One of my
Projectmanagementcrossing.com column readers recently sent
in this question: One of our senior project manager left
abruptly in the middle of a 3 year million $ contract. What
experience and education would you consider in promoting a
replacement?
Ooh, good meaty problem. Not so simple a solution.
There's simply never a good time for a project manager to
leave a project, particularly when the flight takes everyone by
surprise. Management scrambles to find a replacement, the
project team may be in a state of shock because their leader is
now flying the coop, and the potential successor needs to
double-time-it to figure out how to take the reins quickly.
The key here is to minimize the impact of flight such that the
project is not significantly impacted. There are two
facets that I think are important to minimizing the impact:
preparedness in case of flight and deliberate action if a flight
occurs. Following are a series of considerations for each.
First preparedness in case of flight:
- Have a project succession plan in place for key project team
members. This includes not only the project manager but
key analysts, developers, and other hard-to-replace team
members.
- Assess whether the project manager is already a flight risk
because of prior circumstances. For whatever reason, the
project manager may be at flash point and ready to leave or
already looking to leave.
- Document if there are there specific skills required of the
position. Some project management positions can be filled
by a good generic project manager, while others may require a
specific functional, technical, or industry skills.
Next facet is actions if a flight occurs:
- Execute the succession plan if the planned successor is
ready to assume control. Sometimes the successor will be
able to easily slip into the shoes of the prior project manager.
At other times the successor may have to share workload with his
or her manager or other project team members to lighten the load
and better minimize project impact.
- Don't expect much out of the fleeing project manager.
He or she may be physically be around for another week or two
but mentally the transition to the new job has already begun.
- Stay close to the situation. Don't just assume that
because there is a new name in the project manager box on the
org chart that all is going to go well. Keep close watch
over the new project manager and be ready to assist if you see
problems starting to crop up.
- Keep the team calm. When a leader flees the situation
is ripe for confusion, dissention, and infighting which can lead
to budget and schedule problems. Keep the team focused and
motivated through the transition. Most importantly, keep
them informed on what is going on.
- Position the next successor. This is good for two reasons:
it helps mitigate the risk of another PM flight and is a natural
learning opportunity to build up new project managers.
Not to be doom-and-gloom, but it's just good practice to
think through what would happen if the project manager leaves
the project, know what is needed to replace the PM, and identify
likely candidates. Don't wait for the flight to occur to start
thinking about how to respond.
Ever had this happen to you?
Reply to this blog and tell
me about it!
Best to you –
PPS. Are you a project sponsor or do you
know a project sponsor who can use some help? Don't be a
mushroom sponsor (kept in the dark and fed crap). Download my
complimentary self-study seminar entitled
The Top Ten Attributes of a Great Project Sponsor and learn how
to better team with your project manager to deliver results.