Here's how you can navigate the key responsibilities of a Program Manager in the early stages of your career.

Discover how to begin a career in Program Management with key insights into the responsibilities of a Program Manager. Focus on understanding the program's goals and how they align with the organization's strategic objectives. Develop strong project planning and resource management skills to ensure projects are completed on time and within budget. Build effective communication channels with stakeholders to keep them informed and engaged. Foster a collaborative team environment and address conflicts promptly. Continuously seek feedback and learn from more experienced colleagues. By mastering these responsibilities, you can establish a solid foundation for a successful program management career. ???? #ProgramManagement #EarlyCareerSuccess

Two things: 1. Read. A lot. Learn about what others have done and assess yourself - does any of this fit with my working style? If not, should it? Don't change for the sake of change, but I have found that having a broad understanding of the options allows me to pick and choose and then iterate on the components that align with how I want to manage a program. 2. Develop a plan and just start. Don't overthink it, but by all means don't plan and leave it at that. Focus on feedback (both through your metrics and from your team) as well as your own level of engagement and follow through and adjust ruthlessly.

As you start out and not familiar with the program, do a lot of listening and asking why a lot. Play the new person card. There is nothing wrong with it. I would hate you walk away lost rather just stating.. I don't know. Ask the key stakeholders, SMEs on the program by holding one on one meetings and pick their brain. Why are you doing it this way, is there a better way and why not? Understanding the risk, network failure or customer impacts, gives you an insight on why teams may be hesitant to try new ways of doing the work. This will really help you mold not only the plan but your team. It shows that you value them and their input to the overall plan and success of the program.

One thing I found helpful early in my leadership journey, and especially when leading older or more experienced personnel, is demonstrating high empathy for individual strengths and needs. Learn to recognize who are the main influencers and detractors, where a person's strengths may be underleveraged, and allow for flexibility within the team structure. Communicating with respect and seeking continuous feedback is critical. While you don't need to act on every suggestion or criticism, listen attentively and work to find opportunities to solidify team dynamics.

From my experience, the most effective program managers understand the technical aspects of their projects and deeply care about their team. Building trust is paramount. I ALWAYS tell my team, "With me, trust is NOT earned. You START with the highest level of trust, and it’s yours to nourish or lose." This promotes transparency, active listening, and support. For example, when a critical project was behind schedule, I organized open forums for team members to voice concerns and propose solutions. This approach not only accelerated problem-solving but also boosted team morale and cohesion

Key point to remember, and this sounds obvious, but stakeholders are human too. What I mean by that is they just like you have time pressures, busy lives, and challenges they don't need at work and probably in their home life - so help them out with 3 simple, secret sauce steps: 1. Work out what are the important/top 3 items to them and focus on those with clear communication 2. Be consistent and reliable in how you approach them, brief them, and report to them and when - Consistency = Comfort & Confidence 3. As Tony Robbins says "Everybody likes surprises - but its not true, people only like good surprises, not bad surprises". Advise in advance that down the line there could be unforeseen surprises but if/when you'll be transparent.

Lead with honesty, be driven by facts, and don't be afraid to say no once in a while (giving alternatives helps ease the pain). No matter what, cultivating relationships that provide valuable feedback and having honest interactions about delivery, scope, timeframes, etc. is essential to the role. Be the first one to address concerns and offer solutions that demonstrate your understanding of the impact to your stakeholders.

This is really a big area to discuss.. from being too conservative and never finishing to flying by the seat of your pants hoping you don't break anything along the way. Having sat in both planning and operational roles, they tend to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. Planning wants the new service, box, money making item delivered and in use as soon as possible. Operations is responsible for keeping the network up and available, 5 - nines...very conservative. Somewhere in the middle you have to mitigate the risk and ensure both sides agree to who, what, when and how this is done. I read several articles and took training thru PMI, LinkedIn and others discussing different ways to manage risk, using one that works for the program and me.

Yes manage risk - catalogue all and show to your client. A real pro tip for the first session with your stakeholder/business sponsor is to establish their dynamic (beyond the PMO's full entry set) of what items they want you to focus on and engage them on vs. just sharing a detailed RISK log - which they often get bored of or "Cant see the wood for the trees