i recently was promoted to a managing associate in charge of 10 person's project management. We have about 10 projects in different phases. i love the responsibility and nice boss but i find myself spreading out thin to everyday fragmental questions and responding to clients. by the end of the day i have so little time to design and focus on my own projects ( i am also both PM and PA.) in the long run i don't want to just managing projects and dealing with budgeting and scheduling. But at the same time i find these tasks occupied all of my time. i love designing and hands-on experience in projects but i also don't want to stuck in being a PA forever. i feel like taking a management position is a natural progression for my career growth. any thoughts/experience/suggestions on balancing management and designing?
you should be working closely with a lead designer - once you assume the PA role you automatically give up most of your design responsibilities on the project.
think of this as an opportunity to be more of a professor and less like a student - you can still guide the project, but you really have to allow yourself to get excited about other people's ideas and work.
can someone please define the role of project architect (PA) in this conversation? I find that different people have different ideas of what it means, even in the same firm...sometimes that has to do with licensure
Do you think PA's normally spend most of their time drawing? we are assuming that project manager (PM) is higher than PA in the food chain...?
The key to good management is to only do things that only you can do. Once you have achieved that, you won't feel so pressed for time and can start to add things that you want to do.
j
joshcookie: "The key to good management is to only do things that only you can do." -- hmmm, interesting take on the problem.
The real key to good management is the ability to delegate effectively -- the things that generally are the easiest to delegate are those things that each of us already does well and can teach others to do well. If you keep doing "things that only you can do" then who else is ever going to be able to do those things?
wait ... oh ... I see ... this is a job security strategy!
Yes i think PA is in charge of a specific project's drawing's coordination. PM is more involved in budgeting and scheduling, less of the design aspect per se. this is just how we work, i totally agree it varies from office to office. simply because a PM needs a PA's experience, that makes them higher in the food chain in my opinion. i finds it best if you can be both PM and PA in your job with a job caption's help. i like the notion of the professor and the students, i think i have to learn getting excited about other's ideas. Every single advice here is very useful, thank you all.
Quiz-
My meaning was lost in my attempt at succinctness. Training is something that only I can do, my draftsmen/interns/job captains can't do that. I can't delegate that.
My best job security is profitability, and that comes much easier when the lower pay grades spend the time on the delegate-able stuff and not I. Many of our project managers burn budgets by drawing details from scratch, lording over layer management and pen tables and other things that the people they are supervising are perfectly capable of doing. When I am letting others do what they are fully capable of, it leaves me with time for the stuff that only I can do and/or the stuff I like to do.
Which was the point of my earlier post, if you are so busy doing stuff "to move up the ladder" instead of the things you love to do; try to ask yourself with each task, is there someone else who can do this? If the answer is yes, then you better let them.
j
management vs design
i recently was promoted to a managing associate in charge of 10 person's project management. We have about 10 projects in different phases. i love the responsibility and nice boss but i find myself spreading out thin to everyday fragmental questions and responding to clients. by the end of the day i have so little time to design and focus on my own projects ( i am also both PM and PA.) in the long run i don't want to just managing projects and dealing with budgeting and scheduling. But at the same time i find these tasks occupied all of my time. i love designing and hands-on experience in projects but i also don't want to stuck in being a PA forever. i feel like taking a management position is a natural progression for my career growth. any thoughts/experience/suggestions on balancing management and designing?
you should be working closely with a lead designer - once you assume the PA role you automatically give up most of your design responsibilities on the project.
think of this as an opportunity to be more of a professor and less like a student - you can still guide the project, but you really have to allow yourself to get excited about other people's ideas and work.
-to
can someone please define the role of project architect (PA) in this conversation? I find that different people have different ideas of what it means, even in the same firm...sometimes that has to do with licensure
Do you think PA's normally spend most of their time drawing? we are assuming that project manager (PM) is higher than PA in the food chain...?
The key to good management is to only do things that only you can do. Once you have achieved that, you won't feel so pressed for time and can start to add things that you want to do.
j
joshcookie: "The key to good management is to only do things that only you can do." -- hmmm, interesting take on the problem.
The real key to good management is the ability to delegate effectively -- the things that generally are the easiest to delegate are those things that each of us already does well and can teach others to do well. If you keep doing "things that only you can do" then who else is ever going to be able to do those things?
wait ... oh ... I see ... this is a job security strategy!
Yes i think PA is in charge of a specific project's drawing's coordination. PM is more involved in budgeting and scheduling, less of the design aspect per se. this is just how we work, i totally agree it varies from office to office. simply because a PM needs a PA's experience, that makes them higher in the food chain in my opinion. i finds it best if you can be both PM and PA in your job with a job caption's help. i like the notion of the professor and the students, i think i have to learn getting excited about other's ideas. Every single advice here is very useful, thank you all.
the hardest part of delegating is knowing that you can do a better job and finish sooner then the person you've asked to do it...
the hardest part of delegating is thinking that you can do a better job and finish sooner then the person you've asked to do it...
Quiz-
My meaning was lost in my attempt at succinctness. Training is something that only I can do, my draftsmen/interns/job captains can't do that. I can't delegate that.
My best job security is profitability, and that comes much easier when the lower pay grades spend the time on the delegate-able stuff and not I. Many of our project managers burn budgets by drawing details from scratch, lording over layer management and pen tables and other things that the people they are supervising are perfectly capable of doing. When I am letting others do what they are fully capable of, it leaves me with time for the stuff that only I can do and/or the stuff I like to do.
Which was the point of my earlier post, if you are so busy doing stuff "to move up the ladder" instead of the things you love to do; try to ask yourself with each task, is there someone else who can do this? If the answer is yes, then you better let them.
j
ok .. that makes sense.
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