I have a very simple metric for determining the health of a project or an organization: the age of issues.
Issues are like fish; when they get old, they stink.
A sure sign of a lack of leadership and upcoming trouble is old issues or issues that take longer than necessary to resolve.
Issues are obstacles that get in the way of execution. It is the project manager’s role to resolve and eliminate these issues as quickly as possible regardless of the owner or the cause.
If the project owner cannot solve it (or doesn’t try) it is up to the executive sponsor.
If an issue stands in the way of executing project objectives or makes it difficult for project managers to perform, it’s your responsibility as an executive sponsor to resolve it.
If the project manager is the problem, it is also your responsibility to solve this.
Fix the root causes of problems and fix them early.
What you want to avoid is a form of collective project amnesia where issues come up and never get resolved.
Issues have a funny way of resurfacing when they don’t get resolved.
In a nutshell: Old issues and/or issues that take too long to resolve are an indicator of poor leadership and a great leading indicator for trouble in the future.