I know a secret that gets you noticed; gets you that promotion.  Develop a big picture perspective.  Following these simple steps will quickly bring the big picture into focus.

   1.     Understand your competition.  This is not a market research assignment; leave that to the marketing department.  You are to take a big picture perspective and understand your competition.  For public companies yahoo finance (http://finance.yahoo.com/) offers a simple way to follow the industry trends and corporate news.  Use the “my Portfolios” tab to created a portfolio of your top three or four competitors.  Checking your “competition” portfolio on a weekly basis takes less than a half hour and will improve your understanding of your rivals.  For private companies, it takes a bit more effort.  Pay attention to the industry literature and get yourself an invitation to perform “booth duty” at the next industry day.

   2.     Know your own corporate goals and objectives.  Fully embrace your company’s mission statement.  Know how your division’s activities fit into the overall corporate strategy.  Then write a mission statement for yourself that reflects the corporate mission.  This will help you focus on the aspects of the job that directly impacts the corporate mission.   Your prioritizing and decision making will reflect this new found strategic, big picture focus.  Upper management will take notice.

   3.     Create an elevator pitch based upon your project team’s product or role in the corporate mission.   This is a variation of the elevator pitch used by entrepreneurs to raise venture capital.  It is a very concise way to convey the essence of your project team’s existence.  I use one for my business and encourage all of my clients to develop their own pitches.  Guy R. Powell placed an explanatory article on the Microsoft website titled “3 Steps to a Great Elevator Pitch” (http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word/HA100747861033.aspx) and the Microsoft Word application contains a template that I have used in my own work.  Record your elevator pitch with a stopwatch in hand.  If it takes you more than three minutes to get through it, cut it in half.  There is no room for rambling.  

Once you have used these three simple tools to create your big picture, take advantage of every opportunity to demonstrate this big picture knowledge in your meetings, reports, and casual conversations.  With a little luck, by this time next year, you will be the one with the promotion.

Why is that so?  Because defining potential risks and responding to them, before they occur, may save you a great deal of time and money later on. For example- having a single supplier for a crucial long lead item may be risky, especially if that supplier has a reputation of late deliveries., If you define that scenario as a risk, put someone in charge of solving that issue (“Risk owner”, it may also be you), include a due date for implementing a response or preventive action, you are actually implementing a risk management technique and may improve the probability of project success significantly, simply by identifying and responding to that risk, before the risk “explodes”.

For more tools and techniques, tips and tricks on Risk Management, such as  ”What is a risk register and how to use it”, check out Risk Management  article at Clarizen’s Knowledge Base:

The PMI ® body of knowledge methodologies within the PMBOK®, chapter 11, pages 273-312 also can lead you in the right direction.

While “restarting a truck seems straightforward enough”, there are many things that should be done in order to restart and rescue the project.

In an article published in PMI’s Community Post, Mr. Duggal lists the key actions that the project manager should do in such a situation.

It is extremely important to identify the cause of project failure. Reasons for the failure can include:

• Poor leadership or lack of top management real support
• Lost control of the changes
•  Poor communication and coordination between various stakeholders of the project: Customers, Vendors, Suppliers, Managers, Resources and others.

Large projects can suffer from inappropriate supportive organization structure or conflicts of interests between the  different stakeholders of the project.

It is highly recommended to treat large projects as a Program that consist of multiple projects, rather than one large project. Treating the project like a program can give different perspectives and visions on the project’s performance.

In his article Mr. Duggal points out that “issues that lead to failure typically emanate from one or more of the three themes of program management—stakeholder management, governance and benefits management”.

If the company would like to restart the project, it is recommended to align its approach to project management with these three themes:

• Stakeholder management is a process of creating and maintaining appropriate positive relationships and support with all stakeholders though appropriate management of their expectations, interests and objectives. It is extremely important to identify all stakeholders, re-engage them and revise and renew the vision of stakeholders before you restart the project.
• Governance management “is the process to develop, communicate, implement, monitor and assure the policies, procedures, organizational structures and practices necessary to run the program.” All related processes should be reevaluated and, if required, changed before the project restarts. Be sure that you have strong management support for the project.
• Benefits management “is the process to identify, define, align, prioritize, maximize and sustain the benefits provided by the program”. It is important to review all benefits and to build realization plan that provides intermediate benefits at the early stages of the project. The project manager should think in terms of “deliverables” and not just milestones and tasks.
   

Restarting a failed project can be a project manager’s finest hour. It is the time for him or her to display leadership, open and effective communications, accountability and commitment, transparency and proper risk management. This includes both risk management in general and credit and cash flow risk management in particular.

A milestone is a task of zero duration that shows an important achievement in a project. Milestones are a way of knowing how the project is advancing if you are not familiar with the tasks being executed. They have zero duration because they symbolize an achievement, a point of time in a project.

If someone is building a house for their family, everyone talks about milestones, because nobody is familiar with the specific tasks: "The floors will be finished on Monday", "The roof will be completed on Nov 1st", "The gas installation will be connected at the end of the month". We intuitively talk about milestones, not tasks, because we do not know how to build a house, and our friends ask us about the construction in terms of milestones: "When are you going to finish the roof?", "When are you going to move in?", etc.

The house is the main deliverable, you are the project manager and your friends are the stakeholders. Sound familiar?

We should place several milestones in our schedule at planning time, estimate their completion date and compare it with the actual completion date. Milestones should be the minimal points of control in the project for those that are not familiar with it, such as high-level sponsors and executives of the organization.

A best practice in planning a project suggests we place key milestones in the schedule in order to manage stakeholders' expectations. This practice helps us define a dashboard for all projects, identify the milestones that have been reached and those that are behind, and manage expectations of those that are involved in the project.
 

On top of that, you are going through a typical scenario: your project will take ten months to complete, you are in the sixth month  and no deliverable has been produced yet. Nothing you can show to the customer to see, check or approve.

What happened during this period? The team has worked in the office, as in a laboratory, preparing documents and working in parallel on many deliverables of the project, but none of them has been finished yet.

This is a big mistake.

Anxiety increases every weekend, everyone wants to see what is coming out from the factory but you still have nothing to show.

You, as a project manager, feel observed. Your team feels the same, but they don't tell you.

Advice: when planning the project and designing the schedule, think of some deliverables that you can produce fast and in an easy manner, which you can show at the beginning of the project. Shows quick results. This will inspire confidence to all stakeholders inside and outside the project. This will inspire confidence on your team too.

Your project has only one deliverable, very large, and it only can be showed at the end?

Maybe you can make a prototype? Maybe you can make a demo of it when you reach 40% completion, 60%, 80%?

Maybe you can present a sketch of the product, a layout, the same way architects present a sketch of the house before
building it?

All you must do is learn how to manage expectations from all stakeholders.

There is a Chinese proverb that says "Believe in your eyes more than your ears". What you see is more real than what you hear.

Plan for quick achievements even if they are small, show your work, stakeholders want to see, not hear.

 

Emotional intelligence is a specific set of skills in social intelligence. In the field of psychology, emotional intelligence is an individual's ability to perform abstract reasoning and adapt to the environment. These skills, like any other skill, can be learned with time and practice. Emotional intelligence, according to D. Goleman "Is the ability to recognize feelings in yourself and in others, being able to handle when working with others."

Within an organization, the project manager has to have certain skills that allow him or her to influence the behavior of others. Everyone in the organization has needs and preferences, the project manager must understand this aspect in each member of the team and align project needs to each individual.

Emotional intelligence is therefore a set of talents and capabilities organized into four domains:

• Ability to perceive emotions accurately (capacity of perception, ability to distinguish between different emotions).
• Ability to apply emotions to facilitate thinking and reasoning (knowing how to use emotions to make decisions).
• Ability to understand your own emotions and those of others (empathy, put yourself in other person's shoes).
• Ability to control one's emotions (this control comes from understanding).

Negotiation

Negotiation is a strategy of conferring with parties that have opposed interests, on the one hand, but have the desire to reach an agreement and an understanding on the other. Negotiation is an integral part of the project manager’s job. Successful project management can increase the probability of project success.
The following skills and behaviors are useful in negotiating successfully:

• Analyze the situation correctly and accurately
• Differentiate between wants and needs – both theirs and yours
•  Focus on interests and issues rather than on positions
• Ask high and offer low, but be realistic
• When you make a concession, act as if you are yielding something of value, don’t just give in
• Always make sure both parties feel as if they have won. This is genuine win-win negotiating. Never let the other party leave feeling as if you have taken advantage of them.
• Do a good job in listening.

 
Remember that the goal of the negotiation is to protect the relationship. The relationship between supplier and client is not a hierarchical relationship. It is a partnership.

You must remember that at the end of the day, your primary goal is for the project to succeed.

This is the time when the organization’s management must know how to choose the right projects and decide “what not to go for.” Management must choose the right project managers to manage the chosen projects.

Conclusion

Project managers must be proactive managers, marketers and salesmen. In effect, they must become the company CEO for the purpose of the project and make their mark on the projects’ success and the organizational heritage.

Now is the time to ensure that the project goals are in line with the organization’s strategy and help realize the organizational portfolio and strategy.

When addressing their teams, they must emphasize the importance of obtaining a follow-on project from existing and new customers. They must also communicate this throughout the organization as a whole.

Sometimes management must make “painful” decisions. This includes deciding which projects and plans must be given up, at least at present.

Decision Making

There are four basic decision styles normally used by project managers: command, consultation, consensus, and coin flip (random). There are four major factors that affect the decision style: time constraints, trust, quality, and acceptance. Project managers may make decisions individually, or they may involve the project team in the decision-making process.

Project managers and project teams sometimes use a decision making model or process such as the six-phase model shown below.

1.    Problem Definition – Fully explore, clarify, and define the problem
2.    Problem Solution Generation – Prolong the new idea generating process by brainstorming multiple solutions and discouraging premature decisions
3.    Ideas to Action – Define evaluation criteria, rate pros and cons of alternatives, select best solution
4.    Solution Action Planning – Involve key participants to gain acceptance and commitment to making the solution work
5.    Solution Evaluation Planning – Post-implementation analysis, evaluation, and lessons learned
6.    Evaluation of the Outcome and Process – Evaluate how well the problem was solved or project goals were achieved (extension of previous phase)

Political and Cultural Awareness

Organizational politics are virtually inevitable in project environments. This is due to the diversity in norms, behavioral patterns, backgrounds, expectations and needs of the stakeholders involved in a project. The skillful use of politics and power helps the project manager to be successful. Conversely, ignoring organizational politics and making inappropriate use of the project manager’s power can lead to the failure of the project and project manager.

In the present reality in which we operate, project managers generally operate in a global environment and in matrix-based organizations. Consequently, projects exist in an environment of cultural diversity. By understanding the cultures and cultural diversity involved, the project management team is more likely to create an environment of widespread mutual trust and a win/win atmosphere. Cultural differences can be both individual and corporate in nature and may affect both internal and external stakeholders. An effective and purposeful way to manage this cultural diversity is through getting to know the various team members and the use of good communication planning as part of the overall project plan.

Various levels of cultural differences include behaviors that appear and are unrelated to geography, ethnic origin and disparate language. Culture can impact the speed of working, the decision-making process, and the impulse to act without appropriate planning. This may lead to conflict and stress in some organizations, thereby having a negative effect on the performance of project managers.

Do you agree with my assessment? Send me your comments.

Next week’s blog post will be the last in the ‘What Makes a Great Project Manager’ Series where we will discuss Negotiation skills. Stay tuned.


 

Today we will discuss Communication and Influence, often cited as the biggest reasons for a project’s success or failure.

Communication

As you know, the project manager spends approximately 90% of his time communicating with the various project stakeholders. Communication has been identified as one of the single biggest reasons for project success or failure. Effective communication within the project team and between the project manager, team members, and all external stakeholders is essential for the success of the project.

Openness in communication is a gateway to and prerequisite for teamwork and improved performance. Good communication improves relationships among project team members and creates mutual trust, along with a pleasant environment and high morale.

To communicate effectively, the project manager should be aware of the communication styles, cultural issues, relationships, personalities, and overall context of the situation. He must also be aware of what is going on above and below the surface. Awareness of these factors leads to mutual understanding and thus to effective communication.

Project managers should identify various effective communication channels, understand what information they need to provide, when and to whom. They also need to identify what information they need to receive, and which interpersonal skills will help them communicate effectively with various project stakeholders. Carrying out team-building activities will also aid in selecting the appropriate communications styles for the various situations.

These styles include: directive, collaborative, logical, explorative, etc. This will enable the project manager to plan his communications with appropriate sensitivity to different relationships and cultural diversity.

Listening and active listening are a very important part of communication. Listening techniques, both active and effective, give the user insight to problem areas, negotiation and conflict management strategies, decision making, and problem resolution.

Influence

Influence is a strategy of sharing power and relying on the project manager’s interpersonal skills to get others to cooperate, with the goal of achieving and realizing the project goals. Using the following guidelines can help influence team members:

• Lead by personal example
• Clarify how decisions will be made
• Use flexible interpersonal styles and adjust them to the style to the human environment
• Apply your power skillfully and cautiously. Think of long-term collaboration.

Check out Part 4 of the ‘What Makes a Great Project Manager’ Series when we will Decision Making and Political and Cultural Awareness and how sensitivity to a project’s resources is the key to successful execution. Looking forward to hearing from you, comments are always welcome.

 

Team Building

Team building is the process of helping a group of individuals, bound by a common sense of purpose, to work interdependently with each other, the leader, external stakeholders, and the organization.

The result of good leadership and good team building is effective teamwork.

Team building activities consist of a wide variety of tasks (such as: establish goals, define, and negotiate roles and procedures) and processes (interpersonal behavior with emphasis on communication, conflict management, motivation, and leadership). Developing a team environment involves handling a project team’s problems and discussing these as team issues without placing blame on individuals.

Team building can be further enhanced by obtaining top management support, encouraging team member commitment, introducing appropriate rewards, and recognition and ethics. Also important in team building is creating a team identity, managing conflicts effectively, promoting trust and open communication among team members, and displaying constructive leadership.

Team building is essential, not only at the start of a project. It is an ongoing process that must be performed throughout the entire project lifecycle. Changes in a project environment are common and virtually inevitable. To manage these changes effectively, a continued and ongoing effort is required in order to rebuild both the project team and the environment of trust among its members. The outcome of team building includes mutual trust, high quality of information exchange, better decision making, and more effective project control.

Motivation

Project teams are comprised of team members with diverse backgrounds, expectations, and individual objectives. The overall success of the project depends upon the project team’s commitment. This level of commitment is directly related to their level of motivation.

Being motivational in a project environment involves creating an environment that meets project objectives while offering maximum self-satisfaction related to what people value most. These values may include job satisfaction, challenging work, a sense of accomplishment, achievement and growth, and sufficient financial compensation. They may also include other rewards and recognition the individual considers necessary and important.

Check out next week’s post when we will discuss Communication and Influence and how these traits affect the success of any project. As always, feedback welcome.
 

However, what are the personality components and skills that generate this success? Are they “acquired” components or “innate” components? How should we choose our project managers?

The project manager carries out the project hopefully, with full cooperation from the project team and other stakeholders. His job consists mainly of building a relationship, based on open communication and high level of trust. An effective project manager may build a supportive climate and achieves a balance between the set of skills at the technical, interpersonal and conceptual levels. This system of checks and balances assists him to correctly evaluate and analyze various situations, and then act accordingly.

 The project manager’s most important interpersonal skills, as detailed in Appendix G of the 4th edition of PMBOK®, are as follows:

• Leadership
• Team Building
• Motivation
• Communication
• Influence
• Decision Making
• Awareness of the organizational culture and politics
• Negotiation

While there are other interpersonal traits that are essential for the project manager’s success, utilization of the above traits and capabilities can be of great assistance to him in the successful performance of his tasks.

Over the next few weeks, I will post several blog entries that will discuss each of the interpersonal traits and capabilities in greater detail. Let’s start today with ‘Leadership’.

 Leadership

 “Leadership involves focusing the efforts of a group of people toward a common goal and enabling them to work as a team. In general terms, leadership is the ability to get things done through others. The way to achieve this is through respect and trust vis-à-vis the performance teams, rather than through fear and submission.


Although important throughout all project phases, effective leadership is critical during the beginning phases of a project. At this phase, the emphasis is on generating high level of trust and getting the stakeholders to work towards the project goals. Emphasis is also placed on open and effective communications, and keeping the focus on the vision. The project manager needs to motivate and inspire the team in order to attain impressive achievements.

Later in the project, the project manager requires the performance teams to operate under heavy workloads and high levels of uncertainty. This situation often requires people to perform at a level far beyond their “natural performance capability” and to extend their capabilities to particularly high, unusual and continuous levels of performance over time.

During the project, the project team and those who head it are responsible for establishing and maintaining the vision, strategy and communication. In order to successfully do so, the project manager must provide encouragement, foster and establish trust and engage in team building. He must also influence, supervise, mentor and evaluate the performance of the project teams (often through an ‘Award System’).

 Stay tuned for my next blog post discussing the interpersonal traits that any successful project manager must possess. Next post: Team Building and Motivation. And let me know what you think of this series.
 
 

Project managers constantly deal with the fine details of each and every project, since otherwise they would be unable to manage it.

In general, they are not concerned with obtaining the “next project.” Now, however, when it’s very hard to obtain projects from customers in general and new customers in particular, are the project manager’s finest hour.

Successful project managers are those who are capable of obtaining the next project when the present project comes to an end, thereby guaranteeing a regular flow of income for the company and helping it survive the present economic crisis.

In today’s complex reality, the marketing side of the project manager’s job is of vital importance.

This is the project manager’s strategic function and it is the best possible way for him to promote himself from a managerial standpoint and improve his future professional career.

During the present economic crisis, whose magnitude, depth and duration are unknown, organizations must take advantage of every possible means in order to increase their sales. That’s easy to say but hard to do. Really? And what will the "Blue Ocean Strategy" be in this context?

Many organizations do not guide their project manager in obtaining another project, while a project manager is the operational spearhead, the man who spends most of his time with the customer, maintains a close relationship with him and is highly familiar with his needs. Should all the project manager’s efforts be directed solely at delivering results and allocating work packages, or should he perhaps also be in charge of obtaining the next project, which is so important to the organization’s future?

Some managements have “forgotten” to explain to the project manager that his main goal is to create “happy customers.” In this type of project, such as setting up a new information system, the project manager works with the customer and he is the one who enjoys most of the business opportunities for creating follow-on projects vis-à-vis the customers.

Other managements have “forgotten” to explain to him that part of his job is to obtain the next project (“that’s the salesman’s job and not the project manager’s”). Some have not established smooth working processes with the customer, some have not trained the project manager to be a salesman and some simply “drown” the project manager with intra-organizational work, battles (and even "wars") over resources, timetables and meeting the organization’s goals.

Isn’t this nothing but a waste? How can the situation be changed ASAP? What is the way to make the change possible and to help increase sales in the fastest and most significant manner possible?

When addressing his team, the project manager must emphasize the project’s contribution to the organization’s success and the importance of obtaining the "next project!"

This is a time when project managers must be proactive managers, marketers and salesmen, and, in effect, they must become the "company CEO for the purpose of the project" and must make their mark on the projects’ success and the organizational heritage.

Now is the time for them to ensure that the project goals are in line with the organization’s strategy and help the company implement that strategy.

When addressing their teams, they must emphasize the importance of obtaining a follow-on project from existing and new customers, and they must communicate this throughout the organization as a whole.