Masonry Magazine July 2006 Page. 49
Whether you survive the school of hard knocks and earn your stripes there? Whether you are a degreed PM, a journeyman advancing into foremanship, or an estimator, project engineer or assistant taking on some project management responsibilities, there is still a point at which you have to climb into the batter's box for the first time. And it can be scary. Likewise, it can be equally scary when you are a veteran PM, used to working in the smaller ponds, and you're suddenly thrown into bigger waters.
So here's the point to this lesson: no matter how hard the pitcher throws or how mean he looks, he still has to pitch to you - provided you are willing to take your turn at bat. Sure, you could just give up, concede the point, curse your luck, and lick your wounds-particularly your wounded pride. But he still has to pitch to you, and he still has to put it into the strike zone if he wants to get you out. If he won't do that, you'll walk right by him. If he does that enough times, you and your team will walk away from him and right into the victory celebration.
The best athletes in the world, and the world's best PMs and CMs, are all obligated to play by the rules. Sometimes they don't like to. Sometimes they don't like you when you insist upon playing by the rules. But they are still the rules. You can't play a game without rules, and you can't very well build a project without them, either. The rules of our game are found in our contracts, plans, specs and other project documents.
You could be a rookie PM for the smallest subcontractor on a huge job, with a world class CM running it, and they still gotta pitch to you! Sure, they sometimes would rather just grimace at you, try and intimidate you, see if they can get you to do some free stuff for them. Basically, they believe that you'll blink before they will. After all, they're the veterans with the multi-million dollar contracts, and they know all the right people. They've seen rookies like you come and go: blink, blink!
Me and my Nolan Ryan? Mine was actually a Goliath named "Caltrans."
How did Coach do? Stopped 'em dead in their tracks. How? Because I made them pitch to me. Gary Micheloni is a project manager, author, consultant and speaker. He can be reached at coachigary@fullcontactPM.com.
Copyright © 2006, Gary Micheloni and Full Contact Project Management
COACH GARY'S PLAYBOOK:
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