Ego vs execution war story

Published 10 months ago • 1 min read

Dear project managers and executives
You are not paid to referee ego wars.
You are paid to protect outcomes.

I have seen this many times.

And doubts and concerns freeze you like a bunny looking at the two lights of the car moving to you.

Look.

If you're witnessing a standoff between two inflated egos, do everyone a favor:
Remove them both—or at least the one you can control.

Will it feel disruptive? Yes.
Expensive? Maybe.
Unfair? Possibly.

But trust me... it’s a bargain compared to the cost of keeping them around.

I've seen projects lose millions because someone had to be right.
I’ve seen teams break, timelines collapse, and reputations tank—
Not because of risk or complexity...
But because no one had the guts to pull the ego out of the room.

Leadership is about subtraction.

Sometimes, the best move is cutting the wrong person at the right time.

More wisdom? Check below.

$99.90

The 15 Top Lessons of a PPP Project Nightmare

Learn about:
The number 1 killer of Projects
Why this was not going to be just "another construction project, mate"... Read more

Get those lessons now

PD 1: If you liked this email, don't keep it in secret and forward it to a friend. They will thank you enormously one day.

PD 2: If somebody has sent you this email and you want to receive emails like this yourself, visit vicentevalencia.com

PD 3: If you want unsubscribe, click the link below.

Death by PowerPoint

I hope you had not been in one of those… A meeting with a Power Point. Around 130 slides… Yes. One. Hundred. Thirty. Graphs. Tables. Appendices explaining the appendices. The speaker? Monotone. Boring. Like a GPS giving directions in the desert. A funeral seemed a fiesta in Ibiza. Slide 14… Slide 38… Slide 79… Around slide 92 something magical happened. One of the client directors fell asleep. Not metaphorically. Actually asleep. Head tilted. Eyes closed. The kind of sleep that says: “I’ve...

about 9 hours ago • 1 min read

Want to know when people stop trusting you?

How you do anything is how you do everything. Leave something half-done or poorly executed and people assume the rest of your work looks exactly the same. Maybe that’s unfair.Maybe it’s not true. Doesn’t matter. That’s the perception on the other side of the table. If you don’t show leadership in a simple information meeting, why would anyone trust you to lead when the deal gets complicated? If you perform poorly once, what are the chances the other side believes the next time will be...

1 day ago • 1 min read

This sentence can change your life

Everything you want is on the opposite side of fear. Let’s pause for a minute and let these words sink. I’m in the middle of a complex transaction for my real estate businesses… and those words couldn’t resonate more in me. Those feelings tell me that I’m on the right path. I’m getting out of my comfort zone, and this is great. There is nothing positive in the comfort of your couch. I can’t tell you this. If you don’t feel those butterflies in your stomach. If you don’t feel the fear. The...