After reading a comment by “Doug” to my Five More Signs You’re Not Cut Out to be a Project Manager, I felt compelled to write this article. This is an important topic and it covers an issue that I believe all of us have dealt with at one time or another.
Passing the Buck
Doug states that some PMs have a tendency to blame everyone and everything else when things go wrong. He says, “Too often I see PMs blame others (suppliers, team members, customers) or things outside of the project (the economy, the weather, the exchange rate). He’s right. There are people in organizations – not just PMs – that do this all the time. And there are PMs – the ones in leadership positions on projects – who are pointing the finger constantly at team members and customers, often just to make sure that they still look good when it hits the fan.
First Remove the Plank
In the Bible, Matthew 7:5 says, “first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.” Doug states in his comment that “a good PM looks in the mirror first and is the first to admit I made a mistake.” I agree with Doug completely. As the PM, we’re in charge and everyone is looking to us for our leadership. The PM must be in charge, and must be ready to take charge and certainly must be ready to take responsibility for things that happen on the project.
I’m not stating that a PM should take blanket responsibility for every bad thing that happens during an engagement. Not at all. Rather an approach of ‘let’s see what we can do to get through this issue together’ is a good course when the problem was obviously caused by something beyond the PM’s control. The PM should not be a martyr taking on all blame no matter who was responsible. Nobody really likes a martyr who takes the weight of everything on their shoulders, but nobody in their right mind is going to follow a PM who finger points when issues arise. No good comes from it and no problems are really solved by it…all it serves is to divide the team and that is a recipe for disaster.
What to Do
How do you deal with this type of person – this type of leader? First, personally, don’t become one. Have you ever found yourself easily pointing the finger at someone else – even privately among your team members? I have, and I hate myself for it later. It can also be detrimental to your leadership position with your team members – if they see you as a finger-pointer in the blame game, then they will not be seeing you as the take charge leader you need to be.
And if you find yourself with team members who display this finger-pointing quality, you should take two actions…
- Re-direct the discussion from finger-pointing to aggressive resolution (if you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem)
- Have an offline conversation with the offending individual about the negative aspects of that type of behavior and it’s affect on the rest of the team
If the private discussion doesn’t have the needed affect on the team member, then take it to their manager and ask that they be reassigned and replaced on the team. Stop the cancer before it spreads to the rest of the team.