Good project manager or just experienced?
So, how does it work exactly? You often hear that a good project manager has experience, knowledge, and control. But if you've been involved in projects for a while, you know that all of this is very welcome. and at the same time offers no guarantees. Because:
- You can have a lot of experience and still get stuck
- You can work hard and still lose control
- You can want to solve everything and thus the project correct the vertrag
Therefore, the question central to this article is: What is professional project management anyway?
⬇️ Let's start with an example ⬇️
Project manager Daphne, with 10 years of experience, is assigned a digital transformation project. Daphne is familiar with the methodology, has completed similar projects, and understands how to plan and manage. Yet, things are getting stuck. This is not due to a lack of knowledge, That's all fine with Daphne.
What Daphne alone NOT ALLOWED What she has realized is that resistance from middle management is the real obstacle. Her experience has taught her how to plan projects, but not how to navigate political tensions. Knowledge alone does not make you a good project manager.
What is professional project management really?
A project professional is someone who acts consciously in a complex environment. In concrete terms, this means that you don't necessarily have to have everything under control. But that you dare to make choices. Even with incomplete information.
As a project professional, you take responsibility for the whole project. You recognize when intervention is necessary and when not. This means that professional conduct goes beyond just doing, doing, and doing again. It is precisely about letting go, tuning in and setting limits.
And yes, that sometimes makes being a project professional a bit awkward. At the same time, your role is incredibly important. You make the difference because you dare to make changes.
➡️ Read along with the case study below. What would you do as a project professional?
Suppose you realize your team is overloaded. What do you do? Do you give your most impassioned inspirational speech to keep people working? Come on guys, we can do this! Or do you decide to slow down, straighten your back and talk to your client?
In most cases, acting professionally means telling the client that the scope or schedule needs to be adjusted. And, wow, that conversation is indeed awkward. The client isn't happy. But it is professional, because it prevents your team from failing, people are not feeling well and the project still fails.
When are you a good project manager?
Many people associate "good project leadership" with visibility and decisiveness. But in practice, it's a bit more subtle. A good project manager creates clarity without dictating everything, and maintains direction without micromanaging. and makes tensions discussable instead of smoothing them over.
This requires self-knowledge. Knowing when to guide and when to leave room. This is precisely where professional behavior differs from routine.
⬇️ Below is an example from an advisory process ⬇️
Project manager Yuri notices that two team members have radical disagreements about the approach. This is causing tension within the team. Yuri could, of course, merge both viewpoints into a compromise that no one supports. Or he could slam his fist on the table, dictate a decision, and expect everyone to obediently follow. Does this work? No. It simply doesn't.
Yuri's good leadership is when he facilitates the discussion. Bring on both perspectives! He creates clarity and allows the team to make decisions, under his guidance. That requires more courage and more confidence, but it will 100% certainly lead to better results.
Project manager skills: visible and invisible
When you think of a project manager's skills, you probably first think of planning, reporting, and organizing. These are indeed important basic skills. But what you often see happening in projects is it is precisely the less visible skills that are decisive. Think of:
- Listen to what NOT ALLOWED it is said
- Deal with resistance
- Recognizing and naming interests
- Setting limits on expectations
You can't just learn these skills "from a book". Developing these skills requires reflection and practice, for example, through training and practical experience. Below are three examples of these skills.
Invisible Skill 1: The Art of Non-Intervention
First off, an absolutely underrated skill: knowing when to not must intervene. A junior project manager sees a team member struggling with a task and takes over. An experienced project manager sees the same thing, but let it happen because wrestling is part of learning. That requires trust and patience.
Invisible Skill 2: Sensing Tension Before It Escalates
Good project managers sense tension before it escalates. They notice subtle signals: someone becoming quieter in meetings, an email with a different tone, or a stakeholder suddenly becoming unresponsive. Picking up these signals and doing something with them before they get out of hand, that is craftsmanship.
Invisible Skill 3: Saying No to the Client
And then perhaps the most difficult skill: saying no to the client. Standing up and saying, "That's not going to work within this timeframe," or "That extra requirement doesn't fit within the scope." Plus the "If we add this, we'll have to cut something else." Having these kinds of conversations is challenging, but essential for a healthy project.
Growing as a project professional requires awareness
Many professionals naturally grow into their roles. They take on more responsibility, are assigned more challenging projects, and are increasingly held accountable for the bigger picture. But growing as a project professional requires more than just gaining experience.
In addition to active learning on the work floor it is also very important to just stand still every now and then. Ask yourself: What is actually expected of me? What role do I take for granted? Where are my boundaries, and do I set them?
Without that reflection, you run the risk of working harder and harder, while your professional effectiveness decreases. A senior project manager recently told us: "I was doing 10 projects a year, working 60 hours a week, and basically always feeling exhausted. Then, one night, I was still working through emails, and I realized:
I'm not growing, I'm just surviving.
I was doing more and more, but learning less and less. Only when I consciously took time to reflect did that change. I started taking on fewer projects, but with my full attention. The results were noticeable! And a nice side effect, also for my family, it made me a nicer and more relaxed person.. "
Professional development in projects is not a luxury
Professional development in projects is sometimes seen as an extra. Something for "later." In reality, it's essential for sustainable employability. Plus, and at Lagant, we consider this just as important., you will enjoy your work more.
At Lagant we see that professionals only really grow when they learn to put into words what they experience. And also by learning to recognize patterns in collaboration and learning to connect behavior to context.
Our e-learning and training are focused on your daily practice. We'll certainly guide you through the methodologies and processes, but that's always in the service of the bigger picture: acting professionally. We'll help you ⬇️
- Have conversations about roles and expectations
- Recognizing patterns in collaboration
- Setting boundaries without damaging relationships
- Demonstrating leadership without formal power
- Adapt behavior to what the context demands
These are the skills that make the difference between a project professional who actually does the work and a project manager who 'just lets the work happen'.
A shared language helps deepen professionalism
What helps with professional development is speaking a common language. A framework like IPMA's offers that language. Not as a standard of "this is how it should be." Rather, see it as a framework for reflecting on leadership, context sensitivity, and professional behavior.
IPMA helps you, as a project professional, to interpret your actions: what am I doing, why am I doing it, and what does this situation require of me?
IPMA's Individual Competence Baseline describes competencies in three areas: perspective (strategy, governance, compliance), people (leadership, teamwork, conflict management), and practice (scope, time, quality). This categorization helps you identify your current strengths and areas for growth.
Many project managers excel in practical skills. They handle everything! They plan well, closely monitor progress, and deliver on time. On the other hand, the same project managers sometimes struggle with people competencies. Having difficult conversations? Don't call me. But resolving conflicts and exerting influence without power is also experienced as challenging.
Or how about perspective competencies, the highly sensitive political context-reading. Managing interests and translating strategy into execution... That can be quite challenging.
👉 Lagant offers you such a moment of reflection in your development with the IPMA certification. You can view an IPMA certification as a kind of mirror that shows you exactly where you stand now. What are you already good at? What are you struggling with? Where do you want to grow?
These questions are more valuable than the certificate itself. From that foundation, you can, of course, strengthen and deepen your desired skills, also with IPMA.
Being a good project professional is not an end point
It's not like you wake up on a beautiful Monday morning and know: "There. Now I'm a good project professional." It's not a title or a certificate you tick off so you can move on. Being a good project professional requires you to have a way of working in which you take responsibility for your roleYou continue to learn from what hurts and dare to act, even when things get tense.
Signs you are growing
But how do you know you're growing as a project professional? A few signs are:
- You ask more questions instead of giving answers. You realize that others often already know the answer, they just need space to express it.
- You feel less responsible for everything. You understand that the project is not yours alone and that others can also share responsibility.
- You'll have less stress about what you can't control. You accept that projects will always remain unpredictable and focus on what you can influence.
- You dare to set boundaries. You say no more often, not out of reluctance, but out of professionalism. You protect your team, your schedule, and therefore your quality.
- You learn from every project. Not just what went right or wrong, but also what you did and why, and what you will do differently next time.
The essence of professional project management
Professionalism in projects is not about working harder or wanting to control everything, it is about conscious act. As a good project professional, you know when to intervene and when to let go.Professional project management is about setting boundaries while maintaining relationships, to provide direction without dictating or forcing.
And we told you before, professional project management is a continuous process. Because every situation is different. Just as every context presents different choices. Therefore, the question isn't so much: Am I doing it right? The starting point is: Do I act professionally in what is needed now?
You keep asking yourself this question, whether you have 10 years of experience or are just starting out. Because that's what a good project professional does: keep learning, keep reflecting, and thus keep growing.Lagant supports you in your continuous development as a professional.
Want to know how we can help you or which certification best suits your career at this point? Submit your question to us via ln.tnagal@ofni or call Patricia via +31 (0)85 050 9742.
