From the Ask Tom mailbag.

Question

I have just joined a new company as a project manager and have been assigned to report to another project manager. While this person has been with the company for a while, he is not that far ahead of me technically, though he knows some of the ins and outs of our clients. My problem is that I have been here for a week and a half and, though I have approached him several times about assignments, he continues to keep everything to himself. I am getting tired of staring at my computer screen. I don’t want to go around him, but I don’t know what I can do.

Response

Your manager is obviously more interested in task oriented work rather than management oriented work. You may even be his first direct report, so he may not even know what to do or how to manage you.

Whatever his reasons are, it really doesn’t matter. The first obstacle you have to overcome is trust. You have to get to know him. And I am not talking about warm and fuzzy stuff, this can be brilliantly professional. Grab him at a coffee break, before or after work and try these questions:

Where did you go to school?
How did that prepare you for your career as a project manager?
What attracted you to project management?
What is the most interesting project you have ever completed?
What part of your job do you find the most satisfying? (Hint, he is likely to also tell you the part he finds the least satisfying…which may be your entry into an assignment for some productive work).

Ask him what the most appropriate first assignment might be. Would it be a small project on your own, a segment of a larger project, or simply a small task in a larger segment?

Each day, ask him if there is some small thing that you could do for him that would be truly helpful. It doesn’t have to be a huge assignment, yet something you can successfully complete that begins to build the trust. It might even be an administrative task like collecting all the projects in a list and tagging the status of each project, who is working on it, etc. (This will be helpful to you, because you will know about projects in-house). Good luck, keep us updated on your progress. -TF