with the departing words, “You need to get on the stick!”
For those of you involved in systems, you know that the update to the balance sheet accounts is called an interface. For a typical six-month package software implementation, you would likely design interfaces in month two and implement them in month five or six. We weren’t even at the end of month one and I was being dressed down because a month-two task wasn’t done.
After the sponsor left I thought, “How ungrateful could he be? Here I am busting my butt to implement this payroll system and he’s chewing me out for something that’s not supposed to be done until next month!” Needless to say, I was quite a bit upset. In fact, I think I still am, as I feel the rise in my blood pressure just thinking about it.
The Lesson
But, consider what the sponsor was really saying to me:
“You are not meeting my need.”
See, I was installing a payroll system. Remember, it was going to be the best system ever implemented. Yet, he was saying the most important element to him was ensuring that his people were happy. Sure, he wanted a good payroll system. But more importantly, he wanted his people comfortable and brought along every step of the way.
I was doing 100% project management and 0% relationship management. I wasn’t meeting his need. And when he told me, what did I do? I got mad at him for telling me I wasn’t meeting his need! I felt I was doing a great job. Why? Because I was implementing a payroll system. I was doing project management. I didn’t get it. I didn’t understand that project management and relationship management were two different things and I was responsible for both.
Unfortunately, I continued not to get it. By month five I was taken off the project and replaced with a different project manager. And even when I was replaced, I was still thinking, “If they would only let me do my job, I’d get this payroll system in.”
I just didn’t get it. At least not then.
It took a couple of more projects for me to learn that one of the keys to being a successful consultant is strong relationship management skills. It wasn’t that I didn’t have the skills, which of course I didn’t. I didn’t even understand how critically important the skills were. I didn’t know I needed them!
The Difference
Let’s transition from this tough lesson to application by answering the question: How does relationship management differ from project management? There is a significant difference, so let’s contrast the difference across four dimensions.
1. What’s the overall objective?
- For a project manager, the overall objective is to get the project completed.
- For a relationship manager, the overall objective is to have a satisfied client.
2. What are the primary activities to achieve the objective?
- For a project manager, the primary activities are identifying tasks, assigning resources, monitoring status, adjusting as needed.
- For a relationship manager, the primary activities are defining expectations, managing expectations, communicating status, building trust and confidence.
3. What determines the authority you have?
- For a project manager, your authority is determined by the project charter.
- For a relationship manager, your authority is determined by the trust and influence you build.
4. What is the ultimate measure of success?
- For a project manager, the ultimate measure of success is a completed the project on-time and on-budget.
- For a relationship manager, the ultimate measure of success is repeat business.
As you can see, project management and relationship management are very different.
Where do you learn project management skills? At project management school of course. Organizations like the Project Management Institute specialize in assessing and building project management skills. An entire industry has been developed to serve the project manager.
Now for the million dollar question. Where do you learn relationship management skills? Unfortunately there is no Relationship Management Institute. There is no industry that has built up to help technical people develop relationship management skills.
Let’s face it. Most technicians DON’T learn these skills. On the whole, we just aren’t great “people people”. And for those who do learn the skills, most learn as I did – in the school of hard knocks – which is unfortunate for us and our unhappy customers!
An Alternative Approach
At Leadership Strategies we have taken our traditional three- and four-day courses and developed a series of one-day offerings which we call APEX – Achieving Professional Excellence. The purpose of the one-day course format is to provide technicians with specific skill building modules packed with strategies they can implement right away to be more effective in relationship management and other soft-skill areas.
The APEX Series
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One of our clients found it helpful to offer two or three courses on the last Friday of every month. Others prefer to use the traditional three- and four-day versions of the courses. In all cases, technical professionals such as IT analysts, consultants, engineers, web developers, and business analysts learn and practice the critical skills for developing and maintaining strong client relationships.
If you would like to learn more about the APEX series or want to speak with one of our client relationship managers about the soft skill needs within your organization, call us at 770.454.1440 or use this link to contact us over the web.
Michael Wilkinson is the Managing Director of Leadership Strategies – The Facilitation Company. He is a former IT consultant and was twice selected by the governor of his state to serve for two terms on the state’s Information Technology Policy Council. He is author of The Secrets of Facilitation and The Secrets to Masterful Meetings. He is a Certified Master Facilitator and a much sought after leadership trainer and facilitator.
