I was participating in a Linkedin conversation about technical PMs. The summary of the discussion was can a non-technical PM run a technical project and if so how do you handle a techie that is being an alpha male. This discussion interested me because I am a non-technical PM that runs technical projects. I also have the added benefit of being a woman and with that comes dealings with a lot of alpha males! One person responded to my remarks as taking the “soft” approach and he felt the person needed to be fired. In fact I felt most of the responses was to fire the problem person and the rest of the team would fall into line. They felt it was important to come in strong and hard. Now I get that because we were discussing an existing team that a non-technical PM was assigned to and yes that does bring some different problems. I just feel firing should be the last resort and not the first response. Now don’t get me wrong, I haven’t always been this way. I have fired more people than most have hired. With that being said I have learned how to use my skills to offer the alpha male a different role.
I will map it out for you…
Ok, you have this techie that just needs to show how important he is and you have just been assigned this project. He sees you as competition but there is no competition because you are the PM and he isn’t. Now if you crush him and keep him on the team he will do anything he can to work behind your back. Not a good thing. Now if you fire him you only create fear and not respect. So let’s try a different approach. Give him a place to be so he won’t have to lose face with the team. Let him keep his dignity and he will be faithful to you for life. Recognize his contributions to the team, give him a leadership position, allow him to discuss possible solutions to you on a one-to-one. To be a true “alpha dog” you don’t have to kill every strong dog in the pack. Just know how to channel the energy.
