You can’t be a good project manager if you are constantly distracted by negative thoughts and negative people. Choose today to get back to some of the basics of what it means to be centered. A few lessons I have learned are listed below:
Surround yourself with positive people
Smile more and whine less
Believe that most of the time others are doing their best
Get rid of negative thoughts
Be happy with what you have, but don’t accept less than what you deserve
Be true to yourself and others
Be trustworthy
Be a good friend
See failure as a blessing because you can learn from the experience
Be positive, and an inspiration to others
Be grateful for what you have because it may be gone tomorrow
Monday, March 15, 2010
Saturday, March 06, 2010
Discipline Gets Project Results
So why don't more organizations keep closer tabs on their projects at the enterprise level? Some would say the executives are too busy strategizing, and the projects are running just fine without their oversight. I think people that say this are fooling themselves and have little to no project management discipline.
Before we go further, we need to ensure we have a clear understanding of the word discipline. Discipline is the act of encouraging a desired pattern of behavior. George Washington said: "Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable, procures success to the weak, and esteem to all". In other words, discipline is the glue that holds organizations together.
We can't have agile and effective project methodologies or organizational processes without discipline. In short, effective discipline requires effective organizational oversight. Finally, discipline begins at the top and works its way down. Organizations with poor discipline generally have weak, ineffective leaders at the top. Weak, unengaged, ineffective leaders kill organizations.
The lack of project discipline is the fault of all project team members, but the cause of a lack of discipline lies at the top of the organization.
Disconnected, disinterested, and unengaged leadership is unacceptable in any organization. Undisciplined organizations have high turnover, low employee morale, and poor project results. These organizations cheat their investors and customers by not providing the highest level of service possible. Highly disciplined organizations make and keep commitments, manage to clearly stated and measurable goals, and have executives that are engaged and visibly participate in the oversight of projects and day-to-day operations.
Remember, if you aren't visible, your aren't relevant. If you aren't relevant, you aren't needed.
In closing, dysfunctional organizations believe that the workers are solely responsible for managing projects and operational work. These organizations believe that the executives should spend the majority of their time strategizing and making policy. This is a failed approach (see General Motors, Ford, K-Mart, etc), and ensures the work, including projects, will take longer than planned and cost more than what was budgeted.
Executive leadership and oversight of projects has been proven to motivate project teams to be accountable, results driven, and focused on achieving a common goal. Good executive leadership provides the glue that keeps teams working together, provides inspiration, exhibits integrity, sets an example for others to follow, and is accountable.
Saturday, February 27, 2010
Great People
What common behaviors or attributes turn ordinary people into great people? Here are a few I have assembled from various sources, including Tom Peter’s book "Reinventing Work, The Project 50" .
Great people almost always have had some of the traits below.
They are Risk Takers
They often don’t appear rational
They are obsessed with success (success is clearly defined up front)
Their ideas are often ahead of their time
They can be peculiar, creative, off-the-wall
They are often described as irreverent
They have a burning passion to make their dreams come true
They are determined to make a difference
They have little tolerance for the “the way it has always been done” crowd
They have thick skin
They have charisma
They thrive on chaos and often love to generate chaos
They are great at what they do
They hate J.A.M.S – Just Another Mediocre Success (Tom Peters)
They have a positive influence on the lives of others (not everyone, all the time)
They make lots of mistakes and are quick to admit they made them
They often ask forgiveness vs. permission
They hate, hate, hate politics and petty people. (They will occasionally play the “political” game to get what they want, but they know most career politicians are disingenuous, self-centered, and are only interested in furthering their own careers.)
They are great at marketing
They are often (not always) great listeners
They are masters of the little (important) things
They know how to sell
They hate whiners, complainers, and corporate Dilberts
They aspire to something higher than themselves
They are concerned with doing the “right” thing
They often make lots of people mad (usually the politicians and career procrastinators)
They know how to laugh
They call others out for a lack of commitment or disingenuous behavior
Should project managers adopt some/all of these behaviors? The great ones already have.
Monday, February 22, 2010
No Fun at Work?
Back in 1940 a man by the name of John Gallo, an assembly worker at Ford Motor Company, was fired after being "caught in the act of smiling". He had been warned on a previous occasion for "laughing with others". At that time Ford's workers weren't allowed to hum, whistle, or talk with other workers, even during lunch. Henry Ford believed that work was for work and play was for outside of work. He believed the two should never be mixed.
Southwest Airlines has a completely different philosophy. They believe that "people rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it". If you review their website you see comments like “our people are our single greatest strength and most enduring longterm competitive advantage.”
Part of Southwest Airline's mantra is to:
Have FUN
Don’t take yourself too seriously
Maintain perspective (balance)
Celebrate successes
Enjoy your work
Be a passionate team player
What is the culture look like at your company? Are the employees excited to come to work or do they dread coming to work? Remember, if you and your team aren't having fun at work you aren't doing your best work.
Southwest Airlines has a completely different philosophy. They believe that "people rarely succeed at anything unless they are having fun doing it". If you review their website you see comments like “our people are our single greatest strength and most enduring longterm competitive advantage.”
Part of Southwest Airline's mantra is to:
Have FUN
Don’t take yourself too seriously
Maintain perspective (balance)
Celebrate successes
Enjoy your work
Be a passionate team player
What is the culture look like at your company? Are the employees excited to come to work or do they dread coming to work? Remember, if you and your team aren't having fun at work you aren't doing your best work.
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
Groups, Values and Toxic Turkeys
I really liked George Carlin's last book; "Last Words - A Memoir". In it he wrote the following, which I find very scary and very profound all at once.
"The worst thing about groups are their values...you will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own...because you’ve lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that’s bigger than you are and that controls you.
What are your group's values? Honesty, trust, cooperation, respect, or get it done at any cost?
Project management is about groups of people working together to bring to realization the project's objectives...and doing it on time, on budget and with expected quality and scope.
In my experience, most project teams are staffed with decent, cooperative, competent people, but many times there can be one or more toxic team members bent on steering the group to service their personal agenda. These toxic turkeys don't care about the project's objectives, they only care about themselves and their own agenda (usually hidden). When you see this type of person on your team remove them or get your sponsor to remove them before they poison the rest of the team and stop your project's progress.
Remember what Carlin said about large groups, "the larger the group, the more toxic it is, and the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought."
Click here to purchase George Carlin's last book from Amazon.com.
"The worst thing about groups are their values...you will do things in the name of a group that you would never do on your own...because you’ve lost your identity, because you now owe your allegiance to this thing that’s bigger than you are and that controls you.
What are your group's values? Honesty, trust, cooperation, respect, or get it done at any cost?
Project management is about groups of people working together to bring to realization the project's objectives...and doing it on time, on budget and with expected quality and scope.
In my experience, most project teams are staffed with decent, cooperative, competent people, but many times there can be one or more toxic team members bent on steering the group to service their personal agenda. These toxic turkeys don't care about the project's objectives, they only care about themselves and their own agenda (usually hidden). When you see this type of person on your team remove them or get your sponsor to remove them before they poison the rest of the team and stop your project's progress.
Remember what Carlin said about large groups, "the larger the group, the more toxic it is, and the more of your beauty as an individual you have to surrender for the sake of group thought."
Click here to purchase George Carlin's last book from Amazon.com.
Monday, February 15, 2010
Technology Questions
Marshall McLuhan said “first we shape our tools and then they shape us.” Sometimes how we are "shaped" by technology isn't pleasant or what we were expecting. We need to keep in mind that technology for technologies' sake will never deliver anything of lasting value. When thinking about implementing a technology ask yourself a couple of very important questions.
Can we or should we do it?
Will it make our situation simpler or more complex?
Will it help us to solve a problem or cause a problem?”
Should we do nothing?
Also, when implementing technology remember these three rules:
The customer is your partner
The customer defines the requirements
Open systems beat closed systems
The customer defines the requirements
Open systems beat closed systems
Remember it isn't the technology that matters, it is what the technology makes possible.
