What aspect of being a Senior Project Manager was the most difficult to learn when you made the move from PM to SPM? Anything you wish you knew going into a senior role?

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To solve problems before they happen because of your experience.

Many times I *knew* what was right but acquiesced to the client or my boss. Now I put my foot down and just refuse (diplomaticly) to go down the wrong path. If they insist, I go find another project and stop back in later to hear them say “I told you so.”
This and EI - Emotional intelligence to stay calm in all situations.

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I wouldn’t say the below was the most difficult to learn, but moreso my expectations of the role became validated. Being a PM, you can get by with just the hard skills and executing. If I had a problem with a team member not delivering, I can escalate to my director and she’d take care of it.

But once you’re a Senior PM, the soft skills become more important and there’s an expectation to handle the hard things yourself. Some of those skills are:

1. Being even-tempered (Or EI as a previous poster stated)
2. Demonstrating leadership with the team
3. Having a strong voice, even against strong personalities or people in leadership
4. Great intuition (which comes with experience)

Also, at this level, a project of any kind and size is just that: a project. When I was a PM, I was caught up in the complexities of a project. When a “big” one was assigned to me, I started worrying about not fucking it up. After I got a few big product launches under my belt where the stakes were high, I developed confidence in my capabilities and an even-keel demeanor. So much to the point, that now — I view all projects the same, big or small. Now don’t get me wrong, obviously if a project is important to the client, agency or the well-being of the account, I won’t downplay it. But really I just stop worrying about how I will perform on it because at the Senior PM level, I should have gain enough experience to handle it. Having this mindset helped me a lot as I moved to become an SPM and starting handling bigger projects with many variables and complexities.

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Instead of asking others how to solve problems (if you aren’t sure) try to solve them on your own first and confirm your instinct is right with your manager/team.

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Taking initiative to drive change first, instead of waiting for your higher ups to recommend it. Find ways to solve problems on the project level, and then TAKE your solution and apply it to a larger level (ie program, company, or team level).

Ie Is the client difficult? Recommend process improvements, train the clients, and apply this new process to other clients.

Is the financial tracking disorganized? Make a new financial model or tracker, implement it, share your template with other PMs

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