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Introduction
Project managers and project management consultants are an exceptional lot. They work on temporary jobs and often must travel long distances to the project. Projects may only be a few weeks duration in some distant city where the lodging and food are strange. Yet, they choose to work in this environment.
Successful project managers know their stuff and can talk for hours on the technical aspects of planning a project or implementing components. But is it only the technical part of project management that a person must know to perform effectively? It has been my observation that project management skills alone are only part of the competence that a person needs to be successful. Companies hire individuals for their technical qualifications, but terminate them for lack of interpersonal skills.
Interpersonal skills are extremely important whether a person is the project manger, project consultant, or a project team participant. Skills that assure one can do his or her job in a professional manner without giving offense is important to the productivity of a project. Two of the many skills are perhaps most important — building trust and commitment.
Trust is a fragile thing that can be broken easily. Most people will loan another trust until that person violates the trust – or appears to violate that trust. Trust is built around demonstrated honesty and integrity. Actions that are perceived as lacking in honesty or integrity also fracture the bond of trust between individuals.
A humorous incident comes to mind each time the concept of trust is raised. Two individuals were standing in the passageway while one was loudly proclaiming that his boss “lies, lies, lies.” Correcting himself, he said, “I take that back, I heard him tell the truth one time.” The other person’s response, “Well, that must have been an honest mistake.” How many times can a person lie to others before losing trust? Typically, a person only has to lie once to lose another’s trust. It is said that politicians all lie when they have to. Apparently, some lie all the time — just to keep in practice.
Secondly, commitment is important to the project team and overall success of the project. One boss explained to me that there were three ways to get out of a commitment. First and most desirable was to complete the task that I committed to do. Second was to get relief from the commitment by explaining why it could not be met. Third was to bring my death certificate in as an acceptable reason for failing.
Committing to do something and then failing to perform is an unacceptable act and fractures relationships as well as trust. If a person commits to do something it is to a person or group. Committing and failing to meet another’s expectations erodes confidence as well as having a negative impact on the project.
Be slow to commit and fast to meet any commitment. Sometimes it may seem easier to commit to do something and hope that no one checks. This is a dishonest approach and a person doing this will soon be identified as a person not to be trusted. Mutual understanding of the commitment helps reach a satisfactory completion of tasks — especially “when” the task will be completed.
As each reader reflects on this short article and, perhaps, has visions of incidents that involved broken trust and broken commitments, it is well to understand a person’s reputation is built on what he or she does and how well commitments are met. It is like the story of the golfer when asked, “Have you been playing golf with Charlie lately?” The response in the form of a question, “Would you play with someone who cheats on his score, moves the ball to improve his lie, drops a new ball when his is lost?” Obviously, the retort was, “No, I don’t play with cheaters.” Charlie’s former golf mate said, “Well, you know, Charlie wouldn’t either.”
Trust is important in projects and making only those commitments that one can keep builds on the trust. Trust is built on acceptance of a task and performance of that task in a manner that meets the other person’s expectations. If you are a project manager, be a role model for others by committing only to that which you can and intend to accomplish. Build a reputation for performing. Build on the trust that is on loan to you.
Best regards,
Lew
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