Project Coordinator, Project Leader or Project Manager?

“Project manager wanted for a challenging project” – the request sounds promising. Whoever accepts it may live to regret it, however.

A project can be coordinated, led, or managed.  So, before accepting a job as a project coordinator, a project leader, or a project manager, you should be aware of the different aspects of these activities. Depending on the specification other skills are required, and there is some significant divergence of opinions about the vacant role by both the customer and the project manager. The following table gives a brief overview. It can be used as a checklist for project candidates to assess the essence of the advertised task quickly.

	Project Coordinator	Project Leader	Project Manager
Budget responsibility	none	none to partial	complete
Say in team building and team management	none	partial	complete
Formal authority	none	medium	high
Overview of the scheduling	dependent on various supervising managers	dependent on a few line managers (e.g. head of the department)	full control of all activities
Focus of the team target agreement	project neutral	partially project, partially hierarchic	project centered
Duration of appointment	without a solid target	usually with a time target	with a time target
Profit sharing of the project manager	never	rarely	subject to negotiation
Escalation paths	project staff -> organization hierarchy	various mixed forms	project staff -> project manager ->  organization hierarchy
Most important skills	Excel, Word, punctuality	additionally, MS Project, adjusting and keeping schedules, joining the conversation about contents	additionally: resource management, leadership, expertise, various aspects of project management

However, there is no judging of the roles in this classification. It’s perfectly okay to take the job of a project coordinator rather than a project manager, and it’s as easy to find exciting projects in strong matrix organizations as it is to discover tedious and frustrating projects in project-oriented organizations. It is just essential that the candidate knows what he/she is getting involved in so that surprises and frustrations can be avoided.

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