“You are the Project Manager now!”

That was basically my transition from the technical to the management world.  Well, I exaggerate!  I also got a hard drive with 9GB of documents, emails, presentations…

I had been working on those projects for a while.  I knew the technical details, the development team and the customer.  And my boss gave a reassuring speech stating that I was ready for the challenge and that he was convinced that I was going to do a great job.  What else could I need?

That was the start of the most stressful year in my professional career.  I spent most of the time fighting fires, reacting instead of planning and finishing never-ending working days feeling that I hadn’t accomplished anything.  In summary, I had nothing under control.  The situation controlled me instead.

Well, maybe I needed something else in the end…

Looking from my current experience it is now very easy for me to tell what I should and shouldn’t have done back then.  That  means that it would also have been easy for my boss to help me during the first months in my new role.  And it also means that I can help someone else to avoid the mistakes I made!

I’m sure many people will have the appropriate coaching when they start in project management.  But we are not in Wonderland, and I know many others will suffer similar situations to mine, and this is why I started this blog.  I hope I can make someone else’s life just a little easier.