All projects need sponsors to serve the role of “owning” the project outcome and working with the project manager to control the project boundaries and provide management support and perspective for key decisions. Smaller, simpler, less significant projects may have the sponsor role filled informally by line or functional managers. As projects become more complex and more important to an organization, sponsors become more critical for project success and sponsor responsibilities grow. The most important projects or programs gain tremendous advantage from having a senior executive formally assigned to serve in the role of executive sponsor. This chapter explains the importance of executive sponsorship and how executive sponsorship improvement programs increase the chances of project success.
Executive Sponsors Improve Project Visibility
Projects or programs that align with strategic initiatives are more visible. When a project is on senior management’s radar, the likelihood of project success increases because visible projects are more likely to get the resources and priority needed.1 One critical resource that improves visibility is an effective executive sponsor.
Historically, it was common practice for executives to establish strategy and then delegate implementation to lower-level management.2 In the world of strategic projects, however, executive sponsors are an integral part of the implementation team, playing a vital role in daily project activities, helping the effort stay on track and providing advice and tactical decisions as project needs arise. Sponsors also continue to serve their strategic role by providing insight regarding the project’s direction, while serving as a communication bridge between the project and the executive team.
When senior management appoints an executive sponsor to a strategic project, it assigns accountability for successful implementation to an individual with the authority to influence the outcome. Research shows that high-performance organizations that actively engage sponsors have a higher percentage of projects meeting their goals.3 Having a peer directly accountable for project success provides the executive team the benefit of unfiltered communication about a project’s progress and significant barriers encountered. Senior management expects the sponsor will keep them informed as well as proactively seek advice on significant risks or risk responses. This steers sponsor behavior toward engaging senior management when appropriate, rather than shielding them from project information.
Prioritizing Projects for Executive Sponsorship
All projects should align with an organization’s strategic goals; however, even aligned projects may not always receive needed resources. Resource allocation is complex and imprecise, and there are often essential operations as well as strategic projects competing for the finite resources available. Prioritization of needs and appropriate and effective allocation of resources to address them are two of management’s most formidable challenges.
A similar prioritization process occurs when determining which projects require an executive sponsor and allocating an appropriate executive to the role. This sponsorship prioritization process should normally occur as part of strategic planning and portfolio management. There are a limited number of executives with the competencies and skills needed to effectively sponsor projects and not every executive is ready to perform sponsor duties. Chapter 5 discusses the competencies and skills required of sponsoring executives. For now, let us examine how to determine which projects have the greatest need for executive sponsorship.
Executive sponsors are normally reserved for projects that address strategic initiatives and significant projects that are highly complex. One approach to executive sponsor assignment is to prioritize projects based on these two key criteria, the project/program’s strategic alignment and complexity. Projects in the high-complexity and high–strategic alignment quadrant are prime candidates for an executive sponsor assignment. Figure 2.1 is a graphical representation for sponsorship assignment with Project 2 and Project 9 demonstrating priority need for executive sponsorship.
Sponsorship Assignment to Emerging Projects
Projects sometimes arise that were not anticipated during strategic planning. The strategic alignment or complexity of a project may also change or evolve into a higher quadrant that warrants reconsideration. An ad hoc nomination process is helpful to enable any executive within an organization to champion and nominate a project for sponsorship when the situation warrants. Senior management is served in this case by pre-establishing criteria for triggering sponsorship assignment. The criteria must fit the organization, be adapted to the business needs, and senior management should collectively agree beforehand on the situations that require executive sponsorship. Candidate criteria to consider include:
Figure 2.1 Prioritizing projects for executive sponsorship
• Does this project significantly address one or more strategic initiatives? Which ones and how?
• Do the strategic benefits of this project warrant special executive involvement? Why?
• Do identified project risks warrant special executive involvement? Why?
• Does the complexity of the project warrant special executive involvement? Why?
• Has the organization successfully completed projects of comparable scope, schedule, and cost before?
• Does the project involve co-ordination with multiple organizations (internal or external)?
• Does implementation involve multiple sites, regionally, nationally, or globally?
• Is a significant new product or service being created?
• Does the effort involve implementing significant new technology?
• Is the effort addressing or subject to regulatory requirements that are complex or time sensitive?
• Will the project result in significant organizational change affecting the organization, its customers, or business partners?
A project that triggers one or more of these criteria may be a candidate for executive sponsorship. Consider a project that incurs substantial financial penalties if contractual deadlines are not met; assigning a sponsor to help keep the project on track may be prudent. If the situation does not fit defined criteria, then the executive champion will need to present a compelling rationale to prioritize the effort for executive sponsorship.
The project’s executive champion, who may or may not ultimately be the assigned sponsor, presents the case to the senior management team requesting an executive sponsor be assigned. In today’s context, the executive champion is typically referred to as the person who believes in the project’s intent, wants to see it succeed, and advocates for authorization and initiation for the project to begin. Figure 2.2 is an example of a process for nominating a project for executive sponsorship. Although all projects should have a designated sponsor, qualified executive sponsors are often in short supply. Only the most critical projects warrant an executive sponsor assignment.
Having standardized project prioritization and sponsor nomination processes in place ensures a thoughtful approach to prioritizing which projects require an executive’s time and attention. If a Project Management Office (PMO) exists, it can facilitate this process. If not, the administrative roles and responsibilities noted in Figure 2.2 can be assigned to the executive team’s staff. Once criteria are established, the nomination process structures information that senior management wants to consider to streamline the discussion. Figure 2.3 is an example of an executive sponsorship nomination form customized to use some of the criteria above. Note on the form that the championing executive presenting their request for an executive sponsor may be suggesting an executive other than themselves based on that person’s unique competencies and skills to handle the challenges of this particular project/program.4 Following the presentation, senior management will discuss and decide whether the project/program warrants executive sponsorship and determine the best person to assign depending on the executive sponsor candidate’s availability and capability.
Figure 2.2 Executive sponsorship assignment process
Advocating that executive sponsors be reserved primarily for high-priority and complex projects is not to say that lower-priority projects do not require sponsorship. All projects require effective sponsorship and, as we will see, sponsorship assignments are essential for a project and good for the skills and career development of sponsors.
Figure 2.3 Executive sponsor nomination form
Leadership Development
An Opportunity for Executive Development
The sponsorship role can be leveraged to develop and enhance executive skills. Project sponsor experience helps develop and refine leadership, communication, negotiation, and mentoring skills. Sponsorship training and work experience can be integrated into each executive’s development plan to encourage engagement and participation.
Functional executives with minimal cross-functional or matrix management experience will find that serving as a project sponsor for an enterprise-wide project exposes them to new challenges. They will have opportunities to gain leadership experience and insight by interacting with other functions in ways they may not have previously because of siloed responsibilities or newness to the executive role. In the sponsorship role executives are responsible for ensuring smooth co-ordination across multiple functions where they may have little prior exposure. Effective sponsors learn to seek the perspectives of key stakeholders. They practice perfecting their leadership and communication skills when interacting with groups with differing perspectives and goals. The importance of earning trust and respect, giving clear and decisive direction, and the gratification that comes from motivating others to support the project are all lessons available to an attentive sponsor. Projects can also be a crucible for learning different aspects of a business as a result of building new cross-functional relationships. When managing a cross-functional project, executives have ample opportunity to polish their negotiation skills by collaborating with functional managers, clients, and vendors to obtain and maintain adequate project resources and eliminate barriers to progress.
Sponsorship provides an opportunity to develop and enhance mentoring skills. Mentoring the project manager is a key responsibility that allows the sponsor to pass along valuable organizational knowledge to help guide project manager decisions and help the project manager and project succeed. From our personal observations, one of the most important things a sponsor can do is cultivate a trusting relationship with the project manager so the project manager will communicate with the sponsor without fear of reprisal. When a project manager is uncertain or confused, this confused state is critical information that should be shared, not hidden. Building and sustaining the bond between the project manager and sponsor is key to open communication and learning for both. Sponsors must remember that project managers do not have exposure to organization-wide decisions that might impact their projects; thus, the more context and insight an executive can provide, the more prepared the project manager can be to manage project risk and changes and frame decisions in a business context.
Professional development opportunities from sponsorship also exist for senior executives. Two key reasons to consider the most senior executives for sponsor assignments are:
1. They know how to get things done
2. Their stature means others are likely to watch and follow their lead.
Senior executives can set an example and often be the best teachers for other executives to learn and emulate how the sponsorship role should be performed. When executives are shown how sponsorship influences project success they become ambassadors for the practice. Teach sponsors how project management standards are used to manage projects, clarify their roles and responsibilities, and provide the support needed to perform their role, and executives are more likely to support project management maturation in the organization. As junior-level executives and project managers typically aspire to work closely with senior staff, the sponsor role is an excellent way to infuse purposeful mentoring responsibilities into the most senior executive’s development plan.
An Instrument for Future Leader Development
Project sponsorship can be used to develop future leaders for an organization. By training potential leaders in standard project management practices, sponsor roles and responsibilities, and assigning them to sponsor projects appropriate to their skill level, leaders learn by doing.
Start inexperienced sponsors with smaller functional projects, and then graduate to more complex cross-functional projects as individuals demonstrate their competencies and develop their skills. To groom someone for promotion to the manager rank, consider assigning them to sponsor a modest project. Someone being considered for a Director-level position might be assigned to sponsor a more substantial project that crosses multiple functional groups.
Successful sponsor assignments can be a gateway to management promotion. Each assignment provides opportunities to demonstrate the qualities sought in a manager: leadership, negotiation, organization, communication, and mentoring skills. Sponsorship not only tests candidates’ capabilities but also gives them invaluable on-the-job training before putting them in their new role. Observing a candidate performing the sponsor role on a cross-functional project provides an excellent opportunity to see how they handle responsibility before putting them in an executive role where they are expected to sponsor more mission critical endeavors.
A Mechanism for Project Manager Development
Inexperienced project managers typically are not comfortable or adept at conversing with upper-level management, particularly senior management outside of their immediate organizational boundary. Whether attributable to the sponsor’s rank and influence, or the project manager’s lack of confidence, the project manager often assumes that if the sponsor needs something they will ask. The power differential often results in a measure of intimidation. The sponsor needs to help the project manager feel comfortable that the sponsor can be trusted and must find ways to build a relationship with the project manager such that the project manager feels comfortable initiating sometimes difficult conversations and believes the sponsor is there to help.
An example of a learning moment between sponsor and project manager that helped build a trusting relationship:
Building a Trusting Relationship
An executive sponsor shared concerns that the project manager was not meeting frequently enough with him to keep him apprised of project status. The project management standard adopted by the organization dictated that the project manager was to meet at least monthly with the sponsor and more frequently if needed. When asked if the project manager had discussed meeting monthly with the sponsor, the sponsor said yes and at the time he had thought that was adequate. As the project progressed, the sponsor became frustrated that he was not being briefed more frequently. The sponsor admitted that he had not shared this frustration with the project manager. When asked why, the sponsor said he felt the project manager should have asked him. The recommendation was that the sponsor speak to the project manager about his concerns and ask for more open and frequent communication between the two. The project manager was told there was a communication frequency problem with the sponsor. She was surprised and did not realize there was a problem. The project manager met with the sponsor and they agreed to meet more frequently and things improved.
Lesson learned—the project manager thought the frequency of updates was adequate but the sponsor did not and was not sharing his concern. When they started talking and agreed to have more open communications, a relationship formed that was not only beneficial for the project but to both individuals as they learned to take more proactive steps to ensure each was getting what they needed. At the close of the project the sponsor rated the project manager’s performance highly and requested her frequently on future projects. Trust was built and a mutually beneficial relationship was formed.
Executive Sponsorship Encourages Investment in Project Management
We have seen clients make significant investments in project management practices, realize the benefits of those practices, and then allow their project management programs to atrophy over time because organizational memory did not recall the value project management provided (Figure 2.4). It is challenging, expensive, and time consuming to develop and socialize good project management practices.
How can an organization keep project management value forefront in senior management’s mind to encourage sustained investment? Research shows that leveraging executive sponsorship is a very effective mechanism.
Until recently the impact of executive sponsorship on the sustainability of project management within the organization was not supported with scientific evidence. New research shows that when executives serve as project sponsors there is an increased likelihood they will continue to invest in project management because of their perception of the value the organization receives.5 A correlation was found between senior management’s likelihood to continue to invest in project management when sponsorship roles and responsibilities are clearly defined and formalized and training occurs. When neither of these happens, executives show no inclination to value or invest in project management. Figure 2.5 depicts the influence that executive sponsorship has on the likelihood that senior management will continue to invest in project management when formalized roles and responsibilities and training and support are provided.
Figure 2.4 Waxing and waning commitment to project management
Figure 2.5 Executive sponsorship impact on continued investment in project management
If executives are unaware of the value they are receiving from project management then the likelihood for continued investment will be low. For organizations that are on a path of implementing effective project management practices, it is important to leverage resources that reinforce positive perceptions of project management value. Continued investment can be seen in terms of recruitment dollars for qualified project managers, training funds for sponsors, project managers and team members, top-down support for effective practices, possible support for a separate PMO, and recognition for project success.
Research has identified three key influencers of executive management perception concerning project management value and the likelihood of continued investment (Table 2.1)6:
First, the more experience an executive has with sponsorship the more likely that executive will see value and continue to invest because they gain a better understanding of how to leverage project management practices for project success. This can be encouraged by providing sponsorship training to all executives and actively engaging them as sponsors. Second, the higher the project management maturity level an organization has attained, the greater the likelihood senior management will continue to invest in project management because of their experience that the use of consistent tools and processes produce better-run projects and better outcomes. Third, the more seasoned the executives, the more likely they are to see value from project management. Seek support for sponsorship efforts from the most senior management levels.
A low project management maturity level presents a chicken-and-egg problem; an organization with a low project management maturity does not have project management processes and tools in place to clearly demonstrate the value of project management to senior management. Without demonstrating value, it is difficult to sustain momentum to evolve a program to higher levels of maturity. The best hope for low-project management maturity level organizations to survive is to obtain support from senior executives who understand the value project management promises in the medium to long term and who are willing to support the effort as it matures. One of the best ways to garner senior executive support is to engage them as sponsors. This provides an opportunity for those executives to see the value of project management first hand and increases the likelihood of their sustaining the investment necessary to achieve sufficient maturity to realize consistent benefits.
Table 2.1 Influencers of executive perception of the value of project management
Summary
Executive sponsorship matters because it provides visibility to key projects to ensure alignment with strategic goals and encourage allocation of necessary resources. Sponsorship offers a mechanism for developing leadership skills in executives and future leaders and encourages investment in project management because of the perceived value executives see from using project management practices to execute projects more successfully. In Chapter 3, the influence of organizational culture on executive sponsor success is explored.
Discussion Questions
1. Why align projects to strategic initiatives?
2. What role does executive sponsorship play in improving project success rates?
3. What benefits are there for establishing project eligibility criteria for sponsorship assignment? Why is it important to prioritize projects for sponsorship assignment?
4. What are some ways to leverage the executive project sponsorship role for purposes of leadership development?
5. The relationship between the project manager and project sponsor is critical to project success, but the power differential between the roles can be a barrier to effective communication. How might problems in this relationship manifest themselves? As a sponsor, what might you do to address this potential problem?
6. How does executive sponsorship influence an organization’s continued investment in project management?
Considerations
Project Management Office
Where a PMO exists, one of its primary strategic roles is to work with senior management to build and maintain clear priorities of the projects in the enterprise project portfolio. Priorities among projects facilitate efficient and appropriate assignment of limited resources. Skilled and effective executive sponsors are a particularly scarce resource, and the PMO can facilitate the assignment process by working with the executive team to establish criteria for project prioritization and management assignments to projects.
Project Manager
Establishing a trusted communication channel between the project manager and project sponsor is critical to project success. This can seem contrary to the pervasive myth that good project managers get projects done “no matter what it takes.” Communication channels can be difficult to build and sustain if sponsor availability for dialog is limited or the communication is undervalued. In the real world on complex and mission critical projects there will be occasions where there are no good options available to the project manager. Building and maintaining trust and a basis for candid discussion about concerns, problems, and risks is essential to providing timely and accurate status reporting and seeking help or guidance promptly. The time to build this communication channel is before you need it. We encourage at least monthly informal conversations with the project sponsor one-on-one in a casual setting such as over coffee or lunch to discuss current status, concerns, risks, issues, and possible responses. A casual setting helps overcome some of the barriers inherent in the power differential between the project manager and sponsor and encourages candor. Building rapport and gaining experience with the sponsor’s goals and thought processes helps project managers frame and fulfill their role as trusted advisors and lieutenants.
Notes
1. Randall L. Englund and Alfonso Bucero, A. 2015. Project Sponsorship: Achieving Management Commitment for Project Success, (2nd ed.), (Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute).
2. Kloppenborg and Laning, 2012, p. 2.
3. Project Management Institute. 2015b. PMI’S Pulse of the Profession: Capturing the Value of Project Management, (Newtown Square, PA: Author), p. 9.
4. David West. 2010. Project Sponsorship: An Essential Guide for Those Sponsoring Projects Within their Organization, (Burlington, VT: Gower Publishing Company), pp. 20–21.
5. Dawne Chandler and Janice L. Thomas. 2015. “Does Executive Sponsorship Matter for Realizing Project Management Value?” Project Management Journal, pp. 46–61.
6. Chandler and Thomas, 2015, pp. 53–54.
7. Project management maturity levels — “The foundation for achieving excellence in project management can best be described as the project management maturity model (PMMM), which is comprised of five levels . . . . Each level represents a different degree of maturity in project management” (Kerzner, 2004, p.193). Level 1 — Common Language, Level 2 — Common Processes, Level 3 — Singular Methodology, Level 4 — Benchmarking, and Level 5 — Continuous Improvement.