Personalities of Project Management September 4th, 2010
Extroverted, introverted, shy, outspoken, egotistical, argumentative; all great words that I often hear when describing ones personality.
How many times have the following statements come up in your meetings and conversations with the project team;
“Oh thats just the way he is..”
“She has been like that every since she started…”
“They are always like that…”
As an experienced project manager we need to recognize that personalities can often “get in the way” when it comes to effectively managing a project. Therefore we need to make it our mission to go and find out just who our stakeholders, influencers, and team members are, what are their personalities, how do they like to work, what motivates them, and ultimately how is their personality going to effect the overall project.
If I have the opportunity, I will actually perform a personality profile with the team so that we can openly share the results and have a great conversation about how our team is going to learn to work together based on who we are as people. Sometimes I don’t have the opportunity to do such an assessment and need to rely on my previous training to recognize the personality type with each team member and make a note as to how that person will positively contribute or negatively influence our project goals. There are plenty of great books and training material available that deals with personality types and how they work within a team. I encourage everyone to read at least one such book and really put the exercises of the book to action. Find out who you are first, and then look to the members of your team to find out who they are.
When it comes to profiling your team, here are some great guidelines to keep in mind:
- Be transparent about what you are doing – make sure the team knows why you are doing this and how you will all use the information together
- Try to use an online profile assessment or outside expert to remove any bias from you as the project manager
- Make sure you have done your own study in this field so that you can work effectively with the online tool or outside expert to produce a quality assessment of your team, from a rather generic testing tool
- Share the results with the team together, allow everyone to benefit from the learning
- Be the first one to admit a weakness openly to your team and ask for their help to help you spot when that weakness is getting in the way of progress. Lead by example and open it up for others to ask for the same such assistance
- Lastly, have fun with this! I have had some great sessions with teams when it comes to personality profiling. Keep it light hearted and fun – remember this is your team for the long haul.
Enjoy this weekend everyone! Remember to recharge those personal batteries with plenty a time with family and friends.
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Are you a Mac or a PC? August 20th, 2010
Approximately 6 weeks ago I did something I would have never thought I would ever do. I left the world of PC and switched to Mac. My home/family computer, my own laptop, my wife’s laptop, and even my backup device is now Mac. Why did I do this? Ease of use, simplicity, and an overall sense that I no longer need to worry about my IT.
So this leads me to the question – “what are you doing to provide your clients with ease of use, simplicity and a worry-free experience?”
Whether you are a contracted project manager or an employee within a company, we all have clients. When was the last time you thought about the support and guidance you are providing your clients and asked yourself if you could do better. Have you thought about asking your clients for a health check on your work? As a contractor, does your marketing message or your sales team know how to position your services with that same worry-free message?
An ease of use, simple, worry-free service offering begins with open, honest, and timely communication. It grows by adding support, guidance, coaching, and training. It explodes by adding your “get it done” work ethic, and is harvested by results and a happy client.
What are you doing to manage your client expectations and overall satisfaction levels?
Welcome all questions and comments – Have a great weekend everyone!
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
What are you afraid of? July 30th, 2010
Fear. A few years ago I would never have thought that fear would play such a large role in project management. Yet I find team members, sponsors and even the executives are all too often reacting from a place of fear and not from a place of certainty. Fear is one of the many suppression factors we have to deal with in our project management careers. Suppression factors are those thoughts or conditions in our mind that keep us from declaring trouble until its often too late, and fear a very large part of that.
Fear of failure
Fear of blame or judgment
Fear of personal or professional attacks
Fear of unemployment
Have you stopped to consider what fears you might be going through, what your team might be experiencing, even what your management might be trying to hide.
I realized this problem existed over a year ago and spent a lot of time last year studying NLP and human dynamics. I did this to learn how to properly deal with issues like fear with my team and stakeholders. I did this so that I could present different ideas and solutions and start to think of a better way to work the problem. You see fear will always be there, but it can be handled in a variety of different ways.
A team that is not fearful is not afraid to alert when problems may be on the horizon. They will not hide the true status of a project. They will trust each other more, hold each other accountable for their actions, tasks, errors, and successes. They will organize themselves as a strong functioning unit working towards the common success criteria of your project. This team will be motivated to jump in when other teams would have backed away.
We all need to develop teams like this – teams that are not afraid.
I have added many great tools and techniques from my NLP training to our Project Management Coaching programs because I believe these are the valuable skills we need as leaders, www.mtilearning.com.
Have a great weekend everyone!
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Has the whistle blown on your coaching skills? July 23rd, 2010
When was the last time you checked on the health of your team? When working with troubled projects, I often say there is likely a troubled team behind it. Often the trouble in the project is not directly related to the actions of the team, but no one ever likes to be part of that team who is struggling to win the game. Emotions are all over the place and our ability to really think through the issues is impeded by the drama of the moment.
As Project Managers a large part of our role is to coach and mentor our teams. Like any sports team, our project teams need guidance, strategies, corrective action, praise, and reprimands. Its a package deal that helps round out the individuals and glues the team together as a single functional unit working towards the common goal.
When was the last time you as a project manager attended training or focused some education in the area of coaching? All too often we assume as PMs we have the skills to lead a team. As sponsors and executives we assume that our PMs must have these skills because they have managed teams before, but do they really have the skills to drive a professional team?
This training starts from the top down. When looking into your professional development options to further enhance your skills, don’t ignore the “soft skills” of human dynamics and team building. Its the people who make the projects – honor your team by learning how to effectively deal with the issues that often show up and guide them to resolution. Our ability to become a highly effective team leader capable of coaching, training, and mentoring our team will result in projects that stay out of deep trouble and spend more time driving on the road to success and not towards the ditch of failure.
At MTI we focus a great deal of our training and coaching programs around growing the Project Manager into a highly effective leader, teaching advanced skills to deal with all types of issues, not just the project management issues.
How are you handling the “drama” on your projects and with your project team?
As always, feedback and comments are welcome.
Have a great weekend!
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Just when is a good time to sound the alarm? July 16th, 2010
One question I get asked often is when is the best time to notify your project sponsor or executive that there is trouble on your project? While I believe there are several versions of an answer that can be crafted for this question, I would like to give you my general overview on the topic.
In our training and coaching we teach there are 5 stages or status that a project can be experiencing at any given time. Healthy, Challenged, Struggling, Troubled, and Critical.
During our healthy times, all is well and no action is generally required. However projects often move to a challenged stage. At this point a project manager needs to look “into themselves” and realize the skills, training, and experiences they have and look for resolution to the challenge. If the project progresses into a struggling stage, a project manager needs to start to look beyond themselves and potentially start conversations and seek advice from their peer group, network, and other associates we all tend to have as advisors. In a struggling stage the project sponsor and executive should be made aware of the struggle as they may have advice, guidance and council that could prove useful. Most often, I have found that during a struggling state the sponsor or executives are still kept in the dark, especially as the project moves into a troubled state. During the troubled stage of a project, all sponsors and executives need to be clearly communicated with on the state of the project and outside help may be required to turn this project back towards a healthy status. If left unchecked, the project slides into a critical stage where outright failure may be pending. Once a project slides from troubled into critical, our window of opportunity to recover this project starts to close drastically.
All too often the project sponsors and executives find out about the true status of a troubled project as it slips from the troubled stage to the critical stage in my example.
We teach project managers and teams the fine balance between unnecessary alerts of problems and the proactive alerting when help is required. There are plenty of human dynamics at play when it comes to declaring problems and admitting trouble and we guide PMs and the teams through new ways of looking at this issues.
I always remind my audiences that as PMs you may be suppressing some of the actual status to your sponsor – but know that your team members may be doing the exact same thing to you. Work the problems together as a team, and if you need help – give us a call.
Have a great weekend everyone!
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments »
“Whose turn is it to buy? Mine? Yours?” July 9th, 2010
The famous phrase heard in countless restaurants on any given evening among friends, “Whose turn is it to buy?”
Can the same question be asked when dealing with trouble in your project? Or does the question sound more like, “How are we paying for this?”
In our personal lives, things happen to us all the time. Trouble sneaks up on us and causes us to have to figure out new ways to pay for whatever the result might be. For this past week I have been working at home watching new windows being installed in this older home we bought on the lake. Each day a new set of “trouble” has been found and now we are faced with some serious repair work before the windows can be finished. This has led us to look at our personal finances to see where the money will come from to pay for this.
Often times in our project lives we don’t have the luxury of finding new money to pay for troubled events. Many times I have worked for clients that insist on not including management or contingency reserves into their budget estimates. Other clients seem to have a never ending pot of money to cover the unexpected items that come up.
So where do the extra funds come from? I believe this is very organizationally specific and depends highly on the past successes or failures they have experienced. Company culture and policy have a lot to do with decision as well. Some companies are just not used to budgeting for the unexpected and don’t, and when the team finds themselves into some trouble and required assistance from outside the organization, often they are left asking, “Who is going to pay for this?”
I would love to hear from you all on how the various organizations you work with handle this issue. How do you realistically account for those items that will come up and extra funding will be required.
At MTI Learning we are working with the teams to train and coach them on the handling of troubled projects, on turn-around skills, and how to conduct recovery efforts. This all helps, but when things still happen, what are your methods for paying for it? Where do you find your extra pot of gold?
Looking forward to hearing from you!
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Can your organization afford another failed project? July 2nd, 2010
I wanted to take a moment today and look at the various costs to an organization when a project fails. While there are plenty of issues that arise from a failed project, the top 3 pain points I hear most often are the following:
1. Financial cost – money/investment/cash lost to the failed project
2. Demoralized project team
3. Loss of product or service the project was meant to produce
A project that has started, been running through its lifecycle, found itself into major trouble, and then eventually been canceled is a very costly endeavor for any organization. Not only has most of the funds that were made available as part of the project budget likely been spent, but you now have a project team that is completely demoralized and you are still without the product or service the project was suppose to deliver.
All too many times a recovery effort could have prevented the project from failing, or prevention skills could have been taught to this project team well before starting the project, and the troubled signs would have been picked up on faster. I often get asked about assisting with a recovery effort on a troubled project, and while I will gladly help out any organization with their immediate needs, I fully believe in teaching our project teams the skills and material that we use in our recoveries. Like the saying goes, “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for life”.
Our training and ongoing coaching programs are designed to teach project teams how to learn the valuable skills of troubled project prevention and turn around. I love consulting, but I love teaching more and if I can pass on what I know and what we do, to organizations that truly want to make a difference and prevent failed projects, then we are here to help.
Take a look at our Corporate Training & Coaching program: http://mtilearning.com/coaching-2/corporate-coaching-and-training-program/
Enjoy your weekend everyone!
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
If silence is golden, why is duct tape silver? June 25th, 2010
How many times have we heard the expression, “silence is golden”. You know that might just be the case when you are a teacher, or a parent of 3 pre-teen boys (like my neighbor), but in the world of project management, silence is anything but golden.
This past week I had a very interesting conversation about the difference between team members who speak up and say what’s really on their mind, vs. the team members who say nothing and silently work away in frustration. As project managers we need to be carefully watching for those types of team members and “personalities” that are prone to silence. Team members that burst into our offices or better yet (and my favorite) get all up in your face with their problems and frustrations are far easier to deal with than the silent types. Exploding team members are doing nothing more than telling you a very dramatic story. TMD – Too Much Drama – as I often say to my almost 13 year old daughter. Once you listen to the story, and have proper training in communications, there is not much that you can not handle and deal with on the spot, providing you remain emotionally disassociated from the drama. Don’t become part of it, just deal with it.
It’s our silent friends that give us the most cause for concern. With silence comes the inability to “hear” what is actually going on. We are now left to another sense to “see” what might be happening. Body language can often tell just as powerful of a story as words, however that is going to require some one-on-one time that your project schedule just might not allow. So how do we handle this?
What I have found in the past is the strong silent types are generally the introverted personalities that really do have plenty to say, they just need to be given the appropriate opportunity to do so. I give them this opportunity. I set up a non-confrontational one-on-one meeting with them to discuss the current situation. I often start by letting my own guard down and presenting myself in a somewhat vulnerable way to demonstrate that I trust this person I am meeting with. Often times this ends up being a story about something I have done in the past where I needed assistance or help in an area that I believe might resonate with the particular individual I am with. The story is generally something that I have not shared with anyone else, and usually ends up in a little laughter at my expense. For those of you who know me personally – you know that I have a ton of these stories. My goal is to just open a small crack in the door to allow this person to peek inside and see that a good chat with their PM is not always a bad thing.
There are plenty of different ways to handle the strong silent types – this was just one example. The most important thing you can do as project managers is to understand who on your team are these types of people, respect them for who their are, and honor them by learning a slightly different management style or approach to assist them in their daily activities.
Questions, comments, feedback always welcome!
Enjoy your weekend!
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments »
Are you a Pig or a Chicken? June 18th, 2010
It’s been said before that you can group all your team members in one of two categories; the pigs and the chickens. If my project is a lovely bacon and egg breakfast, then are you the chicken who contributes to the project (the eggs) or are you the pig who is committed to the project (the bacon).
As project managers, directors, and executives, we interact with many people on a variety of different teams. After a period of time we get a keen sense of who is on board with our projects and initiatives, and who is just along for the ride. We have found in the past that often times the level of commitment on a project or better said, the lack of commitment on a project is one of those reason why we are not quick enough to declare trouble when it arrives. We just don’t care. We are not committed.
A committed team needs clear responsibilities and accountability for their part. They need to care about each other as team members and about their individual work as well as the overall project success. Open communication within the team will motivate the members to proactively seeking solutions to the current problems they may be facing in their project.
Do you think there might be commitment problems on your team? Could this be causing or hiding some of the problems on your project? Keep a close eye on progress reports or completed tasks that are just not up to the standards you are used to. Monitor attendance or participation in team meetings. Listen for comments like “that’s not my job”, or “I don’t know/understand what you are talking about”. These are some key signs that a commitment issue might be brewing within your project team.
So how do we fix this? First, highlight the importance of each member of the team and emphasize that everyone is accountable for the success of this project. Clearly define their roles and responsibilities. Let everyone know they are valued; the team needs them, and each member has a direct impact on the project success. As the leader, keep everyone informed on how their particular activity is doing against the overall project objectives. Open, honest communication is key to growing a team of committed professionals driving towards a common goal together.
In the end, as a project leader, when everything feels like it’s blowing apart on my projects and I am up to my neck in mud – I want to be surrounded by a team of happy, committed “pigs”, ready to jump in, embrace the challenge and pull us all out.
Enjoy your weekend everyone – remember to take time with your family and friends and recharge those personal batteries!
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Let me take a pause… June 12th, 2010
Hi Everyone,
I wanted to take a quick break from the PM Coaching information this week and get a bit more personal in my coaching to you. This past week, starting from last Friday has been a challenging week on a personal and professional side. A good friend of mine is recovering in hospital from an accident, and will have a lengthy recovery process to begin upon release. This incident has affected me on both a personal and professional level and has caused me to think about things in a different manner. Changes will need to be made, and with any change comes the uncertainty at the other end, but a challenge I am ready for.
For those of you who follow me on Facebook, LinkedIN, and Twitter, you might have seen the following quote before:
“When the road gets crazy
And tries to break me
And I’ve had all I can stand
I can close my eyes no matter where I am
And just be still”
This quote is from a Tim McGraw song and is an extraordinary reminder that when the pressure builds, the stress comes, and you feel like you might have just reached your limit, all you need to do is quiet yourself and your mind, and for a few minutes just be still.
Whether your difficulty is work related in the form of a troubled project or troubled team, or your problems are steaming from your personal life, strategies that have been learned over the years can be applied to either situation. Once you are able to “still” your mind, get your emotions in check, the clarity, the resourcefulness, and the focus will return to you and a willingness to make the appropriate changes will come over you and spur you to action.
For me, this past week has not been all about “sunshine and roses” – However, I have quieted my mind and began to see what needs to be done immediately to continue onwards and upwards. We all have our challenges to overcome – what challenge are you going to overcome this week?
Thanks for allowing me to reflect on a bit more personal level with you all this week. As always comments and questions are welcome.
“B”
RJ – you are in my thoughts, speedy recover my dear friend. – Bri
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
How can MY project be failing? May 28th, 2010
As General Colin Powell says, “Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age”
Denial is a strong suppression factor when it comes to declaring trouble on our projects. Denial can also be called Cognitive Dissonance and defined as negative feelings (guilt, stress, anxiety, shame, etc) when you hold two contradictory beliefs at the same time – or when your beliefs and behavior are contradictory.
I recently had the pleasure of meeting a man whom I refer to as the Ultimate Rescue Project Manager. Mr. Gene Kranz, NASA Flight Director Apollo 13 Mission. As you can imagine Mr. Kranz and I spoke about many things but it was his telling of Apollo 13 story and how those astronauts handled themselves that was most gripping for me. You see, denial or cognitive dissonance had no place on that space craft. Those astronauts were the best in the world. They were the top pick of NASA, and there was nobody better. Yet when their “project” experienced massive trouble, not once did you hear things like:
“We are the best, therefore this can’t possibly be happening to us” or “Maybe if we don’t say anything, this mess might just sort itself out”
Can you imagine hearing that? Never! Not with that team. They recognized a troubled state, admitted some potential errors (rightly or wrongly), and got straight to work on their recovery.
Denial and the belief that you are above asking for help, above admitting mistakes, and above becoming a humble student to learn a new method is a dangerous place to be as a project manager and leader of a project team.
Learn to check your ego at the door and lead by example. Remember to assess your own behavior first, and then work with your team to ensure no one is playing the denial game on you or the rest of your team. Recognizing that this can happen and listening for the verbal clues will put you light years ahead of other teams who are reacting to denial and not addressing it head on.
Enjoy your weekend everyone – and as always I welcome your comments, questions, and feedback.
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Why do we cry for help when it’s too late? May 20th, 2010
Suppression factors – those little reasons, issues, dramas, stories, head games – those little “things” we do to ourselves that keep us from declaring trouble or asking for help until it’s often too late. Why is it we do this as program and project managers? How can we recognize this happening within ourselves and most importantly, how can we recognize this happening in our team members. Denial, fear of blame, apathy, monetary incentives, all great reasons or excuses we use to justify this action. But have we really stopped to think about how our belief systems and past experiences in life might be playing a large factor in our professional lives.
When I was growing up, I was very thankful to have two wonderful and supportive parents around all the time. I was constantly told, “Brian, no matter what you do, do not be afraid to come and tell us so that we have the opportunity to deal with the issue together.” This simple phrase has stayed with me wherever I have gone and no matter what the situation, I find myself not afraid to reach out to my peers, sponsors, executives, friends, and family and admit that I am struggling and to ask for guidance and support. Now imagine if the opposite had happened to me as a child and I was punished every time I had problems or issues and I brought them to my parents’ attention. How might that have changed my beliefs about team work, support, and collaboration.
This is just one small example of suppression factors and a topic that I find myself digging in deeper to discover what is really going on in our projects and with our project team members.
Think about your past experiences – are they driving your present experiences?
Next blog I will dig a bit deeper into each of the areas mentioned above and provide some key physical and language patterns to listen for in your teams, to see who might need some help, and is not asking for it.
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
First Blog Post May 11th, 2010
Welcome our first blog! I am very excited to be taking this next step in offering amazing content, insights, and conversations with everyone on a variety of subjects dealing with the management of our projects.
While having a blog to some may seem like a small thing to do, or maybe something I should have done a few years ago, I wanted to wait until I had the commitment to make this succeed. I will be looking to add some new content and conversation once a week to start. I will also be looking to be as active as my schedule will permit me when it comes to answering back conversation threads and direct questions. Understand that I may rely on my team of experts to answer certain questions that I feel is better suited for them. In the end my commitment to you is about a quality and collaborative product.
With this in mind, let me start by asking you a question and generating some conversation. As project managers in the role of recovering a troubled project, what are some of the roles and persona’s one must take on to perform at your best. Here are a few of my examples – what are yours?
Firefighter, SuperHero, Politician, Micro-Manager, Investigator, Change Agent, and Coach
“B”
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »