You carry five balls in the air; all but one is made of glass. Glass is health, family, friends, spirituality. Rubber is career. Juggle well.
Be passionate but not emotional.
Master hard skills early in your career. Master soft skills to get ahead later in your career.
Know when to ask questions - sometimes in a group, sometimes one-on-one. There is big difference in perception and outcome in these two situations.
Always do what you say you will do.
Take lunch – you are not that important.
Read the cover of sports page every day (no joke!).
I was reading Canadian Business magazine‘s The Next Power Elite cover story and found these gems at the bottom of the page. I could not resist sharing with my readers. Credit for the content goes to August-September issue of Canadian Business.
Do not begin any major task without this analysis tool! This tool will generate the list of valuable ideas and strategic direction to achieve your goals. We can say SWOT Analysis is a tool that helps our project, business objective, venture or organization in 4 ways:
Evaluate the Strengths so that you can capitalize on them,
Identify the Weaknesses so that you can address them,
Discover Opportunities so that you can invest accordingly, and
Analyze Threats so that you can plan to mitigate them.
SWOT comes from Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat. It is 2×2 matix which we use to gather the data on 4 areas by asking questions. You can do it through brainstorming session and use required data from customer feedback, surveys, industry research, market trands, etc.
I stumbled upon this great 5 min video by Erica Olson and thought of sharing it with you along with other resources.
Strengths and Weaknesses are internal while Opportunities and Threats are external to the business objective or the task for which SWOT analysis is being done. It is as simple as asking good questions!
This video will explain a lot and referresources for mastery -
Rose & Robert Skillman Library in Detroit has engraving “The Fountain of Wisdom Flows Through the Books“. To drink from this fountain, I continue to read books and here are some that I have completed recently and would like to share with my subscribers and visitors. I have more detail posted here.
These 3 books are totally unique but fit in for a balanced approach towards any leadership or managerial role that you play in your life.
Buy-In: Saving Your Good Idea from Getting Shot Down - John P. Kotter, Harvard Business Press, 2010
Power: Why Some People Have It and Others Don’t - Jeffrey Pfeffer, HarperBusiness, 2010
It’s Not Just Who You Know: Transform Your Life (and Your Organization) by Turning Colleagues and Contacts into Lasting, Genuine Relationships - Tommy Spaulding, Crown Business, 2010
Why Should You Read These 3 Books?
Buy-In: A leader or manager has to sell the idea, proposal or get an agreement. Getting people buy-into is the critical task. You will learn two things – first, how to protect your good ideas from being shot down and second, how to win the support of stakeholders when it really matters. Naysayers will use 4 strategies of fear mongering, delay tactics, confusion and/or ridicule to derail the idea.
As we all know that good idea alone will not survive. This book offers 24 major attacks or objections (that people use time and time again) and how to handle them properly. Link provides 24 responses to these attacks.
Skillman Library in Detroit Courtesy: Wikimedia
Power: For a leader or manager, being power less is not an option. If you can influence any decision, you got some power. Projects and initiatives of people who are associated with people of authority gets their way in any organization. Some might have the different opinion of the use of power (i.e. Machiavellian style), but lets use the perspective that if you have power, you can do more good to your cause, organization and society. I will add quote from Baltasar Gracian:
The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good. The Art of Worldly Wisdom, 1647
This book contains excellent advice and analysis about gaining power in corporations and politics. You may not agree with all that is said like perception is reality (but for how long?), but its a good read and use what you feel appropriate with good intentions.
It’s Not Just Who You Know: Leaders and managers accomplish a lot by building rapport at all the levels, they are resourceful and get the work done for greater good. This book fits right where both other left. If you believe that great relationship in life make all the difference, you will enjoy it. Author does not give out any specific formula but shares his own experiences and then elaborates on how one should apply them in life. I used this book to learn from someone’s life how genuine interaction helps build great relationships.
This book is not you scratch my back and I scratch you back type but follows Carnegie’s classic How to Win Friends…
Author shares many inspiring stories and all underscore that relationship building begins with your genuine and sincere attention on the others and it’s not about you. Do not push for the things that you want, figure out what they need. Also, author stresses that exploiting relationships for quick personal gains or favors will eventually ruin the foundation and it soon becomes transactional business relationship.
As a leader, you do not want to accomplish a lot in business but also would like to have strong relationships similar to great balance sheet or super annual report. If you miss out building genuine and sincere relationships at all sectors of life, work and business included, you will be alone at top.
Have you ever created a press release before? As I began my role in the chapter as President Elect on Jan 01, 2011, I thought of creating a press release and see how it looks. First attempt, let me know what you think. (Note – my personal opinion and does not reflect of any organization or enterprise).
Detroit, MI. (2 January 2011) — Board of Directors of Great Lakes Chapter of Project Management Institute (PMI – GLC), the largest project management member association in Michigan, elected Kulveer S. Virk as its new president for 2012.
The Board chose Kulveer Virk for his keen strategic insights regarding building member and organization value, formulating and leading operational vision, strategy and direction. “Kulveer is a very hardworking, committed and inspiring volunteer leader. He brought great ideas to the chapter in the communication area including social media strategy, made improvements that resulted in cost savings” said Arun Das, PMP, Past-President for the chapter. “He also shaped other initiatives that originated from the ideation of strategic items identified during the last couple of years.”
Kulveer said he will build on the Board’s overall strategic direction and provide executive leadership to advance PMI-GLC as one of the largest and most influential project management chapter in the region.
Kulveer has been vice president of communications for PMI-GLC since 2008. Kulveer has nearly 15 years of experience in project management, strategic planning, and business process reengineering, operations and software development. During his tenure, Kulveer has been instrumental in implementing solutions to cut cost, redesign services, and embracing social media.
Apart from serving the PMI-GLC board, Kulveer manages a global project at Ford Motor Company in Michigan. His previous experience includes consulting, medical, engineering, city government sectors.
“I am extremely pleased that PMI-GLC’s Board has expressed the confidence in me to take PMI-GLC to next levels of volunteer and stakeholder engagement, increase in member value, positioning to meet the challenges of next decade.” said Kulveer. “I look forward to enhancing our strategic relationships with organization and businesses leaders to highlight the importance and benefits of Project Management and role PMI-GLC plays in the region.”
About Project Management Institute (PMI) & Great Lakes Chapter (PMI-GLC)
PMI (www.pmi.org) is the world’s largest project management member association, representing more than half a million practitioners in over 185 countries. As a global thought leader and knowledge resource, PMI advances the profession through its global standards and credentials, collaborative chapters and communities of practice and academic research.
PMI-GLC (www.pmiglc.org) is Metro Detroit chapter of PMI established in 1979 and serving around 2000 members across Michigan and Ontario, Canada. PMI-GLC offers annual symposium, dinner meetings and forums on project and program management topics apart from various other events for networking and membership orientation.
You might have heard that someone got very bad customer service one day and no one would resolve the complaint at this company. This person gets upset by the treatment received and decides to write a complaint letter to the president of the company. In few weeks he receives a note and the issue is resolved by president’s interference. Everyone gets back to business and few people in the town heard of the story and thats it.
Now go to Web 2.0, someone got bad customer service and received no reasonable response to the complaint. This consumer feels mis-treated as his complaint is not treated fairly. This person sings a complaint song, and shares it on YouTube. Word about this customer service story circulates the internet through the song shared on YouTube, people in millions watch it and it hurts the organization’s bottom line (over $100 millions) and the brand. And then this individual gets an apology from the company and complain finally gets resolved.
This is the power of social media if used correctly. It works both ways.
Here is the complete story about singer Dave Carroll incident and whose guitar was broken by United Airlines (Link to Huffington Post story) . Watch the song.
Here are some key points (and some Customer Service/Help Desk experts can add more) -
Consumer expects good service all the time, although doesn’t give reward or recognize it publically, but indirectly rewards by doing business again and again.
Consumer is generally prepared to handle good and bad customer service; in case of bad service, do not expect more business.
Consumer is wowed by exceptional service only and you can find 5-star reviews online and strong brand following is built/maintained. Facebook Fan page and twitter following of brand can tell something.
Consumer is offended by horrible customer service. You can find 1-star reviews online and some dedicated websites to complain about product, brand or service can be found. Some may get creative like David Carroll and make a dent on your brand.
If not sure how to handle the complaint or issue, do not just say No. Let your boss help you.
If you face customers, genuine attitude determines consumer behaviour to a bigger extent.
I have noticed that consumer tolerance to bad service is inversely proportional to size of brand or organization. Bigger the brand or name of the organization, higher the expectation of consumer in terms of service.
I came across 11 leadership principles of Marine Corps in Guide Book for Marines on the Internet and here is my interpretation of 11 principles. I am interested in hearing from Marines about their leadership experience.
Take responsibility – we need to seek and take responsibilities if we need to grow; never shy away, whatever seems challenging will help you expand your perspective.
Know yourself – reflect upon your strengths and weaknesses; seek improvement and understand that you can achieve only those goals that you set.
Set an example- conduct your business in a professional manner; do not loose temper – small minds are bothered by small problems; not only work in your job but also work on your job as well. Be a brand that people want to associate with.
Develop your subordinates- consider this as part of your job; learn to delegate; as Zig Ziglar said “You can have everything in life that you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want“; give them opportunities to learn & grow; guide them if they fit somewhere else.
Be available – in every respect; be available to listen to problems and challenges people are facing; to motivate, to lead and to show right direction; to hear criticism; to take decisions and to act on time.
Look after the welfare of your employees- the way you want your boss to look after your welfare; develop emotional intelligence; connect with people and find out what motivates them; do something that touches their lives; help them when they are in need. Arrogance and ignorance will not take you to the top or won’t keep you there for long.
Keep everyone well informed – right communication is the key; make sure that the tasks are understood, supervised and accomplished on time and tell why you need all this done; do no assume - aks and tell.
Set goals that are achievable – always set the goals – people need to know what they are expected to deliver and by when; let people figure out how; goals should motivate teams to act; measure the results and reward people.
Make sound and timely decisions- that are aligned with the core principles of your organization and with your job descriptions; there will always be more than one right answer – choose the one that benefits the most and not only you; take decisions like a servant leader.
Know your job – be technically and tactically proficient in your job; know your people; know the processes and challenges; know how can you add value to the organization or your department.
Build teamwork- not all people can perform equally but they should complement each other while working towards a common goal; promote team work and diversity; shield your team from external pressure; be flexible with team.
“Leadership is intangible, hard to measure, and difficult to describe. It’s quality would seem to stem from many factors. But certainly they must include a measure of inherent ability to control and direct, self-confidence based on expert knowledge, initiative, loyalty, pride and sense of responsibility. Inherent ability cannot be instilled, but that which is latent or dormant can be developed. Other ingredients can be acquired. They are not easily learned. But leaders can be and are made.” – General C. B. Cates, 19th Commandant of the Marine Corps
Thanks for reading and welcome your input. Have a great day.
July 30th is Mr. Henry Ford’s birthday. He was born in 1863. He was one of the great entrepreneurs America has produced. He was leader of automobile industry and a great inventor. His dream of gasoline engine was realized into industrial revolution and a company that is employing thousands globally and improving millions of lives for over hundred years.
“To create a new business that makes money, and more significantly, employs others, and more significantly, gives a product to a customer that improves their life, is our greatest challenge, our greatest opportunity, and the greatest gift, far greater than any charity that we can give our fellow person.” – Paul Zane Pilzer
What a powerful statement it is! Entrepreneurship is the backbone of social and industrial development. There are thousands of entrepreneurs like Henry Ford, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Sergey Brin, Howard Schultz, Sam Walton, Jeff Bezos and Jeff Gitomer who continue to work hard to fulfil the dream of others while they achieve their own personal goals.
Time to thank all the global entrepreneurs who dedicated their lives for the growth of their organizations which in turn support the communities and nations; and are innovating to get the economy out of recession.
Who does not know Steve Jobs? His vision and life has made a huge impact on our generation. I came across this post. He shares his life lessons with students at Stanford in 2005. No doubt he is wonderful person around and I wish him good health.
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.
Leaders ought to read a lot to stay ahead. Each day is blessed with new discoveries and useful information. Using the 80/20 rule, find out what is out there that you need to know. Co-relate how changes in the world going to shape your world. Read more = Plan
Leaders take tough decisions all the time, they are the face of the organization. Leaders chalk out the course of action in the midst of challenges. Reflecting on the decesions taken and the one you are about to take is going to determine if you are an authentic leader - who knows where his True North is. Reflect more = Check
Taking new risks, coming up with new ideas and having the drive to materialize them, thinking out of the box, leading organization into a totally new direction are the key qualities leader has. Listen more and observe more. Taking calculated and smart risk is also creativity. Risk more= Do and Act.
These 3 Rs fit into Deming’s Plan > Do > Check > Act; a continous improvement loop. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful day.
2008 is nearing the completion of business work days and it was one of the eventful year. We have seen all from US election to Canadian elections, Wall-street meltdown to Automotive bailout, Saturday Night Live comedy to economic worries. All the stuff, never thought of.
But when it comes to our professional life, one needs to make sure there are no unexpected surprises. I have mentored and provided guidance to few people over the year and have also asked for advice from my peers. Some people either make small issues into big problems or do not even have clue what is wrong. Here are some of the points to consider-
Get feedback from your boss; have 1 on 1 regularly (weekly or monthly) to align objectives.
Grow your professional network by volunteering at work, in community or join any organization.
Understand that everyone is different; workplaces are diverse.
Totally messed up? If you are honest, you’ll get another chance. Life is bigger than that!
Do not just focus on getting credit of everything you do or say. Give credit where deserved.
Be careful about sarcastic sense of humor. It may be wise to stay quiet.
If you do extraordinary job you get promotion as a result. Its not the other way.
Help others grow and learn. Don’t be afraid that someone will steal your idea.
Take vacation or take time out. Its must to revitalize your energies and focus.
Try to listen. Pay attention to your superiors and peers.
Dress according to your job profile, at least.
Do not make ‘difference of opinions’ at work your personal issue.
I firmly believe if we are serious to improve ourselves, we can start afresh anytime. Its never too late and Life is bigger than that!
Thanks for reading and let me know what you think.
Can’t pick any two? You also need all three – fast, cheap and good?
It has been very commonly used set of options in I.T. when offering an alternative or usually when dealing with issues from outsourced service. Someone will come and say – “Pick any two!”
Sometime ago I was involved in a project where we had to pick any two options and it was very hard to leave out the third one. Many times we had to leave ‘cheap’ and other times ‘fast’, for us ’good’ was essential and paid the price accordingly. We had to compensate for third left out option through continuous improvement. I kind of thought that this is the dilemma every one will be facing. But it is not the case as I am finding out. Things are getting better.
I completed DiSC (stands for Dominance, influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness) training last week and fount it interesting. DiSC confirms one thing, different strokes for different folks.
DiSC is a system to help you find out similar and unique characteristics among people. It also shows person’s behavioural preferences and helps to identify different management styles that can lead to obtain better results through interaction.
According to the DiSC model, there are four management styles – by Dominance, by influence, by Steadiness, and by Conscientiousness.
Series of questions lead to a specific DiSC profile, that tells you what is your score and what is you dominant style of management and what are your supportive styles.
D – Dominant : these people are active and questioning; these are direct and competitive in nature. These people want to ‘get it done’.
i - Influence : these people are active and accepting; motivated, enthusiastic, sociable and lively.
S - Steadiness : these people are thoughtful and accepting; patient and even tempered, accommodating.
C- Conscientiousness : these people are thoughtful and questioning; kind of private with analytical abilities and task oriented. Main objective is to ‘get it right’.
As we know everyone is unique and all have different ways of interacting. Imagine, I interact with a person who has dominant style of ‘Conscientiousness‘ (private and task oriented). I pretend to be of ‘influence‘ (sociable and enthusiastic) dominant style; my interaction with that person can not be productive as I may not be providing the specific instructions that other person needs.
Why is that? Because people with dominant ‘infulence’ style mix personal talk with business discussions, becoming informal and emotionally expressive leaving the ‘Conscientiousness’ style person unclear or confuse as Max requires specific task oriented info and does not express himself emotionally.
How it will help me? It lists what are key strengths, what things are overused, what could be the limitations and what changes should be made in management style that make one more effective.
Have you ever taken DiSC and Meyers-Briggs assessment? What are your thoughts? Did you benefit from it? Please share your thoughts. Thank you for reading.
I volunteer at my PMI (Project Management Institute) local chapter called Great Lakes Chapter (www.pmiglc.org). I enjoy the benefits of PMI membership in form of monthly magazine called PM Network and accompanied paper called PMI Today. Both are informative and I have gained a lot by reading both publications.
Many people join organizations enthusiastically and then with very little involvement and different priorities, fail to renew annual membership and later claim that they did find not much benefit of membership. Becoming member in your professional organization and participating actively gives you opportunity to network with best people in your trade and increase your domain knowledge.
I found couple of interesting benefits while reading PMI Today paper and thought of sharing it with you. Here are the benefits-
Attend PMI meetings/events at discounted price;
Networking opportunities with professionals in management;
Read PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge);
Read business books on-line;
Download a global standard;
View the results of PM research projects;
See articles from PMI publications for the last 7 years;
Search for jobs, consult with a career coach and have your resume critiqued;
Request a custom research;
Order books and other materials at a discounted price;
Use a career framework to help guide your career; and
Get PM Network and PMI Today publications.
I would suggest that if you are in project management, get involved with www.PMI.org, join your local chapter and participate in making project management indispensable for business results.
Kick-off meeting is the first meeting of the project where you give all the team members good news that project is ‘go ahead’ from the sponsors and also set the tone of your project – is it going to be a success or a failure. Many hours and days have gone into preparation before you have kick-off meeting. You have worked very hard and now have project charter and project plan is in your hands.Primarily kick-off meeting has following goals-
energize the project team
communicate project goals and expectations
introduce team members and stake-holders
highlight opportunities plus challenges and reiterate importance of project for organization
provide information of processes, methodology, project plan, key milestones, etc.
handout team’s contact phone numbers and email addresses
present communication plan
give time to attendees to ask questions and express views
I would do following extra things to make sure kick-off meeting sets positive tone -
print the hand-out material a day before, also check for meeting room projector etc.
have some project related posters and famous positive quotes posted on the wall
invite one or two senior managment people to talk about project’s importance
have kick-off meeting around 9 AM (start of the day is better)
block enough time for this meeting (time for refreshments, presentations, questions and answers)
set date of kick-off meeting and notify all members at-least a week ago
offer light refreshments at the beginning of the kick-off meeting
do not sit and just talk, look and feel energetic
have your project plan and other documents (that you plan to hand out) reviewed well in advance by subject matter experts for accuracy
make sure meeting conveys the message and people walk out with motivation
Are there other key things? I will be interested to hear. Hope this helps and good luck with your kick-off meeting.
It was my first book from Seth Godin, and he talks about strategic quitting in this book. Here is my own interpretation of
What is a dip – its a temporary situation when you feel like stuck, the results are not convincing and success seems impossible. Dip can also be considered as a situation similar to a dead-end assignment with no progress and feel like wasting time and energy.
Strategic quitting is good – when we know things won’t work out in our favor or input exceeds far beyond the value of output; quitting can be right choice. Its similar to cancelling the project or closing a business when things are not working out the way expected (no profit).
When to stick- is this goal worth pursuing or not? Are you having fun doing this work, learning some new skills and also extracting some future benefits? Can you treat it as sharpening your saw (skill) for the next move? Can you treat it as launch pad? Yes, then sticking is good.
Is it possible to know if its right time to quit – personally, I do not think so. One has to take chances. The point is, if you quit- quit without guilt. If you plan to stick and later find out that you are going nowhere; do not make it an issue of pride; if quitting is the right thing; just do it. If you have some clue that you can get out of the dip and it will be great reward at the end – hang in there.
My Take - Strategic quitting is just like a well thought out Exit Plan. Every opportunity has at least some risks involved and an exit plan is always needed. Dip is a risk if we are not equipped and inspired to get out of it. Risk planning tells us that we should have some contingency plan in place and build plans to avoid and react to the risk. One size does not fit all in this case and Seth Godin does not claim to offer any formula; but gives a perspective, another option to consider.
What you think? Did I get it right? I am open for your suggestions. You can find more info on Phil Windley’s Technometrial page on The Dip here.
I completed listening ‘The Toyota Way’ audio-book by Jeffrey Liker. The book talks about 14 priciples of Toyota Production Systems (TPS). There are many gems that I think could be of use in Information Technology Project Managment. Here are 14 TPS management principles -
1.Base your management decisions on a long-term philosophy, even at the expense of short-term financial goals.
2.Create a continuous process flow to bring problems to the surface.
3.Use “pull” systems to avoid overproduction.
4.Level out the workload (heijunka). (Work like the tortoise, not the hare.)
5.Build a culture of stopping to fix problems, to get quality right the first time.
6.Standardized tasks and processes are the foundation for continuous improvement and employee empowerment.
Posted by virk 
