The job

I recently reread a number of articles on management as I prepared for an interview for a role in a senior exec team of a med sized business ($200m annual revenue). The job advert talked about project skills, which I think I have in spades, but the panel obviously saw better elsewhere.

Nevertheless the articles I looked at also have a bearing on the management of projects. I commend them to you.

They are all by Henry Minzberg: Rounding Out the Manager's Job (Sloan Mgt Rev Fall 94); The Five Minds of a Manager (Havard Business Review Nov 2003) and The Role of the CEO, which I think was a Harvard publication, but I found it on DesignIntelligence Update.

I'm familiar with the first two, as I give them to the managers who report to me (and staff who are on a management pathway) to read. They both open up the world of management with more reality than most texts do.

One of the ideas that I like in Minzberg is that he talks about the role as being an integrating role; a role that brings lots of active plays to rolling conclusions. Much like a PM; however most of what I read about PM breaks the role into analytical approaches to PM 'tools' and techniques, but rarely integrates in into a flow of information, activity and people's commitment to produce a performance outcome.