Loose Lips Sink Ships!

Have you ever heard of the "Three Ships to Success"? The one that is considered the best to have and/or demonstrate is Kinship. Kinship requires that you take time to nurture and build your relationships to make them stronger. The second ship is Sponsorship. This requires that a senior person in your organization take a personal interest in your career and your success. The third ship is Showmanship. This ship is your ability to delight and amaze your superiors, peers, and subordinates with your abilities and talents. While the three ships are important, without ability, skill, and knowledge the three ships will not take you very far.

While you work on your "three ships", keep in mind that if you work in a highly political environment you need to work on the following:

Don't criticize others.
Use data to back up your claims and don't exaggerate your needs or your customer's requirements.
Try to understand the political process where you work no matter how hard that may be.
Understand that many rules are out of date, no longer make sense, are not enforced, and are often ignored. Use this to your advantage, but never at the expense of another person, group, or your organization's reputation.
Prove yourself through your efforts, not by talking about what you once did.
Be respectful of others. Keep in mind they determine if you are treating them with respect, not you.
Be reasonable (this can be difficult). Note - I'm not sure who determines reasonableness.

On a personal note, I have never liked or performed up to my highest potential in highly political environments. The things I have listed above are weaknesses of mine and are things I need to work on to be a better project manager.

Remember relationships based on personal preference and personal styles are often major contributors to highly political organizations. Lastly, keep in mind the perceived and demonstrated values of your organization will drive the politics.

Rule of the day, the Three Ships of Success can help you to overcome political hurdles.

Project Management - Don't Do These Things

Don’t believe everything you are told about a potential project’s benefits. Investigate for yourself and plan accordingly.

Don’t take on a project that doesn’t have a strong sponsor that is committed to seeing the project succeed.

Don't forget that most project assumptions should also be risks.

Don't set project expectations that are higher than reality can deliver.

Don't try to define reality too early in the project planning phase.

Don’t define solutions that do not address needs.

Don’t forget to manage customer expectations.

Don’t forget to thank your team members for the good job they are doing.

Don’t be a whiner. A leader never whines and a whiner never leads.

Don’t forget that leaders need to have credibility.

Don’t forget that credibility requires honesty, dedication, commitment, and capability.

Don’t forget that people are the number one reason for project failure.

Don’t forget that empowering teams is a management function.

Don’t allow others to influence your attitude. Be positive in the face of adversity.

Don’t forget to have fun while working on your projects.

Don’t forget that Project Management is mostly art and some science.

Four Project Principles - Don't believe the Hype!

As I was reminded recently, it is always good to go back to the basics of what you know when confronted with issues that seem overwhelming.

Here are four basic Project Principles and some of my ideas regarding what to watch out for when managing your projects. As always, I welcome your feedback.

E-mail me at sfseay@yahoo.com

(1) Projects are often constrained from the start (Initiation Phase) by a fixed, finite budget and defined timeline. In other words, many projects have budgets that have strictly defined constraints and a timeline with a set start and end date. This is obvious to all project managers, however what is not so obvious is many times these budget and timelines are not sufficient (or realistic) to accomplish the project’s objectives. From the start, ensure the project sponsor is aware that budget and timelines may need to be renegotiated as project planning progresses.

(2) Projects can have many complex and interrelated activities that need to be coordinated so that proper organizational resources can be applied at the proper time. The big thing to watch out for here is "proper organizational resources". While you may not have input on which resources you get for your project, you do have input on the project’s estimates and schedule. Do not allow others to dictate unrealistic schedules or estimates for resources that are unproven, unreliable or untested.

(3) Projects are directed toward the attainment of a clearly defined objective(s) and once they are achieved, the project is over. Yea, right! Not all projects have clearly defined objectives, and if they do, they are not always achievable given the budget, time, and organizational constraints. Not only that, your organization’s culture can be a huge impediment to successfully managing your project. Be very careful when accepting a new project to ensure you are not being setup to fail. Do not accept projects with unclear or unrealistic objectives.

(4) Projects are unique. Because they are unique, the risks are great and failure is always an option. Minimize the risks by informing your sponsor that until you are finished with your initial project planning activities you may not be able to provide realistic budget and time estimates. Once you have completed your initial project planning activities, (project planning is continuous) provide your sponsor with an estimated budget and time range, and remind him or her that as planning progresses these ranges will be adjusted to closer reflect reality.