How to Be a Good Executive Sponsor

My experience with Executive Sponsors is that they are usually not very good at the role.? This is in large part because they are executives, meaning they already have a busy, demanding job.? Asking them to be the sponsor of a project is additional work for which they often have the desire but not the capacity.? As my mother might say, their eyes are too big for their stomach.

You probably know the responsibilities of an Executive Sponsor: Champion the project, help secure resources, make key decisions, etc.? But where should you really invest your precious time if you want to be a successful Executive Sponsor?? Invest here:

Ceaselessly Promote the Value of the Project

You need to constantly remind senior leadership of the value of the project.? You can’t just sell them on it, get the budget, then refer to it by the project name.? They will forget.? Refer to it by the value it will deliver.? It’s not ‘The Salesforce project is on time and on budget.’? It’s ‘the Salesforce project that will increase our lead generation and client satisfaction is on time and on budget.’

Do the same with your application consumers.? You will be asking them to change.? They will resist it.? You need to remind them constantly of both the value to the organization and how that will directly benefit them.? So 1) This is an organizational priority approved by the senior leadership team that will increase our lead generation and client satisfaction thereby increasing revenue and 2) That increase in revenue means organizational growth and more opportunity for you.

Securing Resources

Resourcing doesn’t just mean budget.? Oh, that’s important, too (we’ll get to that in a moment). But projects need resource commitment from other departments.? These commitments are often not met and the Executive Sponsor may have a real fight on her hands to convince the leader of another department to honor those commitments.? Often that means going before the CEO (gulp) or leadership team with the head of the other department and hashing it out

Remember what we said about constantly reminding leadership of the benefits of the project.? That is very useful when there is resource contention.? Compare this project aimed at addressing a critical organizational need to the priorities given to the resource you are requesting.? Often shining a light on the value is all you need.?

Now, on the budget.? One of the most important things you can do is constantly remind senior leadership that projects are volatile.? You almost always discover voids that require additional funding.? The function you desire requires another module to work properly.? You discover that you lack a skillset and need a contractor to fill it.? Or, as mentioned above, you have resource contention and need to backfill someone assigned to the project.? You will not foresee all of these things and you will need to go back to the well.? So keep that at the top of the mind of the executive team.? It will help them stomach the additional ask when the time comes.? And if you have been championing the value as mentioned earlier, you’ll find a receptive audience.? ‘Are you sure you don’t want to spend an extra $10,000 to reduce our costs by $1,000,000?’

Stakeholder Management

This is an area where a lot of Executive Sponsors are weak.? Too often they leave it on the shoulders of the project manager to handle the majority of stakeholder management.? You shouldn’t just be a CC on an update message.? You need to be the voice, particularly with senior leadership and department heads.? Your active engagement shows the importance of the project and your knowledge of the project status conveys your investment.? Again, remind everyone of the value, not the deliverables.? Even stakeholders forget the value as time passes and on large projects, a lot of time can pass.

You’ll also need to be the referee at times.? There will be conflict among your stakeholders.? You need to be well-informed of both project and organizational goals.? You don’t want to be hearing about the cause of the conflict just before a decision is needed.? Intimate project knowledge combined with a deep understanding of organizational priorities uniquely positions you to confidently adjudicate any conflict.

Governance

We’ll make this quick.? Don’t let the project start without a governance plan.? Be clear on decision rights and ensure that those without those rights have a clear path to get decisions made.? You will be the ultimate arbiter of a lot of these and you are very busy, Ms Executive Sponsor.? Push those decisions down in a way that gives you confidence so the project isn’t held up waiting for you to respond to an email when you are on a plane to Chennai.

Risk Management

This dovetails with decision rights.? Who can accept risk on behalf of the team, on behalf of the organization?? Risk acceptance, more than operational decisions, hinder projects.? There is nothing worse than getting close to launch date and finding an unacceptable risk decision has been made forcing you to backtrack.?

Setup a risk governance structure.? Have a process for adjudicating risk decisions quickly and clearly define those risk acceptance criteria.? You’ll be glad you did.

If you would like to be a good Executive Sponsor and need some assistance, I am always happy to help.? You can reach me at [email protected].? Good luck!