We all know what it is -- When the big VP comes in and starts looking at programs only to realize that things aren't (and are never) exactly following the Utopia processes that exist. It's not that you were completely ignoring them, or that you didn't know. Sometimes life in the trenches mean you have to work around some things to get the job done.
The problem is that Sr Leadership are fine when things are going smooth, but when things get complicated, they come in and start hammering you because you did it. For me, it happened when a project went a little south. Ironically it didn't ever blow up the way Sr Exec think, but everyone seems to want to believe it did. The problem for me as a manager is that now I not only have to manage the team through the issues, but I also have to manage the Exec trying to be White Knights who want to come in and save the day.
I particularly like their use of Buzz words like:
- foster collaboration
- swat team the issues to a positive conclusion
- rally the troops to the success of the project
- understand how we can set this group up for success and support them
It's as if for the last 3 months I'd been ignoring the fact my team wants to be successful. The real irony was that after one of our "collaboration call"some members of the team were asking why the Exec were there and what the panic was all about.
That made my day.
So, as things start to calm a little, and the Exec are off panicing about something else, I am actually right back where I started from a project perspective. The issues I've escalated are still escalated, not resolved. And now I have the added work of picking up the pieces left by the Exec White Night as they move off to foster collaboration somewhere else in the company.
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