I'm catching up on project management related items after my hiatus with the newest member of our family, my son Draven. Cutting's Edge is a blog I started reading recently that is quickly becoming one of my favorites. In Thomas' post for February 20th, Avoiding Trouble With Honesty, he listed five warning lights to keep you honest. I really liked them:
- If you have to determine how to spin the information, you are on thin ice.
- When that little voice inside your head says something doesn’t smell right you should listen to it.
- Any time you say, “I think they’ll buy that” you probably shouldn’t be trying to sell it.
- If you are trying to pick someone to blame you are heading for trouble.
- When you say, “I hope management doesn’t find out” you should be the one telling them.
I would add that another important factor in honesty is transparency. I respect and appreciate project managers who allow their stakeholders to be involved through accessible plans and progress reporting. Team members and stakeholders should know enough about and be able to pull up their parts of the project on a whim and see how they are doing.
