Cheetah Project Manager – When Enough is Enough
Michelle LaBrosse, PMP, CAC, PMI-ACP, CCPM, RYT
Saying no to the wrong opportunities allows more room for saying yes to the right opportunities.
What I love about the Cheetah Agile Project approach is the focus on only one project for two weeks. It allows me to say “no” to taking on more “opportunities” than any human could possibly handle. What I find happens in those times where there are people clamoring for me to pursue this or that opportunity and I bite at their invitations, I get stretched so thin, nothing gets finished and eventually those opportunities rarely produce anything useful.
My current two week project is tending to the needs of the Alaska Spice Shop – a company I put into an “on hold” status because of Covid. I came up to Alaska to handle a large order that came in unexpectedly. But now find myself in the middle of a Covid outbreak in this small Alaskan town – thanking my lucky stars I am vaccinated and can easily isolate from others. I decided to donate to the community a hundred of the Stay Healthy Steam essential oil blend product we make for relieving (and preventing) the common impacts from upper respiratory bugs. Pretty much our entire inventory. It’s not a huge seller so we don’t keep a lot in stock. But just getting a hundred of these out into the community has taken some effort over the past three days. I found influencers in different affinity groups that have helped with distribution – leaving their “care kits” for distribution in their cars around town. (we are doing this all over text to avoid in person contact). I take pictures of where I left it and just like Amazon delivery – send it in a text.
During this two weeks of focus on Alaska Spice Shop, I have had bleed through with two teams who need my input on their marketing projects for Cheetah. It reminds me of the importance of working on only ONE project at a time. I’m not able to give these other projects the attention they deserve and risk the success of their efforts. I also risk the success of the core effort I’m working on being distracted on these projects that need my input. To make up for it, I end up putting in 12 hour work days. I rationalize this is okay when in self-isolation as what else am I going to do, but most certainly 12 hour days are not sustainable. I start to get cranky and resentful for having to work so much. While Alaska Spice Shop is my current priority, it’s also feels like my play time is being impacted when I have to deviate from this focus.
Having said “enough is enough” – I turned down an opportunity from an entrepreneur from India. It’s urgent for this person to get more companies in his line up offering Project Management courses to the Middle East and Africa. He wanted to either meet after my normal business hours (when I’m winding down from a busy day) or way earlier than I want to be up. I just don’t have it in me to work anymore than I am. I’m also not going to waste my staff’s time by delegating this this type of collaboration (it’s a long shot it will generate much of the type of business we prefer). In taking a pass on this opportunity – I am saying yes to the myriad business opportunities that show up every day in time zones closer to home.
Learn how to say no to the wrong projects and yes to the right projects – become Cheetah Agile Certified.
“The first thing my boss said when I told him I was interested in getting my PMP certification was that if I was going to do it, he’d heard Cheetah Learning was the best.”