The PMO business — How to influence without authority
Written by: Natasha Angeline, PMO — Product
Content planned by: Natasha Angeline
Edited by: Phee Ren Yi (Martin), Editor
To all the aspiring Project Management Officers (PMOs) out there, are you aware of how different the role is in comparison to Project Managers (PMs)? While the two might be similar in its essence of managing people, the role of a PMO requires an additional ability to do upward management on top of managing cross-functional initiatives.
The role of a PMO can often be quite demanding because one has to influence changes and actions without any upright authority. Of course, it varies according to the type of PMO setup you have in the organisation. But most of the time, PMOs do not have the authority to direct others what to do.
This leads us to the importance of being able to exercise effective influence on various stakeholders in order to get things done.
5 key principles to getting things done
Influencing people to get things done across the organisation can be challenging at times. Therefore, I would like to share the following approaches that I have undertaken, and that has helped me tremendously in rallying different stakeholders towards a common goal:
1. Be results-oriented
The very first approach is to influence the direction of shared benefits in the results. When we skew things from the results perspective, the end result should ideally positively impact the targeted stakeholder that you are trying to influence.
Change may not be welcome in many instances. It is often uncomfortable, disruptive, and requires new actions which may result in an unpredictable future. An effective change management framework is often required to tackle this issue. As you might realise, the biggest challenge with this approach is that there is no way to guarantee the benefits promised. This is precisely where data comes in to back you up. Backing yourself up with data implies that you’ve done your research and therefore you would be perceived as more convincing, which means a higher level of influence.
2. Be out there
The second approach is building your presence in the professional community, both externally and internally. People have to know your way before you even exercise your influence. The best practice in a typical workplace is in fact to network and know as many people as possible. On top of which, it is even more crucial to leave a good impression to make yourself known around the organisation. This is critical because your influential power can diminish when people have not interacted with you before.
3. Prioritise the work
Being able to prioritise your work is vital as a PMO. PMOs could identify easy and quick wins to show an immediate positive impact. It can be done by assessing planned activities using an Impact/Effort matrix.
4. Get a mentor
You don’t have to know everything. Find someone in the company who could help you navigate the process. My preferred mentors are usually solution-oriented, positive thinkers and are not afraid to make mistakes. Check out some articles from HBR to learn how to find your perfect mentors. Ask yourself some questions to start with, What kinds of people do you admire & why? What would you like to improve & why? You can also be a mentor. Create a more supporting and mentoring culture in your company by being more hands-on in helping others and always giving feedback.
5. Get more responsibility
Just like other successful people out there, those with an impressive portfolio are more likely to be respected and listened to. Build your reputation within your team, company, or even industry. People will be more open to hearing what you have to say. A good example of Arun’s article is Sir Alex Ferguson. Everyone knows that he’s one of the most decorated and longest-serving football managers. Before he managed Manchester United, he managed smaller clubs and brought them to great success in Europe. Let your results do the talking. Influence builds over time.
To close the loop…
As a general rule of thumb, simplify, simplify, simplify. Simplification doesn’t mean taking things easy. When you have a simplification process in place, it helps you focus on what really matters. It helps you stop wasting time on things that don’t work and then be free to work on other important things. This provides a clear and dedicated mind to assess complicated situations, combating complexity and making our lives (customers and employees alike) much easier.
Secondly, be fully transparent with your metrics. Focus on measuring the output rather than the input and the results would usually take care of themselves. In many situations, data speaks the loudest, which would greatly enhance your influence.
Last but not least, establish clear responsibilities across different stakeholders. This probably is the most effective way to get things done because everyone understands exactly what is required of them.
At the end of the day, our goal as a PMO in any organisation is to evolve…
Hope it helps! If you want to get in touch with the Circles.Life Product team, reach out to us on LinkedIn.
