THE LAZY PROJECT MANAGER

Let's for a moment rate these five different styles on the following scale as shown in Figure 6.2. The vertical axis is a measure of how much management time and effort you put into a particular task. It is a measure of how much micromanagement you do, how much you are in your people's faces, how much you stick your nose into their business. We have rated each of our five styles (A) “(E) against this scale.

Figure 6.2. Different management styles

The ascending dotted line shows the gradual increase in management effort as we move from leadership style (A) through style (E). Now it seems to me that as warm, living, loving human beings, our natural tendency would be to allocate our time and effort in a way that is represented by the solid descending line.

We would enjoy spending time and effort over on the (A) “(B) end of the spectrum as shown in Figure 6.3. Over here is the happy uplands where all good men agree. Over on this side are competent, motivated people. Milestones are being achieved and commitments being met; it's good news, high morale , forward progress; all that great stuff that we dream will happen on our project. We could spend happy days over here and go home in the evening thinking that the world is indeed a fine place.

Figure 6.3. Where the project manager should spend least time

Over on the (D) and especially (E) end of the spectrum, on the other hand, is the twilight zone of project management. Here is the land of permanent bad news, cock-ups, screw-ups, SNAFUs; having to tell bad news to bosses and customers; having to eat humble pie; having to give people bad performance appraisals or no salary rises; having to fire people; having to coax people painstakingly through things; having to confront, annoy, argue, and generally dissipate vast amounts of emotional energy trying to keep things on the rails. Over here is feeling that you have been let down by people. We want to be here, in short, like we want a hole in the head!

And so (I don't know if you've been guilty of this, but I certainly have) we spend our time on the (A) “(B) end and procrastinate, delay and generally avoid doing things on the (D) “(E) end. We spend time having really interesting conversations with the good guys “ and in the process wasting our time and theirs; and we avoid dealing with issues which are rotting away inside our project.

The Lazy Project Manager has no time for such foolishness or dithering. She knows that spending time in the shaded zone, while it may be enjoyable, is of no value whatsoever in progressing the project.

Indeed, if you spend lots of time trying to manage people who should really be treated with an (A) “(B) style, not only is it a waste of time and effort, it can actually be counterproductive. Such people end up feeling that you don't trust them, their expertise and their judgment, and they can become very demotivated with lots of what they perceive as interference.

Instead, the Lazy Project Manager puts in the effort where it counts: in the shaded zone shown in Figure 6.4. Here every ounce of management time and effort contributes directly to the forward progress of the project.

Figure 6.4. Where the project manager should spend most time

The Lazy Project Manager becomes an object of complete bafflement and irritation to her colleagues because she seems to have an uncanny knack of knowing how to leave well enough alone, and to get in where the problems are. In short, the Lazy Project Manager not only always has successful projects but, in the process, she makes it all look like a piece of cake.