Do you help your team doing the operational work (but required for the project) when their calendar has changed and they cannot anymore fulfill the requirement?
Do you help the person that suppose to create a procedure, when she states that she have no time, or when she need to take instantly some days off? There's no one else who have the right knowledge - it's only you and her.
Or do you reschedule the task, even thou it will delay the project?
How to approach this kind of situations?
Thanks for your feedback and kind regards, Saving Changes...
Proactive, time-boxed iterative planning with the team and having transparency about priorities for the next coming 2-4 weeks plus team communication will let you avoid such "surprise-sitruations". Discuss the key points of the abovementioned procedure with the expert and do the communication first verbally with the most important points on a powerpoint to the team. After return of the SME let her write the procedure. Do not make a big deal out of it and improve the planning process with the team. Saving Changes...
Eric SimmsSenior Program ManagerBaltimore, Maryland, United States
If you help the person do the work, you could earn a lot of credibility with your team, since you’ll show you are willing to help your team members when they need assistance. I work in the Information Technology field, and technical people respect PMs who help them out much more than PMs who don’t.
I’d probably help the person if I had the time, and I knew the person had a real emergency and wasn’t just shirking her work. Saving Changes...
Amany NuseibehSpeaker, Global Leader | Optimal ConsultingSydney, Nsw, Australia
I guess it depends on how urgent and important is the work that she has and its impact in terms of dependencies on the schedule, the project output and the overall outcomes. if she needs to take instantly (suddenly) some time off, then it's an emergency that can happen to any resource at any point in time. Stepping in and helping, as the only one with the knowledge seems to be the right thing to do should no delays occur. At the end of the day as leaders, we set the tone, we take ownership and responsibility and we lead by example. If the delay could be absorbed, then the task could be re-scheduled for a later time. Bearing in mind, that a person coming back from an emergency situation might still require some help to re-collect and re-focus. Good luck! Saving Changes...
