The Project Manager as Facilitator and Leader

In the agile environment, the project manager is more of a facilitator than a manager. She must rely on her influencing skills, rather than on formal authority, to get things done. Oftentimes, she (the project manager) is a peer to the individual team members in the organizational pecking order. Acting as a facilitator is nonthreatening to peers, whereas acting as a manager (i.e., giving orders) can be perceived as overstepping her bounds, making it more difficult to establish herself with the team. As her credibility is established, the project manager may evolve into a coach and sounding board for second opinions. Once this happens, the team will be discussing technical obstacles with the project manager instead of withholding them from the taskmaster. As the project manager increasingly becomes the melting pot for project information (both internal and external), she may soon find herself in the enviable position of project leader.

Agile Strategy

Act as more of a facilitator than a manager. Not only is this approach nonthreatening and less confrontational, it will help you establish yourself with the team so that you evolve into its leader.

The road to establishing leadership in an agile environment is a tricky one. Rarely will the project manager have formal authority over the project team. She may have the "project manager" title bestowed upon her, but like other individual contributors on the team, she must prove her worth. The key difference between the project manager and other individual contributors is that there is an implicit assumption that the project manager role is that of a leader. So, while it is relatively straightforward to prove your worth in a technical role, this isn't the case when trying to prove your worth in a leadership role. When you're working in an innovative environment filled with top performers, ideas, and energy, the ability to facilitate the distillation and analysis of large amounts of information into a usable form that everyone can agree on is extremely valuable. Once you show the team that you can help them make sense out of chaos, you will be taking a large step toward becoming the team leader.

Agile Strategy

Distill the reams of technical and business project data into usable information. You will not only add immense value, but you will also gain credibility with the team by performing a difficult task that doesn't clearly fall under anyone else's domain.