Free Article By Paul Glen of C2
Consulting
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Managers' Forum #4
(This article originally appeared in Computerworld USA.)
I hope this monthly column will provide a
lively exchange of ideas with IT managers. I'll do my best to answer your
questions, and if you care to respond, we'll run your comments alongside. Please
send your questions, comments and critiques to me at pglen@c2-consulting.com.
Q: How do you manage your sponsors when you
have three different sponsors who have varied, often competing views of where a
project should go?
A: If you've got three sponsors, you don't have
a sponsor. It's like saying you've got three first priorities. Just as there can
be only one first priority, there can be only one sponsor.
In your case, what you probably have, in fact,
is a disorganized steering committee that never meets and doesn't have anyone in
charge. As you've already figured out, that's not a recipe for success. It's the
makings for gridlock, politics and resistance.
As an IT person, you're going to find it rather
difficult to manage the competing views of differing business people with
different interests.
What you need to do is recruit a primary
sponsor from the business side and make that person responsible for forging
consensus among all the business stakeholders. Let the business people work
together to debate and balance the various political interests. They are in a
better position than you are to facilitate these important political situations.
You then can take responsibility for forging
the consensus among the technical stakeholders (e.g., architecture, development,
quality assurance, deployment, networking, operations, project management office
and support) and coordinating the meetings among the technical people. Together,
you and the business sponsor can manage the negotiating process and work on
gaining agreement on goals, process, product and constraints.
Q: I have a situation where I have lost all
professional respect for my manager. She is a very nice person but takes advice
from her best friend, who is another manager here. We can't implement any policy
or process without her running to her friend to check it out. It appears that
her friend is taking advantage of this by doing whatever he wants. Any advice?
A: It sounds like you have at least three
problems here: 1) your manager's behavior, 2) your manager's friend taking
advantage of her and 3) your loss of respect for her.
Let's dispense with the easy one first, No. 2.
Forget about doing anything about your manager's friend unless he's doing
something patently illegal, demonstrably immoral or dangerously unethical. If he
is, then consider going to your human resources representative or corporate
counsel.
As for No. 3, try to cut your manager a bit of
slack. She's probably not the bozo that you think that she is. Being a boss is a
tougher and lonelier job than you probably realize. Resist the urge to judge her
so quickly. You'll always have the opportunity to do that later. And if you're
going to be of help, judging will be an impediment.
Now for the tough problem, No. 1. As for your
manager's behavior, it would help to know why she is going to her friend for so
much advice. What is driving her to seek out such detailed counsel? Does she
really respect the opinion of her friend? Is she afraid of her boss? Is she new
to her job? Is she concerned about the judgments of her subordinates? Did she
make a really bad mistake recently that she's eager to avoid repeating? Is she
up for a major promotion or overly cautious by nature? For some reason, she
probably feels insecure or overly tentative about her position, her knowledge of
the position or her political strength.
Chances are that if you think carefully about
the situation, she has some good reason for feeling and acting this way and is
using her friend as a crutch.
From the way you stated your question, I'm
assuming that you like your boss, harbor no ill feelings toward her and would
like to help her -- and you -- to be successful.
Once you come up with a reasonable theory about
what's driving this behavior, you'll be in a better position to help.
Your goal should be to get into the loop before
she announces any new policies she and her friend have dreamed up. You want to
become her trusted adviser. You may not be able to stop her from seeking advice
from her friend, but you may be able to become a better source of help.
But you can do this only if you really
understand why your manager is doing what she's doing. Next time she comes up
with one of these new policies that you feel is wrongheaded, go to her office
and initiate a private conversation. Honestly seek to better understand her
thinking behind the policy. Don't issue any objections or opinions. Don't
challenge her or be aggressive or threatening. Just ask and listen carefully and
sympathetically.
Once you get an answer that makes sense, you'll
be in a position to demonstrate your understanding of and empathy for her
challenges. For example, if she says that the policy is meant to avoid
miscommunication between departments, you can ask her, "Is this a response to
your boss's recent tirade over the missed connection between departments?"
If you become a better adviser than her friend
is, you may be able to save her bacon, and yours.
© Copyright 2005 by Computerworld Inc., One
Speen Street, Framingham, MA, 01701. Reprinted by permission of
Computerworld. All Rights Reserved.
