I recently came across an article that describes the difference between lazy and “active” project managers and how these characteristics affect projects :-). Hope you like it 🙂

Have you ever observed a project manager from the very beginning constantly engaged in firefighting, completely immersed in the fight against urgent problems, the speed of which is faster than the speed of their resolution. All tasks received by the project team have the highest priority and urgency: “This should have been done yesterday!” Labor heroism. Permanent overtime. Saturdays Emergency works. Learning, analysis, planning, designing, testing, refactoring – “that’s all later!”

Are we familiar?

“A well-managed enterprise is a peaceful place. However, “the factory, which is characterized by “boiling” activity and “labor heroism” of the workers, which catches the eye of any visitor, is actually poorly managed,” wrote management authority Peter Ferdinand Drucker.

The problem with most software development projects is not that people don’t work hard, but that they don’t do the work that needs to be done. A good manager must be guided by the fundamental principle of least action and therefore be lazy. And he will succeed. Why?

Because he…

Has its own goals To complete the project on time, within the budget and with the required quality is not a goal, it is a job. Do the work of a lazy lazy manager. He usually has personal goals. They can be material – an increase in salary or position. They can be ideal – to learn something new, to do something that no one has done before or, finally, to make all mankind happy. But they are.

And the main thing is that for him these goals are so significant that they allow him to persist in their achievement from the beginning to the end of the project.

Manages priorities A lazy manager has only two types of jobs. The first type is important and urgent: critical situations, problems, burning deadlines. The second type is important and not urgent: planning, risk analysis, finding opportunities, building relationships, development, recovery. Important are only those without which goals cannot be achieved. All other works, even if they are urgent, are not important to him. He, like Michelangelo, cuts off from the snowball of project work all the activities that can be done without and achieve the goal.

In every project, there are problems and critical situations of the highest priority that need to be solved right now. And it’s hard work. But if you deal only with them, there is a high probability that you will never get to important, but not urgent, matters. Therefore, a lazy manager works ahead of time. Each day allocates a certain amount of time for firefighting and necessarily a certain amount of time for important, but not urgent, matters. By anticipating problems, he gradually reduces the flow of hot tasks, which allows him to focus mainly on anticipatory work.

Delegating Micromanagement is definitely not for him. A lazy manager does not like to work, so he delegates everything he can delegate. Delegates authority but not responsibility for achieving goals. If Vasya messed up, then – “I myself am a fool for entrusting him with this task,” – the lazy manager will conclude. Delegation is impossible without mutual trust. The one to whom the leadership has been delegated becomes his own boss, guided by his own conscience in the direction of achieving the agreed desired results. Trust requires time and patience, the need to train and develop people so that their abilities can match this trust. But having made these one-time investments in human capital, we will be able to receive dividends for a long time.

Sharpens the saw You can, of course, saw wood with a blunt saw, but it’s lazy. Therefore, a lazy manager constantly observes and evaluates the effectiveness of all project processes: “what are we doing too much?”, “what can be done more easily?”, “what threatens the project?”. Works to reduce unnecessary effort instead of striving for new heroic victories. Identifies bottlenecks and applies corrective actions where processes begin to slip or risks are too great.

Builds relationships A lazy manager is more likely to be kind than evil. Being angry is troublesome…

A lazy manager tries to accept people as they are, respects their right to their own opinion and to make a mistake. He selects the people who best match the goals of the project to the team. For each fighter, he is looking for the most suitable task for him. Patiently works with each member of the project team, helping him develop, protecting him from external and internal shocks, in order to maximally reveal his individual abilities, increase his contribution to the common cause.

But that doesn’t mean he can’t be pissed off. It roars so that it is almost invisible. Or simply dismiss for good. Only for this you need to make much more effort, compared to a workaholic manager.

“What you sow is what you reap.” Disregarding people will only breed mutual disdain. When you invest a part of your soul in people, you get a hundredfold.

Bill Gates said:

I will always choose a lazy person to do the hard work because he will find an easy shlyach of its execution.

Somehow…

What do you think about this?

I wish you successful projects and easy ways to implement them!