One of the problems I have seen and even experienced in my own company at times was what I called “Accidental Project Manager Syndrome”. It is believed to have originated from the real-world scenario where individuals find themselves managing projects without having pursued formal training or education in skill or trade of PROJECT MANAGEMENT itself. I first heard it coined where in the IT world author Patricia Ensworth wrote a book entitled The Accidental Project Manager: Surviving the Transition from Techie to Manager but I saw it also happen all the time in the building and remodeling world.
How often have we seen a company promote their most talented and skilled carpenter into project management only to find they really really weren’t cut out for or trained for that kind of position. I know I did that once decades ago when I took one of the talented carpenters I have ever met and made him a Project Manager only to find:
• What he really loved was carpentry and being a master artisan carpenter.
• He had no idea what kinds of project management tools and techniques were out there him to apply if he had the training in Project Management
• and he didn’t really have the temperament for being a Project Manager
Well today in the never ending project of cleaning up and cleaning out old office files I found a print out of this PDF I had highlighted and notated years ago.
Dominant Personality Traits Suited to Running Projects Successfully (And What Type are You?) (PDF)
