Create Clear Contracts Between Project Managers and Senior Managers

The conversations that should happen— but rarely do

Leading a big change from the middle of an organization can be extremely difficult. (But you probably knew that already!)

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about what needs to be in place for project or middle managers to get real results—and not have the rug pulled out from under them before they even have a chance to succeed.

One thing you could do right now is create a contract with the people or person you report to. In my free e-book, Leading from the Middle: How It’s Different and Why It Matters, I describe an informal agreement or contract that could help you get started and maybe even remove most of the barriers that often hijack projects along the way.

This needn’t be a formal legal document; it could be scribbled on a napkin. It simply spells out your understanding of the project’s goals, timeline, resources, budget, and so on. This is the time to make sure you and your manager are on the same page—and to have a good, clarifying conversation if you’re not.

You’ll find a description of the contract with examples on pages 13 through 15. Then, on pages 36 and 37, you’ll see a sample contract that you can print and use. And the nice thing is that you can always blame me. “Hey, boss, there’s this writer-consultant guy who created this contract that might help us get started on the right foot. I don’t know, it looks like it might be helpful, and it won’t take us more than fifteen minutes or so to go through it. What do you say?”