When being a project manager feels like you’ve been elected as the Punching Bag, here are five ways to punch back.
Being the project manager for a complex project is a delicate job. Even if you have the skills and tools necessary to plot out who does what, you still have to convince everyone – even your clients – to complete their assigned tasks. Then, when people – inevitably – fail to complete their tasks, you will end up taking the blame for project delays. Just because you signed up to be the project manager, doesn’t mean you need to be a project punching bag.
There are strategies for staying out of the line of fire. However, they require subtle leadership, team building, management, and social skills you may not have learned while mastering your IT skills. Not to fret, though. You can develop these new skills using a few subtle tricks.
According to a recent McKinsey report,
“Leadership is something you do and not something you are. It is a person’s actions, rather than their words or job title, that inspire trust and commitment.”
If you master the arts of team building and leading without authority, you will transform your role from punching bag to that of respected leader. But how do you break these lofty skills down into actions you can apply right now?
Create your dream team
One advantage of your role as project manager – with no positional authority over anyone – is that you won’t buy into the ideology that the only people you have to worry about are those who directly report to you. Your team, according to Keith Ferrazzi in his bestselling book on team building and collaboration, Leading Without Authority, is “made up of everyone who is critical to helping you achieve your mission and goals.”
The trick to creating that team is the same as with any team building effort. Spend time doing it. Talk to people, share information with them, discuss the project, the challenges, the goals, and the problems you are trying to solve. The people, in this context, include everyone involved in this project, even the client. Include all of them in your project planning and share the goal posts or rewards so they feel engaged and part of the process.
Build a compelling case
People, as a rule, don’t respond well when they are handed a to-do list without context. They might agree to do the work because it is their job, but their effort will lack enthusiasm. If you motivate people, you will get better results. It’s best to start this process by storytelling.
When you build a good story around the work to be done, people will do it because they want to - which makes your life easier! The trick is to tell a story your team can believe in, which might be different for each person. If you are talking to the CEO or any person with a financial investment in the outcome, you might tell a story about profit or loss: “If you convince the customer to sign this contract today, we can invoice for the project this quarter.” Financially focused stories like this might not work on everyone, though. For example, if you are speaking to an engineer who loves to solve problems, try to tap into their motives. “No one is sure how to solve this. What do you think?” If you are talking to a customer, you might say, “The sooner you provide this information, the sooner I can get started on your project.”
Whenever possible, bring personal anecdotes into your story. Is the client in the middle of a crisis? Did someone on your team have a baby? A human element helps people contextualize your request, so they are better able to understand why they should care about the outcome.
Customize your approach
Even when two people work in similar roles, the same approach will not necessarily work with both. When you are creating your story, consider sizing up their work style and personality to customize that story and your approach. A person who is very chill and laid back might be put off if you are pushy or too direct. A competent self-starter might feel resentful if you give them step-by-step instructions, while someone who is feeling a bit lost might appreciate this approach.
Some people respond well to group dynamics, so you might want to present your case to them in a meeting or another group setting.
Make the outcome clear
Even if you had the positional authority to order people around, handling a team that way doesn’t work well. People might do the work, but they will let go of their own authority and check out. If you help everyone understand where the project is going and why, they will take co-ownership of the process and enjoy helping the team reach the end goal.
The use of planning tools can have a huge effect on how clear you’re being with your techs. If you pull task lists from a spreadsheet or other tools only you manage, you are embedding a command-and-control dynamic into your process.
Using collaborative tools like Moovila Perfect Project allow you to share the entire plan with your team. They have clear visuals on how failure of completion impacts the entire mission. They can see the total capacity of other team members, which can eliminate misconceptions about the contribution of people who work in other locations or at different hours. They can identify which of their tasks are dependent on others. And they can see where the milestones are.
Use collaborative tools
The ability to digitally assign tasks and receive a digital handshake that the work was accepted is useful for your planning. But it also gives your team agency. They look at the task and decide whether to accept it or not. This sentiment feels different from receiving an emailed assignment.
If you create a team that’s working toward the same outcome, that means sharing updates, letting people know when milestones are at risk, and being transparent about everyone’s efforts. This is easier if you use a tool that promotes open communication, so people can dip into the project when they want to see how well the project is evolving.
When people see proof of their efforts influencing the project outcome, they understand why they are doing a task – even if the task is dull or routine. They feel part of the process and purpose. And when everyone feels that way, you have built a team that is working toward a goal. Then, you will be their servant leader, not their punching bag.
For more advice and ideas on project management for MSPs, check out our blog.
