Conversation with “Rich” —
- Challenge as he started: “I just gotta let go”. When diving deeper…
- As CEO he has a good pulse on what client wants, and can see when team is going astray, but is at a level of scale where he no longer has daily involvement in projects and doesn’t know what are just intermediate deliverables that they’re working on improving and which are signs that they don’t understand the need.
- Team is following spec of what client wrote, but not meeting the client’s unspoken needs. Not properly gauging the “client temperature” (Similar to “taste” in PM vernacular). Classic challenge of gap between
fit-to-useandfit-to-spec - CEO has complete confidence in his director’s ability to read client temperature. But director is also learning to delegate to the project lead, who is not yet as well-versed in this. Good example of CEO learning the difference between first-level delegation and second-level delegation. How do you help your director learn the skill of delegation while retaining accountability? What challenges is your director experiencing in the delegation and is he properly judging where it’s okay to let the project lead take some risk and learn a lesson vs. ensure it’s done right the first time?
- When CEO comments on deliverables, team perceives them as directives and may feel they have to jump and take the feedback. But CEO meant it more as feedback to be weighed relative to other things. He can often spot problems, but no longer is close enough to the project to have time to recommend the specific solution.
- CEO sometimes sees the current draft won’t work, but doesn’t have time to find the fix. And rather than articulate “this is a problem” he may share an example of a way to fix it, one that may not be fully accurate or may create other problems and that the CEO doesn’t necessarily “endorse”, but the team views that as gospel and starts working on it anyway. Director sees this dynamic, the rework it causes and the disempowerment the team feels, and tells CEO to back off.
- CEO concludes “I just gotta let go”…
- In this case, CEO problem statement can be diagnosed to a few issues:
- CEO is learning second-level delegation, which has different patterns and nuances than first-level.
- Director is learning and shaping the next generation of leaders. Developing muscle both in their delegation skills (while retaining accountability) and in project lead capabilities
- Project lead hasn’t yet demonstrated competency in reading client temperature and articulating the needs the client hasn’t yet spoken.
- CEO feedback and comments are perceived with more weight than intended, causing rework and feelings of disempowerment counter to the culture he wants to build.
- What are some better ways?
- CEO can only control self. So we must phrase approaches only in what actions or communications CEO can do. (i.e. too easy to say “project lead needs to…”)
- Explore format of FYIs & Concerns with Director.
- Label and discuss with Director both: the skills and growth path of project lead, and tolerance of risk with that client. Develop confidence that director is allowing an appropriate amount of leeway and accountability.
- Agree on what signs would constitute the reasonable bet on project lead development has or has not worked, in which case a different approach needs to be tried.
- Discuss the “multi-hat” nature of being CEO with team so that CEO can more explicitly contextualize the feedback he’s delivering. (i.e. one hat for “I’m just commenting and it’s up to you to determine what if anything to do”, one hat for “this is a problem that I want you to fix but the approach is up to you (and maybe I’ve articulated an intuition for you to explore)”, and one for “please do it the way I’m suggesting”)