Management Isn’t About Authority
by Miki Saxon
Is managing a group boring in comparison to managing a project?
Is it a bigger challenge to manage with no actual authority as opposed to when you have it?
Project management is the ultimate matrixed management position—responsibility sans authority, i.e., no leverage.
But managers’ traditional leverage—do it or you’re fired—doesn’t work on today’s workforce, whose reaction is more likely to be updating their resume.
Granted, there are many abusive managers out there who believe that their authority gives them the right to order people around, but it’s less and less effective. That’s especially true when creativity, innovation and productivity are requirements for getting the job done.
What it boils down to is that PMs can’t give orders by dint of their job description whereas managers can’t give orders by dint of their workforce—and neither one is going to change any time soon.
Image credit: HikingArtist on flickr
