Nourish Relationships - Executive buy in
All project always go smoothly, right? There is never a bump in the road! When these unexpected, sometime unpleasant events happen, having executive buy-in can give the gravitas to the project to ensure you can maintain a straight course and ride out the rough seas. Executives can also ensure that you are not starved of resources, provide cover for your decisions, and help better define the importance of the project. Projects normally involve a certain degree of change, and an executive who is willing to model the changes being proposed can help bring others around to a new way of thinking far more quickly than a project manager simply appealing to them. It also helps you understand the context in which you are operating.
Earlier in my career, I was reporting directly to the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and indirectly to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) , and I was receiving contrary directions. Fortunately, I had good enough relationships with both to point out to the CEO that his instructions flew in the face of the CTO mandates. At this point, he told me that I must have misunderstood the CTO. I looked puzzled, so he explained the organizational structure to me, and that therefore the CTO did agree with him; he may just not realize it yet! Without ensuring that I had buy-in from both executives, this project would have been doomed to failure, because ulitimately it would not have delivered on either the CTO’s or CEO’s expectations. Who do you need to buy in to your current project? What about your customers? Do they have executive buy-in for your project? For what previous projects do you wish you had spent the up-front time getting the correct executive support?
|
|
|
