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Last month I shared a list of 10 events I've experienced that ended
up being bellwethers of impending project disaster. This month I offer
some thoughts on how you can avert disaster on your own projects either
by preventing circumstances that trigger those flags or by fixing the
situation after those flags appear.
Tailoring Strategies to the Problem
Problems with clients fall into one of four buckets: Financial, Schedule,
Interpersonal, or Ethical. You can usually avert Financial or Schedule
problems by clearly constructing your contract or work agreement with
your client. Then all that's left is enforcing the agreement. On the
other hand, you might have to address Interpersonal or Ethical problems
after the fact. This usually requires chutzpah.
Money Issues
A consultant friend of mine constantly reminds me that I must "get
the money." He nags me to make sure that my contract defines what
I am to be paid, for what, and when, and that it details what happens
if the how much, for what, and when conditions are not met.
So the first strategy for ensuring that financial issues do not derail
a project is to write down in clear and simple terms what your requirements
are. For example, my standard payment schedule now includes the following
language, "$xx upon acceptance of proposal (0 days net terms).
Project may not commence until receipt of funds." Careful readers
will have noted my use of "may" in the second sentence of
this payment term. This allows me the option to wait until I actually
see the Benjamins before I begin, but leaves me free to get crackin'
if all other signs indicate that the client will hold up his end of
the bargain. And in the event that I've misjudged a client's ethics,
it allows me to put my foot down, direct the client back to that condition,
and inform the client that I will perform no more work on the project
until the check clears. This same model applies for intermittent payments;
whether they are scheduled payments linked to specific payment dates,
specific deliverables, or time and materials invoices. By including
language about how much and when, and by stating the consequences of
payments not happening per those terms, even the most demure independent
can simply point back to those terms and hold the line until the client
complies.
Schedule Issues
A benefit of linking payments to scheduled events is that you now have
two hammers with which to pound home the importance of your clients'
honoring their obligations to you. I think there are an awful lot of
us out here in Independent Land who forget that we are really partners
with our clients. And as partners we share with them the burden of achieving
the goals for which they hired us, and they share the responsibility
of not sabotaging our efforts to help them achieve their goals. We need
to meet our commitments to the schedule; they need to meet their commitments
to the schedule. For us this means delivering products to our clients
in the agreed-upon time frame. For our clients that means providing
us with assets, sign-offs, and even payments in the agreed-upon time
frame. Should a client's behavior begin to jeopardize your ability to
meet your deadlines you must take the lead and point out the relationship
between what your client is doing (or more accurately not doing) and
the schedule. Your client hired you to get her to her goal. Do not let
her sabotage herself by allowing her to miss her deadlines.
Interpersonal Issues
These can be tricky. One person's outrage over some behavior or incident
is another person's amusing anecdote at their next gab fest with fellow
independents. Consider how sensitive you are by nature whenever you
think you are facing a problem that you believe is rooted in the interpersonal.
Both misinterpreting and mishandling interpersonal issues can negatively
color your continuing relationship with your client and their perception
of you for the rest of the time that they have a memory of you. When
personalities clash, consider using tactics like those taught in programs
with titles like "How to Deal with Difficult People." Key
to these programs is avoiding four common missteps:
- Don't take difficult people's behavior personally. Their behavior
is habitual and global; it affects most people they deal with.
- Don't fight back or try to beat them at their own games. They have
been practicing their skills for a lifetime, and you're probably an
amateur.
- Don't try to appease them. Difficult people have insatiable appetites.
- Don't try to change them. You can only change your responses to
their behavior.
So when interpersonal issues threaten to derail a project, first don't
let yourself fall into the traps noted here. Next, talk through your
perception of what is going on using problem-solving tactics like:
- Focus on the issue, not the person. "Our records of what happened
seem to be at odds. Let's pull out our notes and see if we can reconstruct
what happened."
- Discuss the effect of the issue on the project, not you. "I'm
happy to wait for you, but that will delay your getting my next report.
Shall I reschedule my delivery?"
- Use problem-solving language. This includes restating the problem,
offering a solution, and asking the other person to tell you their
thoughts about the solution.
Ethical Issues
Ethical issues are both the easiest and the hardest problems to handle.
On the one hand, if you are crystal-clear in your own understanding of
what you do and do not stand for, you can confidently inform a client
who has breached one of your clearly defined moral precepts that you simply
can not be associated with a company who indulges in that practice and
that either the practice or your relationship with the client must cease.
However, many issues have ethical overtones without being moral deal breakers.
In those cases, popular wisdom would have you tell the client that you're
"uncomfortable" with what they're doing. I think this is a pansy
solution. For myself, I try to reserve the use of "uncomfortable"
for times when my butt aches from sitting on a too-hard chair for too
many hours. If you're merely "uncomfortable," just get on with
it. However, if you are truly offended or you find that you would be loathe
for colleagues and future clients to know that you were an accessory (even
after the fact) to the behavior or practice in question, then you must
inform the client that his behavior must change or you must end the relationship.
And that takes guts. But no one ever said that having principles and living
by them is easy. Never pull out the ethics card unless you are prepared
to walk.
Do you have a topic you'd like to see discussed in this column?
Send me an e-mail at thinking@dghenterprise.com.
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