Leader, Doer -- Take Your Pick

     I heard an experienced project manager talk about how to build a solid project plan:

     “You’ve got to get down to the working surface, and build your estimates on actual facts, history and judgment. Otherwise, your plan is going to have big holes in it.”

     Totally right on the substance. Excellent project management . . . so far. Project estimates must arise from actual facts and relevant experience – to the extent possible.

     Whose facts? What experience? This is where the speaker’s narrative took a turn that seriously undercut the value of his advice. He described the many hours he had spent in researching and preparing estimates for one project.

     He applied his own personal experience? He invested his own time to produce detailed estimates?

     The context was that of a complex, good-sized challenge with a number of team members and stakeholders.

DIY Job Satisfaction

Calm, empathetic and endlessly patient

 
    You can have a lot of fun when your job is to make something or do something all by yourself, or maybe with a competent, compatible partner. If it’s not just you, it’s just the two of you.

     Either way, you get to put your hands, and your attention, right on the work. You earn the joy of personal accomplishment; you can contribute mightily to the quality of your own result. It’s right out there, with no mistake – you’re the one who did it.

     It’s hard to duplicate the level of satisfaction you feel. But that’s not all.

     When you make it your business to turn out quality results, other people notice. You earn admiration, and you build an enviable reputation.

     In management, not so much. When you’re a manager, you operate in a different universe. Management’s job is to equip and help the people who make things and do things.