As a management professor at Albertus Magnus College, I try to show my students the importance of balancing stability with change. People need time to adapt to change, to internalize change, and to make it their own, before the next change comes along and hits them in the face! As professional managers, it is important to understand that business excellence lies in the dynamic tension between stability and change. We need different skills to operate effectively in times of relative calm versus times of paradigm shift. To me, one of the most critical lessons for a new leader is to carefully observe and orient themselves to the current situation and adapt their management practices accordingly.
Looking back at my own management career, I think I was pretty lucky: When I graduated college in 1992, I entered one of the most challenging job markets in decades. It took almost 100 job applications to finally land a position as a management trainee with Barclays Bank. Right away, I started working on world-class projects and over time made the transition to managing project teams at ITT and as a consultant and managing project managers at The Hartford. It wasn’t until almost 10 years later that I took my first non-project role and began to actually feel the pressure of balancing day to day operations with strategic change. I knew the company needed to change, but my team had to deal with the consequences of a poorly managed project. It took four painful months, frustrated team members, and even more frustrated customers, to recover from this one badly run implementation. That experience directly led me to seek out ways to implement strategic projects while making certain that employees and customers were never negatively impacted by the changes my team brought to the table. In my view, this should be an important priority for every professional project manager.
In the 23 years since I started that first job with Barclays Bank, project work took my career from entry level to strategic leadership, let me work on both sides of the Atlantic, gave me the opportunity to run my own company, and allowed me to work for some of the best companies in the world. Most of all, project work led me to collaborate with and learn from hundreds of amazing professionals from many disciplines and many cultures. Of course, project work like this is not for everyone. But, for the right person, project management can be an engaging, rewarding and lucrative career, and a career that is in high demand in today’s economy.
A couple of years ago, I had the honor of designing a new MBA in Project Management here at Albertus Magnus College. The program sits on top of a highly regarded 48-credit MBA, but with an added focus on balancing stability and change. Our students spend a little under two years developing business acumen and strategic management skills, while building strong technical project management capabilities at the same time. Students graduate the program ready to begin careers as professional project managers in the real world of business leadership.
Now entering its second year, the M.B.A. in Project Management is offered in a blended format or fully online, and can be completed in under two years. If you have what it takes to manage strategic change and balance it with operational stability, you might have what it takes to become a professional project manager. Take your career to the next level: call (877) 624-6872 and speak to an admissions counselor about the M.B.A. in Project Management.
James Patsalides, M.S., M.A., Ph.D., P.M.P., F.R.S.A., is Assistant Professor ofManagement at Albertus Magnus College and academic advisor for students in the M.B.A. in Project Management. In addition to his professional master’s degrees in management and teaching, he holds a Ph.D. in sustainability education, is a PMP® certified project manager, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of the Arts. Professor Patsalides teaches courses in business administration, project management and entrepreneurship. He welcomes contacts from professionals interested in project management and entrepreneurship, and can be contacted by email at jpatsalides@albertus.edu.