Patal Fray was Project Manager of a very big and important project for his firm. He was very proud to have been given this assignment and assured his VP that he would bring it in successfully, on time, if not ahead of time.Offered another fascinating project, he discussed it with me and after consideration, declined. He knew he couldn’t do justice to both.
When Maria Gomez reported to him that she was having trouble getting purchasing to recognize that the parts she needed had to be ordered as high priority, he sat with her and together they role-played ways she could convince the purchasing agent to put her at the topof the queue.
Two days later, Patal came to Maria to find out if she had been successful. Smiling, she said that she had and thanked him for taking the time to teach her how to convince the purchasing agent of the importance of her project and her need for parts asap.
Do you think Patal made the right decision to decline the additional responsibilities? I do. ArLyne Diamond, Ph.D. (www.DiamondAssociates.net.)