small power move - is there anything I can help you with
Hi Everyone,
Had an analyst nagging me for some work yesterday. It is work I'm meant to be doing because his team doesn't have capacity. He's meant to be guiding me so that what I produce works for his team. He wants to jump in - he's a doer.
He's already been told in writing that its not priority - its bubble along and we'll turn up the heat when the time is right. So I offered a meeting in a couple of days time and said I'd have a draft we could review. Then he decided to push it.
"Is there anything I can help you with?"
There's a couple of aspects to this. The obvious one is he's trying to push his work over my priorities.
Also its a bit of a trap because he can go back to his manager and say its not moving and he needs to take over. Which is pain for me because I have to get him up to speed so its no quicker than starting the work myself. And I have my own analyst coming who is good and a friend and I'd much rather spend time getting him across.
I confess I was a bit impatient because analysts don't normally push Project managers so I shut it down quite directly:
"We're good. I will see you on Friday"
I think its too small a move to go meta on. What I don't want to do is justify myself - I've already given him the 'why'.
I was wondering about responding: "Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?"
I think your answer wasn't too bad.
Maybe just add a little "thank you for your support to help, it's noted and appreciated. Right now we're doing good... ".
Something else you could do is to tell him to "get himself up to speed" and send some reading material.
That also frames him as "not yet able to add much value" and puts the onus of becoming useful back on him.
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That's a nice addition makes it more collaborative. Thanks Lucio
I can also use the get up to speed a different way. This guy added some extra columns in the spreadsheet which aren't required for our objective. I have no intention of doing some extra work beyond what has been agreed, that he just thought would be a good idea. That's stealth tasking. I will attach the system manual and say he can do that work to get up to speed if he is interested.
Now that I officially have got my analyst I can connect them and have a planning session, hand off the work and put it all in the project plan which will make this guy happier because there's some time frame for his work getting done and it's all leadership.
Yeah, sounds like a great plan.
Let the guys talk to each other if they want to feel busy and you step in when the real work is needed.
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Like Lucio said. I would have added a bit more worth: "Thanks for your proposition, we're doing good!".
This below is golden:
Quote from Lucio Buffalmano on March 17, 2022, 9:25 pmSomething else you could do is to tell him to "get himself up to speed" and send some reading material.
That also frames him as "not yet able to add much value" and puts the onus of becoming useful back on him.