Your Time Is Valuable

I was talking with another project manager this week about a meeting they attended. In this meeting, they learned about a significant pivot to one of their projects from somebody who didn’t have a role in the project. So this other person knew, but the project manager did not.

I would have been frustrated in this project manager’s shoes. But what struck me most about the story is that the project manager didn’t mention the knowledge discrepancy during the meeting where it came up.

There could be all sorts of good reasons to save a conversation about a project knowledge discrepancy for later—say, too much frustration in the moment to speak up calmly, fear that you were supposed to know or that you forgot, or genuine lack of time in an important meeting with a tight agenda.

But lacking a specific reason to do otherwise, I typically DO speak up in a situation like this. If someone says something about one of my projects that’s different than my understanding, I say something like,

“Oh, last I heard, we were taking the project in this other direction. Just curious, where did you hear _________________?”

Maybe I have the right information and maybe they do. But if I speak up, we immediately go into detective mode together and figure out who is more likely to have the correct information, or how we’ll find out.

This doesn’t take very long. But it could be a minute-long tangent in a meeting about something else, where other people are waiting on us. That’s okay, because after almost 9 years as a project manager, I’ve learned that my time is valuable.

I certainly don’t cavalierly waste other people’s time—on the contrary: efficiency for all parties is a top goal of mine when I build a project plan or manage a project pivot.

But a misunderstanding that could take me one minute to clear up in the moment could require 30-60 minutes of research and side conversations if I pass over that opportunity. A few other people can wait on me for one minute in order to save me an hour. I have lots of value I could contribute to this and other projects with that time.

Speaking up in the moment also achieves a few other things:

• It reinforces my role, and the types of things I need to know, for everyone in the room.
• It ensures the other people in the room don’t walk away from the meeting with the wrong information.
• It can turn the person with different information into an ally who helps funnel the correct information to me in the future and avoids spreading project information that isn’t verified.

I realize that 9 years of experience gives me the confidence to do this, and it might be challenging to boldly grab the floor of a meeting to get what you need to do your job if you’re a new project manager.

But at least hear me say: you can, because your time is valuable. And it’s also in the best interest of those around you, because a project manager whose time is used efficiently is serving and helping more people and projects.

You, your time, and your ability to do your job well are worth it. Don’t be afraid to act like it.