Don’t you just hate it when things are going bad, it’s early on a Monday and you already have five difficult moaning emails in your inbox and it seems the world is ganging up on you personally. Then some Pollyanna comes by your cube/office, notices your downer and retells, with great joy, “When life serves you lemons, make lemonade”.
Stifling your desired reaction, which may give you some serious jail time, you mumble something prophetic and continue to stare at the “things that went wrong with the project” over the weekend on the computer screen.
There are times when we have to dig deep for inspiration, particularly because cries for help are often being made to you, because people know:
- “You can take it”
- Mike/Michelle will solve the problem, he/she always does
- If in doubt, kick the problem up the management chain, in this case, you
- They know and trust you
It may well be that the last bullet is a more frequent thought than the others, however human nature often sends our mind on a downer first, and we make assumptions about the reasons/motives behind an issue, rather than just looking at the issue itself.
Now, not to dive into the psychology of managing projects, but we all face times when the emotional impact of change or behavior is greater than the issue itself. So what should you do when faced with this “Monday morning project” syndrome? Here’s my list:
- If you are seriously upset, get a cup of coffee, cigarette, walk around the building, before coming back to the problem.
- When your blood pressure is back to normal (whatever that may be for you), review the issues and what caused them.
- Determine if the issues are interrelated. For a serious project crisis to arise, there is usually a combination of factors/issues involved, so if you can solve 1 or 2 of the issues, you can often reduces the chance of a train wreck.
- Prioritize your action plan to deal with each issue, and then communicate with team members to start a plan of action.
- When your plan of action is in motion, make a huge effort to separate emotional trauma and consequences from the action. Otherwise you may just be escalating the problem without knowing it.
- Stay in touch for each of these hot items until they are cool once more.
- Reward yourself for being such a great project manager.
