How you would manage a resource who is not professional yet critical
Chintan Jariwala, PMP, CSMProject Manager, IT Business Analyst| Sailfin Technologies India Pvt LtdSurat, Gujarat, India
Having limited time & unable to document properly, We were heavily dependent on resources.
One resource tried to take advantage of the situation and asked us to increase his annual package, If we don''t, threatened to leave the project in a mess. We managed this resource in our way. Though, It was a huge risk to let that resource go but We, as an Org policy, do not negotiate with Opportunists. Ultimately, We sailed thru & Project was a success.
But, I want to know from you all. How did you or would you handle such Scenario where a resource who is very critical to the project tries to take advantage of the situation Saving Changes...
Sergio Luis ConteHelping to create solutions for everyone| Worldwide based OrganizationsBuenos Aires, Argentina
Time does not exists. People create the time. So, with all my due respect, you can find time always. But if you face the situation you described (I faced that lot of times) you need to understand that there is a risk in this type of situations. And you have to identify, analyze and define actions for that risk in advance. If not, sorry but it is a big mistake. To be honest, I always try to create and environment to avoid this type of situations but it could happend. When you have an environment where this type of behaivor is an exception those people will leave the environment by themself. If a law of the nature and physics. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
I have a saying: "If someone is indispensable, get rid of that person."
It''s a tongue-in-cheek way of saying you should never put yourself in a position where someone becomes indispensable, including yourself.
Make sure there is a lot knowledge transfer, cross-training and coaching going around. Make sure you have designated backups and get them up to snuff. Make documentation part of every person''s deliverable so the next person has something to refer.
By the way, your company did the right thing: once a person tries to force your had, you can never trust the person again. Saving Changes...
Chintan Jariwala, PMP, CSMProject Manager, IT Business Analyst| Sailfin Technologies India Pvt LtdSurat, Gujarat, India
Thanx Stephen & Sergio. Actually, I am not the one who initiated the project. I took over the project at the later stage when our only focus was not to get sued. We were doing the KTs & Documentation in parallel with developing the functionalities :) Saving Changes...
While I certainly can understand that many managers and firms don't want to be "held hostage" by any one critical resource, I still think that a "Win-Win" situation could be designed so that all parties "win" when the project succeeds. It could be a bonus for said critical resource. Or perhaps the opportunity for that critical resource to choose his or her next assignment. Obviously, the critical resource stated that they wanted money - that was their motivating factor. That was their "Win". Negotiate if possible, but you can't let one bad apple spoil the whole project team. If necessary, send them packing. Saving Changes...
fosco frongiaSenior project manager| ENTE PATRIMONIALE CHIESA GESU' CRISTO SUGFino Mornasco, Como, Italy
I agree totally with Stephane comment.
I add other consideration: if you face with a person with this behavior is better stop working relations as soon as possible, the situation can only make worse Saving Changes...
Dr. Hemant KagraPrincipal Chief Signal & Telecom Engineer| East Coast Railway, Indian RailwaysBhubaneshwar, Odisha, India
Creating redundancies is the best solution of these type of situations, whether be it for man or machines. People will always take advantage when they understand that they are irreplaceable. To counter this, create an environment where the system is not man-dependent. Besides, psychological evaluation during annual performance reviews may also help to identify this type of behavior in advance and curb / eliminate it. Saving Changes...
Product Operations Program ManagerBarcelona, Cataluña, Spain
I believe that the assumption that someone could be irreplaceable is wrong, and there are plenty of examples out there. Did Apple collapse after Job''s passing?
No one is irreplaceable, project won''t collapse if any stakeholder walks away. Chintan, you did the right thing. As Stephane says, giving in would have created more issues and became a greater risk than letting him go. Saving Changes...
Howard LaiPMP, CEng, CPEng, NER, IntPE(Aust), RPEQ, MIET, CSSBB, CISA, ISO9001 LA| QHBrisbane, Queensland, Australia
Try to influence your team member. As a good PM, we are not only improving our own project, we also lead our team to grow, Saving Changes...
I agree with John, looking at specific situation the choice is to hold him and get work done or fire and get someone else to implement, you did right thing. However as other options like Risk mitigation planning, KT, Redundancy etc. must be taken care beforehand, I have faced similar situations of taking over projects with such issues, best thing I could do is to manage with direct relationship and indirect influencing, and immediately act on parallel resource allocation to reduce dependency. At times I strip off some of non-critical tasks and move them to other parallel resource, thus making them responsible to deliver only that critical task, thus create psychological pressure (insecurity) on resource. Saving Changes...
Chintan Jariwala, PMP, CSMProject Manager, IT Business Analyst| Sailfin Technologies India Pvt LtdSurat, Gujarat, India
Thank you everyone for your valuable opinions. Saving Changes...
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