![\"Staying](\"https:\/\/svapm.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/10\/j0178803.thumbnail.jpg\")
Project Sponsors, does this sound familiar?\u00a0 You’ve got a great team, and you’ve pointed them in the right direction on a new project.\u00a0 They work really hard, but what they come up with isn’t what you had in mind.<\/p>\nProject Sponsors, does this sound familiar?\u00a0 You’ve got a great team, and you’ve pointed them in the right direction on a new project.\u00a0 They work really hard, but what they come up with isn’t what you had in mind.<\/p>\n
Project Managers, does this sound familiar?\u00a0 Your project sponsor passes along some high level guidance to your team, ending with “I trust you to do a great job.”\u00a0 Your team moves into high gear, spends a lot of nights and weekends, and comes up with something you feel good about.\u00a0 You triumphantly share it with your project sponsor, who says you are on the right track, but has so many corrections that it sends you back to the drawing board, frustrated\u00a0and deflated.<\/p>\n
What happened?\u00a0 And how could it have gone better?\u00a0<\/p>\n
Changes on both the project manager’s and the project sponsor’s part could have yielded better results.\u00a0 Let’s start with the project sponsor:<\/p>\n
The Bookends of Vision & Approval To get the most from your team, the project vision and the final approval need to be at the same level of detail.\u00a0 Think of it like bookends on either end of the project: they need to complement each other, or your results won’t hold up.\u00a0<\/p>\n I don’t mean to imply you need to know everything at project kickoff.\u00a0 As the project progresses, more will become apparent.\u00a0\u00a0Plus, circumstances change, and that may affect the vision.\u00a0 We know things change.\u00a0 But please, tell the team as soon as you formulate new guidance, don’t wait until they deliver the final product to weigh in.\u00a0<\/p>\n Your team likes to hear that you trust them.\u00a0 But that means you really have to trust<\/em> them, as in delegate fully at the Vision stage.\u00a0 The approval process should be about making sure the final product matches the vision, not about whether it was done the way you would’ve done it.\u00a0 If you want to do a detailed critique at the end, plan to give detailed guidance as early as possible, so your team has a good shot at hitting the mark.\u00a0 Keep in mind, though, that the more detailed decision-making you retain, the less your team will feel empowered.<\/p>\n Why does it matter?\u00a0 If your team has been corrected too often, their productivity and morale goes down.\u00a0 They will become hesitant to act on their own without detailed direction from you.\u00a0 That means they’ll be checking in with you, perhaps more often than you’d want, and be far less likely to take risks.\u00a0 Is that behavior you want to promote?\u00a0 Not only that, they’ll require more of your time to manage, and we know you’ve got plenty on your plate already.<\/p>\n OK, now it’s the project manager’s turn to get on the hot seat.<\/p>\n Visibility, please I’ve been brought in to help with projects when the project sponsor had an uneasy feeling that the team wasn’t on track, but didn’t really know where they stood.\u00a0 Don’t go dark just because you think you can handle it, or are “too busy” to communicate out.\u00a0 It’s amazingly reassuring to a sponsor to hear, “Issue X came up, we are doing Y to address it, but wanted you to be aware.\u00a0 We’ll let you know if we need your help.”<\/p>\n If you communicate regularly with your sponsor, they are more likely to remember you and your project.\u00a0 You want your advocate to remember you.\u00a0 You also want your sponsor to keep you abreast of changes as they happen so you can adapt as you go, rather than getting corrections at the end, when you finally check in.<\/p>\n Be sure to communicate regularly, but beware over-communication.\u00a0 Unless your sponsor can quickly find the key information they want and need to know, it’ll all sound like “blah blah blah”.\u00a0 If you asked them, they told you what they wanted to hear, so focus on that.\u00a0 Help them help you.<\/p>\n Speaking of help, if you’d like help delivering projects more effectively, let’s talk<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Best Wishes,<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>Do we have any project sponsors in the audience?\u00a0 This one’s for you.<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong>When was the last time you communicated with your project sponsor?\u00a0 Do you know how often he wants to hear from you, and what type of information he needs to know about?\u00a0 Do you know when he’d like to be interrupted for guidance vs. when you should just handle things on your own?<\/p>\n