The Essentially Worthless Project Leader

I spent last week in Lexington Kentucky. Much of the time I was bored. I frequently wondered if I was really essential to my project.

Everyone had a task to do. Darcy was responsible for helping the agents move from one system to the other. Jeram was responsible for making sure the computers were properly set up. Reggie was responsible for making sure that all of the reports got done. There really wasn’t a task for Rodney. And yet, I was the most important person there… Or so they said.

I’ve been working on this project for over a year. It has consumed vacation time, family time, personal time and just about anything else that it could intrude upon. So why was there nothing for me to do now that we were moving the agents to the new system?

Planning.

Preparation.

Those were my responsibility. And had I done them poorly we would have had crises show up during the migration. The fact that there were only minor if any crises meant that we had properly prepared. Our planning has been sufficient. And that’s the irony. By doing my job well over the past 12 months I worked myself out of a job during the actual migration itself.

I was essential to the project. I was also fortunately worthless during the migration. It’s one of the first times I can ever remember being essential and worthless at the same time.

Rodney M Bliss is an author, columnist and IT Consultant. His blog updates every weekday. He lives in Pleasant Grove, UT with his lovely wife, thirteen children and grandchildren.

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