Balancing Teams and Demanding Clients
This is just difficult, pure and simple. Managing a difficult client is extremely tough, especially when they just don’t make sense or are panicking or whatever else is going on. Making sure the client understands what is going on, what’s possible, and what’s not, while keeping them happy is a skill that takes a long time to learn and master.
Clients might be upset, might pressure, might be confused, etc., for a lot of different reasons that you’ll never really be able to predict at the beginning of a project. However, one common thing that will always be present when dealing with clients is progress. The progress of a project is absolutely a predictable element that needs to be addressed with a client – this is where a lot of tension can creep up for managers – because they’re paying you to make progress on some project.
Balancing a team that is working hard on a project, especially under tight deadlines, against a client that has high expectations is something that great managers need to know how to do. And, it’s only something that you can learn by being thrown to the wolves.
When a manager has a team that’s working really hard under the gun to get something shipped they need to keep the team absolutely focused and worry-free so they can produce the best possible product without distraction. In order to do this in the face of a difficult client that manager needs to bear the burden of the client’s ferocity, for a lot of different reasons.
It’s the manager’s responsibility to make sure a project is on-track and delivered to the client’s expectations. It is not the responsibility of employees to bear the burden of that responsibility, because they’re the ones who are supposed to build the product that the client expects. It’s the manager’s job to know what the client expects and communicate that to their team, not the other way around. It’s the job of the manager to make sure things get done and to not just play the role of a middle man.
People say that shit rolls downhill. But, what’s an employee supposed to do when they’re mired in it?!
Good managers stop shit from rolling downhill so their team can make progress.
