Comments on: When Managers Can’t Hear No http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/09/when-managers-cant-hear-no.html Management, especially good management, is hard to do. This blog is for people who want to think about how they manage people, projects, and risk. Fri, 18 May 2012 15:02:36 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Lui Sieh http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/09/when-managers-cant-hear-no.html/comment-page-1#comment-56028 Lui Sieh Mon, 14 Sep 2009 14:36:42 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8806#comment-56028 I'd like to add to the comment re: visiblity of project work. At the heart of it, PMs are and have to be sales people. This is particularly true in tough business environment where anything and everything is scrutinzed. So when a "management" decision has to be made because of resource issues (i.e. budget), the project that is "saved" is often the one that has the most visibility or the one that had a lot of "air-time" with the decision makers. That's good stakeholder engagement. It's true that many excellent PMs are the get-it-done types and execute wonderfully under difficult constraints and with little appreciation. Part of that is because the people who should know, don't know and that's not necessarily their fault if the PM hasn't spoken up. Now more than ever, PMs need to defend their project as either revenue producting or productivity enhancing. That means more explanation and story telling to make the folks understand it's one or the other and the wonderful work that your project team is doing "behind the scenes". Not surprisingly, senior stakeholders do care and want to know if it's presented in a way that speaks to the bottom line. Cheers, I’d like to add to the comment re: visiblity of project work. At the heart of it, PMs are and have to be sales people. This is particularly true in tough business environment where anything and everything is scrutinzed.

So when a “management” decision has to be made because of resource issues (i.e. budget), the project that is “saved” is often the one that has the most visibility or the one that had a lot of “air-time” with the decision makers. That’s good stakeholder engagement.

It’s true that many excellent PMs are the get-it-done types and execute wonderfully under difficult constraints and with little appreciation. Part of that is because the people who should know, don’t know and that’s not necessarily their fault if the PM hasn’t spoken up.

Now more than ever, PMs need to defend their project as either revenue producting or productivity enhancing. That means more explanation and story telling to make the folks understand it’s one or the other and the wonderful work that your project team is doing “behind the scenes”. Not surprisingly, senior stakeholders do care and want to know if it’s presented in a way that speaks to the bottom line.

Cheers,

]]> By: s c miller http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/09/when-managers-cant-hear-no.html/comment-page-1#comment-55847 s c miller Fri, 11 Sep 2009 15:02:16 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8806#comment-55847 Great question, I look forward to other comments. Effective PM is persuasive -- as contributor groups learn to avoid kinks, those issues *seem to* stop. PM has a lot in common with superb craftmanship, in which the amount and types of work required to produce a wonderful piece -- jewelry, sculpture, furniture, ... -- are not at all apparent in the finished work and even seem unnecessary to critics looking at a work in progress. Great question, I look forward to other comments. Effective PM is persuasive — as contributor groups learn to avoid kinks, those issues *seem to* stop. PM has a lot in common with superb craftmanship, in which the amount and types of work required to produce a wonderful piece — jewelry, sculpture, furniture, … — are not at all apparent in the finished work and even seem unnecessary to critics looking at a work in progress.

]]> By: Barbara Kroczak http://www.jrothman.com/blog/mpd/2009/09/when-managers-cant-hear-no.html/comment-page-1#comment-55814 Barbara Kroczak Fri, 11 Sep 2009 01:39:54 +0000 http://jrothman.com/blog/mpd/?p=8806#comment-55814 Could you please expand on "If your work is invisible, use the project portfolio to make it visible"? I always say that a good project manager makes a project look easy. So it's easy for people to underestimate how much "behind the scenes" work went on. So much of my work IS invisible is done well... Could you please expand on “If your work is invisible, use the project portfolio to make it visible”? I always say that a good project manager makes a project look easy. So it’s easy for people to underestimate how much “behind the scenes” work went on. So much of my work IS invisible is done well…

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