Monday, October 22, 2007

Being in Charge


Being in charge of a project means that you are in charge.

It helps to consider a list of people and things that are not responsible for the results:


  1. Your team members. They will make important contributions and you should not have to do all of the work, but they are not in charge. You are.

  2. The schedule. It can be brutal and unreasonable but it is inanimate. Numbers on pages are not in charge.

  3. The resources. You may not have all that you'd wish; in fact, you probably don't. Too bad. Make do with what you have.

  4. The goal. If you didn't like the goal, you should have mentioned that before taking on the assignment. You did and got overruled? Then if the project is ethical, do your best to achieve the goal. If the project is unethical, do nothing to implement it.

  5. People who promised things and didn't come through. When you are in charge, you are responsible for anticipating such problems, not moaning about them. You should have had a Plan B and perhaps even Plans C and D.

  6. Dissenters. Someone doesn't like your approach? Listen carefully. If they have a good point, make a change if doing so with not be harmful. If they don't, proceed with your plan of action. You can't please everyone.

  7. Perfectionists. Your plan has flaws? All plans do. Don't let prolonged analysis turn into paralysis. You're in charge. Make things happen.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Great list - now I have to figure a subtle way to get a few people I work with to read it . . .

Michael Wade said...

Kelly,

Sorry for the delay in responding. Be very subtle and pin the post on the bulletin board...but don't write names next to various points.