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.
People with diverse professional experiences and background have totally unique perspective on any issue. When a new team is assembled for any project, its vital for the success of that project that all team member are aware of the ground-rules for the project; similar to any sport. You may have to read it to team and give a copy for reference.
Here is an example list that I have used for a project to keep team aligned. Such ground-rules certainly eliminate unnecessary confusion and your business customer and team members like it defined beforehand. Make sure, you also follow it and implement it.
Project manager is the primary contact for any project related communication.
All team members maintain their contact info on the team contact list with contact preference.
All members attend required meetings and conference calls; if unable to attend, meeting organizer to be notified. If key contributor is unable to attend, request to reschedule the meeting.
Any planned day off or vacation must be communicated in advance to project manager so that project plan can be updated and impact to work, if any, can be analyzed.
All project team members have access to project plan and project logs (in a standard document format) and are aware of the assigned tasks and due dates.
All team members are to be consulted about the reasonableness of the plan prior to management approval.
All team members are required to validate their assignments and time allocated prior to the plan is baselined.
All project team members have the responsibility to proactively notify the project manager about tasks, duration or dependencies they believe are missing (or any other needed changes to the plan) and confront issues directly and promptly.
Project team members have the responsibility to notify any potential difficulties in meeting the schedule for any assigned tasks as soon as it is known by the team member.
Each project team member is responsible for ensuring anticipated workload conflicts with other assignments are brought to the attention of the project manager. Team members should ask for help if feeling “stuck” or falling behind the schedule instead of waiting for miracle.
All team members are responsible to own, follow-up and provide updates on the assigned task (including but not limited to any identified risks, issues, changes, approvals, clarification from customer). If any delay is observed, escalate to project manager.
All meeting minutes, key decisions, assumptions and business rules must be documented and all action items must be followed up and assigned to a resource with expected completion date. These items are usually mentioned in casual conversation.
All project team members understand the scope of work. Any work performed must be in the project plan and is in the project scope. Anything that is absolutely needed but not part of the project plan, must be brought into project manager’s attention.
All project team members confront issues directly and promptly.
Only project manager submits all final deliverables to business customer for sign-off or approval.
What are other key things that you have found useful and we can add to this list?
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.
We learn a lot from the Internet these days and rely on up-to-date information. Personally, I’ve learned a lot from my fellow bloggers and other websites on Project Management to stay ahead of the curve.
There are many other on-line resources but I would like to share following list of blogs/websites that I frequently visit and would like to thank for their time and energy for sharing knowledge and doing the great service to on-line community. Thank you and keep up the good job!
Your boss approaches you and tells that workplan is very good but customer wants to know how can we deliver the project sooner than promised? Now you have to come up with a new workplan or make some adjustments based on new findings. You put your thoughts together and go on to make changes/update and deliver the final document with required changes.
And then your boss asks, why this task is due this particular day and why are we taking this long to complete, etc., etc…
You might have answers for most of the questions your boss has asked but it is of prime importance that you document all the assumptions you made while planning, does not matter how small or evident those assumptions are.
I would capture following -
why are you making these changes or what is the objective and if these objectives are aligned with customer expectations;
what are high-level or global assumptions for the plan being put in place (standardized assumptions);
why making change to time/scope/cost;
what are risks that can derail the work;
what are the opportunities that you are counting on;
who are the critical resources you have based your work on;
what exceptions from standard process did you make;
what compromises are built into the plan;
what is the impact on existing process (if any);
for budget tail of it : dollars spent per month; and
what are the key milestones.
I hope these are the basic questions that we should be able to answer from a Project Management perspective when talking about assumptions. Let me know what your thoughts are and what else could be added to the list?
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.
I was looking into posts on Mr. Barak Obama’s communication style and how it contributed towards Obama’s victory. Did Obama address people in all 4 categories of DiSC Model? These categories are Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness.
Each person in his/her category wants to hear in a specific manner. Some people need direct answer while others need some encouragement and hope and so on. Please see the table at the end of the post and read more about DiSC Model.
While doing so, I found very interesting Wall Street Journal video on the topic titled ”Learning From Obama’s Effective Communication Skills“.
To summarize, what project manager can do -
giving good positive message
clear and compelling tone
giving substance along with style
speaking with confidence and authority
not in hurry to speak- patience
pause between sentences: at least 3-4 seconds
stress the right words
relate to people and places
make it simple to comprehend
identify what is not right with other approach
Here is the table what people mainly like to hear/communicate around-
Major Category
Like to hear words and actions around
Dominance
challenge, power, direct answer, authority, assertive, active
Influence
empathetic, people focused, receptiveness, accepting
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 would recommend to listen to this audio book to refresh 7 habits and learn how managers can apply these habits. If this is new to you, here are classic 7 habits and start with reading ’The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’
Habit 1 – Be proactive
Habit 2 – Begin with the end in mind
Habit 3 – Put first things first
Habit 4 – Think win-win
Habit 5 – Seek first to understand, then to be understood
Habit 6 – Synergize
Habit 7 – Sharpen the saw
These habits are to be used as pointers for our actions. We got to make sure that our employees understand the value of these habits and learn from these.
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.
Budget, Scope and Schedule are three constraints a project manager has to deal with to produce deliverable. Any one of these three is changed, remaining are also affected.
Risks and issues in a project are documented and monitored. During the documentation phase, it becomes cofnusing when we have to classify it into either risk or issue category. Here is the basic info on difference between risk and issue -
Risk is a future event that may have an impact on triple constraint. It may happen or it may not. We can plan for risk based on its probability and impact on deliverable – risks can be avoided completely, or can be minimized, or can be transferred to other party, or we can meet head on.
An issue is present problem or concern influencing triple constraints. In other words, an issue is raised when something has gone wrong and will impact triple constraint.
A risk can become an issue, but issue is not risk – it has already happened.
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.
Workplaces have transformed a lot in last few years from people working in same office building to team members scattered over different continents. This poses some benefits and challenges. As we all know that we are all connected via communication and our communication skills and capabilities play a major role in our success.
Keeping the communication channel open and alive is the responsibility of the manager. As a manager you just can not assume that if no one is complaining, all is well. There are some employees who get chance to meet and talk to boss on performance review day. I know there might be some employees who always say “everything is good” and prefer least interference as all the routine work is being done on time.
Does not matter what kind of work you are in, keeping in touch with your direct reports does the following -
1. Boosts the employee morale (you value the employee by calling or listening).
2. Employee feels connected with the organization/department.
3. Employee is encouraged to give and receive suggestion/feedback.
4. You can coach employee in the right direction as per his objectives.
5. Your objectives and expectations are clearly communicated and aligned.
6. You, employee and organization, all benefit from this interaction.
7. You make the real difference by managing talent.
Employee is a talent. We know that when we are managing talent in this innovation age, we got to ensure that talent thrives and stays innovative.
Whenever IT project failure is talked, people refer Denver Airport project that failed big time and costed a lot. I have also seen project that failed or cancelled or shrunk. Why is it happening when so many intelligent people are working and we know all the ingredients of project success.
Here are some commonly known factors needed for project success -
You must do the thing you think you cannot do. - Eleanor Roosevelt
If you think you can do it, or you think you can’t do it, You are right. – Henry Ford
Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. - Oprah Winfrey
Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough. – Oprah Winfrey
Don’t tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results. – General George S. Patton
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. – Peter F. Drucker
We have seen in various sports when a play or a pass is not developing the way expected or falling out of bound, timeout is called. After timeout, team regroups and turns the outcome for that instance or break the momentum of the opponent team going for score. It give opportunity to re-focus, re-think and re-group.
Posted by virk 
