Driving Decisions from Sponsors and Leaders

Are you having difficulty getting decisions made to keep your projects moving forward? Often our projects get derailed because we can’t get a decision made from the sponsor or others on the leadership team. This may happen for a number of reasons – some of which are the fault of the project manager. If you need a decision made – to ensure it is not your fault that nothing is happening – take these best practice steps when meeting with the sponsor/leaders and presenting the problem and request for a decision:

1. Delineate  the key points of the problem (not the “gory” details)
   1. Have back up data available if needed to respond to questions
2. Provide options for resolution of the problem, with pros and cons of each option (at a very high level). Provide a “do nothing” option. Consider impact on:
   1. Project cost
   2. Timeline
   3. Resources
   4. Quality
3. If you are comfortable doing so (and the culture/environment permits it) – indicate your preferred option given the impact on the timeline, resources, quality and budget of the initiative.
4. Let the sponsor/leaders know what you need from them to get a decision made and by when you need it (don’t give false deadlines).

When a decision must be postponed by the sponsor/leader – work towards getting a commitment on when you can get a decision made. Provide honest information about the impact on the project if a decision will be delayed too long. I say “honest” because the tendency is too “stretch” the truth a bit to show the urgency; this never works and eventually others will never take what you say as credible.

What are your best practices for driving decisions from executives?