I'm doing my best...

I've been at my current job for 12 years now. In addition to that, I've been doing the same work for 23 years. 27 if you count what I did in school. I moved into the position of Project Manager about 6 years ago.

Recently, I've been working more with people in our other offices to not just do the work required for the projects, but also organizing the work, approving invoices, solving problems and figuring out how to do things better. To me, this is what I need to be doing as a project manager.

I also know that I am not the only one who can do this, so I rely on those people around me to help. And they rely on me to help them. I'm their "supervisor", but not necessarily their "superior". It's a mutual relationship that keeps things working correctly.

Part of being a project manager means making the hard choices. Correcting people when they're doing something incorrectly. Talking to clients to discuss a problem. Admitting when something has gone wrong and needs to be fixed. As the person at the top of the project, "the buck stops here", and I have to answer for this.

While on occassion I do need to correct people when they're wrong, I don't do it with an "iron fist" of anger and blame. Often people don't know what they did wrong because they don't understand something. Very rarely is it done on purpose. So I work with them to understand what happened, because I feel they'll have a better chance of not repeating it. Doing this without shaming them, demeaning them, or any other form of "professional hazing" is critical to me. You don't keep employees working for you if you make them feel like shit.

I see so many nightmare scenarios about bad managers and, as a result, a general vitriolic hatred toward anyone in a managerial position. It's justified. Bad behavior should be called out as such. My response is to do better. Don't be that monster you hear about. Help the people you work with, don't keep your foot on them. I want my co-workers to do better, and not continuously slog through the mud and the muck, just because "I had to do it too!".

Recently we've had some absolutely horrible projects left to us by a retired office manager. The projects were underbid, mismanaged, poorly organized, and essentially left to rot while we continued to work on them. They were given to me with the instructions "Here. Fix these."

So I went to work, doing what I'm paid to do, and using people I know are good at what they do. As a manager, it's hard for me to express how good it is to have reliable, knowledgeable, and professional people to work WITH to fix things. Also as a manager, I tell them that every chance I get, because people need encouragement. It's not "hand holding" or "participation trophies". It's professional conduct that's just as important as anything else I do.

Thank you.