Challenging senior LT when action items are not clear
Scenario
There are many situations where a senior LT member assigns an action to a project manager (typically in a meeting) without giving clear expectations. This LT member is mostly two or more pay grades higher than the project manager.
Such action items tend to take up lot of time of the project manager. Below are a few challenges faced in this context:
Authority and Responsibility are completely out of sync. Let me explain. Such action items typically requires getting information from individuals who are not in the same reporting structure as the project manager. For example: System engineers who capture customer requirements OR sales representatives who deal with contract details. The first question these stakeholders ask is – Who are you and why should I give these details (sometimes sensitive data) to you?
The intent of the LT member is not clearly understood by the project manager. This is dangerous as the project manager might answer a completely different question. After spending lot of effort, the project manager proudly shares the results with the LT and the LT member snubs the project manager with a simple – This is not what I asked for...
The action item itself is invalid and after a detailed thought, the LT member himself/herself will change his/her mind and ask the project manager not to work on it.
As a Fresh Project Manager
One of the basic mistakes on this topic is – Treat everything that comes from senior LT as gospel. In other words, blindly trust whatever the leader says and jump into the action without completely understanding the intent and scope. Jumping into action like a lamb following a leader over a cliff is a bad idea.
Another mistake with significant negative implications is – Approaching others for information and when they ask why do you need this, just stating "I am doing this just because a senior LT asked", without explaining the intent of the action. As one can imagine, this will build a perception about you of not having the guts to challenge a senior LT on the value-add of this action.
With a Salt -N- Pepper Look & Many More Battle Wounds
The best approach is to take a step back and understand the context in which the senior LT is thinking. A few questions that help this process are:
What is the value-add of this action?
Come up with a plan for closing this action and then ask - Is this action making sense?
How is this going to help the project OR the product?
Is this action having short-term or long-term implications?
What is the effort involved from myself as well as other key stakeholders in closing this action?
After doing the due diligence, it is important to make sure you are answering the right question. Before starting work on the action, I recommend to check with the LT member if he/she agrees with your understanding of the action. Many senior LT members have a strong ego. Hence this discussion should typically be one-on-one OR in presence of minimal set of others. This way the senior leader will not bring in his/her ego into picture. This enables reaching a logical conclusion.
Before approaching others for help, Have a clear answer to the question – What is the value-add of this action?
More often than not, you will be faced with push-back from those on whom you do not have authority, but whose bandwidth is required for closing the action. In such cases, instead of begging or waiting for their time, I strongly recommend to bring this issue to the notice of the senior LT. Understand that it is the responsibility of the senior LT member to clear roadblocks for you to close the action successfully. Do not feel bad in asking for help. By doing this, you will end up in either of the below two scenarios both of which are good for you:
The senior LT member understands the reason why someone doesn’t want to work on this action. He/she will either ask to stop work on this action OR changes his requirement
The roadblock is removed and you can proceed with next steps in closing the action.