November 21, 2009

The High Road

Posted by Brad Egeland

I was recently involved in a “discussion” that prompted the thought process and communication exchange that I am about to discuss. And by “discussion” I mean argument.

What happens during an argument? Tempers flare…sometimes even nostrils, voice levels escalate, faces may even turn red and neck veins may even bulge. When these things start to happen you’ve probably already lost the battle because losing control is never a good thing. In fact, losing control is something a Project Manager should never do.

Thankfully, in a cordial…or at least, professional…business environment these types of “discussions” rarely happen. But there’s always someone in the workplace – perhaps even on your project team – who is somewhat volatile given the right (or wrong?) situation. Sometimes it’s even worse than that…sometimes it’s the customer. Those are the situations you would like to run away from at all costs…but since it’s the customer you simple can’t. So deal. Here’s how to take the high road.

The Volatile Team Member

If you’re unlucky enough to have a ticking time bomb on one of your project teams, then you know that something can set that person off – potentially at any given time and it could be for any one of a number of reasons. For a volatile person to get this far in an organization without being shown the door must mean they have some critical skills that would be hard to part with. Unfortunately, much like the baby throwing a tantrum, since they haven’t been spanked yet they’re pretty secure in the knowledge that they can get away with it.

If you have a volatile team member blow up either at a customer or within the team itself, here are a few things you can do to possible maintain control of the team and the project:

Escalate the resource issue to their direct manager – Try this one first. After all, you’re not their direct manager and therefore it’s allowable to delegate some of this problem/resolution to someone who is because you already have enough to do without additional babysitting thrown into the mix.
Conduct offline meeting with resource in question – Meet with the resource and identify the true root of the problem. It may be something you can alleviate quickly in a one-on-one session or at least you can drive home the idea that it better never happen again.
Immediate replacement of the resource – This is the most desperate and probably worst option unless the project has just started. If you’re deep into the project, then go into this option knowing how much of an impact losing this skill set is going to have on your project and act accordingly.

The Volatile Customer

If you’re unlucky enough to have a customer that seems to “lose it” easily or is constantly arguing or calling for yours or a team member’s head on a platter, there is less you can do other than figure out some damage control methods. The exception to this is if you’re an independent consultant and the customer is directly yours…then you can just choose to pull the plug on the whole project and go home, but that’s a situation that everyone would like to avoid because it does little for your pocketbook.

In the case of the volatile customer, they’ve blown up over something real or something perceived, and in either case you have to do something. Here are your potential courses of action:

One-on-one meeting with the customer project sponsor or customer team lead – This is an ideal first course of action whether this person is the volatile member or not. Why? Because they have the power on the customer side to hopefully resolve the issue or remove their team member. Discuss what the root cause of the project is and what action you will be taking with your project team to fix whatever caused the issue with the volatile customer.
Full team meeting on both sides to discuss – Depending on the underlying cause, this may or may not be helpful. Taking it to the source is always best first, but involve both full teams for a full-on discussion of the issue if option #1 isn’t possible or doesn’t help. Remember, this is a customer and project that you want to keep going, so be ready to negotiate and be prepared to have to take corrective action on your side if it’s required in order to save the project.
Get your executive leadership involved – This is the worst possible scenario because once you’ve escalated to executive leadership you’ve essentially sent the message – in some organizations – that you can’t handle the problem on your own or you’ve given the customer the idea that you don’t have the authority to do that. This can create an open door for the customer to take future issues straight to your executive leadership…so avoid this if at all possible.