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Getting a Project Off Life Support
by Dr. Ron Brown
Nov 4 2008
Nov 4 2008
Your initiative's been approved by top execs at your company, but now their attention's elsewhere. How to get things back on track.
I'm leading a project that was approved by the top executives at my company several months ago. Since then, their attention has been drawn toward other critical issues, and without their involvement and dedication, I'm concerned this project will wither and die. What should I do?
Rather than get frustrated and feel discouraged that your initiative is not being actively supported, you need to keep pushing ahead with the goal of eventually bringing the project back to your senior leaders as well-packaged and supported as possible. If it's a project that you know has merit and that those executives desire, even if they don't have time to watch over it, you should take the initiative to get it done; you can't afford to just sit back and wait for them.
A health-care executive I know once faced a similar situation. While he was tasked with a major marketing plan, his company's top execs didn't have the bandwidth to give it their primary attention. So he went at it sideways, meeting casually or formally with each of them, getting their feedback and appealing to their sense of stewardship of the company to get them involved. Then, after he had talked to each of them individually, he arranged a group meeting to define what needed to be done and how. By the time he got back in front of the leaders of the company again to discuss the project, he already had a very specific and well-supported focus and game plan in place, and it was pretty much an easy sell from there. The project wound up getting done and was a huge victory for this executive.
He realized, as most successful executives eventually do, that part of being successful is finding a way to get things done even under less-than-ideal conditions when you're not getting the immediate feedback you desire.
Dr. Ron Brown is a leading expert in the fields of leadership development and organizational change. He is the founder and president of Banks Brown, a management-consulting firm that specializes in providing skills to optimize the performance of leaders and organizations. He can be reached at rbrown@banksbrown.com or 415-788-5444. Questions for Power Plays can be submitted on this page.
Rather than get frustrated and feel discouraged that your initiative is not being actively supported, you need to keep pushing ahead with the goal of eventually bringing the project back to your senior leaders as well-packaged and supported as possible. If it's a project that you know has merit and that those executives desire, even if they don't have time to watch over it, you should take the initiative to get it done; you can't afford to just sit back and wait for them.
A health-care executive I know once faced a similar situation. While he was tasked with a major marketing plan, his company's top execs didn't have the bandwidth to give it their primary attention. So he went at it sideways, meeting casually or formally with each of them, getting their feedback and appealing to their sense of stewardship of the company to get them involved. Then, after he had talked to each of them individually, he arranged a group meeting to define what needed to be done and how. By the time he got back in front of the leaders of the company again to discuss the project, he already had a very specific and well-supported focus and game plan in place, and it was pretty much an easy sell from there. The project wound up getting done and was a huge victory for this executive.
He realized, as most successful executives eventually do, that part of being successful is finding a way to get things done even under less-than-ideal conditions when you're not getting the immediate feedback you desire.
Dr. Ron Brown is a leading expert in the fields of leadership development and organizational change. He is the founder and president of Banks Brown, a management-consulting firm that specializes in providing skills to optimize the performance of leaders and organizations. He can be reached at rbrown@banksbrown.com or 415-788-5444. Questions for Power Plays can be submitted on this page.
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