I've been really puzzling over the subject of leadership lately — project leadership, to be sure. But I've given it more thought recently after reading in the newspapers about some of the stuff going on in and around the world and considering how that ties in to some of my own projects and job sites. Let me see if I can explain a little bit better what I'm talking about.

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We all work for clients, and they demand the very best. Some of them are more critical than others. Some of them, when they get stressed over finances and time issues that go hand in hand with their projects, take it out on their contractors. They begin to find fault with our quality or with our people or with our companies.

Know what I’m talking about? How do we, as Full Contact PMs, react to that? How do we deal with it? I’ve got some thoughts on the subject, but I’ll come back to that in a moment, after I tell you what’s really bothering me on the big stage, in the game of life, in the real world, because I believe that there’s a huge parallel and a unique lesson to be learned. Here it is:

Regardless of our individual political persuasions, we share one thing in common. Almost all of you readers are American citizens, as am I. We are the bosses, the owners, the managers of our country. We have hand-picked some leaders to do much of the administering of this work, and we call it government.

Therefore, we have asked, through our government, for our military to go overseas and do a job for us. Do a ''project,'' if you like. And it’s a dirty, nasty job, one you probably wouldn’t want your son or daughter to do. It’s not some kind of a management training program, like the one you might hope they’ll enter someday when they join your company and learn your business. No, this one’s a cleanup job. But, thank God, we’ve got some great employees in this country, and they are willing to take on this job.

Fortunately for us, these ''field'' employees of ours don’t even require being paid a lot of money. Most work for well under any union apprenticeship rates. Some even work for less than minimum wage! Many are doing this work out of a sense of patriotism and don’t care right now about their paychecks. Heck, sometimes they aren’t even physically in a location where they could actually spend their money anyway. Everything they really need they carry with them on their backs. Got the picture?

I was not around during World War II, but my parents were, and as members of the Greatest Generation, they found a way to balance political differences and unite towards a common goal. I pray that some of that spirit still lives today.

''But Coach,'' you say, ''how does this relate to what you were talking about earlier?'' I’m glad you asked! How do we treat our own ''field'' employees when they are ''out there'' doing difficult jobs for us? How do we react when our clients question the quality of our people, their leadership, and their companies?

It saddens me to say that we don’t always give our people 100% support. Some of us, when we come under fire from our clients, might not back our people as well as we should. So I’m going to reiterate the Full Contact PM approach to project leadership. And I think I can do it in a few sentences. But first I have to remind you of something.

Gary Micheloni

Ever watch a lawyer in court? A good lawyer is extremely focused. He will basically deny any accusation, find fault with any evidence, and attempt to derail any negatives against his client. And he will then go about the job of building his client back up to a status just short of Mother Teresa on a good day. I call this the ''scorched earth'' strategy. Basically, he hears nothing negative and just pushes forward.

Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? But you know what I’m talking about. You know that this is true. You know we allow it. We tolerate it, even when it’s done for an axe murderer caught red-handed in front of a thousand witnesses. Even he is considered innocent until proven guilty!

But how about our employees? Too often, we actually accept the criticism. Admit our wrongdoing. Hang our heads in defeat. Worse, sometimes an owner or manager might say, ''Yeah, Fred over there is not our top foreman/operator/laborer/fill in the blank. We’re real busy right now and can’t seem to get good help these days.'' Something less than sticking up for our people. Sending mixed messages.

But that’s not the Full Contact PM way! This is: simply put, in public and in front of our clients, we believe in our employees and that they are doing good jobs. If there are concerns, the most we’ll say is, ''We’ll check into it. Get back to you later.''

When someone is questioning the quality of, say, some finish work, my response is generally something like, ''Mr. Client, thank you for your concern. It would be helpful if you could show me a better finish on another construction project within a couple of miles of here, and I could see what you mean. We can go look at it together.''

Nothing belligerent. Just stating our case. Admitting no wrong, at least until after some kind of an investigation. And suddenly it is the client who has to produce — show you something tangible to try and prove his case. Does a better finish really exist nearby?

And then — privately — we’ll get with Fred, and we will get to the bottom of what’s going on with him and his performance. But we never, ever, ever do that in public. Ever!

Our ''scorched earth'' approach should be the following: ''Fred? Oh, man, he’s one of the best around. Put together a heck of a crew. Look at the job they are doing. Nobody else could do this.'' Got the picture? We uphold and value our employees. And, by the way, we also uphold the images of our companies. We do it here, on our job sites.

Maybe we should also do it over there, on the really dirty jobs. For our other ''employees.''

About the Author

Gary Micheloni is a working project manager, author, consultant, and speaker. He tries to personally respond to your email at FullContactBlog.com.

To learn more from Coach Gary’s playbook, go to www.fullcontactblog.com and join him at his blog, read his other articles, or pick up his new book, Get Paid for a Change! It’s all about implementing your own scorched earth strategy when it comes to getting paid for your work.

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