“You Are The Only One Who Can Do This Project”
How many times have you heard this at work? It is language that a lot of ambitious professionals love. Especially if the speaker is a boss or supervisor. It can be quite true. However, it often leads to management problems, at the level of project, and, over time, of career.
If you get this sentence in an email or short conversation, you might well begin planning the project privately. After all, it seems you’ve been authorized and assigned to do so.
Beware! Especially if you and the boss have only had a little discussion. There are a lot of blanks to fill in; the two of you have yet to get on the same page. Regarding the project, you have different assumptions, perhaps very different, about why it is being done, what is to be made, for what customers, by what team, etc.
In this scenario, any plan that you make privately is likely to be problematic, for any number of reasons. For example, you plural may well have different assumptions about what human resources are available. You singular may then have a more difficult time recruiting a team, especially when you need to introduce both the project and yourself to potential co-workers at the same time. In a worst case scenario, ““You’re the only one who can do this project!” means “You need to do it by yourself”.
In a more frequent scenario, you and your team do pretty well on the project. And this happens again. And again. As a result, you became the supervisor’s go to “only one who can do this project”. Your company is happy, and your supervisor is happy, perhaps even promoted.
You are happy too. For a while.
The career problem is that this can go on for years. As a consultant, project management trainer, and mentor, I have seen this over and over again, especially in medium size firms and outside the private sector. Often, there is little change in your position, title, or compensation, despite enormous changes in project and operational responsibilities and in required technical and interpersonal skills.
The good news is that you really can nip these project and career problems in the bud. How? With a little project know-how.
In this case, it is knowing how to draft – in a hurry – a very basic project charter. I call it a “mini-charter”. Your mini-charter should address key governance questions about the project and offer answers to all of them. Answers that you and the boss agree on could then define and model the project which is to be planned by you.
There are six of these questions*.
For what reason is the project to be done?
What project owners have the resources for it (and can pull the plug)?
What project team will do the project?
What deliverables will be built?
For what customers?
In what organizational context (of risks, budget, politics, etc?)
Ok? Back to the real world. When you get that quick call or assignment saying “You’re the only one who can do this project,” here is the response that I would recommend. Be grateful for the chance, but also ask if you can think it over a little bit. Then, quickly draft a mini-charter (since you are the “only one who can do” the project). In your draft, propose answers to the key governance questions implicit in the boss’s request. Draft them in a page or less. Then get back to the boss with it saying, “This is what I am understanding about the project. Is this how you see it? Can you confirm?”
Big picture. The purpose of this mini-charter and conversation is to get on the same page with the requestor, literally, in a document, before more time and resources are spent. If the two of you can’t agree on answers to the governance questions, it is best to find that out right away. That is a very good finding to have. If you can agree, then ask the boss to promulgate the version of the mini-charter that you plural agree on to the team that you singular will need to be working with. Or, to have a kickoff meeting.This will help you to recruit the team, to keep your boss/sponsor engaged positively, and to build relationships with other stakeholders.
Such a mini-charter competency helps not just there and then, but also long term, given all the project proposals you are likely to be getting.
QED. A little project know-how can go a long way.
Of course, more substantial projects will need more than a “mini charter”. For such projects, however, your organization is likely to have guidelines on project initiation, such as those of the Project Management Institute (PMI). Also, supervisors are less likely to conduct project initiation via “You’re the only one who can do this project!”.
*This distillation of project charter elements is very much informed by the “CATWOE” dimensions of any human activity system, defined by Peter Checkland, as part of his Soft Systems Methodology**. For a fuller, current explanation of project charter elements and role, I’d recommend PMI’s PMBOK® Guide, 8th edition, e.g., Table 4-1, p. 129.
**Checkland was a kind of mentor to me, for about 40 years. Sadly, he passed away just this month (5/2026).