I really liked the 7 habits of highly overrated people [1] article that you mention, but I would also encourage people to not ascribe all of those activities to overrated people, by default.
If you read in the article he even concedes that very effective people do many of these things, which is why it is an effective cover for incompetence.
Now, I know what you’re thinking — that might actually be productive. And, well, it might be, nominally so. But do you notice that you’ve got a very tangible plan of action here and there’s been no mention of what the project actually involves? A great way to appear useful without being useful is engage heavily in an activity completely orthogonal to the actual goal.
So if the goal aligns with the plan of action and there is "overcommunication" there could well be value added.
If you read in the article he even concedes that very effective people do many of these things, which is why it is an effective cover for incompetence.
Now, I know what you’re thinking — that might actually be productive. And, well, it might be, nominally so. But do you notice that you’ve got a very tangible plan of action here and there’s been no mention of what the project actually involves? A great way to appear useful without being useful is engage heavily in an activity completely orthogonal to the actual goal.
So if the goal aligns with the plan of action and there is "overcommunication" there could well be value added.
[1] http://www.daedtech.com/the-7-habits-of-highly-overrated-peo...