Succeeding with Senior Management by G. Michael Campbell

Author:G. Michael Campbell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: AMACOM
Published: 2017-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

As can often happen, the Working Committee member, who happened to be a vice president, did not confer with his people. As is often the case, he was very busy with travel and operational issues and ran out of time. Since the project timeframe required an answer, the vice president gave the answer he thought the team would recommend. Unfortunately, he guessed incorrectly. As can happen in these types of situations, the vice president thought he could tag the project with the failure to implement the correct solution. However, based on the evidence from the investigation, I knew that was not what happened.

Now, I could have thrown the vice president under the bus because that was what he was trying to do to me! However, once I knew what had really happened, I met with the vice president, and we discussed what I had learned. As you can imagine, he decided it was in everyone’s (mostly his) best interest to correct the situation with his boss, the president of the division. Together, we worked on an explanation that would let him save face but also clear the project team of any perception of not working in the best interests of the business.

When I reviewed all that had happened with my sponsor, he was delighted. It meant that the division president, someone he suspected was after his job, did not have any grounds for tagging him with a project that was out of control. He also knew that he had some information he could save and use later that perhaps the division president did not have his own house in order if this kind of thing could happen on his watch.

You might read these words and be disappointed that businesses and people could operate this way. However, this is really what happens. You have undoubtedly had something happen to you that you knew was political in nature, but you had no recourse. The approach I am suggesting, using deputies effectively in the project, is a way to help you mitigate and/or avoid those situations. Now you do have recourse but only if you follow the process.

There is always the temptation to take shortcuts when time is precious. Let this be a cautionary story for you to recognize that the use of a Working Committee will take longer in some cases but allow the process to do the job of engaging the business in your project.

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