The Seven Deadly Project Management Sins: Creating a Sin Free Environment

 

Scanning through a newsletter I periodically receive from OpenView Venture Partners, I came across an article written earlier this month by Skip Weisman titled, The 7 Deadly Sins of Organizational Leadership Communication.  I have to admit that I have a weakness for these types of articles—and thought I would share the seven deadly sins here.

Although the focus of Weismn's article involves the sins of the executive team, I think there are some things here that any leader, particularly project leaders, can learn and have adapted them to project leadership:

1. Lack of Specificity: I like to call this sin the, "I can't read your mind sin."  It's easy to assume that everyone on the project team is coming from the same level of understanding that you are.  If you or your people have to guess about what's being requested, this sin is a problem.  Make sure communications are clear and precise.  When instructions and expectations are expressed properly, projects have a better chance of success.
2. Lack of Focus on Desirable Behaviors: It's easy for some people to complain about what they don't want to do, or what they don't want others to do, but is often more difficult to identify what they would like instead.  "Where your focus goes, grows," says Weisman.  I agree.  On a mountain-bike, if you focus on that big ugly root up ahead of you, you will hit it.  Focusing on positive behavior will encourage positive behavior to grow.  Many project teams struggle with negative behavior because that's what they focus on.
3. Lack of Directness: Project teams embroiled in this sin go behind the back of co-workers, peers, bosses, and subordinates with water cooler gossip.  If team members are throwing people under the bus, or put down other team members to make themselves look better, you have a problem with this sin.
4. Lack of Immediacy: This is really the sin of procrastination.  There are times when it's important to project success for project managers to have the "tough" conversations with team members, putting off the conversation or avoiding it all together define this sin.
5. Lack of Appropriate Tone: I've shared my opinion on this issue in this forum before.  Common courtesy is the very least we should be able to expect from our managers, peers, and subordinates.  Threatening, condescending, sarcastic, or any other rude or demeaning communication just isn't acceptable.  Ever.
6. Lack of Focused Attention:  Have you ever been in a meeting where half the audience is checking email, responding to a text message, or surfing the web?  I have.  This sin fosters disrespect and a lack of trust in organizations and on project teams.
7. Lack of Respectful Rebuttals: Although this sin is closely related to Sin #5, it also includes those conversations that start out positive in the first part of the sentence, only to be followed by the word "but."  "After the 'but' comes the other shoe and you end up feeling misled and unfulfilled," says Weisman.  Organizations that foster an honest and accepting environment where both achievements and challenges are freely discussed, don't have to worry about this sin.

Although the list didn't include anything like greed, lust, or gluttony, ignoring this list of seven sins can be expensive for project teams. That being said, it doesn't require an investment in project management software or other project management tools to solve.  It does require that project leaders pay attention to what's going on within their project teams and work to foster a "sin free" project environment.

Is there anything you would add to our list?