The results have come back and people like the title Project Manager. The options and breakdown where:
Project Journalist 14% Project Scapegoat 7% Project Enzyme 7% Project Manager 21% Other 21% Project Martyr 7% Project Leader 14% Project Evangelist 7%
Reasons given include:
Project Martyr – Only gets recognition and notariety upon falling on the sword of a failed project.
Project Leader – As a military officer, I saw first had the difference between a manager (Sargent) and a leader (officer). The manager is one responsible for the logistics of the operation. They execute the mission as they are told to. The leader is the one who envisions the mission and leads the troops (people) to victory (success). If we are not being project leaders, we are not moving forward
Project Evangelist — because the PM has to continually “sell” the project, otherwise our American companies with their short attention spans will forget why they selected that project.
Project Manager – when I managed projects or worked on project teams, I was not called the project manager, nor was anyone else. We just were project managers without the title. In a flat organization, no title was needed.
It was real important to know your sutff, though, and to be respected. In fact, lots of my power came from respect. Without it, you may not be much of a project manager.
Oh, and another thing. Nor did we have fancy certificates saying we were project managers. They probably did not exist at that time. But as I always say, without good communication skills, you can have whatever degree you want, but you may not be much of a project manager.
Thanks to everyone who participated.
