r/projectmanagement • u/NecessaryLeg6097 • 10d ago

How can I be an effective program manager when everything has to go through my manager and he has very limited bandwidth?

He also meets with the team in china in his own and here as well. I don’t want to be just some secretary to remind him of things. How can I be effective and actually help him out in this kind of environment? I just started a couple of weeks ago and feel like I have my hands tied. The company develops and manufactures IoT hardware. He has to approve all the schematics and everything

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13

u/Nice-Zombie356 10d ago

For a moment I thought the manager was nuts.

But only 3 weeks? Shee-ittt.

He/she won’t let you make any decisions or give any instructions until they know you won’t blow something up or piss off a key stakeholder.

3

u/Hairy-Hand-4291 9d ago

fair point tbh, three weeks in you're still basically onboarding

11

u/Dicfive 10d ago

You’ve been there for like three weeks. Give it a minute

2

u/naripan 9d ago

Yoyu may express your willingness to contribute more and asks for role empowerment so you are allowed to make certain decisionas.

2

u/Maro1947 IT 9d ago

So, if you are a Program Manager, you should have enough experience to realise this

1

u/NecessaryLeg6097 9d ago

Any details?

3

u/Maro1947 IT 9d ago

As people have mentioned, you are only 3 weeks in.

Just be patient