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ting in her way. It is only with some genuine understanding of the changes you want to
make that he will be able to make a real commitment to them.

The process of educating your organization’s senior management must go both ways. You
need to put time and effort into understanding the goals and needs of the organization and
its senior managers. The easiest way to do this is to call a meeting with them. The purpose of
this meeting is to write down their goals and needs. These should be written in their lan-
guage (e.g., improving profits, increasing the customer base, reducing support calls, etc.). Be
sure to meet with them periodically in order to keep this list up-to-date. You should be able
to use it to show how your improvements will help them meet these goals.

Don’t Confuse Flexibility with Always Saying Yes
There are many situations when a project manager disagrees with the people around her.
Sometimes a project is going off track or experiencing problems. Other times, people dis-
agree with her approach to a project. It is important to be flexible in these situations. But
sometimes it is hard to figure out just what it means to be flexible. Flexibility might mean
making sure that everyone understands that the project is in a difficult situation, and
agrees on the course that it will take. But it might also mean listening to the dissenting
opinions and making changes to the way the project is being managed. Flexibility should
never mean having to cave in to unreasonable requests.

Don’t agree to an unrealistic schedule
When somebody asks you to do something, it is natural to want to satisfy them—espe-
cially if that person is above you in your organization. Many project managers operate in a
climate of constant pressure from above, and they want to alleviate that pressure by being
positive and agreeable.

Some senior managers think that all dates are negotiable, and that teams can always be
pressured into releasing software earlier—even if the team’s projected date is based on
realistic estimates and solid project planning. Sometimes upper managers will just chal-
lenge the team’s opinion because they believe that anything can be done sooner if the
team works harder. Unfortunately, just increasing the pressure on the team is a poor
motivator. It makes people feel as though their opinions have been second-guessed, that

their expertise is not valued, and that their work is not respected. Nevertheless, it’s a com-
mon situation.
For example, consider a project in which the senior manager in charge has set a deadline,
but it is clear to the project manager that this deadline is too aggressive and the team will
never meet it. If she simply goes to the manager and tells him that the project is headed
for failure, he will probably just think that she is not being a “team player”. He will proba-
bly put a great deal of pressure on her to just accept his deadline and work the team
harder, possibly forcing them to put in overtime in order to meet the goal. He would con-
sider that being “flexible.” But in reality, that’s a recipe for team demotivation, and proba-
bly disaster. The senior manager’s “solution” does not solve the problems that are keeping

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