I’ve got my TV turned to NBC right now, waiting to see who the new Pope is…probably like a lot of people all over the world. (Full disclosure: I’m not Catholic, but I do find the ceremony pretty fascinating.)
While we don’t know who the new Pope is going to be, we do know that the job is a huge one, whether you believe in religion or are a non-believer.
That being said, here are 3 reasons why the new Pope needs to be a really good PM.
1. Being Pope is all about being a communicator: The PMBOK discusses how being a successful project manager is 90% communication. This holds true for a Pope too. This man has to be able to communicate the word of his God to a billion people worldwide. That’s a hell of a communication challenge to make sure you hit the right note to your stakeholders.
2. The Church is a huge bureaucracy: Having so much machinery at your fingers means that you have many different departments and people working to further your mission. Because of this, its not a one focus kind of job. Having the ability to juggle projects and responsibilities is going to be extremely important.
3. Negotiation is key: In most projects that we take on negotiation is key. Looking at the Catholic Church from the outside, it is not too tough of a jump to see how important negotiation is going to be for this new Pope. He is going to need to negotiate how the church interacts with the rest of the world. He’s going to need to negotiate with his own staff to help move the Church forward. And, he is going to have negotiate how to move forward from all the scandals that have been enveloping the Church for the past few years. Plus, he’ll need to negotiate how they move forward from these scandals.
Of course, we are going to learn a lot about good and bad management from this Pope. These are just 3 things that are going to be keys. And, what are keys now can prove to be different as his Papacy moves forward.