Amany NuseibehSpeaker, Global Leader | Optimal ConsultingSydney, Nsw, Australia
“Success has many parents, but failure is an orphan”. As project managers, change leaders and strategy executioners, progress resulting in success or failure is the combined effort of our sponsors, team members and stakeholders. • Would you accept the praise for a project where one of your team members did most of the work? • If yes, what about accepting a project management award for the project where one of your team members did most of the work? Saving Changes...
Adrian, I am Argentine. Sorry if you are saying that Messi is the captain just for being the best player of the world in terms of his abilities on the execution you do not know about Messi. And you are forgotten a critical thing: captain is selected by her/his team mates including it the coach because the coach is a team mate too. Again, the key is "best". Thinking that "best" is only because abilities in execution is do not know about what a captain is inside the field. But I do not want to deviate the debate. I put my position clear in my first comment.
Sergio, I have heard of teams where the player that is considered to be the best is not also the captain but I have never heard of a captain not being among the best. Maybe in some sports this would be possible but not in football and not in many other team sports.
Being the best player does not automatically qualify you to be the captain/leader but not being among the best automatically disqualifies you to be the captain.
Always there must be a captain on the field and when the captain is not on the field other player becomes match captain. Players that are not among the best would be substitutes and would not even get too much chances to be captains.
On the other hand a PM would always be a PM even if he is not among the best workers (players). You can be a PM even if you are a non-player, if you are not a player you can't be a captain. Saving Changes...
This question makes me think of the situation of the waiter and the cook.
When you go to the restaurant and you enjoy the food you would thank the waiter and not the cook. Nonetheless the way the waiter served you does play an important role on your decision on coming back to the restaurant. Still if you like the food so much you would come again anyway even if you don't like the way the waiters treat you.
In practice in many if not in most cases the PM does not directly contribute to the work being done and he does not even make work-related decision. So for the actual work being performed many PMs don't deserve any kind of praise.
However in most cases for the overall success of the project the PMs do deserve credit because the success of a project is not all about performing the work. There are many other aspects that are beyond the control of the workers and which are handled by the PM. Even if you have brilliant team members you can still fail if the PM is unable to manage the stakeholders properly.
Normally customers/clients/sponsors praise the entire team and not just the PM but even if only the PM receives the praise the other team members would be rewarded by their functional managers anyway. Also if clients directly work with the team members they would receive praise too if they do a good job.
...
1 reply by Amany Nuseibeh
Dec 28, 2019 7:02 PM
Amany Nuseibeh
...
@Adrian, thank you for the analogy - the customer facing waiter and the invisible cook. Yet, would you frequent a restaurant that serves delicious food but exhibits bad approach? or would you frequent a restaurant that has bad food where the waiter service is superb? A quality restaurant needs both - and I agree with you the waiter will get the praise and they will also get the complaint!
Saving Changes...
Kathirvel GopalCo-founder, UX Design Development Agency| MindtreasuryChennai, Tamil Nadu, India
Good project management covers team building coach, motivate and recognize team members.
if the award happen through validating all these criteria and if hard worker recognized, really make sense. Saving Changes...
George FreemanThought Leader | Author | Architect| Florida, United States
Hi Amany,
I summed up my thoughts on this question with the following:
- A project manager who accepts praise “on behalf of their team” finds honor and future opportunity, one who accepts “as if they were the team,” finds distrust and an imminent reversal of their fortunes.
Great question! Saving Changes...
Alexandre CostaScrum Master| Integer Consulting - Pictet technologiesLoures, Portugal
I am seeing many analogies here that in some cases are not the best examples. In theory the should accept always the praise "on behalf of their team" like @George emphasized very well. In Practice there are so many cases where this never happens and there are so many cases where it happens and the project manager recognizes the team effort an merit, but my experience tells me in either cases the true reward goes to the project manager and the team receives some thank you crumbs. Saving Changes...
Peter RapinSubject Matter Expect; Project Delivery| Independent ConsultantOntario, Canada
I present the following to add to the discussion:
1) The PM's role can vary from; industry to industry, company to company, project to project, and even person to person. In some cases the PM can be: the figure head and liaison between the project management office and senior management; the senior technical person; the team leader and in others the PM 'IS' the project management office. The response to praise would depend on your roles as PM.
2) The team leader is accountable for the team's performance, good or bad. When the PM is the team leader then the PM takes the blame and the praise. He then shares as appropriate. Both in success and failure there can be strengths and weaknesses that have to be identified and dealt with.
3) If the PM put the team together, hired the staff, contracted the experts, developed the vision and steered the implementation then the PM should share the praise even when a specific individual can be identified as the major contributor.
So I guess the answer to the initial questions is - sometimes.
...
1 reply by Adrian Carlogea
Dec 15, 2019 3:00 PM
Adrian Carlogea
...
Nice and realistic explanation.
I would add that PMs, like the rest of the team members, deserve the praise for their work in any circumstance, even when they are not SMEs or they haven't contracted the experts, developed the vision, etc.
Even the PMs that have no detailed understanding of the work that is being performed can play a key role in the success of a project. I know a project where the team did an extraordinary job on delivering but the project resulted in a big loss for the company because the PM did not raised change request properly and did not charged the customer for all the work that was done.
The reason that PMs usually are praised is because in many cases they are the only ones who frequently interact with those that can praise. This is true for many other cases. As I said the waiter and not the cook is thanked by the restaurant customers. Also the L1/L2 support workers are thanked even if the problem was resolved by the L3 support specialists.
Project team members who directly work with the clients/customers can also be praised directly even in the cases where the work was done by other members that don't communicate with the client directly.
There is also the downside of this, when you are direct client facing you may also be yelled at even if it is not your fault that the client is no happy.
I present the following to add to the discussion:
1) The PM's role can vary from; industry to industry, company to company, project to project, and even person to person. In some cases the PM can be: the figure head and liaison between the project management office and senior management; the senior technical person; the team leader and in others the PM 'IS' the project management office. The response to praise would depend on your roles as PM.
2) The team leader is accountable for the team's performance, good or bad. When the PM is the team leader then the PM takes the blame and the praise. He then shares as appropriate. Both in success and failure there can be strengths and weaknesses that have to be identified and dealt with.
3) If the PM put the team together, hired the staff, contracted the experts, developed the vision and steered the implementation then the PM should share the praise even when a specific individual can be identified as the major contributor.
So I guess the answer to the initial questions is - sometimes.
Nice and realistic explanation.
I would add that PMs, like the rest of the team members, deserve the praise for their work in any circumstance, even when they are not SMEs or they haven't contracted the experts, developed the vision, etc.
Even the PMs that have no detailed understanding of the work that is being performed can play a key role in the success of a project. I know a project where the team did an extraordinary job on delivering but the project resulted in a big loss for the company because the PM did not raised change request properly and did not charged the customer for all the work that was done.
The reason that PMs usually are praised is because in many cases they are the only ones who frequently interact with those that can praise. This is true for many other cases. As I said the waiter and not the cook is thanked by the restaurant customers. Also the L1/L2 support workers are thanked even if the problem was resolved by the L3 support specialists.
Project team members who directly work with the clients/customers can also be praised directly even in the cases where the work was done by other members that don't communicate with the client directly.
There is also the downside of this, when you are direct client facing you may also be yelled at even if it is not your fault that the client is no happy. Saving Changes...
? (Your Question) Would you accept the praise for a project where one of your team members did most of the work?
? Yes, as a PM we can accept the feedback for the team and also acknowledge the contributions from the specific team member. Again transparency, honesty, and open communications are key our projects.
? (Your Question) If yes, what about accepting a project management award for the project where one of your team members did most of the work?
? Yes again, similar to the above question, the PM accept the award on behalf of the team. In fact the whole team can accept together too. as long as we properly acknowledge all contributions we should be OK.
Senior Projects Manager | Field & Marten AssociatesNew Westminster, British Columbia, Canada
Amany
This is indeed a great question and I am going to respond from my own personal experience as this exact scenario happened on one of my projects where we were awarded a Safety Excellence Award for the safest project working environment (That was back in 2007).
I was called by our sponsor who mentioned that we are being awarded for safety excellence and requested that I attend the ceremony and get the award on behalf of the company.
The first thought that crossed my mind is that it’s true I did manage the project but without the commitment and effort of the diligent people on-site, this wouldn’t have happened so I put myself in their shoe, gave it a thought and went to the sponsor with a suggestion:
1- Given the limited number of seats in the ceremony, every main contractor had two seats only so I proposed in our brief speech we commend the people who actually did the job and tape it on video.
2- Suggested to do a small celebration in the project, invite those who put their utmost efforts and dedication to make this happen, display the award ceremony on video so they all see it and know their efforts weren’t gone unnoticed and then award them with a project in-house excellence certificate.
We made this happen and you know what ? I was overwhelmed with the positive feedback received and how much this small act boosted everyone’s morale and motivation. They started coming to the job site because they love to, not because they have to and that made a big difference.
In conclusion, always focus on TEAM: Together We Achieve More !
RK
...
1 reply by Amany Nuseibeh
Dec 28, 2019 7:06 PM
Amany Nuseibeh
...
@Rami, thank you for sharing your own personal experience! What a great outcome that ensured balance, displayed a high level of respect. responsibility, honesty and fairness! This is a great example of how leaders accept praise, ensure it's shared and team members are acknowledged.
Saving Changes...
Deepesh RammoorthyICT Project Manager ( PMP®AgilePM®Certified ScrumMaster® (CSM®))| Australian Red Cross Blood ServiceTarneit, Vic, Australia
Hi Amany Good question .
From my perspective the answer is simple .
If I were in the situations you mention , I will reach out to whoever is giving the award or accolades and mention to them and in front of everyone that this outstanding individual did an outstanding job and was ably supported by the team in achieving this successful outcome and the whole team well and truly deserve the award for the successful project.
I would be gracious in accepting that I am thankful to be given an opportunity to work alongside this "high achieving" team and being an enabler and supporting them along the way as a Servant Leader
...
1 reply by Amany Nuseibeh
Dec 28, 2019 7:09 PM
Amany Nuseibeh
...
@Deepeh, thank you for sharing your thoughts and ensuring that the outstanding team members get the recognition they deserve. The words you used to "I am thankful to be given an opportunity to work alongside this "high achieving" team and being an enabler and supporting them along the way as a Servant Leader" are the icing on the cake!
Community Champion
