And now she is holding up the project! Now what??
Sophia is shocked! This project, without doubt, is the absolute worst she has ever been assigned to manage – all because of one stakeholder. Sophia can’t believe that one stakeholder can make her life so miserable but certainly Annabella is doing a great job at it! Sophia isn’t sure what went wrong. Annabella has attended meetings with the other stakeholders and each time agreed with the path they were taking; however, when documents were passed off for signature to move forward – Annabella never signed one document. No matter how many times Sophia asked her about it, Annabella just brushed her off and said she had more important things to think about.
Sophia has tried to talk to the other stakeholders, but since Annabella was a senior vice president within the company, and the other stakeholders were either vice presidents or directors, they were hesitant to help out. They certainly saw the problem and understood the situation – they just weren’t willing to do anything about it. Additionally, Annabella had quite the reputation of getting pretty nasty if she felt people were crossing her. Sophia wanted to go to the project sponsor; however, a few of the other project team members recommended against it as Annabella was very good friends with the sponsor and one project manager who tried to go to the project sponsor on a project in the past to complain about Annabella found himself out of a job.
And when Sophia did eventually move forward with the project when she couldn’t obtain Annabella’s signature of approval; the whole situation escalated! Now Annabella was complaining about her concerns not being addressed and publicly stating that the project would be a failure because it was being mismanaged. Annabella was blaming Sophia for being incompetent and therefore leading the project to a failed conclusion! Sophia’s reputation was on the line and she was worried about losing her job.
Here is where the project stands:
- 2 weeks behind schedule
- Over budget by at least $8,000
- Team members who wanted off the team
- Stakeholders afraid to do anything to help improve the situation
- Annabella getting increasingly angry and lashing out, not just at Sophia but the team and the other stakeholders
What can Sophia do to improve the situation?
Sophia is in a tough spot. She may have only limited options in front of her since this has gone on for a while and Annabella is in a higher level role with significant power and authority. Here is an option for Sophia, which may, frankly, be the best solution:
- Have a conversation with Annabella. There are obviously issues with Annabella and Sophia; and they need to be resolved. Sophia might approach her boss or HR about the problem and ask for help in addressing the situation with Annabella, or she may choose to meet with Annabella one-on-one to resolve the issue.
Another option may be to have a mediator help resolve the problem between Annabella and Sophia. Given the amount of time that has passed without resolution, and the fact that it has escalated, this may be a smart choice. A mediator can help each of them look at the situation from the other’s perspective and help them to find a common ground.
Certainly the project sponsor must be brought into the loop and the best approach here may be for Sophia to seek out the sponsor and simply state that she would like the sponsor’s assistance in helping her to develop a relationship with Annabella.
Certainly there are problems on the team as a whole. Once the issue is resolved, team building is a definite need! The team is in disarray and the tension with the stakeholders and Annabella and Sophia are not helping matters. It is necessary to get this team back on track.
Your thoughts? What else can Sophia do to resolve this situation, improve her relationship with the one stakeholder and get the project back on track? What would you advise her? Please share your thoughts in the Comments field below. Thanks!
Hi Charlie,
Thanks for your comment. It would be so nice to be able to say – “get out of the way!” – but unfortunately never that easy, is it! I think this may be one of the biggest challenges of so many project managers. Thank you for your point of view!
Best regards,
Gina
People as stop signs are not that uncommon on a project. So may times I find that people on the project don’t feel the project is important to them as much as other things are and either don’t participate, don’t follow through on their objectives or roadblock others from theirs. I have had to have discussions with the project sponsor and sometimes still not gotten the problem resolved. Confrontation is never the answer except in a public situation. A meeting with the project sponsor, the roadblock and the rest of the team is necessary. The signoff needs to happen there or the problems need to be discussed there. At that point there is a resolution. If there is still a stalemate, declare the project dead and move on to the next order of business.
Hi Barb,
Certainly if the project were closed I’d want to be sure there was the ability to really analyze what went wrong and figure out how to correct it so it didn’t happen again. I especially like the idea of reincarnating the project so you can reuse some components – start smaller and expand from there. This is such a tough situation for a project manager to be in. I have a few friends in similar situations.
Many thanks for your comment!
Best,
Gina
Hi Laura,
Thanks for the comment. I agree – this is not a company I’d want to be at either! I have a few friends who unfortunately work for companies a bit similar to this. Very hard to fix the problem or even get any support. Needless to say…both are looking to move to other jobs! You are correct the dialogue likely needs to be in the presence of others otherwise it could really get out of hand.
Thanks again!
Best,
Gina
Thanks for bringing up this problem. I’ve seen this happen once or twice in my long project management career. I like your suggested approach to resolve it. I would suggest another possibility… This doesn’t address the relationship but detours to a resolution on the project… look at closing the project. A few things might happen as a result:
1) True supporters of the project may speak up and lobby for a better process for getting approvals and moving forward.
2) Annabella may voice her true concerns with the project or the team and demand resolution.
3) The project may just close down since it obviously doesn’t have the necessary executive support. Perhaps a new project with a smaller objective, shorter timeline, smaller budget would be better received.
It seems like a throwaway given that the project is already over time and budget but it will only get worse, so better to cut your losses. Plus if the project gets reincarnated in a different way, you can reuse the capital, training, software, or hardware.
The two people need to dialogue and they need to do it in the presence of others. However, it would so discouraging to me if I worked at this company, because everyone sees the abuse of power and nothing is being done about it.