Successful project managers actively work to gain the right amount and intensity of executive support. Without it, they may not be able to lead their project to a successful finish.
The presence of executive sponsors should be institutionalized, and they should even receive training, according to an article on the thebalance.com website. Currently, support of this kind is usually lacking in most of companies.
What is the role of executive sponsor? This person should:
- Accept responsibility for the success of the project – that means they share responsibility with the project manager.
- Provide resources and visibility to the project and its team.
- Defend the project team when other teams or departments attack it.
- Demand and foster accountability and transparency during the project.
- Support the team when extraordinary difficulties arise.
- Coach the project manager.
If there is no executive sponsor, all of the tasks mentioned above are the project manager's. However, there are time constraints, and the political influence of a person in this role are usually already limited. Therefore, when an effective sponsor is missing, the risk of project problems increases. The project may fail, the team may perform at suboptimal level, and quality, cost and time targets may not be reached.
What can project managers do to actually gain that much-needed support from an executive? You'll see in the next article.
-jk-