Panic!
Have you ever had that horrible surge of panic in your project? Everything is going as expected, if not exactly to plan, and then, without warning, disaster strikes. A contractor comes up and says “the plug in adaptor doesn’t fit, we’re stuck!” or “the pumps gone down and the spare is missing” or “it didn’t happen in testing but half the data has come through corrupted” or, well, just about anything you really don’t want to hear. One unwelcome aspect of this news is that you know that sooner, rather than later, you’re going to have to have an ‘interesting’ conversation with your sponsor or some other senior stakeholders about this.
The real trick is not to go into a panic but to smoothly, calmly and professionally respond to the situation. However, it is in this area that the junior or inexperienced project manager can easily come to grief. Part of the problem is that people don’t like surprises. They tend to over-react to them. Sponsors and senior management are no more immune to this tendency than any other member of the project and programme community. The way in which they are often different is that they can come across as intimidating or angry and their opinions do matter.
Golden rules
There are several ways of dealing with such situations and awkward stakeholders. But there are two golden rules:
- Don’t panic
- Don’t communicate until you are prepared.
Don’t panic
Isn’t “don’t panic” a great bit of advice? How often have you heard it? How often have you achieved it? So before we prepare to communicate, let’s think about some panic reduction techniques. Of course, for many people this is easier said than done. However there are a few simple tricks to remember to calm your nerves.
Take a deep breath
Yes, it sounds elementary but it really works; here are some potential reasons why:
The act of breathing in deeply puts more oxygen into your bloodstream which, in turn, gives the brain a little spike of clarity, which is precisely what you and it need.
Oxygenating your bloodstream has a calming effect on you and, astonishingly, on other people (probably because they see you looking calm and, in their sub-conscious, they are thinking if you are calm, you are probably in control).
Whilst it may sound trivial the act of taking a deep breath is you starting to consciously exert control which will boost your confidence and it is vital that you maintain control, confidently.
No matter what your level of experience you are unlikely to get this wrong and so you will have taken a first positive step (always remember it is easier to build on positives).
The time taken to breath in is valuable thinking time (with your freshly re-oxygenated brain) and prevents the impulse to start doing things before consideration – thinking time is valuable and likely to be in short-supply.
Three key things to remember
1. The situation is important but it is seldom critical
Quite literally unless death is imminent it is unlikely to be critical. Things can be hugely important, massively urgent, pressing, demanding and or challenging but critical is in a league of its own; if you don’t deal with it now someone is going to die. But even then one is always reminded of the old television advert for insurance that made a virtue of not turning a crisis into a drama. Remember ‘keep your head’ and you can use it to make the right decisions.
2. This is not the first time
Given that the situation is not critical, remember that you have survived similar situations before. In fact the way in which you dealt with those previous situations means that you are better prepared to deal with the current ‘crisis’. In other words, those experiences have made you stronger, and that includes both the successful responses AND the ones where you didn’t do so well.
3. You ARE capable and you MUST show confidence
It is a well-known maxim that senior managers will have confidence in you, if you can demonstrate some confidence in yourself. A particularly useful video on this subject can be found here:
http://www.ted.com/talks/amy_cuddy_your_body_language_shapes_who_you_are
Amy Cuddy is a world expert on how control of our body language can have a positive effect on our performance in stressful situations. Take a look at what she has to say. In a nutshell, she recommends that you ‘fake it until you are it’.
Calm? In control?
In my companion article I will discuss Preparing for that “difficult” conversation using a simple four-step plan:
- Situation analysis
- Options development
- Options selection
- Communication
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