Football coaches as PMs – Part Two
A few months ago, I wrote a post entitled “How Football Coaches are like Project Managers“, which compared project managers to football coaches. The article discussed how coaches, like project managers, are responsible for the following:
- Procuring superior talent
- Preparing the team
- Motivating the team
When a coach accomplishes the above tasks, they are likely to have a successful tenure. This is evidenced by trophies, rings, and accolades.
However, it is more often the case where a coach is not able to accomplish all of the above tasks. When this happens, the team does not win enough, and eventually the coach is let go. This recently happened when my alma mater decided not to retain Charlie Weis as head coach. It was not his lack of commitment, effort, or passion that caused him to lose his job. It was the lack of wins over the past few years.
Project managers are also judged by the bottom line.
You may have assembled and trained a dynamic team. You may have motivated the team to work hard for you. You may be liked by your superiors. However, do not be complacent because of these factors. Any project manager knows that he/she is only judged by the success of their last project. A project fails or succeeds because of the entire team, but as the sports cliche says, “You can’t fire the whole team”. When the project fails, it is often the project manager who bears the brunt of the responsibility.
However, there is the flip side. When a project succeeds, the project manager is often the one who receives the lion’s share of the praise. We can all think back to when we were riding high after the success of an important project.
The bottom line is that we, as project managers, know where we stand. We are accountable for the success of a project and we cherish that responsibility. We like assembling our team and going to battle with them. We enjoying helping our players grow on the field of play. And most of all, we like looking up at the scoreboard when time has expired and seeing that we have won.
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