The Customer Mindset Is Always Right

In most cases, project managers are assigned to projects after the development of strategic initiatives and project charters. Seemingly, we have little to do with strategic planning and more to do with operational implementation. Although I agree that the latter is an important element of our profession, it is also a reactive one. Our value proposition is not fully used in the strategic planning needs of the organization. 

I increasingly expect project management to go beyond being a reactive role and become proactive. And one method of doing so is becoming customer-service-oriented. Now, I am not referring to the traditional definition of "customer," but rather defining the organization itself as the project manager's single true customer.

Thus, becoming customer-service-oriented enables project managers to evolve into business leaders by:

1. Reinforcing the new value proposition based on broad business acumen
2. Expanding services with the goal of developing key approaches
3. Aligning the customer to identify true organizational needs

The diagram below illustrates the concept of increasing the customer approach to project management. The project manager gains experiences and increased value by being customer-service-oriented. The repetitive experiences add up to knowledge that project managers need to, over time, drive customers to better outcomes and experiences.

The focus on customer service ensures project managers are aligned with the interests of a project and an organization's purpose. 

According to the research of Dr. Jay Kandampully and Dr. David Solnet, a "service vision" improves an organization's overall performance. They illustrate two case studies, Dell and Southwest Airlines, of companies that used service orientation to create a competitive differentiator in their industries. 

Project managers can do the same for the profession. Once they harness a customer-serviced-oriented mindset, they can put it into practice to proactively interpret organizations strategy, align leadership and rationalize organizations' critical projects. 

The first steps toward redefining the profession as proactive instead of reactive are to offer services with this approach in mind, such as:

• Advisory: Become empowered by understanding the business and its needs to advise customers in aligning projects to meet objectives.
• Facilitation: Engage senior executives in highly productive conversations.
• Effective presentation: Establish qualitative and quantitative methods to deliver highly defined business cases.

In my own experiences in leading the business transformations of multiple organizations, I have noted they tend to begin with an initial reactive approach of a cost reduction effort. They then mature to designing a service culture to offer global end-to-end processes, with service-level agreements that ultimately enable it to achieve its strategic growth plans.

What other approaches do project managers need to redefine their role from being reactive to proactive?