Project Director vs Project Manager: What Are the Differences?

Project directors can make nearly $100,000 per year. However, project managers usually make a little less than that, at around $93,000. Yet, they both have similar responsibilities and are focused on helping the company achieve its goals.

A project director vs project manager takes different approaches toward those goals, though. While they both help the company reach its goals, they oversee different parts of those goals.

Keep reading below to learn more about their differences!

A Project Manager Breaks Goals Into Manageable Tasks

The responsibility of a project manager sounds straightforward at first. They are responsible for taking different goals and breaking them up into manageable tasks. They work with other project leaders to learn what needs to be done for the company to be successful.

Then, they create guides and flowcharts that help the company navigate its work. Workers may refer to these flowcharts for information about their own responsibilities. They tell workers how quickly they need to get tasks done and why their jobs are so important.

Usually, project managers focus on a single aspect of an overall goal. They may focus on developing a technological system or building a certain construction project. In this way, although they lead workers, they still report to others in the company who are responsible for other parts of the company’s goals.

The Best Project Managers Have Communication Skills

So, what is a project manager? In essence, they communicate everyone’s responsibilities in the company. They have clear ideas of what it takes to accomplish a goal and will tell others about it.

Project management experts know how to connect with different types of workers. They also know when to temper the expectations of executive leaders. They make sure the company accomplishes something every single day.

A Project Director Oversees Several Projects At Once

A project director is basically the boss of a project manager. Instead of overseeing a single project, they guide a whole list of them. They are the ones who see how different projects work together to accomplish a specific goal.

Most of the time, they create clear performance expectations for project managers. These expectations help project managers set goals for their own teams. They also help ensure the company moves at a quick pace.

Good project directors are experts at telling what a person is capable of. They can look at a person and see their hidden strengths, seeing what even they don’t know they can do. Then, they pull those strengths out and show project managers how good they are.

Project Director vs Project Manager

So, what’s the difference between a project director vs project manager? They both are trying complete specific goals for the company. They are in the business of accomplishing something, but they have different responsibilities.

Project managers oversee specific parts of a grander project. They work to make sure those smaller parts work as they are supposed to. Meanwhile, project directors make sure those parts work in harmony with one another.

They oversee grander goals and are usually paid more for it. And to learn more about how project directors help businesses succeed, just keep reading the blogs on our website!