Based on your feedback and ideas, we are going to start a weekly “Drive By Project Management Moment” post. Your submissions for topics will be gratefully accepted.
It has finally happened. The Prima Donna or Prima Don, let’s be gender neutral here, PM has finally stripped a mental gear. They have done everything that they thought would motivate the team and make themselves look good.
They have tried
- threatening team members. Check. Didn’t work, moving on.
- bird dogging you to the point where you want the ground to open and take them straight to Dante’s 8th Circle of Hell. As they say in Monopoly(r), “do not pass go, do not collect $200.00.” Check. Didn’t work moving on.
- refusing to use the tools of the organization. More on that in a future post. Check. Didn’t work, moving on.
The list is endless but you know that they have left the reality of the project when they start bad-mouthing team members behind their backs.
The golden nugget for today is that “Prima Donna or Prima Don Project Managers have a big ego and a small mind.” They have little to low self-esteem and quite possibly little to low knowledge, skills and experience. A not so subtle reminder: Certification is no guarantee of expertise but it is just a guarantee that they could pass an exam. In the deep murky recesses of their brain, they believe that if they can sow enough discord that they will prevail.
The lesson-learned is as the old saying goes, “give them enough rope to hang themselves. Observation is a great learning tool. Watch and learn.” It will take time but eventually the chest pumping and thumping will stop and their real persona will show itself. They will move on to the next job opportunity and you will have peace and quiet.
