When you put your name on a report, you own it. Trying to scramble around after the fact to find someone to blame for a project that missed its mark is not going to do you or anyone else any good.
At this point, there are two more important issues that need your attention. The first is to see if there is a way for you and your manager to squeeze out some extra time so that the two of you can work on the project and bring it up to par. After all, your company still needs whatever your project was supposed to deliver.
The second issue is to develop a strategy to prevent this kind of outcome from occurring again. You should sit down with your manager and review exactly what happened here. There can be any number of factors that brought the project down, including the design, timing, objectives, and managerial follow-up. Based on what you find, you and your manager need to jointly commit to some specific steps to keep future projects on track.
When an employee fails to meet his or her objectives, it can be argued that such an outcome is a failure not only of the employee, but of his or her manager as well. But rather than focusing on who failed this time, it makes more sense to focus on how to succeed next time.
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