And now, a bit of comedy that’s also a true story:
I was working at Category4, a web design agency, in 2006, and the project manager was not very intelligent, but he was a spiffy dresser; he constantly donned stylish shoes. If I looked down at his feet, I almost always felt envious. He traveled in Europe and acquired a collection of fantastic dress shoes from various fashion capitals. But he was unquestionably a bad manager. His disorganization would come across in conversations like this:
Him: Hey, uh, you done with Task 5 yet?
Me: No, not yet. I haven’t even started on it.
Him: Oh. Shit. When are you gonna do it?
Me: I guess after tasks 2 and 3 and 4?
Him: Oh, no, listen, it’s really important.
Me: Oh? Since when?
Him: Yeah, like, I just got a call from the client. They need this by tomorrow.
Me: Um, what … ? Okay well, I can do it by next week.
Him: No, listen, okay? Listen, this is really important.
Me: I can stop what I’m doing now and focus on it.
Him: Yeah, good.
Me: But I don’t think it’ll be done tomorrow.
Him: It’s super important. You’ve got to get this done tomorrow.
Me: I don’t think it’s possible. Task 5 is really big.
Him: This is super important. They will go bankrupt if you don’t get this done tomorrow.
Me: Wait, what? Uh, first of all, that can’t be true, and second of all, have we been paid yet? Third of all, it isn’t our responsibility to keep them in business. Fourth of all, someone could have told me that Task 5 was important? Why didn’t we make it Task 1?
Him: Cool, cool, I’ll tell them.
Me: Wait, what? You’ll tell them what? Did you hear what I said?
And then he walks away. Two days later he comes back and we have this conversation:
Him: Hey, are you done with Task 2 yet?
Me: No, I worked 16 hours yesterday on Task 5!
Him: Don’t worry about Task 5.
Me: Wait, what? I thought the client was going bankrupt without Task 5?
Him: Dude, that’s not even possible. And, really, is it our responsibility to keep them in business? Anyway, Task 2 is the important thing now, can you work on that?
Me: As soon as I’m done with Task 5.
Him: Nah, c’mon, dude. Probably nobody really cares about Task 5. Can you focus on Task 2? You were supposed to be done with Task 2 by now.
Me: Yeah, if I hadn’t wasted two days on Task 5, then I might be done with Task 2 by now.
Him: So, you’ll get it done today?
Me: I’m very focused on Task 5, having spent many hours figuring out the nuances of the request.
Him: Yeah, man, that’s some stupid marketing thing. I think it’s probably been canceled. They’re going to try something else.
Me: Okay, whatever. Why should I even care? I’ll focus on Task 2.
Him: Okay, great.
Two days later he comes back to me and we have another conversation.
Him: Hey, man, are you done with Task 5 yet?
Me: Tell me you’re kidding.
Him: C’mon man, I told you how important that was.
Me: But you also told me that Task 5 was canceled.
Him: I said I thought it was probably canceled, but you should have kept working on it till I confirmed that it was canceled. Turns out it wasn’t canceled. That’s your mistake.
Me: How is that my mistake? You’re the one who said it was probably canceled.
Him: Yeah, “probably.” You jumped the gun if you acted before that was confirmed.
Me: So you want me to work on Task 5 now?
Him: No, man, they probably went bankrupt now. They really needed it at the beginning of the week.
Me: Are they bankrupt or probably bankrupt?
Him: Oh man, what’s with all the questions? Do you know how much time I waste trying to track down answers for all these questions that you ask me?
Me: I waste your time?
Him: I mean, can’t you figure anything out on your own?
Me: Am I allowed to talk directly to the client?
Him: No, are you crazy? We have account specialists who talk to the clients. Engineers don’t know how to talk to the clients.
Me: I could ask them simply, “Is this task your highest priority?”
Him: You don’t know how to talk to clients. It’s a special skill. You need to figure out what kind of pain they are suffering, and then you need to figure out how we can help them solve that pain.
Me: I could ask them, “Are you guys about to go bankrupt?” Then I could ask, “Would Task 5 help you avoid bankruptcy?”
Him: See, this is why no one enjoys talking to engineers.
Me: I’ll get to work on Task 5.
Him: Thanks, man. Not sure why you had to have a meltdown over such a simple request, but thanks.
The next Monday he comes back to me again.
Him: Hey, man, uh, what are you working on?
Me: I got done with Task 5 and Task 2, so now I’m working on Task 3.
Him: Oh, man, really? That sucks.
Me: Why does that suck?
Him: Dude, Tasks 2 and 5 were definitely canceled. You were supposed to be working on Tasks 6 and 7.
Me: Why can’t you keep any of this straight?
Him: Me? What are you talking about? I’m not the guy who just wasted a week working on the wrong things.
Me: If I’m not allowed to talk to the client, then I’ve got to depend on you to tell me what the client actually needs.
Him: I talk to the account specialist every day, and they talk to the client every day, so I’ve got a ton of notes about “what the client actually needs.” You want to see all of my notes? I’ve got a ton of notes.
Me: Well, why aren’t these notes being communicated to me in a timely fashion?
Him: You want to see all of my notes? Look at this! I mean, seriously, just look at this! I’ve got a million notes about what the client needs!
Me: Okay, look, you seem like you understand what our client needs, but you are mismanaging this project.
Him: Oh, man, what’s with the insults? I always say, “If someone tries to compliment you but says the word ‘but,’ don’t listen to anything before the ‘but’.” So the only thing I just heard you say was, “You are mismanaging this project.” That’s mean. You’re really mean, dude.
Me: Okay, how about this. You are the worst project manager in the entire history of the universe, but I like your shoes.
Him: Yeah, these are great shoes, right? I love these shoes. I got them in Europe.
What about Scrum, Agile, Kanban, PMP and CAPM?
If we’re going to talk about project management, then at this point many of you will be wondering, where is the conversation about all of the formal methodologies for project management?
I have not personally noticed that credentials (such as Scrum Master or PMP) are necessarily associated with real skill as a project manager. Rather, the key things that make a great project manager tend to be more qualitative:
Does this person have the moral convictions necessary to take a tough stand against upper management, for the benefit of the overall company?
Does this person have the confidence necessary to fire a poor performer for the benefit of the overall team?
Does this person have the perceptiveness to correctly read team members and know when they are exaggerating what progress they’ve made or boasting about skills/speed they don’t actually possess?
Certain people gain these attributes as they gain experience, but these attributes tend to be things that are not emphasized in formal credentialed courses. Strong moral convictions tend to be picked up in childhood and are only learned slowly in adulthood. In formal credentialed courses the focus on various rote processes tends to shift the focus away from the things that are really important.
To be clear, the formal methods almost always lead to progress on the metrics that are measured. The problem is that the metrics measured are often the wrong metrics.
Do these formal methodologies waste time? Is it disrespectful to waste people’s time? I would answer “yes” to both questions.
So how is a company to achieve excellent project management?
I could list a bunch of things to look for in a project manager:
are they organized?
do they have a track record of success?
what do their former co-workers say about them?
All of that has some value. But if I was going to emphasize a single heuristic, I’d focus on respect.
What is disrespectful?
wasting someone’s time, in particular interrupting their day with unscheduled, informal meetings. Scheduled meetings are a mark of respect. A desire to be informal can become an excuse that disguises the sloppiness and disorganization of the project manager.
badgering someone about deadlines while doing nothing to understand what might delay them.
sharing raw, undigested feedback from clients, when it is the job of the project manager to digest the raw data and pass along clarified, actionable information.
What is respectful?
understanding that everyone is busy
removing obstacles
being honest and forthright, especially regarding changing priorities
In other words, almost everything you’d want in a great project manager comes down to the question of respect. So look to elicit their opinion about their co-workers. Get them to tell you some stories, and listen to how they talk about their previous peers. Do the stories communicate respect?
How to respectfully tell someone that everything they’ve done is a complete waste?
Changing priorities are a fact of life in modern business. You might be given 3 months to customize a new CRM, then get 2 months into the project, and then have the whole project cancelled, because the top leadership has decided to use a different CRM. (Or, likewise, if you work at an agency for 3rd parties, the same can happen.)
What does respect look like, when confronted with the shock of the new?
A good project manager will work closely with every team member to help deal with the ugly aspects of shutting down the old initiative and starting the new one. Much of this is psychological. Working on a project and having it canceled is one of the things that causes burnout. A good project manager is partly a therapist, they help team members mentally stay in the game.
A good project manager works with team members to develop new budget and time estimates for the new initiative, and does not allow the top leadership (or external client) to sugarcoat the real costs of switching to a new system.
Respect for the top leadership (or the external client) means helping lower level team members brainstorm creative new ideas to make the new initiative even better. Respect for the lower level team members means recognizing that they have ideas that are both creative and important — typically they are closer to the work so they have a better understanding of what is possible.
A good project manager will fight to get the lower level staff in front of the top leadership (or the external customer) to explain the real costs of the new initiative, or to explain what is lost when the previous initiative is abandoned, as well as explain the exciting possibilities of the new direction that the top leadership (or external client) may not have even realized.
If you’re doing agency work, this last item gives you a chance to work your way up the value chain by offering high level advice to the leadership at the client company. You can charge more money once you’re seen as offering critical advice, rather than merely being a set of hands to do extra work.