Help me, Savi! My Project Sponsor is ignoring me!

Dear My Project Sponsor is Ignoring Me

My first thought is to wonder what is really happening with your Project Sponsor? I wonder if you can find out by exploring whether this is a general change in his whole job performance, or it if only affects this project? Is he going through some kind of personal issue that is preventing him from working normally? Is he perhaps unwell?

Whatever the reason, it is clear that the current position cannot continue and is risky for the project and your career in the company – I get why you are worried.

The situation you describe also highlights a problem with a single person providing support and oversight on a project, something that is quite common on internal business projects.  I am guessing there is no senior oversight group for the project, or you would have mentioned this in your message.

The first thing for you to recognise is that this cannot continue to be an issue shared only between you and your Project Sponsor. You have no choice but to raise this with others in the management team. I understand you feel this is delicate, and your Sponsor is very senior, but the fact is that your working relationship is already not working, whatever the underlying cause.

The starting point is your own manager. I hope you have already explained the problem to this person, but you need to do this formally and start building up a record.

“Hi Sarah, I know we have talked about this, but I want to escalate the issue of non-responsiveness from the GFD. It is now jeopardising the project and preventing progress. Please see a list of critical issues and decisions that need resolution.

Can we please explore a plan for escalating and resolving this, or consider pausing the project until Project Sponsorship is available?”

If you are lucky, your manager may be able to raise the problem (perhaps discretely, perhaps more directly) with the right people to get a resolution – after all, if the project fails, it won’t reflect well on anyone.

However, there is also the real chance your manager won’t come back you on this and you may then need to raise it again with your manager (always in writing). If you do not get a constructive response, you may have to consider suspending your own work on the project.

“Hi Sarah, further to the email trail below, the issue of Project Sponsorship has not been resolved and I am not able to make effective use of my time on the project. The project is at significant risk of failure.

I propose I stop working on the project from Friday until Project Sponsorship is available.”

This is not an easy message to convey but it is a legitimate conclusion for you to reach if you are not able to make progress. After all, if you continue to make poor progress but spend time on the project anyway, you will eventually consume all of the project budget.

In other words, at that point, it seems you have little choice but to recommend you stop billing your time to a project that is effectively stalled. You have already done enough waiting to see if your Sponsor will ‘wake up’ or otherwise start responding, and this has not happened. It is your responsibility as Project Manager to escalate issues that jeopardise the project, even if the issues arise from the non-availability of a senior figure in the organisation.

I hope you get a positive response.