“Don’t you think you are being a little hard on me?” Torrey floated.
“Not at all. I am just heading off the excuses I expect to hear when your team doesn’t meet your goal,” I replied.
“My goal. But it’s not really my goal,” Torrey protested. “It’s the team’s goal.”
“No, the project goal is your goal. It is you, the Manager, that I hold accountable for the project goal. Regarding your team, I only expect them to do their best.”
“But, but,” Torrey sputtered.
“But, what? You signed off on the project budget, based on the resources and the schedule. You signed off on the Goal, the What by When. I will judge your effectiveness, to manage the project resources and the schedule along the Time Span of this project.”
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Tom,
great post I reall liked how you clearly explained that it is the manager job to reach the goal. What managers tend to do is “we did not reach the goal, the team did not work hard enough” this is the easy way out.
A challenge for managers and leadership is the keep the team working effectively, although it is the managers job to keep the team effective and ensure that goals are reached. By a manager calling it a team goal the risk of group think and no-accountability becomes evident.