OK, I promised you another story on self-interest. Here you go.
Ethics — c’mon, keep reading
Let’s start with discussion ethics and those pesky ethics statements. Some whine about it, and I’ll concede that ethics statements are usually way over-though and over-stated, and even if you agree with them, you still often end up rolling your eyes with a “Really?!” kind of response. You agree, of course, sincerely, and both in form and in intent, but the statements can seem so out there. Such was my reaction to the PMI Ethics Policy that you sign upon becoming a member and that you sign again when sitting for the PMP exam. (The test questions on ethics can be particular amusing, errr, frustrating, because they can so unpredictable and situation-dependent. But moving on.)
But I’m grateful for focus on ethics and reminders on them. One is always grateful as one observes the lack of ethical behavior.
The Story
A few years ago, I worked in an account management role. As in many teams, you had those team members who were the acknowledged stars, the right-hand to the team leader, the ones who always seemed to have the roughest customers and handle them the best. I learned that things are not always what they seemed.
We had 2 such team members. Let’s call them Bill and Joe. Their customers were always in a state of escalation. There was always a crisis. We were all aware of it, and always duly impressed with how Bill and Joe handled these irate and uncontrollable customers. They were always on escalation phone calls with the customer and the VP. They had to get extra resources assigned to solve problems. They frequently got upset themselves and threw their own tirades, but that’s just an aside.
At one point, Bill moved on to another position in the company, and Joe took over many of Bill’s rough customers. Later, Joe left the company, and his customers were reassigned to another account manager. Let’s call him Tim. Tim was a mild-mannered fellow whose customers were never hollering, never yelling. It was perceived that he had easy accounts.
As was the norm, Tim approached the main contacts at these accounts, the same contacts whose names we all knew because they were always making so much noise. Tim approached one of these customers and introduced himself. Through conversation, Tim was surprised to learn that the customer didn’t even know Joe’s name. Didn’t know what role he played in our account relationship. And the customer expressed a general contentment with the company and services provided. Over time, that proved true; the customer virtually never escalated again.
The Conclusion
Bill and Joe had snowed us over. They’d created crises to gain visibility and notoriety. And it had worked for a long time. The leadership at the time was slow to catch on to the dynamic, even after that experience. It was explained away. And trusty Tim was eventually let go when budget cuts required staff reductions. He was apparently not perceived as valuable enough, he who could manage accounts so smoothly as to never create crisis, and who could resolve crisis so ably that no one ever heard of it.
So What?
OK, so what’s the message for Cottage PM? Two things jump out at me today. One lesson from Bill and Joe, and another lesson from Tim.
- First, well, ethics matter. Integrity matters. This kind of unethical behavior may appear to work for a while, but at some point, it’ll become clear that you’re not creating value. It will erode your project team’s trust in you. Motivation will fall. Results will suffer.
- Second, communication matters. And that ties back to my previous post on communication. Tim was so quietly effective that he may have been undervalued. (I wasn’t involved at a managerial level, so I can’t speak to the decision process there.)
There is a valid self-interest that pairs very readily with an organizational self-interest to communicate well in your projects. Your leadership does need to know what decisions you’re taking, what problems are surfacing and being solved, what priorities are shifting, resource challenges, etc. You’re professional. You can communicate that without whining and without an obvious self-pat on the back. You can communicate it legitimately and sincerely in light of the organizational needs for that information. You can be sure your project team gets credit for their good decisions, avoidance of risk, handling of crisis.
And it strikes me that while that communication is important on any project, it may be particularly important in a Cottage PM environment where there are few norms and standards for projects themselves, and where an organization of even really talented people may not anticipate problems and downstream effects of project decisions.
So in the absence of set project expectations, leverage the general communication methods of your organization (if they’re generally effective). Use established communication norms. If you’re an email culture, do email. If you’re a reports culture, do reports. If you’re a meeting culture, do meetings.
But whatever it is, do it.
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