Five Good Free Kindle Books (Non-Fiction)

The Truth About Personal Performance (Collection) - by Robert E. Gunther [amazon.com]

Three full books of proven solutions for supercharging personal performance! Prepare for any audience, negotiation, or decision-compel attention and motivate action-manage anxiety or anger-use nonverbal communication-negotiate with people you love (or hate)-build (or repair) trust-make decisions with imperfect data-and much more!

How McDonald's Got Its Groove Back - by New World City [amazon.com]
How did the lumbering fast-food giant McDonald's cure its own sclerosis and become a newly lean, hungry competitor? Its comeback offers lessons for leaders everywhere in focusing on what their customers really want. For example, don't react to competitors, react to customers. When you broaden your market appeal, don't abandon your first customers. Don't skimp on product development.

33 Million People in the Room: How to Create, Influence, and Run a Successful Business with Social Networking - by Juliette Powell[amazon.com]
Social networks are no fad. They’re a permanent reality: one that offers immense opportunities to smart, innovative businesses. Now, top social networking consultant Juliette Powell reveals how dozens of innovators are driving real ROI through
social networks–and how you can, too.
Powell’s wide-ranging research, including coverage on Barack Obama's successful online strategy in his bid for the presidency, focuses on technology, media and gaming companies, leaders in fashion, beauty, publishing, finance, retail, event planning, and beyond. These powerful narratives illuminate the reality of doing business on today’s social networks as never 

The Personal Credibility Factor: How to Get It, Keep It, and Get It Back (If You?ve Lost It) - by Sandy Allgeier [amazon.com]
Can you be trusted? Right now, someone is asking that question. If they decide to trust you, they’ll work with you, care about you, open up to you…help you live a more successful, more fulfilled, happier life. If not, you’re on your own…

Build the Strong Personal Credibility You Need to Live a Truly Great Life
*Learn the secrets of personal credibility that make trust possible
*Use the plan to earn trust and respect from those you encounter in your daily life
*Enable others to have confidence in you by following the 7 easy steps
*Follow the Personal Credibility Factor’s steps to repairing credibility when you’ve lost it

So What?: How to Communicate What Really Matters to Your Audience - by Mark Magnacca [amazon.com]
It’s tough, but true—the people you’re trying to communicate with, sell to, or convince don’t really care about you. Nor do they care what you’re offering them—until they understand exactly how it’ll benefit them. If you recognize that one hard, cold fact—and you know what to do about it—you’ll make more money, achieve greater success, and even have more fun!

In this book, world-renowned sales consultant Mark Magnacca shows you how to answer the “So What?” question brilliantly, every time—no matter who’s asking it or what you’re trying to achieve. This book will transform the way you communicate: You’ll use it every day to get what you want—in business and in life!

Overcoming Perfectionism: The Key to a Balanced Recovery - by Ann W. Smith[amazon.com]
Do you have to be perfect to lead a healthy life? Ann Smith discusses how perfectionism may have benefits but is ultimately an obstacle to quality living as it prevents intimacy and lowers self-esteem. This book offers practical hints to letting go of your superhuman syndrome and being imperfect. 

Poor Project Communications Can Hurt the Whole Team

When project teams are surveyed at the end of failed projects, poor communications is always cited as being one of the major causes. Why does this keep happening? Why is project communications so poorly executed so often. My short answer is that many project managers (and managers) are arrogant, inattentive, and oblivious to the feelings and needs of the project team.

Project managers are busy, and often they don't make time to manage project communications effectively. Also, the project manager may think they are doing a good job communicating, but that may not be the case.

Project managers must remember that the project team is made up of individuals. Each person on the team has a preference for the types of communication they like to receive, and each person processes communications differently.

Some things to monitor that may point to poor project communications are:

Trust - Does the team trust you (the project manager)? How do you know? Everybody will not trust you all the time. Team members that don't trust the project manager will not be open in their communications. They will tend to either shut down, gossip and spread rumors, or challenge the project manager at every turn

De-motivated - Where are we going? Is the team going where we said we were going when we started? Did we clearly state where we were going before we started?

Whining - Despair and anxiety take over the team or key team members. Infighting is prevalent and people are starting to talk openly about the project being a failure.

Incompetence - Team isn't sharing information and learning. Perhaps the team has had little to no training, or the training received was of poor quality.  Perhaps some team members should be fired from the team.

All the above can be overcome, however it requires that the project manager is listening and changing strategy when necessary to get the team back on track. Just because you are a project manager doesn't make you a good communicator, however ignoring problems like the ones mentioned above will make you a bad project manager.

My two cents are, be a leader. Lead through your communication and your ability to motivate your team to get the job done. Be on the lookout for the above warning signs. When you see the signs act quickly, follow-up, then continue to monitor.  Remember people may need to be removed from the team.

Poor project team synergy is the fault of the project manager. There are a lot of incompetent project managers that are hurting our profession because they either refuse to alter their communication styles or are too arrogant to change. My advice to them is to change their ways or leave the project management profession.

A Collection of Project Management

I posted these a few years ago and thought they deserved a repost.


Good estimators aren't modest: if it's huge they say so.

The sooner you begin coding the later you finish.

A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.

What is not on paper has not been said.

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.

If you fail to plan you are planning to fail.

If you don't attack the risks, the risks will attack you.

A little risk management saves a lot of fan cleaning.

The sooner you get behind schedule, the more time you have to make it up.

A badly planned project will take three times longer than expected - a well-planned project only twice as long as expected.

If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs, you haven't understood the plan.

When all's said and done a lot more is said than done.

If at first you don't succeed, remove all evidence you ever tried.

Feather and down are padding - changes and contingencies will be real events.

There are no good project managers - only lucky ones.

The more you plan the luckier you get.

A project is one small step for the project sponsor, one giant leap for the project manager.

Good project management is not so much knowing what to do and when, as knowing what excuses to give and when.

If everything is going exactly to plan, something somewhere is going massively wrong.

Everyone asks for a strong project manager - when they get him they don't want him.

Overtime is a figment of the naïve project manager's imagination.

Quantitative project management is for predicting cost and schedule overruns well in advance.

Good project managers know when not to manage a project.

Metrics are learned men's excuses.

For a project manager overruns are as certain as death and taxes.

If there were no problem people there'd be no need for people who solve problems.

Some projects finish on time in spite of project management best practices.

Good project managers admit mistakes: that's why you so rarely meet a good project manager.

Fast - cheap - good: you can have any two.

There is such a thing as an unrealistic timescale.

The more ridiculous the deadline the more money will be wasted trying to meet it.

The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time the last 10% takes the other 90%.

The project would not have been started if the truth had been told about the cost and timescale.

To estimate a project, work out how long it would take one person to do it then multiply that by the number of people on the project.

Never underestimate the ability of senior management to buy a bad idea and fail to buy a good idea.

The most successful project managers have perfected the skill of being comfortable being uncomfortable.

When the weight of the project paperwork equals the weight of the project itself, the project can be considered complete.

If it wasn't for the 'last minute', nothing would get done.

Nothing gets done till nothing gets done.

Warning: dates in the calendar are closer than you think.

There is no such thing as scope creep, only scope gallop.

Anything that can be changed will be changed until there is no time left to change anything.

If project content is allowed to change freely the rate of change will exceed the rate of progress.

If you can interpret project status data in several different ways, only the most painful interpretation will be correct.

A project gets a year late one day at a time.

A project isn’t over until the fat check is cashed.

Powerful project managers don't solve problems, they get rid of them.

Great Project Team Leaders

If you watch professional sports you often see the positive results of a great coach and a great team (Go Tampa Bay Rays!).

Great team results come from good coaching, and the right team talent all coming together at the same time to obtain a mutual goal...Winning!

A project manager is often thrust into the role of team coach.  A coach is a critical component of the team, and their job involves ensuring the team is ready and able to deliver the "desired results".  No matter what your style of communication, or your level of team building skills, it is important to lead the team in a way that ensures they use their talents to their fullest potential.


My Three Random Team Rules

1.)  You must know each team member's skills, talents, and abilities and manage them accordingly.

2.)  As team leader you must be respected, you must be a tireless champion for the cause (desired results, winning, meeting milestones, etc), and you must form a bond built on trust with each member of the team.

3.)  The weakest relationships you have on the team can often be your project's biggest risk.

Steps to Political and Project Success

Assess the Environment
Who are the relevant stakeholders?
Who are the most important stakeholders?
Where does the power lie?
Whose actions will impact the project most (Negative or Positive)?


Identify the Goals/Needs of the Stakeholders and Sponsor
What are the stakeholder's motivations?
What are the sponsor’s motivations?
What are the organizational motivations?
What are their psychological motivations?
What is their overt motivation?
What is their hidden (covert) agenda?


Know Thyself
What are your strengths and weaknesses as you perceive them?
How are you perceived by others?
What are your personal values related to your workplace?
How can you compensate for your weaknesses (actual and perceived)?


Define the Problems
What are all the relevant facts?
What are the underlying assumptions (both True and False)?
What is Reality?

Develop Solutions that Work
Avoid premature solutions that don't account for the four steps above
Obtain user buy-in to the solution
Obtain Sponsor buy-in to the solution


Test and Refine the Solutions
Initial solutions are tough and usually difficult to sell
Continually refine and test your solution
Get sign-off from all relevant stakeholders and your sponsor
__________________________

PROJECT MANAGEMENT FACT
A solution that does not take the realities of the political environment into account will fail. Don't be naive when it comes to internal politics.

Mistakes and Consequences

Project managers make mistakes and must deal with the consequences of these mistakes continually. Dr. Stephen Covey talks about mistakes and consequences and we should consider his words carefully.


As Dr. Covey states, "While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to choose the consequence of those actions. Consequences are governed by natural law. They are out in the Circle of Concern” (See Dr Covey’s book ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ to learn more about the Circle of Concern and the Circle of Influence). He continues, “We can decide to step in front of a fast-moving train, be we cannot decide what will happen when the train hits us”. To take this further, Dr. Covey says, "We can decide to be dishonest in our business dealings. While the social consequences of these decisions may vary depending on whether or not we are found out, the natural consequences to our basic character are a fixed result."


Dr. Covey continues, "Our behavior is governed by principles. Living in harmony with them brings positive consequences; violating them brings negative consequences. We are free to choose our response in any situation, but in doing so we choose the attendant consequence. When we pick up one end of the stick, we pick up the other".


What does this mean? As project managers we have the capability to motivate and empower members of our team by demonstrating honest and ethical behavior. At the other end of the spectrum we can send our projects (and reputations) quickly off-track if we are dishonest or unethical. We must be willing to quickly admit our mistakes and at times suffer the consequences.


To quote Dr. Covey again, "Our response to mistakes affects the quality of our next moment. It is important to immediately admit and correct our mistakes so that they have no power over that next moment, and we are empowered again. It is not what others do or even our mistakes that hurt us the most; it is our response to those things".


We all make mistakes. We must atone for and make amends to others for those mistakes quickly. In my opinion, our unwillingness to admit our mistakes is the biggest obstacle to personal growth and strong relationships. As Dr. Convey says, "By making and keeping promises to ourselves and others, little by little, our honor becomes greater than our moods”.


Have high integrity and make and keep your promises. Your projects (and your life) will be the better for it.

What is a Competent Project Manager?

What are the capabilities of a good project manager? What is the definition of capability? Also, what defines capabilities and where does “competence” fit in to the mix. Perhaps if we look at some definitions we can start to answer the original question.


Capable - quality, ability, feature, etc., Something to be used or developed; potential


Competence - is a measure of the ability to perform a task


So, we can say that a competent project manager would possess a set of skills and behaviors, which would help guide them to successful project results.


I believe that some of these competencies are comprised of the following:


(K)nowledge - acquaintance with facts, truths, or principles, as from study or investigation; general erudition


(S)kills - the ability, coming from one's knowledge, practice, aptitude, etc., to do something well


(A)ttitude - manner, disposition, feeling, position, etc., with regard to a person or thing; tendency or orientation, esp. of the mind


(E)xperience - the process or fact of personally observing, encountering, or undergoing something


Based on the above definitions, we could say that K+S+A+E = Competence


Also, I have posted several times in the past that I believe: (K) + (E) = (W)isdom. Taking the previous equation to the next logical level can we not also say that: W + S + A = Competence.


In conclusion, let’s not forget that the competent project manager still needs a good suite of tools.  Whether you are managing IT, construction, or some other type of project, a good suite of project management tools with a robust project accounting component will help you track project costs and calculate your projects Earned Value (EV).  If you don’t know the Earned Value of your project there is a good chance your project is going to fail.  Don’t forget, what isn’t measured can’t be managed.