Wai Mun KooPMO Director| Intergraph PP&MSingapore, Singapore
He is arrogant, rude and stubborn. He complains most of the time without actually contributing anything useful to the project. Whenever he appears in a meeting, the whole atmosphere of the meeting gets tensed up. Most members suffer from his presense and a simple discussion can become unnecessarily long and politically complex with his participation. People have been urging you to remove him from the team, yet he is a key stakeholder in the project and it is not easy to get him out. Most likely you have to live with him throughout the whole project. How would you tame such a Jackass so as to reduce the damage he could have on the team? Saving Changes...
Kamal MahabirCEO| Itel Communications Ltd.Sangre Grande, Trinidad and Tobago
Major Stakeholder; Arrogant; Rude; Stubborn; (Mr. SARS): My guess is that in Mr. Sars' own capacity (outside of your project) he is someone in top management who is accustomed to having his own way and have people abide by his decisions and/or lean to his point of view with little or no persuading. It would also seem that Mr. Sars is not a young person. If this is the case, teaching an old dog new tricks may very well be a difficult task to accomplish. While arrogance in itself is not a major deterrent of positive project progression, it plays on the minds of those around and it would seem that it has affected you negatively. Are you sure the "whole atmosphere gets tensed up" ... or is it just you dealing with the issue of what your team is asking you to do (i.e. to remove him) and the fact that you cannot really- since he is a key stakeholder. Maybe you ought to update those members about the fact that he is a key stakeholder and that different approaches have to be taken? Come up with a game plan!
Appears in a meeting: Is this a project meeting or is it a meeting with the stakeholders? I'm assuming that Mr. Sars, the Stakeholder, crashes a project meeting. In this case you might want to review your meeting rules, agenda and time keeping. You might want to appoint a time keeper but more importantly someone who can firmly steer the meeting back to the agenda without being rude etc. If you are the meeting facilitator, look on it as a learning experience. If the first time trying to deal with Mr. Sars fails, document why you think it failed and come up with strategies for dealing with it the next time. It would seem that this has happened a few times before - if you have the time - try and document what went wrong before, what steps were taken and the results obtained - a sort of mini lessons learnt as it were.
Politically Complex: It seems all around, as you travel up the corporate ladder, much of the decisions, unfortunately, take a political bias! I'm wondering if he may be trying to reflect his world in the meeting. It may be a case of technical efficiency vs. economic efficiency - while it may seem logically and technically correct, when viewed and weighed with other known data, your project may not weigh in at number one. You need to find out the real status of your project in light the fact that you are spending much more times in meetings etc. Who/what stands to gain if your project is delayed? What is Mr. Sars agenda in your mind? What about the thoughts of other members? What are the thoughts of someone outside of the project but in your organisation?
My next point deals with cultural issues. What actions taken in one society may not work well in another. You have to work out the best way how to deal with it without demeaning and offending your key stakeholder - after all he is a key stakeholder and a certain amount of finesse (or not) is required. What of the Project Sponsor? What's his/her role? Or, maybe you can seek someone out in your own field (outside of your project) in your own community or company and ways to help deal with the issue. People who are closer (physically) to the way of doing things and are outside the scope of the project may have a perspective you can use. Ideas generated here on Gantthead are also important as you are able to see a totally different perspective!
Last point: Categorising someone as a - in your case - a "jackass" pretty much seems to be you have already made your decision about the value of his contributions! Take a deep breath while counting to seven, hold your breath for 7 seconds and exhale in 7 seconds. Now you are ready. Is the game plan on? Saving Changes...
Wayne MackRetired| RetiredSouth Riding, Va, United States
I would try to isolate the individual. From the description, he disrupts the team, is an important stakeholder who cannot be removed, and I assume the PM does not have the time or authority to change his behavior.
Set up a special status meeting just for this individual. Give him a weekly overview of the project and ask for his comments. Take notes and write down his concerns. This may somewhat defuse the situation, because taking notes is confirmation that his concerns are being heard, The PM can raise the concerns with the team separately and without revealing the source. This will help ensure that true risks and issues are not ignored just because they came from a disruptive source.
Isolating a disruptive individual will take up more of a PM's time, but if the individual is important, politically or technically, to the project, and the individual also disrupts the project team, this may be the only viable approach.
Good advice has already been given, so I can only add: if all else fails, a staircase and a good shove will get him out of your hair. Saving Changes...
Mark KennyHippo Solutions Founder, Catalyst for Change in Project Management Teams| Hippo SolutionsFranklin, Tn, United States
This turned into a good discussion with lots of interesting ideas. I will not add more, except to point out two observations: 1) This is not a one size fits all solution. We may need to take one of a variety of different approaches depending on the specifics of the situation. 2) We cannot just ignore the problem and hope it goes away (it does affect the team). Saving Changes...
Renee GalligherIT Project Manager 3, PMP, ICP| Idaho State Board of EducationMeridian, Id, United States
I'm currently dealing with the same type of stakeholder. What has seemed to work to encourage a more positive participation from this person is that I've introduced meeting norms that I have posted on a large post-it and read before the meetings that everyone agrees to. They include such things as 1. Start and end on time, 2. Silence your cell phones, 3. Participate in the discussion, 4. Communicate in a constructive, positive, and respectful manner . . . amongst other things, and the last most important point "any of these rules can be enforced by anyone in the meeting.". It;s the last two norms that get the most attention. When this person is acting out, I gently remind them to adhere to the meeting norms. I have had to include their managers in conversations in order to provide support, so it's a combination of approaches that work best. As tough as it can get, it's important that as PM's we must be respectful as well as expect respect from others. Saving Changes...
Jon ToothillClient Services Director| Lightbox LearningStockport, United Kingdom
Some great feedback and ideas, all I'm sure having had to deal with this as we all almost certainly will at some point in our careers..
Most of the feedback I've read take a view on how to remove the person, I'd suggest an alternate - more along the lines of keeping your friends close and enemies closer..
He's part of the project team so must have noticed the tension in meetings and the difficulties the team have in maintaining focus in discussions. So why not make him part of the solution to this - no actually go further ask him to actively help you solve this dilemma (while conveniently ignoring that he is the cause)
By making your 'Jackass' the champion to solve the problem one of two things will happen;
1) He realises he is the root cause and changes behaviours - unfortunately rare but it does happen.
2) Can't resolve what you've asked but exposes himself completely as the cause - now you have a clear mandate to change the project structure or team composition.
May seem a little obtuse to make your 'problem' the architect of the solution but I've seen it work and can occasionally lead to innovation in how the team works longer term Saving Changes...
Renee GalligherIT Project Manager 3, PMP, ICP| Idaho State Board of EducationMeridian, Id, United States
Jon - I agree. As a team, everyone matters and although a stakeholder may be a problem, their input is vital and needed to make the project a success. It's called teamwork for a reason and I've had to enforce that concept as well. Removing them is not an option. The only way I would remove a problem person is if they are not a vital stakeholder - in other words, others can fulfill this need/position and if they are truly not contributing. I've not had to do that yet. Saving Changes...
THOMAS HOBBSManaging Director| Myers Media GroupSan Diego, Ca, United States
Obviously, the social norms and culture of your particular work environment will attenuate how you approach an individual like this (along with the variables of reporting hierarchy, title, etc.) but I can say that, in my own personal experience, I've found three things to be hugely valuable:
1) set groundrules for your meetings. As a Director, I have the excellent fortune of being able to say with confidence and authority that my meetings will be run my way - specifically, we start on time, and we end on time; we table discussions that lead down unproductive rabbit-holes (at my discretion or at the recommendation of participants, whichever comes first); we maintain professionalism at all times; we seek solutions and not complaints; and we come to meetings prepared.
2) Be honest. There's a pair of GREAT books that I absolutely love by a gentleman named Steven Gaffney, called "Honesty Works!" and "Just be Honest" - they're all about basing our interactions on the understanding that there are facts, there are our impressions/feelings BASED on those facts, and there are behaviors that result - and by being clear about whether we need to discuss facts or our impressions/feelings/assumptions, we can be clear, professional, and maintain better interpersonal communications. When I was at SAIC he came to do his seminar called "The Fish Isn't Sick, the Water's Dirty" and frankly, it's the one communication/management seminar that I really felt I got something lasting and valuable from. (I'm not a promoter or in any way affiliated with Mr. Gaffney, I just evangelize because I really felt I got something useful from his body of work...)
3) Be firm, and push back. I had to deal with a similar personality on a couple of projects (and the behavior showed up in meetings that my PM's have run) and I at first pulled him into my office and told him frankly and bluntly to stop. When it continued, I informed his superior and told him just as frankly that I expected a behavior modification. When it continued again, I called him out in a meeting and shut him down, and told him I would not accept that kind of behavior in my meetings. Period. Eventually, it's started to tone his behavior down a bit. You just need to be persistent; sometimes people don't realize that their approach is being counter-productive.
It seems the author struck a nerve based on the number of replies. Maybe some people just like the attention because after all, it's all about them isn't it? I'm sure to get some folks up in arms at the following but I NEVER embarass anyone in a meeting. That doesn't mean there weren't immediate and frank discussions one on one afterward. My favorite line is, "I've been told by several people you would be difficult to work with. I want you to know that I don't want that. I'll be professional with you if you'll be professional with the team ... including me. If you continue to antogonize the team, you force me to escalate your performance to your management team as a risk to the project." Sorry, but honesty is the best policy. You see that I confronted the jerk with their own jerk-ness? I stated the behavior and would respond further with examples if queried by sir jerk-ness. I stated the reward for changing their behavior and the potential punishment if they don't. So much for the bad English but you catch my drift. Even then, some people just don't get it and be ready for escalation. Saving Changes...
Renee GalligherIT Project Manager 3, PMP, ICP| Idaho State Board of EducationMeridian, Id, United States
Harold - that's very good. One that I would've liked to have used. At this point, my situation has been escaleted to my manager and theirs. As a project manager, a path and approach is advised, which in my case was followed, but the better team members should not have to go through this and as a project manager it is up to you to protech their well-being as well. Saving Changes...
