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Glad to have you here with us. Hope the content is useful for you, too. Alec
Doug Fishback
· 1 year ago
Alec -- You are so right about this. I'm a writer for an organization, and I have no staff, but I use PM techniques to manage change cycles and multiple project deadlines. Over the past couple of months, I've been subjected to extreme review/revision cycles that often involve overediting by my boss. I've become discouraged by the inefficiency. Luckily, I haven't come to take it personally (my work is simply not that flawed), but I have thrown up my hands and said that pending big changes in our process, all bets are off when it comes to deadline adherence. I can't pad a 200% contingency into each project to hedge against micromanagement; there's not that much headroom in my one-man shop. This may not be a perfect example for your post, but it does illustrate the link between heavy top-down management and a sense of passivity or disempowerment among team members. Every controlling action from a manager sends the message, "OK, I'm assuming responsibility for this."
On a more philosophical note, your post makes me wonder what the difference would be between "control" and "influence."
Take care!
Alec Satin, PMP
· 1 year ago
Hi Doug,
Your manager sounds a little like Lumbergh from Office Space. It's one of those odd things that some managers like this really can keep things moving for a time. They don't seem to notice or care that the people reporting to them have a level of morale that has fallen through the floor. Others are so fixated on doing and redoing tasks that very little is accomplished. If only they would realize that (a) in most cases an 80% quality level is good enough and that (b) the cost of raising the incremental quality to 85%, 90%, 95% and 99% is progressively steep, with less and less benefit gained.
But your guy wouldn't really listen to this reasoning, would he?
My suspicion is that some coworkers like this are actually suffering from mild to moderate anxiety. I may approach some anxiety experts to get some pointers on how to deal with this for use in a future post. Let me know if this would be of interest.
Control vs influence There is a crucial distinction between these two. Control is about force. Influence is about persuasion. Force will always generate an equal or greater reaction which in the business arena will usually show up indirectly. This is seldom useful on a project!
Your attitude seems great in a situation that can't be easy. Glad to have you with us.
Alec
Doug Fishback
· 1 year ago
Thanks, Alec. It strikes me that there are important but often subtle differences between trying to "change" vs. "shape" vs. "accommodate" others' behavior. One extreme is too controlling, and the other probably too lax (though sometimes unavoidable when people simply drop the ball). The PM needs some ace people skills, indeed, to find the right balance. The challenge reminds me a bit of the sport of ice curling, as the sweepers furiously buff the ice ahead of the stone -- not touching it, but steering it by changing the environment. As far as the stone is concerned, it's just tooling along doing its thing.
Alec Satin, PMP
· 1 year ago
Doug, The image of the sweepers and the stone is just right. Balance, clear vision, good reflexes, swift action when needed, and responsiveness are all essential. Thanks for the visual. Alec
You said.. (You don’t need to be in control of your project. You need to lead it. Leadership can be learned.)..
To stair a discussion Alec…
I tend to disagree. As you know, Project Management varies by many factors, the type of project, the size, the nature of the people, and the culture of the company...etc. and micro management - although having bad stigma- is suitable under certain circumstances. For example, if you have a very green team and you the only expert, Micro-Management might be needed in the beginning.
I guess what I m saying is, total control is as bad as total hands off style of management. The balance IMHO, is a TRUE leadership in the sense of capable project manager that EARNS the respect of his/her team by demonstrating his/her abilities via maybe applying some control at some point, then allow the team to flourish and shin by hands off style maybe later.
Hope I make sense!
Alec Satin, PMP
· 1 year ago
Hany - yes, your points are very well taken. Leadership needs to be earned. A total hands-off management style leads often to "sandbagging". Alec
All Comments
The layout is done with Thesis under WordPress. You can learn more about it here. I did the customization. Contact me offline through the comment form if you would like more info.
Glad to have you here with us. Hope the content is useful for you, too.
Alec
On a more philosophical note, your post makes me wonder what the difference would be between "control" and "influence."
Take care!
Your manager sounds a little like Lumbergh from Office Space. It's one of those odd things that some managers like this really can keep things moving for a time. They don't seem to notice or care that the people reporting to them have a level of morale that has fallen through the floor. Others are so fixated on doing and redoing tasks that very little is accomplished. If only they would realize that (a) in most cases an 80% quality level is good enough and that (b) the cost of raising the incremental quality to 85%, 90%, 95% and 99% is progressively steep, with less and less benefit gained.
But your guy wouldn't really listen to this reasoning, would he?
My suspicion is that some coworkers like this are actually suffering from mild to moderate anxiety. I may approach some anxiety experts to get some pointers on how to deal with this for use in a future post. Let me know if this would be of interest.
Control vs influence
There is a crucial distinction between these two. Control is about force. Influence is about persuasion. Force will always generate an equal or greater reaction which in the business arena will usually show up indirectly. This is seldom useful on a project!
Your attitude seems great in a situation that can't be easy. Glad to have you with us.
Alec
The image of the sweepers and the stone is just right. Balance, clear vision, good reflexes, swift action when needed, and responsiveness are all essential.
Thanks for the visual.
Alec
<abbr>Alec Satin´s last blog post..Hey Project Manager! Beware of Fool’s Gold!</abbr>
You said.. (You don’t need to be in control of your project. You need to lead it. Leadership can be learned.)..
To stair a discussion Alec…
I tend to disagree. As you know, Project Management varies by many factors, the type of project, the size, the nature of the people, and the culture of the company...etc. and micro management - although having bad stigma- is suitable under certain circumstances. For example, if you have a very green team and you the only expert, Micro-Management might be needed in the beginning.
I guess what I m saying is, total control is as bad as total hands off style of management. The balance IMHO, is a TRUE leadership in the sense of capable project manager that EARNS the respect of his/her team by demonstrating his/her abilities via maybe applying some control at some point, then allow the team to flourish and shin by hands off style maybe later.
Hope I make sense!
Alec