I asked Paula Wagner in a past podcast what qualities do you look for in someone that wants to fill the position of Global Program Manager? Paula Wagner, MBA, PMP, has more than 20 years of business experience in technology, strategy, and planning.
Related Podcast and Transcription: The Program Manager UnMasked
Paula: With someone who’s a Global Program Manager, I would say for anyone working in a global business, the number one skill is flexibility. Because you have to be flexible and understand different cultures, different customs, different styles of doing business. I once talked to somebody and they said when they hire someone for a global position they always want to know is this person going to eat at the hotel restaurant or are they going to go and experience the culture and eat at the restaurant down the street and really experience their customs and their food.
There are a number of skill sets to being a program manager. Obviously, leadership, these people have to lead project managers who are very strong leaders in themselves, but also you’re leading this whole enterprise to achieve the business results you’re looking for. Understand the politics and the market conditions and the locations that you’re operating in that can affect any of the projects that you’re overseeing.
There’s also a need to be somewhat technical, technology savvy, or technical savvy, in the area that your projects are under so you can understand their language and their needs and their experiences. You also want to have a strategic vision. Be able to look and think broadly, and then act locally; understanding the organizational structure of the company as well as the structure of the program and the project managers. You also need some environmental awareness ? what’s going on in the world and how it would affect the work that you’re doing. And it’s always great to have experience as a project manager before stepping into the shoes as a program manager.
Program managers have to be real great time managers because they have to be flexible and obviously people are working around the world so you have to be cognizant of time zones, time changes. In the U.S., we have Daylight Savings Time. In around the world those that do practice Daylight Savings Times have different weekends that it changes, so they have to be aware of that.
I actually worked on a program where Daylight Savings had to be written into the software, so that can easily shift or add an hour or lose an hour during those two days of the year. And most importantly a program manager has to have strong communications skills as well as people skills. And sometimes those soft skills are often the hardest skills that there are, is the way to work with people and really be able to communicate both verbally and in writing so that people from many different backgrounds can understand you.
Lean Sales and Marketing: Learn about using CAP-Do
Special Marketing with Lean Book and Program offers on Facebook