Making Things Better: Lessons learned in the trenches, shared to help you own the outcome, even when the problem started somewhere else.
I’ve heard plenty of layoff stories over the years. The culture was to blame. The company was to blame. The job market, the peers, the client were blamed. You name it, and I’ve probably heard it blamed.
How many times have you heard someone say, “I am to blame”? Probably not much.
Some of the stories are legitimate. Bad cultures and problems exist. But in a lot of cases, the bigger problem is that nobody tells the person the hard truth in a professional way. So I will. Many times performance comes into play when making reduction decisions, but yet we only hear “this job market is horrible”
Accountability starts in the mirror.
Ask Yourself the Serious Question
Last month, I wrote about discipline: the boring, basic work that keeps a project on the rails. Accountability is what you do when the project goes sideways, because it inevitably will.
Before blaming everyone and everything else, ask yourself a serious question: What could I have done differently? Or do I only communicate the problem?
Projects will have problems most of the time. Companies are looking for someone to manage projects with problems, not someone who runs and tells executives about every problem. They expect you to solve them. (I understand there are some things executives want to know, and we learn to communicate in that environment.)
Quite frankly, I wouldn’t waste my time hiring someone who places a lot of blame on everyone and everything else.
The Job Is to Do the Job
Project managers are hired to manage a plan and schedule, risks, issues, decisions, reporting, and lessons learned. Add in some financial responsibility, scope management, vendor management, and more.
It doesn’t matter how nice you are, how scared you are, how much you question what to do, or how bad the situation is. The job is to do the job, no matter who you have to push, direct, or inform. Don’t let circumstances stand in your way. Take the bull by the horns and get ‘er done.
You may have a difficult client, a weak team member, an unrealistic schedule, or unclear scope. I’ve had them all. Those things might explain the challenge, but your best move is still to own it and decide to take the next action.
A message for the early-career project managers: don’t use challenges as an excuse to report the problem, do nothing, and let someone else make the decision.
Ownership also makes your escalations a lot more potent. Walk into an executive briefing and say, “Here is the problem, here is what we’ve done about it, here are the options, and here is what I need from you.” I guarantee you’ll earn confidence and credibility from those executives. Walk in with only “Here is the problem,” and somebody at a higher level will do part of your job for you, or circle back and tell you to go do something about it. At that point, the project isn’t really the problem, you are.
Being Nice Is Not the Same as Being Effective
Difficult clients are difficult for a reason, and the reason typically isn’t good. It’s harsh, and they don’t hear it often, but it’s true.
Some want to call the shots but don’t know what they’re doing. Some won’t take advice, get emotional, expect more than they agreed to, or don’t care about the vendor’s process. Some seem to feel like they should bully vendors. To address these things, good soft skills are not for the faint of heart.
Getting the job done sometimes requires pushing, challenging, escalating, saying no, or holding someone accountable, all done professionally, of course. As a manager, I’ve had to ask more than one Senior PM who reported to me, “Why are you trying to be charming and telling jokes to a client who doesn’t like you?”
Judgment matters. Don’t hide bad news from a client in the spirit of being nice. I’ve seen many PMs fall into that trap of not doing their job. It would be great if everyone in the world were nice, but a higher priority is relaying the information needed to get it done.
On a fun note, I put together a presentation for our internal PMs at my current company called 10 Ways to Say No to a Client. It sparked some great conversations, because there are ways to tell a client no without ever saying an abrupt “no.”
And here’s the upside of all the difficulty: troubled projects can build careers. A tough assignment lets you show judgment, persistence, communication, courage, and execution that an easy project never will. Opportunity is always there, and if you show accountability, it will likely come. Project management plans, communications plans, and RAID logs are all tools that need to be worked on daily, which helps accountability.
Building Accountability Into My Own Plan
In last month’s blog, I shared that I’m working hard to beat a severe case of diabetes naturally, and that discipline had brought my 24-hour glucose average from 330 down to an average of 175.
I’ll be honest. Some days it’s tempting to slack off, stay in bed, loosen up a little, eat some things I crave. The diet, exercise, and supplements is a tough plan. Discipline got me started. Accountability is keeping me going.
My son is on a similar journey getting back in shape. My goal is specifically beating diabetes, but our routines have a lot in common, so I asked him to keep me accountable and go hard on me. He calls a couple of times a week for a status report. (Always a PM. Even my family gets status reports.) Thankfully, most of my reports have been good, but a couple of times he’s had to say something like, “You can make it up the next few days.” That call keeps me moving when I don’t feel like it. Also, when I see good progress, it encourages me to keep being accountable.
I also joined a PMI run club, and I plan to run with them at Global Summit. (Don’t worry, Doc. My half-marathon days are definitely behind me. These are shorter runs.) So far, I’ve only done five miles on the treadmill twice, so I’m not sure I can hang with them. I can always back out the day of, but I want to meet that group and run alongside them. It gives me a reason to keep building stamina and distance every day until then.
And I have a fantastic update. My average glucose is now sitting at 129. I’m still not out of the woods, but once I average under 118, I’ll move out of the diabetic range and into the pre-diabetic range. I’m going to continue the hard work with accountability. So, the accountability in me is going to make a commitment to you. Stay tuned for next month’s blog. I’m going to beat diabetes naturally through hard work. My goal is to get out of the diabetes range by the next blog.
Find Your Accountability Partner at Work
Accountability at work can look a lot like my son’s phone calls. Find a mentor through your PMI chapter or work. Find an accountability and venting buddy at work (I have one). Lean on encouragement from management when you’re working to get a tough account across the line. Ask for constructive feedback.
You won’t control every client, schedule, or team member. You do control what you do next, so don’t just let bad things happen on your projects without doing something about it. So look in the mirror first, ask what you could have done differently, and then go get ‘er done.