Every member of a team has a specific role to play. They’re assigned that role because, well, it’s their job, but also because that’s what they’re good at! If program managers ensure everyone is playing the right role, and doing it well, there’s a better chance the program will succeed. What happens if someone oversteps? Or drops the ball? Neither is a good thing. If a program manager oversteps, don’t be surprised if the business lead then drops the ball. The partnership between these two people must be super-effective. And the onus is on the program manager who is responsible for driving the program forward to a successful outcome. If, for example, someone asks a program manager for a general presentation on program goals and customer requirements, the program manager should reach out to the business lead and have them do the presentation. A program manager with “helper” tendencies may tend to just jump in instead, because they can or to save the business lead time. But in so doing, they’re enabling their business lead to be less accountable. A program manager can talk about the program, sure, but not as well as the business lead, whose job it is to do that and who is usually more suited to the task. That’s okay, nobody can do everything well! And let’s face it — program managers prefer and are better at talking about program timelines, interdependencies, and risk mitigation. If you as a program manager overstep and then complain that your business lead isn’t stepping up, you may have yourself to blame.
It takes two
