Today we will discuss the powers of project manager.
A project’s environment is like a startup company’s environment. There is continuous pressure to perform with a limited budget and a fixed schedule. More importantly, you will always have new team members.
In this situation, you will have to manage your team and motivate them to perform their best.
This is not an easy task; you will have to use your soft and hard skills to push team members continuously.
Powers of Project Managers
As a project manager, you can have many powers. The sixth edition of the PMBOK Guide recognizes the following fourteen powers of project managers:
- Formal or Legitimate Power
- Reward Power
- Punishment Power
- Expert Power
- Relational Power
- Informational Power
- Persuasive Power
- Ingratiating Power
- Personal Power
- Situational Power
- Pressure-Based Power
- Guilt-Based Power
- Avoiding Power
- Referent Power
Now the question arises—which is the project manager’s best power?
This was my favorite part of my PMP exam preparation.
While studying this topic, it was stated everywhere that expert and reward powers were the best powers for a project manager. However, I could not understand this; are they the best together or separately?
I researched it and gave much to think about, but I did not find a convincing answer anywhere.
Since I have passed my PMP exam and own a blog, I am posting my understanding of this topic.
Please note that the views expressed in this blog post are my own. You might disagree with them. I would appreciate it if you would share your thoughts in the comments below.
Let’s get started.
You can define power as influence over stakeholders to make a favorable decision. For example, you can force them to dance to your song or attract them with your charisma.
You can group these powers into two categories: positional power and personal power.
You get positional power just by being the project manager. Some examples are formal power, reward power, and punishment power.
Personal power is something you have due to your personality, experience, or knowledge. Some examples are expert power and referent power.
Many experts say that rewards and expert powers are the best. I agree that these are the better influencing powers for a project manager.
However, are you sure that these two powers are equally good and that each can help a project manager complete their project successfully?
I do not fully agree with this.
Let me explain this to you in detail; I believe that after going through this blog post, you will agree with me.
First, we will take a quick look at all the types of power, and then we will have a detailed discussion.
#1. Formal or Legitimate Power
As long as you are a project manager, you have this power. This power comes with the position itself; therefore, it is called positional power. Team members will obey your orders because they know you have the authority.
This type of power is found in projectized and strong matrix-type organizations.
However, this power does not exist in a functional organization or a weak matrix organization. You will have to use your soft skills to get the job done in those cases.
#2. Reward Power
Rewards are desirable, and team members will support you because they think you will reward them if they perform well. Rewards may be monetary, such as a salary increase, a bonus, or a promotion, or non-monetary, such as recognition, professional development, an appreciation letter, or days off.
Reward power is attached to the formal authority of the project manager.
You may work in a functional organization or with a tight budget, so giving monetary rewards may be difficult. Therefore, non-monetary rewards such as recognition, training recommendations, or valuable assignment are common.
A reward should be achievable, and it should not be a win-lose type of reward. Criteria for it should be fair, transparent, and possible for all.
Reward power is positional power; you can have it if you work in a projectized or strong-matrix organization. Although you can have reward power in a functional or a weak matrix organization, here, you can offer your team members only non-monetary benefits.
#3. Punishment Power
Nobody wants to receive a punishment. Punishment power comes with the formal authority of the project manager. Here, team members will obey you because they are afraid that they may get punished if they do not perform efficiently. Here you use fear as a primary tool to get work done. Punishment power is also known as coercive power.
This type of power is associated with a strong-matrix organization.
Usually, you will use this power when a member is not performing well or is creating problems.
#4. Expert Power
Being a subject matter expert is an excellent influential power. Team members will respect you for your expertise. They trust you because you are an expert and know how to manage work.
Expert power is a positive power that influences others to follow your lead. If you do not possess expert knowledge, it is difficult for you to gain respect from team members.
#5. Relational Power
You possess relational power if you are connected with influential people in the organization. Your connections mean team members want to connect with you as well.
If you are a new project manager, this power may help you in the initial stages of the project when you may not have any other power except formal power, as you may be perceived as being closely aligned with the top management.
#6. Informational Power
As the saying goes, well-informed means well-armed. Information is the key to success for any project. If you are responsible for processing or possessing some information, you have a greater chance of completing the project successfully.
#7. Persuasive Power
If you can say “go to hell” in such a way that people look forward to the trip, you have this power. The point is that you can convince your team to follow your lead.
#8. Ingratiating Power
If you are an expert in flattery, you have this power. You try to find common ground, emphasize, and achieve cooperation. This is a beneficial skill when avoiding tough situations.
#9. Personal Power
This power depends on your personality and how you look, speak, and behave. This power is also known as charismatic power.
#10. Situational Power
If you have rescued your project from a crisis in the past, you have this power. Team members will remember your efforts and respect you for your heroic act.
#11. Pressure-Based Power
You have this power if you regularly pressure your team members to work harder and complete the task within a tight schedule, sometimes in unrealistic conditions.
#12. Guilt-Based Power
Here, you inform team members that they are performing poorly, and it is affecting the project, even if they are performing well. You instill in them that they have to perform better. Therefore, the team member will feel guilty and try to work harder.
#13. Avoiding Power
If you avoid making tough decisions and miss meetings, you have avoiding power. This is one of the most negative powers you don’t want to be associated with.
#14. Referent Power
If you have been working in a profession for a long time and earned some credibility, you have this power.
My View
You can have any or all of the powers explained here, but to complete the project successfully with minimal hassle, you should have at least three of these powers; i.e., formal power, reward power, and expert power.
For example, formal power establishes your authority as the project lead, reward power helps you motivate team members, and expert power helps you gain trust and support from your team members.
Punishment power works in some cases. The effects of relational power are not long-lasting.
Now, ask yourself: what is the best power for a project manager?
Let’s see in which cases the team members will be more motivated and committed to performance:
A willing team member will do a better job, and the motivation to work comes from reward power. Team members will be more committed if they know they will be rewarded.
With formal and punishment power, team members are beaten into submission, which does not motivate them.
With expert power, though team members respect you and trust your decisions, this trust will not translate into motivation; it can be a stabilizing influence but can never be a motivation. An increase in performance and efficiency will not happen without a motivating factor.
I accept the importance of expert power; however, I firmly believe that reward power is better than expert power in motivating team members and results in better performance.
Summary
It is vital to understand every type of power that a project manager can use in different situations and various kinds of organizations so that you can be flexible and adaptive. If you are working in a projectized organization, you will have punishment and reward power. However, if you work in a functional organization, you will have to depend on expert power and soft skills.
Here is where this post on the power of project managers ends.
What kind of power do you hold in your organization, and how do you find it useful? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below.
FYI: While searching for a project manager’s job, I came across Jooble, I found it useful. Sharing it here, and I hope you will find it useful too.
I am Mohammad Fahad Usmani, B.E. PMP, PMI-RMP. I have been blogging on project management topics since 2011. To date, thousands of professionals have passed the PMP exam using my resources.
Great stuff Fahad. The more I read your blogs, more fascinated I become about the beauty of Project Management.
Hi Fahad,
Do not you think that persuasive + charismatic powers are also desirable to reach a collaborative end and create a win-win situation while dealing the CONFLICTS, which are inevitable in projects?
For me,except some standardized form of power such as formal or legitimate; relational; Punishment; all other forms are more of an attribute of a personality, something related to own perception;
Fahad Thanks so much for what you are doing and I am really loving PMP. Please can you give me a guide on professional courses that will be vital for me as a QA/QC Inspector in the Heavy Fabrication Industry.
Hello Emmanuel, are you a PMP?
For QA, I would suggest you go for ISO lead auditor course. Regarding QC, please check your peers.
Want to say that your blog was excellent! It really helped me with my studies.
Thanks Rob.
Great stuff
Thanks Ravi.
Thanks for putting your excellent work into making this blog a great blessing to all PMP aspirants. With your useful explanation on Earned Value Management, I now answer EVM questions with ease.
And I have passed my PMP exam last week.
Keep up the good work!
Congratulations Zechariah on passing the PMP exam.
Hi Fahad,
Thanks for all your guidance and help. I have passed the exam on 26/01/2017
Your notes were of great help. And in future it will keep me updated, I am sure.
Congratulations Arpit on passing the PMP exam.
Thanks ,for making concept clear
You are welcome Saurabh.
why is it important that a project manager should consider the number of potential communication channels?
It helps him manage communication better.
Update: You can find total number of communication lines and classify them according to the their importance. And then you will be able to manage them effectively; for example, you can plan to distribute information according to the need of each stakeholdrs
I am a little baffled by this practice question – which I answered incorrectly.
“Which power of the project manager comes from another person respecting him/her?”
A. Expert
B. Formal
C. Reward
D. Referent
I read your blog before seeing this question so I naturally answered A. Expert based on this comment “Team members will respect you for your technical expertise on the subject.” However, the correct answer is D. Referent. Please advise.
Thank you,
Stacy
The question should provide more clarity. Team member can respect their boss for both reasons.
If the question says both top management and team members respect you, then It is Referent power. If it is only team members, then it is Expert power.
It is about connection with higher management. If you have connections with influential people, you will have this power.
Fahad, Its a very interesting read but I noticed you wrote/explained Relational Power twice. One should be for Referent Power. I like how you make it simple and I am grateful I spend more of my idle work time on your blog. Thanks.
Thanks Emmanuel for pointing out this error. I have corrected it.
Hi Fahad,
Your posts very well explains the areas in details. Thank you.
In your last statement where you mentioned about if the exam asks about selecting best power for PM and the options listed are Expert and Reward Powers are two independent options. Then i think we need to look for other information in the question such as “PM is working in which organization?”. If PM is in functional organization which likely would have less power to Reward. In such a case Expert power is best option that can be selected.
Thanks
Sushil
Yes, you are right Sushil. In this case we need to look deeper into the question for any hint.
Hi Fahad!!
Hope u r doing good.
From many days i have a lot of confusion in the study of “effort driven tasks”.
I am not at all able to understand its meaning.
Can u plz explain me. Will be of great help.
Thanks,
Yogish.
Read this blog post:
http://www.brighthubpm.com/methods-strategies/8198-understanding-effort-driven-scheduling/
Hello Dear
Very simple & easy to understand . though i read two books still i had little confusion , now its clear & unnderstand the importance of Power .
Thanks to you .
I am going to read all your postings . I am planning to take exam in Nov 2015
-Prakash
I am glad that you liked my posts Praskash. Thanks for your comment.
Hi Fahad
First of all, thanks a lot for the help. I really like the way you explain the concepts. Keep sharing! :)
Now, I have been looking in which one of the 47 processes the PMI refers to the different type of authority the PM has over the people, can you share?
Thanks again!
It comes under develop project team.
Can you share the page number under pmbok, where it says about these authorities and power? I’m not getting it under pmbok.
This topic is not specifically mentioned in the PMBOK Guides but questions are often seen on the exam.
The other example is kickoff meeting. This topic is also not mentioned in the guide but in exam you will see many questions on it.
Hi thanks again for u r blogs….
Do u have any article on Monte Carlo simulation… Feeling bit difficult to understand … And if u reply to my comments do I get an email ….it would be great if u r reply or comments by anyone …keep me notified … Thanks for great job
Soon you will see a blog post on Monte Carlo Simulation on this blog.
Your boss isn’t satisfied with the way one of your colleagues is handling a project and she reassigns the project to you. She tells you to work with this person to find out what he has done already and discuss any other necessary information that he might have. She wants your project report by the end of the month. This person is upset and angry over the reassignment and won’t give you the information you need to even start, much less complete, the project. You won’t be able to meet your deadline unless you get this information.
What type of power does your colleague appears to be using?
This blog post is for powers of the project manager, not for team members.
Anyways, in this case you can approach your project manager and let her know about the situation. She may use her Legitimate Power and/or Punishment Power to solve the issue.
please explain more to the above question
In the question the project manager is using her formal power.
Wikipedia says about referent power
Referent power is power of an individual over the Team or Followers, based on a high level of identification with, admiration of, or respect for the powerholder/ leader.
Your blog says
has some kind of connection with some influential people in the organisation, the project manager is said to possess Referent Power.
which is right?
Thanks.
Both.
Hi Fahad,
Good Work… Keep it up!…
Have PMP exam in a week… Will join u after passing PMP exams to answer people queries..
Do feel free to message me..
Hello Raj,
Good Luck for the exam…
Fahad
Hi Fahad,
I just found your site & i found it very helpful, so many thanks. could you please help me with the following question I came across. The answer as per the test is Project 3, but I don’t see why project 1 is not also right !!!!
Based on the following information, which project is definitely profitable?
Project 1 with NPV of $300,000
project 2 with Benefit to cost Ratio of 1:1.7
project 3 with an internal Rate of Return of 15%
or can’t be determined
Sorry Marwan for replying you late.
Here is my understanding, let me know if you are agree with it or not!
NPV is the difference between the current value of cash inflow and the current value of cash outflow of the project. It does not show you exactly how much you are going to invest.
On the other hand, IRR is shown in percentage regardless of invested money. Therefore, it is safe to proceed with 15% IRR.
This makes a sense Fahad :)
:)
Hi,
For estimate activity duration, Enterprise Env factor is rightly mentioned as input but examples of EEF are confusing. It states estimation database and productivity metrics as part of EEF. I believe these should rightly belong to Org Process assets . Can you pls clarify and guide?
Estimation database is based on the market condition. For example, rate of the labor, cost of raw materials, etc. Therefore, it comes under Enterprise Environmental Factor.
Let me know your thoughts.
Hi Fahad,
Can you please explain to me why we have Approved change request as an input in the Direct and Manage project execution and an output in the same knowledge area. for some reason I thought that changes can only be approved in the monitioing an controlling process and that were it is approved and changed
Just visualize it.
You’re in executing phase of your project.
And you notice that certain procedure is not correct that causing you some trouble. Therefore, you raise a change request and get it approved.
Since your change request is approved and your procedure is updated, you will now execute your work as per current updated procedure.
See, you are still in executive phase.
In first statement, change request is an output, and in second statement it is an input.
Hope it clears your doubt.
This gives me clear understanding to answer for my final paper as part of my master process in Open University Malaysia. The way you write is more on logic and the application of the logic.
Thanks
Thanks for your visit Hae.
Salam Fahad Saab,
Thanks for explaining each and every topic with easy to understand examples.
You ‘re welcome Saurabh.
Hi Fahad,
You have explained it very precisely and in simple language.
I am glad I found your posts before my exam.
Please keep posting.
Regards,
Rajesh
I am happy that you find my blog useful.
Thanks for your visit.
Hi,
I want to share my experience , recently i attended the PMP workshop in hyderabad. it was really good. but when i started reading the PMBOK , i use to read 2-3 times to understand that topic.
But last week when i found your site in google. i covered may topics in 2 days .. which is really surprising for me.
You have explained in very simple words and example.
Please don’t stop posting new post.
November i am planning to write PMP exam.
Hello Naga,
Thank you for liking my blog and I appreciate your visit.
Best of luck for your exam and let me know if you require any assistance. I will be glad to help you.