This is an article in the Project Manager from Hell Series. Each entry is based on a real life situation. I’ll include what the project manager did, what happened next, and what they could have done to get things back on track. My goal in telling these stories is to help you and I both avoid making similar mistakes on our own projects. Ready to be horrified? Let’s begin.
First A Few Rules About Trust
Rule 1. If you can’t trust the people on your team, you have a problem.
Rule 2. If you can’t trust anyone, you have a bigger problem. You may want to consider another field.
What is a Phyrric Victory?
A Phyrric victory has a price greater than the benefits received.
Doug was the manager of a small and troubled project. Like many IT people he was bright, motivated and interested in technology. Unfortunately he was not graced with an abundance of people smarts. Worse yet, he had absorbed poor modeling from autocratic managers in his past. His primary motivation in becoming a project manager seemed to be a desire to call the shots or as one of his customers put it, create an empire.
All Notes Must Go Through Me
As one of his first steps as newly appointed project manager, Doug sent an email to
the project team requiring them to submit
all meeting notes to him for editing prior to distribution to other
team members. The result of this edict was predictably bad. Those who had been taking notes freely (and good notes at that) went on a “notes strike”. Doug was then forced to either order people to take notes (causing resentment and grudging performance) or to take them himself. Since his notes were generally less complete than those of the BAs, the quality of these project artifacts was markedly lower than before his rule was implemented.
When the PM Pits Himself Against the Team
Doug’s relationship with his team members was hierarchical and competitive. In this context, hierarchy refers to a set of rules and procedures set up to limit and restrict the behavior and interaction of team members. While strict hierarchy has its place and can work well in an environment characterized by respect, it is not the preferred model for working with the intelligent, creative professionals found on most effective project teams.
Doug’s competitive nature led him to strip names and identifying information off deliverables created by the team. When the client discovered this, she lost respect for Doug’s leadership and judgment. When confronted, instead of acknowledging the client’s points, he became defensive and claimed a need to protect the contracting company. How his behavior on this contract and with this client had anything to do with protecting the company was not made clear. Telling his client in so many words that his loyalty was to his contracting company and not to her clearly destroyed any remaining trust she may have had for him.
Project Manager as Partner and Mentor
As project managers, we are only as good as the weakest members of our teams. Some of our most critical responsibilities include:
- Correct assessment of our team members’ strengths and weaknesses,
- Appropriate division of tasks based on this accurate assessment, and
- Mentoring of team members to bring them to the best and highest level of performance to which they are capable.
Are these easy? Not always.
Do we have time to do these things? Again, not always.
Does this diminish the importance of doing them? Not in the slightest.
If you as the project manager are the least skilled member of your project team, count yourself fortunate indeed. Respect your team, learn from them, and get out of the way.
Our Story’s Conclusion
I never learned the specific reason, but was happy to hear that Doug rescinded his notes rule and allowed people on his project team to again take notes freely. He also chose to conform to his customer’s request that the names of individual contributors remain in project documents. Certainly these were the proper steps to take.
You are only ever as good as your team members. Always treat them well.
(Image by damselfly58 on flickr) (Hell PM image
by cayusa
on flickr)
You can easily support this blog right now by:
Stumbling or bookmarking on 
MIXX, 
Propeller, 
Del.icio.us, 
Mister Wong, 
Technorati, or 
Digg.- Leaving a comment below.
Subscribing to get the latest items.- Following on
Twitter to communicate and stay connected.
Subscribe to Comments
{ 0 comments… add one now }