225. The Hidden Reason Your Projects Keep Stalling

Your projects keep stalling and you've been blaming the wrong thing. You feel something lurking beneath the surface. But I have to tell you, it's not your team. It's not that they lack ownership.

It's not that they don't care. The real reasoning is something most new managers do not see coming. But that confusion, you know, is stalling things out. But once you see it, you can fix it this week.

I'm James Rousseau Sr., some call me Trigg, and this is the Leader I Need It podcast. It's the show for the person who got promoted without the preparation. I've had 20 years in corporate leadership leading large teams at JPMorgan Chase, Allstate, LegalShield.

I've also done a lot of executive coaching. And I've watched one thing, one thing drain projects over and over and over. By the end of this episode, you'll be able to take one stuck project and bring clarity to it before the week is out. using a simple framework called RACI, which stands for responsible, accountable, consulted, and informed.

We're going to break down three common mistakes new leaders make and how to untangle it with RACI. So let's jump into it. The first thing I'll tell you this is if you've ever watched a great basketball game, there's a thing called the jump ball. If a ball goes awry, everyone should go after it.

Yes, but not in project management. See, if everyone is involved and everyone owns it, that means no one is owned. So let's jump in. One of the things you can think about is a new manager stepping into a fast-moving project.

It's a systems rollout. You have a reporting deadline. You've got a process change. But doing what feels right, pulling in the right people, operations, finance, HR, tech, senior stakeholders and such, and then you have this wonderful meeting.

It feels productive. Everyone feels aligned. They like, they agree. Maybe there's some hand clapping.

Maybe there's some fist pumping, all the good things. And then someone says, all right, we'll circle back in a week. And as the manager, you leave thinking, great, we are all aligned. A week later, you come back, the follow-up meeting opens, and then you start to see all the gaps.

Finance thought operations own some inputs first. Tech thought they were waiting on a decision. HR thought they were waiting or being an advisor. The senior stakeholder thought the manager was driving everything.

The team didn't fail because they were lazy. They failed because clarity was never created. Oftentimes as new leaders, we believe that if we bring the right people into the room, the work will move ahead on its own. It doesn't.

A meeting does not create ownership. A conversation doesn't create clarity. Agreement is not the assignment. Leadership means slowing down long enough to ask before anyone leaves the room, who is doing the work?

Who owns the outcome? Who gives input? Who just needs to be updated? It feels basic, but basic is actually where leadership helps get things established.

This week, I want you to do something different. Pick one project with multiple people involved and ask one question Could every person explain their role in one sentence If the answer is no pause and write down four names or groups Again, first, RACI starts with responsible, doing the actual work. Create little swim lanes of, let's pretend there was four things, process one, process two, process three, process four. for process one, who is doing that actual work?

And then go to accountable, who owns the outcome? And those things could be different. You as the leader could be the owner of the particular outcome versus there's someone on your team who you've delegated to do the specific work. But that means you have to check it once it's done and be accountable.

Who's consulted? Who needs to give input before it's final. And then lastly, who's informed? Who needs to know, but their knowing doesn't shape the work.

Don't leave it implied. Say it out loud, put it in writing, and then send it out to everyone after the meeting, memorializing everything. Okay, so now the second point is, again, when nobody owns the decision, the work slows down. One of the most frustrating leadership moments that you will face is the work is almost done, but no one will make the decision to say it's actually done.

The options are on the table. The analysis is complete. The pros and the cons are known by everyone, but instead of moving, people will be asking for one more review, one more opinion, one more meeting, particularly when it's a contentious decision, but it's yet obvious, but maybe some people who are not in the room wouldn't agree with it. Why?

No one wants to be wrong. Nobody wants to be exposed. Nobody wants a senior leader questioning the call later. So the group kind of hides behind collaboration.

We're still gathering input. We need everyone aligned. Let's socialize it a bit more. Sometimes that's true.

Sometimes it's like, it's a polite way of saying, well, nobody knows who actually has the authority to decide, but an unclear decision becomes expensive. And you know what? It does not show up in dollars first, but in time and trust and momentum, not having momentum stalls the teams out and leaves them sitting. So here's what I want you to take away from this.

There's a difference between input and authority. And that's why RACI is so powerful. Again, the C&I, who's consultant, who's informed. Some people should be consulted because their expertise matters.

You definitely want to get that input, that knowledge, that wisdom, particularly institutional knowledge when it's required. But some should be informed because the outcome affects them, but they don't get a vote. And that's hard to hear sometimes when we want to be collaborative, that everyone does not get a vote. You can have some people heard, but they don't get a vote.

This is where new leaders often struggle. You want to be inclusive, which is great, but inclusion without decision clarity creates that drag and that loss of momentum A steward leader doesn dodge clarity You don dodge clarity to protect people feelings A steward leader creates clarity so people can do their very best work without that confusion So here one thing I'd like you to do this week. Take one decision that's currently stuck. And you know it's stuck, by the way.

Sometimes we try to like bury it in the recesses of our mind. Let's bring it out. You know it's stuck. Ask three questions.

Who gives input before we decide? Who has Who has the authority to decide? It's a tough question, but it needs to be asked. Who has to execute or live with the outcome?

And you can literally say this. I want input from these three people by Thursday. I will then make the final call on Friday. And then after I've made that final call, this group is informed and this person will lead the execution.

That two sentences can save you two weeks. No doubt about it. Seen it happen over and over and over. Point three, and my final point, clarity is not control.

Clarity is stewardship, family. A lot of first-time managers resist using something like Racy because it feels a bit formal. As a new leader, you want to not fit in, but you want to be a part of this culture, help mold the culture, not feel domineering. You don't want to feel like you're micromanaging.

You want to slow the team down with process. You don't want them to feel burdened. But then you will end up chasing people, checking every detail, jumping into the work, which we know you do not want to become an individual contributor. You are carrying the anxiety of the whole project by yourself when you do that.

And that's the irony of it. Avoiding clarity creates more micromanagement, not less. When people don't know what they own, the manager keeps stepping in. You keep jumping in here and there.

Oh, oh, let's move this further down the process. Then it sits here. Oh, let's move further down the conveyor belt. When the decision rights are fuzzy, the manager keeps refereeing.

Oh, what do you mean? No, no, it's not that. No, really? Oh, no, not there.

Oh, you were supposed to. Oh, let me. No, you don't want to do that. When roles are clear, people move with confidence.

They know where they have the authority, where they need input, and what they don't need to carry. And that's important. Knowing what they don't need to carry is equally as important as knowing what exactly they need to carry. Here's what I want you to take away.

Clarity is one of the most important ways you serve your team. And if you remember just that, I'd be happy because the tool is the tool. And you can find other tools, by the way. But clarity is one of the most important ways you serve your team.

It protects them from duplicating efforts. Have you ever seen a time where you go in a room and you see Roger sitting over there working? Roger, what are you doing? Oh, I'm working on the spreadsheet for the financial review Friday.

And your heart drops because, you know, Sally is over there working on the same thing. and you almost don't have the courage to tell Roger he is doing something Sally is already doing. You can stop that with clarity. Again, it protects from duplicated work, from hidden expectations, from being blamed for work they never truly own That is stewardship fam You not just managing tasks You stewarding energy attention ownership and trust For a new leader, that's the shift.

Your job is no longer getting the job done. You didn't get promoted from being a wonderful individual contributor to being a super individual contributor. Your job is to create the conditions where people work well and get it done, and your job is to get it done through other people. Here's something I want you to do this week.

Pick one stuck project. Run through these five steps. Name the outcome. What has to be true when this is complete?

That's one. Two, name one accountable owner. One person, not a committee, not the team, one accountable owner for that project. Name the responsible people doing the actual work.

And again, if the visual helps you, just do force, do swim lanes. Pretend there's four processes to start with. Process one, process two, process three, process four. Who's responsible for each one of those processes?

Then separate the consultant. Again, it's the, we need your input before we move from the informed. We will keep you updated, but you don't have voting rights. You're not shaping the decision.

Run through these five steps. Name the outcome. What has to be true when this is complete? And then put all of this somewhere visible.

One of the powerful things to do is also publish that RACI chart. People can then see, oh, process one, Roger owns that. Bill's accountable. And then Margaret, Stephen, and Joseph will be consulted when needed.

And then this list of people will be informed at different stages of process one. Listen, fam, in closing, when everyone owns the work, no one owns the work. Think jump ball. When a jump ball happens during a basketball game or a ball is running off in the distance and you see everyone running for it, diving, trying to get it, players going into fan seats, all those different things, that is what's happening with your project when everyone owns it.

No one owns it, so everyone's going for the ball. Confusion does not announce itself. It hides inside of all your good intentions, inside of your desire not to be domineering, not to be micromanaging. You are allowing confusion to go inside deep in your organization, in your team.

Busy meetings, polite collaborations, all those things don't matter. It's expensive. You need time, trust, momentum, and results. Don't try to fix every project.

Pick one stuck project. And again, ask the four questions. Who's responsible? Who's accountable?

Who needs to be consulted and who's informed? Build that racy chart and publish it. It may feel like a small step, but that's leadership, family. Everything you do as a leader does not need to be magnanimous.

It's about setting up repeatable patterns, being consistent and delivering. The leader your team needs is not the person who does all the work. It's the person who creates that clarity that lets them own the right work. Be the leader.

You need it, family.