How to Work With Project Sponsors (Project Management Tips)

Описание: Discover insights from a professional Project Management Advisor with over 30 years of experience advising on complex projects.

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Engaged project sponsors are vital to project leadership and successful delivery. So, how can you ensure your sponsor is the right fit, and working for your project? Visit https://www.corepa.com.au to learn more.

Disengaged or even difficult project sponsors have the potential to cause a project to go off the rails, negatively affecting stakeholders, often impeding project success.

There are several reasons why a project sponsor may become disengaged. Interest, expectation, availability, or even knowledge and experience.

A difficult, but important question to address initially may need to be, are they the right sponsor for the project? Not personally, but functionally; technically for the project being delivered. Some businesses gloss over sponsor nomination and selection.

A project sponsor must be adequately informed about the project and involved in key decisions. It may be beneficial to guide them through their roles and responsibilities early.

Ask the sponsor for feedback, confirm the communication style that meets their needs and be prepared to adapt.

Proactively and regularly providing them opportunity to raise queries or concerns and taking a “no-surprises” approach is always useful.

Done your best and still not connecting?? Well, try looking sideways, discuss concerns with a trusted peer, a peer of the sponsor or even another executive if you have the opportunity, they may be able to provide valuable perspective and advice on an alternative way to approach the situation.

Engaged project sponsors can use their influence to prevail over challenges, keep the project and company visions aligned, remove road- blocks and drive successful change.

So, no matter how disengaged a project sponsor may be, there is always an opportunity to build or even rebuild their relationship with the project and win over their support that can be vital to project success.

Reach out to us at Core Project Advisory. We would love to hear your thoughts on this or even help you with your own project governance.

And let me know in the comments… what attributes do you think are
essential in a #project sponsor?

#projectmanagement #projectadvisor #projectmanager