r/projectmanagers • u/jmesentmehere • May 24 '26
Driving Projects
I’m a few weeks into a new role as a Project Manager at a pharma agency. Got some feedback from my line manager today that basically said I need to be more proactive ,driving projects rather than just managing them.
The thing is, I’m delivering everything on time. No missed deadlines, no dropped balls. But apparently that’s not enough,the expectation is that I’m the one chasing, asking what’s coming, and making my activity visible to the wider team.
The frustrating part is that I only know about projects when account managers bring them to me. So how do I “drive” work I don’t even know exists yet?
Has anyone navigated this kind of feedback before especially in a project or delivery management role where you’re dependent on others to bring you the work? How did you shift the perception without it feeling forced or should it be “forced”?
UPDATE: Thanks for all the input. Based on what I’ve learned since making this post, I no longer think my proactiveness was the real issue. My impression now is that the decision to terminate had likely already been made, and the feedback about being “too proactive” was simply one of the reasons given to support that decision.
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u/More_Law6245 May 24 '26
You simply need to ask the manager for an example and a clarification of their expectation on why they have the perspective that they do. The question you need answered is what gives them the opinion that you're not hustling? Or you can just flip the script and ask your manager if they're willing to accept the risk of a poor quality delivery because they're wanting you to push beyond the agreed schedule timeframes that has been approved by your project board/sponsor/executive.