What does it take to be GREAT?

Obviously one must have technical project management capabilities. But that is NOT enough to be a GREAT project manager. To be called upon to lead the most important projects, one must also have backbone, leadership skills and the ability to think broadly as well as in detail.

1) Backbone – You have to be willing to take on a tough project and tell the TRUTH to people who may not want to hear it; people who are powerful and who influence your career and income.

2) Leadership – This covers a lot including timely decision-making under pressure. Your team members need to know that you have their back and you will stand up and say “they did a great job” when things are going well and “it is my fault” when something goes wrong. See also BACKBONE.

3) Broad and detailed thinking (the PMO Executive Council calls this "seeing the forest AND the trees") - there are some people who can think “big picture” and strategicially but have no tolerance for details; there are many people who can think in details but lose sight of the big picture; there are fewer people who can create a big picture that everyone can rally around as well as break that picture down into all of its pixels and then lead the effort to build it one pixel at a time. See also LEADERSHIP.

Note that none of these can really be tested in a multiple-choice exam. They often come as part of someone's "chemical make-up" or DNA. This is why, despite my PMP designation, when I am hiring PM's, I look for evidence of these characteristics as well as clear expertise in the use of solid project management practices. And as a manager of project managers, it is important to support and nurture these elements. If you do that, your team of PMs will be well on the way to being a GREAT success!

Project Managers are Motivators

Many times you may need to be the team’s top motivator. Projects are hard. They all have their challenges. So, here is a lesson from history in persistence. Feel free to share with your team members who need it…

"He failed in business in ’31. He was defeated for state legislator in ’32. He started another business in ’33. It failed. His fiancée died in ’35. He had a nervous breakdown in ’36. In ’43 he ran for Congress and was defeated. He tried again in ’48 and was defeated again. He tried running for the Senate in ’55. He lost. The next year he ran for Vice President and lost. In ’58 he ran for the Senate again and was defeated again. Finally, in 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected 16th president of the United States."

“Those who envision greatness, usually achieve it.”

- Dare to Soar: Your Attitude Determines Your Altitude, Byrd Baggett

People - Love'em or Hate'em?

Are you the type of person that comments on a regular basis, “you know, I really can’t stand people!” Perhaps you should consider whether or not this view impacts your success as a project manager and/or leader. I argue that it does.

I was just checking out Pete DeYoe’s blog and he has two recent entries that led me to this post. In his entry titled “Flock or Fleece”, he quotes:

Effective leaders are those interested in the flock – the people they are leading. They see their role as that of a giver – to get behind their people and support them in ways that bring out their best.

Ineffective leaders are interested only in the fleece and couldn’t care less about their flock – they’re takers…

The lesson here is to be a giver and show an interest in your flock. If you do, your flock will respond in ways that will guarantee your success as a leader.

Instant Turnaround, by Harry Paul and Ross Reck

The other article is called "Why Being a 'Good' Manager is 'Great'", which he posted after reading the book, “Lead Well and Prosper” by Nick McCormick.

I believe that being a good project manager who cares about people IS great. We all know that projects are hard and often involve strange hours and/or time away from what we really care about. If you are in a job where you aren’t sure you are doing as much for the world as you had hoped, look around. If you are genuinely interested in and care about people and their success and do everything you can to help them be successful while simultaneously understanding that sometimes people actually have lives outside of work, you are doing a GREAT thing for the world! You are doing your part to help to create a healthy work environment for people. When they feel good about coming to work, it truly is a gift that keeps on giving - for them, for you, for the project, for the company, for the world.

Do your team members feel good about working for and/or with you? What even slight change can you make right now, to bring out the best in people even more? Let me give you a hint…it’s not by “sheering“ them when they walk into your office…

Project Managers Dig Deeper

Project managers perform the smell test on key measures of success and do not always accept the immediate answer without appropriate validation. Ultimately, the steering team is placing their trust in the project manager to execute on the plan, but also to understand the full business context and respond accordingly. Project managers that hone these skills are ideal candidates for future leadership roles. Keep on sniffing! ...

... "To gauge sponsorship accurately, you must gather perceptions across the project. After all, someone reporting directly to the CIO may have quite a different view than one working 1000 miles away ... " ...

Via ZDNet: IT project success factors

Leaders Create Purpose by Engaging Stakeholders

Change professionals ...

ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch ch

... offer their prioritization of critical success factors when managing change. ...

... "Leadership, Purpose and Stakeholder engagement were consistently ranked as the most important factors. " ...

Via Houghley Ltd: Successful Change

Project Leadership and Management

Green Shoots from IT Projects

What will drive the recovery? Will the technology industry have a role as a leader or a lagger? Let's get cracking on those IT project proposals. ...

... "If there's good news from the Gartner study, it's that CIOs aren't canceling projects outright. CIOs report shifting more work to in-house resources and delaying capital expenditures more than reducing IT project investments ... " ...

Via Motley Fools: Technology Industry Perspectives

The Accidental CEO

Twitter-ific unfinished autobiography ...

... "In 1999, I started Pyra Labs with a friend, Meg Hourihan, to develop project management programs. Then we started a side project called Blogger ... " ...

Via NY Times: EVAN WILLIAMS

Embrace Toyota Kaizen

Here's a set of leadership principles that contribute to the success of the Toyota production system. These can translate well into the field of project management. ...

... "Advancing your team member's careers by walking along side them on their learning journey, mentoring them and keeping them from wavering on the path of the creative thinking process is also a leadership habit kaizen develops. " ...

Via Manufacturer.com: Kaizen Leadership Development

In the Moment

GE's Immelt to his leaders ... Sharpen your teeth in 2009. ...

... "You were put on Earth for this moment. A dog could have managed the '90s. Anybody could have, but only the best can do 2009! " ...

Via Washington Times: GE Leadership

Poor Leaders Lack Social Intelligence: Self-Mastery Not Enough

There's an excellent article by Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence, highlighting the difference between self-mastery and social intelligence, and why effective leaders need both.

Self-Mastery, he says, involves self-awareness and self-control, including how we perform under pressure. However, this ability to excel "as an individual" does not in itself make use good at leading others. This also explains why so many managers, promoted because of their individual achievements, are poor at leading others.

As Goleman says, "Solo stars are often promoted to leadership positions and then flounder for lack of people skills."

The missing ingredient is what Goleman calls Social Intelligence: the ability to understand, empathize, influence, and relate to others.

Here's the article:

Daniel Goleman - Author of Emotional Intelligence and Social Intelligence » Blog Archive » Leadership: Social Intelligence is Essential

And, speaking of social intelligence, here's another good one from Goleman about the three types of empathy.

Competition: A Good Thing

Whether in business or sports, competition can bring out the best in people and teams. ...

... "That's a good thing -- a truly Olympian feat should tax a champion to his fullest. If it had all somehow seemed too easy for Phelps in Beijing, it certainly doesn't now. Phelps got to seven the hard way. " ...

Via ESPN: Phelps' Olympic Run

Constraints Drive Innovation

Amazon founder, Jeff Bezos, gives his take of business innovation, which he believes it driven by constraints that forces us to create new ways to approach the situation. ...

... "I think frugality drives innovation, just like other constraints do. One of the only ways to get out of a tight box is to invent your way out. " ...

Via Business Week: Jeff Bezos

Leadership is Plural, and Other Insights on Engagement

A colleague referred me to an interesting Harvard Business School article on leadership from Rosabeth Moss Kanter, author of Confidence: How Winning Streaks and Losing Streaks Begin and End.

Kanter discusses the importance of creating a culture where natural leaders can emerge, which is often the case during winning streaks (and often lacking during losing streaks). This is equally true in both sports and business.

Says Kanter:

Winning teams and successful organizations become increasingly less dependent on the person called the commander-in-chief—even though, ironically, the same top managers are more likely to stay in place during winning streaks. As a pattern of success continues, many people at many levels take on leadership roles.

By creating the right environment, these managers earn the respect and confidence of their team, which in turn ensures that the management will endure. It's a virtuous circle.

Kanter goes on to explain how this forms the three cornerstones of confidence:

Leaders can multiply on the field when leaders at the top establish the support structure to make further leadership possible. Leaders construct and reinforce the cornerstones of confidence... The mission statement for leaders has three imperatives, one for each stone: to ensure accountability, cultivate collaboration, and encourage initiative.

A quote I particularly liked from the article comes from Mike Krzyzewski, coach of Duke's men's basketball team: "Leadership is plural."

For more details, read the full article below...

How Leaders Build Winning Streaks — HBS Working Knowledge

Project Portfolio Management PPM Tools Market Leadership Analysis

CA's PPM software (previously Niku) makes strong showing in Forrester's recent project portfolio management software market analysis. ...

... "CA is moving up in its leadership position. Priced and built to perform as well in medium-sized shops as in large installations wrote Lewis Cardin, vice president at Forrester and the report's author. He added, CA's Clarity is a strong performer across the majority of important PPM offerings. " ...

Via CA: CA Named Leader in PPM Market

CIO Skill List Deemphasize Technology

Aspiring CIOs need to develop many skills and competencies beyond the realm of technology. ...

... "Kost sees the CIO role as encompassing jobs such as venture capitalist, economist and political visionary. Leadership, relationships and business are the pillars of the role ... " ...

Via ZDNet UK: CIO 2.0

Leaders Challenge the Norm

I recently had the pleasure of hearing this person speak about his life adventures (pretty extreme) and how his lessons of leadership translate to business and life, in general. The speaker's name is Pete Goss. Pete uses a story-based presentation style to share his nuggets of knowledge, with some Brit-humor tossed in. He is a yachtsman and an inspiration.

In this talk, Pete emphasized the importance of leaders to "challenge the norm", reinforced the need to break challenges into achievable pieces, and dared his audience to dream. See Pete's book.

A Goose Learns to Lead: Meet Gregory

I just returned from a mind-altering three-day thought leadership summit in Connecticut, hosted by Judith Glaser, author of Creating We and The DNA of Leadership (both of which are landmark books for leading change and ensuring alignment in your organization or team).

At the summit, which we collectively titled The First International Creating We Summit, we engaged in deep conversation and shared the most groundbreaking tools for facilitating real change. Present were the leading thinkers from a variety of disciplines, including organizational development, neuroscience, psychology, and more. The mutual benefits and shared learnings were so great that we realized we need to keep working together on an ongoing basis.

Rest assured, more will come from this, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, we got to preview a new video from Judith Glaser, called The Leadership Secrets of Gregory Goose. Don't let the title, or the simplicity, fool you. This animated short packs a wallop in its short 6 1/2 minutes, and is bound to generate discussion among leadership teams who watch it. The purpose of the video is to help leaders understand how sharing power releases the leadership instincts in others.

Here's a brief snippet, along with information for ordering it (the package comes with a facilitators guide and power point presentation, so you can conduct your own workshop with the video). If you order it, tell them PMThink sent you.

The Leadership Secrets of Gregory Goose by Judith E. Glaser :: Benchmark Communications, Inc.

Leadership Lessons from the Movies

Anyone who knows me is aware that I have many interests, and one of my passions is film (in fact, one of these days I'm going to make good on my personal committment to write a screenplay). I enjoy all genres, especially independent and international cinema. In fact, I could probably start my own rental agency with my DVD collection (I'm, of course, also a home theater buff). No matter the film, I usually come away with some kind of lesson.

Needless to say, I found this article from Mike Hofman on Inc.com to be fascinating. In the article, Hofman highlights 10 films that have particularly relevant lessons for leaders:

- Apollo 13
- The Bridge on the River Kwai
- The Dead Poets Society
- Elizabeth
- Glengarry Glen Ross
- It's a Wonderful Life
- Norma Rae
- One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
- Twelve Angry Men
- Twelve O'Clock High

You don't need to have seen the films to benefit from the lessons. Curious as to what the lessons are from each film? Read on.....

Everything I Know about Leadership, I Learned From the Movies, Planning and Strategy Article - Inc. Article

The Innovation Investment

Innovation is not free. Research projects need funding. And, it costs money for the salaries of innovation evangelists. Fresh from PDMA event, Jeffrey offers insights on the diminishing returns of operational efficiency and the need to innovate in order to grow. ...

... "Without defining an objective and consistently reinforcing the efforts of a group of people who support and enable an innovation process, most firms simply won't generate a lot of new ideas. " ...

Via Innovate on Purpose: Cheap Innovation

Evidence-Based Management: Just the Facts

I just mentioned about Bob Sutton's excellent blog site. Well, it turns out that he and Jeffrey Pfeffer have a shared site on Evidence-Based Management (based on their book, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense). In fact, that site also links to Sutton's blog.

There are a number of compelling studies there. I assure you, after seeing their material, you will never look at management the same way. The site also lists the 5 Principles of Evidence-Based Management (EBM):

1) Face the hard facts, and build a culture in which people are encouraged to tell the truth, even if it is unpleasant

2) Be committed to "fact based" decision making -- which means being committed to getting the best evidence and using it to guide actions

3) Treat your organization as an unfinished prototype -- encourage experimentation and learning by doing

4) Look for the risks and drawbacks in what people recommend -- even the best medicine has side effects

5) Avoid basing decisions on untested but strongly held beliefs, what you have done in the past, or on uncritical "benchmarking" of what winners do

Here's the link. I encourage you to visit it often for true leadership enlightenment.

Evidence-Based Management (EBM)

Leadership Wisdom from the Blogosphere

I just came across Bob Sutton's blog site. Along with Jeffrey Pfeffer, Sutton is the co-author of one of my favorite leadership books of all time, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense.

Sutton's most recent book is, The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn't, another gem.

I highly recommend his blog site as well, which is full of sage (and, unfortunately, uncommon) wisdom on leadership.

I noticed his blog entry on why people become corrupt when they come to power. Someone pointed out Abraham Lincoln's quote, "Nearly all men can overcome adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power."

This is a major element of my Napoleon on Project Management book as well. In fact, if I were to use the "No asshole" paradigm, I could almost sum up the book by saying that Napoleon didn't start out as an asshole, then he became one when he was at the height of his power, and by the time he realized it and changed, it was too late.

Enjoy...

Bob Sutton

Chaos and Order: The Ingredients for Project Success

In my upcoming book, Managing the Gray Areas, there's a chapter on the need for both structure and flexibility----order and disorder. I've been exchanging some emails on the subject with Garry Booker of Project Frontier, who I'm happy to say is our newest PMThink blogger.

As it happens, Garry has been on the same path lately, and has been writing on the idea of managing outcomes (which require order) and actions (which by nature are chaotic) with the goal of achieving a chaordic organization.

A chaord (a term coined by leadership guru and former Visa CEO Dee Hock, made up from the words "chaos" and "order") refers to a state where systems and life "thrive on the edge of chaos with just enough order to give them pattern, but not so much to slow their adaptation and learning." In a chaordic organization, neither hierarchy or anarchy rule.

This is food for thought for project managers, PMO leaders, and executives.

More to come. Meanwhile, here are some links to definitions, and more about Dee Hock.

http://www.chaordic.org/definitions.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dee_Hock

Followup to Napoleon on Project Management Announced

Now that the press release is out, I'm pleased to announce the followup book to Napoleon on Project Management.

Tentatively titled Managing the Gray Areas, the book touches on many topics, such as principles, ethics, decision-making, incentives, staffing, critical thinking, and communication. For those familiar with my writings on lessons from history, rest assured that there will be plenty of lessons from history, as well as from philosophy, science, art, medicine, and business. Ultimately, it's a book about leading with humanity.

I'm also happy to announce that the book will be published by RMC Publications, the publishing arm of Rita Mulcahy's RMC Project Management. Many of you are familiar with Rita and her organization from their superb training products and services. Making this deal especially appealing was their shift in strategy toward taking on a small selection of new books (including general management and leadership books), and building products and services around them. I'm honored to be the first author to be signed to their organization under this new strategy.

I decided to write this book to address the many challenges that leaders face for which there is no easy answer. While consultants and magazine articles promote quick fixes and universal formulas, management is never that simple. In the book, I address tough questions, such as:

• How do you balance the need for responsiveness to the customer with the need for process control within your department or team?
• How do you maintain visibility of available resources without adding undue bureaucracy to your staff?
• How can you manage your time effectively, yet remain available to your people?
• Are recurring meetings effective or are they time wasters?
• When should you share the big picture with your team and when is it prudent not to?
• Should one person be expected to serve as a strategist and a tactician?
• Which is better; a generalist or a specialist?
• Which will give the biggest return; a good image or high quality?
• What should you do when an ethical dilemma challenges your core principles?

A while back, I entered some blogs on PMThink related to these topics, based on the two-day seminar I conducted in Philadelphia with productivity consultant Jerome Jewell. Since then, I did some fine-tuning and further research and saw the need for this book.

Of course, you can expect to see more blogs related to my research as I write the book, and from time to time I may ask for your opinions and examples. Meanwhile, here's the press release from RMC Publications...

RMC Publications Signs Agreement with Best-Selling Author Jerry Manas

The Thinking Person's Guide to Leadership

Every once in a while, I come across a website that's a goldmine of information. Fred Nickols' "Skullworks" is a good example. He has a wealth of thought provoking articles, by himself and others, in areas such as consulting, organizational development, training & performance, strategy, and more.

One article I found particularly interesting is the one on generalists vs. specialists, which happens to be one of the topics on my upcoming book (more on that soon).

As many knowledgable leaders know---and Fred Nickols is no exception---leadership and management are by no means simple. They require serious thought and carry significant responsibility. Reading just one or two of these types of articles a week can help make the difference between being a good leader and a great one.

Nickols runs a consulting company called "Distance Consulting," which focuses on helping organizations help themselves, a noble cause indeed. Here's the link to his articles.

Articles by Fred Nickols

Leadership Wisdom : Pig Style

I recently came across an excellent leadership blog site called PigWisdom. It's run by Jack Hayhow, author of The Wisdom of the Flying Pig, and it's full of brief little stories and tips that can energize and enlighten any leader.

I noticed one of the chapters in Hayhow's book borrows it's title from the old adage, "Don't try to teach a pig to sing---it wastes your time and annoys the pig."

It's a cute saying, but many leaders try to do just that by having employees work out of their natural area of strength. As gurus from Peter Drucker to Marcus Buckingham have preached, this is not a wise use of our resources. Plus, it annoys the human.

Meanwhile, here's the PigWisdom blog site. Enjoy.

PigWisdom.com

New CIO Role: Enhance Customer Experience

San Francisco Giants' CIO creates new role for himself. ...

... "Schlough's role, he says, is not to maintain operations but rather to help make the customer experience memorable. " ...

Via CIO: Customer Leadership From IT

IT Org Model Seeks to Integrate Distributed Teams

Government reorganizes IT leadership in order to increase performance on key projects and initiatives. ...

... "The idea is for the governor's respected Chief Information Officer Michael Locatis to forge better collaboration and expertise-sharing among information technology teams now scattered across 20 agencies ... " ...

Via GovExec: Reorganizing for IT Project Success

Who Should Manage IT Projects?

Who should manage the big projects? Professional project managers and management methods are a step in the right direction. We need to make this happen and embrace this specialization. ...

... "IT professionals should not be allowed to manage these projects. Traditionally, the IT professionals have come up through the ranks ... Leave the task of running one of these huge projects to specialists, just like everything else we do these days. " ...

Via Computerworld: Action

Project Sabotage

If you wanted to sabotage a project even if leadership showed support for it, what would you do? Leadership support is necessary, but not sufficient. Look out for these signals. Have a strong change plan than purely compliance-driven, unless absolutely necessary. ...

... "Confuse meetings with plausible, but pointed, questions. Be too busy to do what's expected of you, e.g., fail to supply data or other resources. Or send a subordinate in your stead " ...

Management Support: Panacea?

Leadership Responsibility For Achieving IT Project Success

Good set of anecdotes for the role of CIO and business leaders to sense and respond to market dynamics and project risks in order to achieve success. Success sometimes means an earlier project kill, so that investment can be shifted to new opportunities. ...

... "McCaig says governance must sit separately to retain its impartiality, because it is the compass for the business in terms of technology-based change projects. " ...

Via IT Week: Role of Leadership for IT Project Success ...

Periodically Recenter on Your Principles

Take a break. Reconnect with your principles. ...

... "Am I doing everything possible in my current project to hold to the principles that got me into all this? " ...

Via tompeters!: Succeed

IT Project EQ Change Project

For an IT project to have impact, it must affect change. For change to stick, leaders must provide support. Recent study looks at IT projects and the distance of senior leaders, such as CEOs. ...

... "We have to get good at how our organisation handles change - that's nothing to do with IT, but no IT project worth its salt doesn't affect change, said Green. " ...

Via ITPro: CEO IT Imperative

Just the Facts: Evidence-Based Management

I recently read an enlightening book by Jeffrey Pfeffer and Robert I. Sutton, titled, Hard Facts, Dangerous Half-Truths, and Total Nonsense: Profiting from Evidence-Based Management.

The premise of the book is that many organizations follow the guru du jour, or manage according to the book of "someone said so." As the book points out, if we only looked at the evidence, we'd see that may of these so-called truths are anything but.

Here are some examples of the lessons the book has to offer, always supported by evidence:

1) Forced ranking of employees doesn’t work, especially where people’s performance depends on interdependence with others. Furthermore, a survey of over 200 HR professionals by the Novations Group found that forced ranking (employed by more than half of the companies) resulted in lower productivity, injustice, skepticism, less employee engagement, reduced collaboration, lower morale, and mistrust in leadership.

The authors add that, if an organization trains people right and places them in an effective system, there’s no reason why 10 or 20 percent would automatically become incompetent every year.

2) Beware of your biases as a manager. Studies of NBA drafts showed that players picked earlier and paid more were less likely to be traded and had longer careers, regardless of their actual performance.

3) In the war for talent, don't forget that bad systems cause far more damage than bad people. Try redesigning systems and jobs before judging individuals. And don’t give people objectives unless the system and staffing can support it.

4) Watch out for dangerous incentives. One organization's salespeople shipped too far ahead of schedule just to win a prize. Some salespeople would hold customer returns in the trunk of their car so they still get their commission for that period. Others opened bad credit accounts because any order counted as a good order. In another company, incentives to complete truck routes early led to increased accidents and overloading of trucks to avoid multiple trips.

5) Strategy isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Operational execution often has a greater impact on performance. The CEO of Wells Fargo once said, “I could leave our strategic plan on a plane and it wouldn’t make any difference. No one could execute it.” In U.S. football, virtually every play is designed to go for a touchdown. Unfortunately, reality gets in the way, as do mistakes in execution.

The authors point out that time spent pursuing strategic options could be better spent solving operational problems or focusing on customer needs. Organizations such as eBay and Intel use a “learn as you go” approach, putting something in the market and tweaking accordingly. Doing the right things is important, but not at the expense of doing them effectively.

6) Many changes, including mergers and acquisitions, ERP implementations, Six Sigma programs, Business Process Reengineering, cost cutting initiatives, and others, carry risks that outweigh the benefits and can be easily misapplied. People tend to underestimate the costs and overestimate the gains.

However, if it is determined that the change is still needed, the authors suggest we:

a) Ensure dissatisfaction with the status quo (i.e. the burning platform)
b) Communicate the same message repeatedly about the need for the change
c) Express extreme confidence in the change, but listen to concerns and adjust accordingly
d) Expect setbacks, errors, and miscommunication; Learn from it and revise processes. Never point fingers.

7) Based on proven evidence, in order to gain respect and trust, leaders should:

a) Act "as-if" - Be sure to act and talk like a leader
b) Have some sense of modesty. Understand the difference between knowledge (knowing things) and wisdom (knowing what you know and knowing what you don’t know).
c) Know when to get out of the way.
d) Above all, be an architect of systems, teams, and cultures.

These are but a few of the valuable nuggets in the book. The book offers additional tips as well, plus loads of supporting stories, examples, and research. Perhaps most valuable is the chart on the various types of changes and risks associated with them. I highly recommend this book to all leaders.

Project Controller: The Project Manager's Best Friend

Halleluyah! Finally, there's an article saying what I've been saying for years. With projects becoming more and more complex, and leadership and stakeholder management requiring more attention than project managers have time for, there's a need for another role to manage the "control" aspects of the project.

This article by Robert Wourms on Projects@Work details how organizations such as State Farm have had success doing just that. Bring on the Project Controller. As a member of the leadership team for PMI's new standards for program management and portfolio management, I witnessed first hand how valuable this role was, as it freed the program manager up to actually lead the program.

The article shows how the project controller's role can include tasks such as:

1) Educating the team on processes
2) Facilitating Planning and Control sessions
3) Developing the project schedule
4) Controlling progress
5) Tracking and analyzing costs
6) Managing Issues, Risks, and Changes
7) Documenting and delivering status information

So what's left for the project manager to do? Plenty. Supporting this, the article offers a valuable table outlining the role of the project manager vs. the program controller. Read on...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/221443.cfm

Agile Project Management: Mainstream at Last?

There's an excellent writeup on the LeadingAnswers blog site about the rise, fall, and rediscovery of Agile Project Management. I like the "Universal Lifecycle of New Technology" which outlines how ideas take flight, and then, after people inevitably misapply or overuse it, it fails, only to be resurrected successfully later with a slight twist.

I've seen this happen with a variety of non-technology processes and ideas as well, including TQM, Six Sigma, Critical Chain, PMOs, and---dare I say it---Project Management in general, all of which are currently in various stages of this lifecycle.

The article is well worth reading. For fans of Agile Project Management or those curious in the concepts, LeadingAnswers is a valuable site.

By the way, as a proponent of Geoffrey Moore's Crossing the Chasm book on marketing disruptive technology, I was also interested to see that the article has a link to a white paper titled, "Crossing the Agile Chasm."

LeadingAnswers: Leadership and Agile Project Management Blog: The Rise, Fall and Rediscovery of Agile Methods

Technology Evangelist: Leadership Role Understood

Are technology evangelists engaging and empathetic? This survey thinks so. Understand what makes these folks tick. ...

... "Technology evangelism requires a commitment to the product or service being sold, as well as to the company and its management. A technology evangelist is attached to a cause that embodies a vision, makes people feel better, generates impressive effects, initiates selfless actions, and polarizes people to act positively. Evangelism also requires specific attitudes, strategies, and techniques that are quite distinct from those found within sales or marketing environments. " ...

Via Growth Resources, Guy Kawasaki: Technology Evangelists: A Leadership Survey (PDF) ...

Project Management Excellence: Hospital Veteran Recognized

Healthcare leadership celebrates excellence. IT project manager makes the list. Users queue up for IT services. Pinch me. I must be dreaming. ...

... "Halle H. McNaney, 13-year Medical Center veteran, has orchestrated the roll-out with such efficiency that outpatient sites are now literally lining up at the door, waiting to be next in line for implementation - perhaps a first for the introduction of a new IT project. " ...

Via University of Rochester Medical Center: Excellence Awards Recognize Employees, Teams

Empathy: Lessons from Iwo Jima

I just saw Clint Eastwood's magnificent film, Letters from Iwo Jima, this weekend. Of course, as usual I end up looking at everything through the lense of leadership and project management lessons, which drives my wife crazy.

The film offered numerous contrasting examples of good leadership and poor leadership. The differences weren't hard to spot. Besides strategic intuition, what separated the effective leaders from the rest of the pack (on both the Japanese and American sides) was an undeniable sense of empathy (much like the film's director, Clint Eastwood, did in making the film from the Japanese perspective).

Empathy, a key component of Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence, is an undervalued trait in leadership. Equally important is the wisdom to know what to do with that empathy. In the film, the leaders who showed empathy and restraint were able to make the right decisions, even in the heat of battle. Their moral compass served them well. Ironically, it was empathy that led them to be able to predict the moves of the enemy as well.

Then there were the less effective leaders who blindly followed rules, thought only of themselves, were obsessed with power, and looked at people as objects to be used. Go see the movie. You'll see leadership styles worthy of emulation, and those to avoid. Ultimately, the film is about human decency and indecency.

Project Execution

Tom Peters and crew on strategy implementation through execution ... here's a chance for the project manager to shine ... Get the leadership support. Break the plan into chunks. Schedule the first chunk and resource the team. Start driving. ... Sounds simple. ...

... "Great execution happens in small manageable chunks by taking large plans and breaking them into manageable parts. Otherwise, the path to execution can seem so overwhelming, people can't conjure up the energy. " ...

Via tompeters!: Execution through Projects

Management Truths: Can You Handle It?

Jack says you can't handle the truth. But if you're ready, I highly recommend Stephen Robbins' excellent book, The Truth About Managing People... And Nothing But the Truth.

Robbins has sold over 2 million copies, and I can see why. In plain, simple language, Robbins outlines 63 truths, supported by evidence, stories, and examples. Each truth is only a few pages, so you can open the book up at almost any page and find a gem. The whole book is under 200 pages in a small paperpack format.

The 63 common-sense truths span the areas of hiring, motivation, leadership, communication, team building, conflict management, job design, performance evaluation, coping with change, and managing behavior.

A few good lessons (paraphrased):

1) Productivity usually breeds satisfaction, rather than the other way around.

2) When interviewing, don't go on traits. Instead probe about past behaviors (i.e. "Tell me about a time when you ....")

3) Put people in jobs that match their personalities.

4) Out of all the traits people have, conscientiousness is the most frequent predictor of success.

5) Specific stretch goals produce higher output than generalized goals like "do your best."

6) Not everyone wants to participate in setting their goals. It depends on their nature, ability, time available, and other factors.

7) Judge behaviors, not people.

8) There's something to be said for "looking the part of the leader."

9) Expect the best and people will deliver. Expect the worst, and people won't dissapoint.

10) Experience isn't always a good indicator of success.

11) There's no ideal leadership style. Directive or supportive styles can work in different situations.

12) Teams often create negative synergy. Beware of loafers. Be sure to identify and measure individual efforts as well as team efforts.

13) Honor the work-life balance. Give flexibility and options.

14) Beware of the quick fix. What works for one company or problem doesn't always work for another.

For many more, and further explanations and examples, read the book!

Leadership Practices: Sound Advice

There's an excellent article on leadership practices in this month's CIO Magazine from Susan Cramm, an executive coach and president of the coaching firm, Valuedance.

Cramm lists a number of things that IT leaders can do to practice "safe leadership." It seems like motherhood and apple pie, but it's a good reminder of the basics that we so easily forget. This includes the following (I've paraphrased the descriptions in parenthesis):

Foster good relationships (Learn the business and get around more among your customers.)

Forge a shared IT vision, strategy, and tactical objectives (Co-create this with your customers and other IT leaders. Agree on decision responsibilities. Understand the appropriate technical and business areas involved.)

Deliver on time, on budget (But beware of big, waterfall-style projects. Limit the number of projects. Less is more.)

Develop quality solutions (Have appropriately scaled methodologies, frameworks, policies, and tools, but beware.. It's easy to lose credibility here.)

Realize business value from IT investments (Use operational measures meaningful to the business. Measure during and after the project to insure business value is achieved. Hold business partners accountable for insuring benefits realization.)

Here's the full editorial...

Leadership Under the Influence - Editorial - CIO

Leadership Style Match-Up: GE Alums

Bloomberg article contrasts CEO leadership styles - pitting the macho military style of Nardelli versus the more personable, relationship-building style of Immelt. ...

... Jack Welch on Immelt: "he said Immelt has stuff, he has real stuff. " ...

Bloomberg.com: Read

The Great Innovator: Santa

Inspiration from the big guy in the red suit ... Oh, and yes, he really does exist. ...

... "Santa is an innovation master. Analyze his leadership style, and his operational insight, motivational style, ... " ...

Via Jim Carroll: Why Santa rocks at innovation! ...

Influencing People: The Project Manager's Secret Weapon

I recently attended a presentation on self-awareness and influence by Dr. Charles Dwyer, Academic Director of the Aresty Institute’s Leading and Managing People program in the Wharton School. I was so impressed with the presentation that I bought his book, The Shifting Sources of Power and Influence.

This book was a real eye-opener, and a jewel for anyone in project management. In the book, Dwyer states three major challenges we all face:

• Dissonant Value Systems (i.e. people’s conflicting value systems, made even more visible by the advent of the media, internet, etc.)
• Diffused Power (i.e. power being spread around in a matrix fashion, with more and more decentralization and special interest groups, etc.)
• Limited Resources (We all face a limited set of resources, made even more challenging by our lack of a mindset geared towards accepting tradeoffs, or a good mechanism to guide operational priorities)

Sound like any projects you know?

Dwyer goes on to caution that public statements, such as vision, mission, organizational values, etc. may be useful for articulating the values of the leadership or giving people a sense of structure, but do not in themselves change anyone’s value systems. Many leaders assume they can use these statements to change people’s value systems to match organizational values, but this is a myth.

What is needed instead is the ability to influence others by getting them to change their behavior to match your values. To do this, have a clear picture of what you want the unit to look like; set specific, measurable objectives; and insure that people have a way of achieving those objectives.

According to Dwyer, some tried and true methods include asking people for help, offering or implying something in return, or influencing indirectly (i.e. working through someone else who’s in a better position to influence).

Dwyer points out five guidelines for influencing people (I’ve paraphrased them):

1. Insure they have adequate capability (Do they know what to do, have the competence and self-confidence to carry it out?)
2. Address their perception of “Potential Value Satisfaction” (WIIFM or “what’s in it for me”)
3. Address their perception of the probability of value satisfaction (i.e. Do they trust you? You must build trust through visible examples.)
4. Address their perception of cost (Do this by giving them alternatives or a sense of options, and helping them understand the costs and implications.)
5. Address their perception of risk (Try to assume or distribute some of the risk. Don’t ignore it.)

These are the five things everyone weighs in their mind when someone attempts to influence them. In essence, the five elements (four of which are perceptions) make up an equation for behavior. We can influence people’s behavior by addressing this equation (I’ve paraphrased for simplicity):

Behavior=Capability + (Perceived Value * Trust factor) – (Perceived cost and risk)

These are just some of the gems of wisdom in Dwyer's book. He offers reams of memorable examples, often with a humorous style. With 90% of a project manager's job being communication (including influence), I highly recommend Dwyer’s book for project managers, or anyone in a leadership position for that matter.

Right Brain Project Management

I recently re-read Daniel Pink's book, A Whole New Mind. I noticed now that it's out on paperback, the subtitle changed from "Moving from the Information Age to the Conceptual Age" to "Why Right-Brainers will Rule the Future."

The latter is probably more accessible and gets to the heart of the book. The premise is that with more technical jobs being eliminated due to automation and offshore outsourcing, we're left clinging to the one thing that computers and offshore resources can't replace---the soft skills. It's not that offshore people don't have the capacity to do this, it's just not effective from a remote location.

The books specifically outlines Six Senses that are now required to compete in today's market (I'd add that these were always needed for effectiveness, but now it's a necessity for career survival). The Six Senses we need to build are:

1) Not just function, but DESIGN (the WOW factor)
2) Not just argument, but STORY (i.e. we need to be storytellers to make a good case)
3) Not just focus, but SYMPHONY (i.e. synthesis of complex relationships vs. heads-down analysis)
4) Not just logic, but EMPATHY (incidentally, the key trait in Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence)
5) Not just seriousness, buy PLAY (fun leads to employee satisfaction, which leads to customer satisfaction and profits. Therefore, Fun=$ !)
6) Not just accumulation, but MEANING

FACT (not from the book, but relevant nonetheless): Per a recent management forum of 70 business schools, many of them are requiring less quantitative courses and more leadership courses. Also, a number of organizations are now recruiting design students instead of MBAs.

The key is that the logical, sequential left-brain stuff is still necessary, but we need to compliment it with the more contextual and feeling right-brain skills. With communication being 90% of a project manager's job, I'd say this directly applies to project managers as well.

Below is a link to Pink's book on Amazon...

Amazon.com: A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future: Books: Daniel Pink

Managing the Grey Areas: Lessons from the Leadership Quadrant Seminar

On November 15th and 16th, I conducted a seminar with productivity consultant Jerome Jewell called The Leadership Quadrant: 4 Ps for Organizational Excellence. The 4 Ps are Principles, People, Productivity, and Process. It was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, and we incorporated the museum’s rousing multi-media show, Freedom Rising, into the seminar.

The seminar participants came from the healthcare, criminal intelligence, and manufacturing sectors, which led to some fascinating discussion and dynamics. With any seminar, the value to all in attendance is magnified by the contributions of the participants, and this was no exception.

In the seminar, which included sections on principles, emotional intelligence, systemic thinking, talent management, innovation, project management, and more, the collective group highlighted a number of “grey areas” that a manager must frequently weigh when making decisions.

Some questions arose, such as:

"What if someone no longer likes a role they excel at and prefers a role they're poor at?"

"Do people always need to see the big picture?"

"Should one person be expected to serve the role of a manager, leader, and administrator? A strategist and tactician? A generalist?"

"How do you strike a balance between effective time management and remaining available to your staff?"

"Are recurring meetings effective or are they time wasters?"

In line with these questions, below are some of the factors that managers must consider:

• People’s individual needs vs. organizational goals
• Big picture inclusiveness vs. security (or the desire to give people narrow focus)
• Using generalists vs. specialists (and where the specialty should focus – on a functional area or on a particular skill)
• Effective time management vs. flexibility and being available to your staff’s needs
• Recurring meetings vs. consideration for people’s time
• Informing vs. influencing (for deciding whether to email or meet; even then, the decision is not always straightforward)
• Innovation vs. execution (knowing when to move from ideation to “getting things done”)
• Systemic (whole view) thinking vs. systematic thinking (routine, repeatable process)
• Vigilance vs. delegation (how much is safe to delegate, and to whom?)
• Firm principles vs. ethical dilemmas (should a firm principle ever be bypassed?)

In all of these cases, the group determined that the answer isn’t always black and white, and that each situation requires weighing these items. The trick is to observe, orient, decide and act quickly (referencing Colonel John Boyd’s OODA principle).

On the item of firm principles vs. ethical dilemmas, the group applied lessons from various cases throughout history where the US Constitution was challenged. It was obvious that there was no “one size fits all” answer.

With more recent events, consider OJ Simpson’s book. If you manage a bookstore with a principle of defending freedom of speech, do you carry O.J. Simpson’s new book, even though it is "ethically challenged," to say the least? Most large-chain bookstores creatively tried to satisfy both sides of the equation by donating all of the proceeds to the victims’ families. Of course, in the end, the book was canceled, but for a while, this was a real challenge to bookstores.

All of this reaffirms that management is abstract, not concrete. Managers cannot have all the answers; but they can and must insure that the right questions are considered, and they must have the courage to make decisions.

Extreme Project Management: Reality Rules

I just finished reading Doug DeCarlo's book, Extreme Project Management. I met Doug at a recent PMI event we both presented at. Not only is his keynote presentation a crowd pleaser (hint: he plays the drums to illustrate the pace of a typical project and uses Noah's Ark as a sample project from the "ultimate Sponsor"), but his book is chock full of practical, immediately usable ideas.

I was amazed at how much his philosophy mirrors my own, with a focus on simplicity, value, results, and the understanding that change is inevitable. A key point of Extreme Project Management is that reality rules. Plans are nice, but then results must drive further planning instead of assuming reality will yield to the plan.

As an example of simplicity, consider what he calls "The Four Business Questions":

1) Who needs what and why?
2) What will it take to get it?
3) Can we get what it takes?
4) Is it worth it?

As another example, check out his "Three Sentence Project Skinny":

1) Who will do what for whom?
2) This project will be considered completed when: ___
3) Why? This project supports the organizations objective to: ___

The book also offers handy checklists (such as what to ask the sponsor during the first and secend meetings, etc..), the 4 Accelerators, the 10 Shared Values, the 7 Win Conditions, and more.

Although the book is the size of the Encyclopedia Britannica, it's extremely readable and has diagrams that bring together all the concepts in the book. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a book grounded in reality as opposed to academic theory. Above all, this will help project managers succeed where the rubber meets the road---communicating and dealing with stakeholders.

Amazon.com: eXtreme Project Management: Using Leadership, Principles, and Tools to Deliver Value in the Face of Volatility: Books: Douglas DeCarlo

Principled Leadership: Giuliani

Giuliani explores presidential candidacy and fashions himself as a principled leader. Can he hold his own with Napoleon? ...

... "Leaders need to be optimists. Their vision is beyond the present, and it's set on a future of real peace and security, Giuliani said. Some call it stubbornness. I call it principled leadership. " ...

Via Yahoo! News: Link

Quality vs. Quantity: Is it Really a Choice?

There's an article in CIO magazine about how business leaders are beginning to choose quality over quantity (although the evidence seems to be to the contrary). The article refers to quantity as faster, more, cheaper, etc. But is it really a choice?

With adequate up-front research, phased deliverables, frequent communication, and good change management practices, we can achieve both. Phased deliverables provide earlier benefits (i.e. speed), fact-based learnings, less resistance, less rework (i.e. cheaper) and many other benefits. Change management practices insure that the rollout of any new feature or product won't break something (the level of change management needed must of course be appropriate to the type of product and industry).

And so what if it turns out through the early phases that requirements must change or more features are needed? As long as the change impact is managed and the change is agreed-upon, that's perfectly fine. These value-based course-corrections are another advantage of phased deliverables.

These precautions are the difference between speed and haste. As Patton said, "Haste is speed without planning." Indeed, we can achieve quantity and quality.

Here's the CIO article...

Getting Quality Over Quantity Better the First Time Around - Business Pulse - Leadership RC - CIO

CIO CFO CEO Reporting Relationship Affects IT Performance ...

Good article shows the stats for CIO's that report to CFO's. I wonder, though, how much of this is related to the CFO's own (in)ability to align with business strategy and position the company for success --- ultimately relegating the IT organization to a utilitarian role. Good leadership whether in finance or IT needs to enable business success, not impede it. ...

... "Running projects--More CIOs who report to the CFO spend time running projects (49%) than those who report to CEOs (39%) " ...

Via CIO Blog: CIOs reporting to CFOs: The Numbers Do the Talking ...

PMI Project of the Year: From Wasteland to Wildlife

I was recently in Seattle for a PMI leadership meeting as part of the core team for the Program and Portfolio Management Standards program. First, I was impressed by the beauty and cleanliness of the city, and the friendliness of the people. And of course I had to grab a coffee at the first Starbucks and see the guys at the famous Pike Place Fish Market throwing fish to each other. But I digress.

What really floored me was being at the PMI Awards presentation and seeing the short film on the project of the year---the Rocky Flats Closure project. This was a former nuclear weapons facility (and wasteland) that had to undergo an immense cleanup, including nuclear deactivation and material removal. Except the result wasn't a mere cleanup---the site was turned into a beautiful wildlife refuge, and will soon have a public space for hiking, biking, and horseback riding.

It demonstrates what can be achieved when you blend passionate leadership and sound project management. The project's website is below...

Welcome Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site (Main)

SOX IT Compliance: Verizon Exemplar ...

Verizon honored as an exemplar in IT SOX compliance. The company was noted for their use of work process and systems to enable the high-level of performance through its SOX program office. Best practices cited: strong finance dept partnership, leadership committment, and proactive auditing. ...

... "Verizon Business strives to be a role model in IT governance and compliance, said Judy Spitz, Verizon Business chief information officer. Spitz heads the company's Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Program Office, which is responsible for maintaining and improving IT controls and monitors more than 30 of the company's largest revenue and transaction volume applications. " ...

Via Verizon Business: Verizon Business Honored With Prestigious Technology Managers Forum Award ...

Blanchard Touts People over Profit: Profit is the Ends, Not the Means

I've been reading Ken Blanchard's latest book, Leading at a Higher Level, and it's perhaps his best. In fact, he has a virtual seminar on November 14th, delivered via satellite, based on the book. Quite a lineup for the seminar. In addition to Blanchard, it includes Jack Welch, Marcus Buckingham, and Stephen Covey.

My favorite quote from the book:

"Profit is the applause you get for taking care of your customers and creating a motivating environment for your people."

Inspiring stuff.

Influence the Culture: Achieve the Goal ...

More evidence that influencing culture is the strongest lever in positioning an organization for success, however it is defined. ...

... "The chief executive knew he could not personally cause the needed innovation, but he could help create a culture and lead his managers in a way that would foster innovation - a culture that encouraged the traits of Adaptability and Involvement. " ...

Via Inc: Building a High-Performance Culture

IT Management Career Evolution: Flexibility ...

Flexiblity, coordinating, bridging, IT-savvy are all descriptions of the new (project) manager position in the information technology field. The "computer guy" career path is evolving. SIM finds these as requisite skills: planning, budgeting, scheduling, leadership, and risk management ...

... "But it's even more about IT-savvy project managers pegged to coordinate initiatives that bridge departments, where the dotted lines on the org chart are every bit as important as the boxes. " ...

Via Information Week: IT Manager Jobs Are Up 44% In 5 Years ...

Leadership Seminar: Announcing The Leadership Quadrant

For project managers looking to expand their horizons in the leadership arena, I'd like to invite PMThink readers attend an exciting two-day workshop at The National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, PA on November 15th and 16th, 2006.

The seminar, which I'm co-facilitating with Jerome Jewell of Jewell Consulting Group, is titled: The Leadership Quadrant: 4 Ps for Organizational Excellence. We're offering a $100 discount to select groups, and PMThink readers certainly qualify (plus group rates are available for parties of 3 or more).

In case you're wondering what the 4 Ps are, they are: Principles, People, Productivity, and Process. In the seminar, we'll explore topics such as Napoleon's Six Winning Principles, Systemic Thinking, Emotional Intelligence, Setting Better Priorities, Asking Better Questions, and more.

Best of all, we're incorporating Freedom Rising, the museum's acclaimed multimedia presentation, into the workshop. For details and a seminar brochure, visit the Marengo Group training web page.

Leading and Influencing: The Project Manager's Secret Weapon

There's an excellent article by Frank Saladis on allPM about how to lead and influence others. Topics such as boosting your credibility, practicing empathy, and maintaining organizational awareness are discussed, as well as some good tips for engaging team members and obtaining buy-in.

From my experience, these are the things a project manager needs to get right. The rest is just details.

Here's the article. Well worth reading.

Positive Leadership in Project Management – Team Building, Influencing and Leadership By Frank P. Saladis, PMP :: ALLPM Project Management :: Project Manager - Project Management - Information - Forum Manager- PM Tools - Articles -PMI

Governance Process: Leadership Anarchy ...

More executives will step down at HP, in addition to Patricia Dunn, as the company seeks to identify the root cause of its process problems. NYT insights point to a board out-of-control in its governance of company's strategic direction. ...

... "Neither the chief executive, the chairwoman, the investigators, or the source of leaks they sought to expose was acting to amass personal fortune. Each claimed to be working in the best interest of shareholders. " ...

Via New York Times: Chairwoman of H.P. Resigns; 2 Others to Leave ...

RadioShack's Latest Move: A New Low

With the recent news that Radio Shack notified 400 employees via e-mail that their jobs were being eliminated, it seems that corporate America has reached a new low in terms of employee relations.

Meanwhile, the company's stock went up. Go figure.

Planned job cuts, firings, call it what you will, it's just a lack of human decency and an affront to good leadership to handle it in the way that they did. It's one thing to make a company decision to have a reduction in force, but quite another to blatantly show a lack of respect for human beings, treating them like cattle (apologies to animal-rights activists).

Compare that to the stellar human relations of organizations like Starbucks. RadioShack should be ashamed of themselves.

Leadership gurus from Tom Peters to Bud Bilanich are having a field day with this one.

RadioShack uses e-mail to fire 400 employees as part of planned job cuts ajc.com

PMOs and Resource Management: A New Role?

There's another interesting article at Projects@Work on PMO design.

This one, written by Terry Doerscher of Planview, endorses taking what I'd call a "whole systems" approach to PMO design---i.e. looking at the PMO in the context of the overall "technology services organization."

This means expanding beyond just the project management realm---in particular, facilitating the planning and prioritization of activities across projects and other work that compete for the same resources. In effect, the PMO becomes a facilitator for managing the supply and demand of all IT work.

I'd add that, while this is a worthy role for the PMO, there is some heavy change leadership that needs to happen in order to make this successful. All too often, organizations overlook this and throw the fledgling PMO to the wolves.

As for project management practices, Doerscher suggests taking a more realistic, iterative approach to planning---something I couldn't agree more with.

Here's the article, well worth a read...

http://www.projectsatwork.com/content/Articles/232633.cfm

July Podcast from Jerry Manas - Character

Once again, a few days late, but better late than never... In this month's podcast, I share Napoleon's thoughts, words, and actions to illustrate character, which includes integrity, calmness, and responsibility.

Incidentally, for those who wish to receive the free monthly Project Results e-newsletter, which includes information from Napoleon on Project Management, as well as articles on leadership, project management and other such topics, here's the sign up page.

Talent and Project Management

I received the latest PM Network magazine from PMI the other day, and several things jumped out at me, especially following my last blog post on the winds of project management changing.

First, Neal Whitten had a great article about how a project analyst (what I've often called a "project control specialist") can be a valuable aid to a project manager by taking on the responsibilities of: project tools management, plan development, sub-plan collection, project support, supporting project tracking meetings, filling in for the project manager at times, and other areas that can free a project manager up to actually lead the project.

It got me thinking about the talents needed for the project manager role, the project analyst/specialist role, and any other roles needed on the project. But more than that, it got me thinking about talent management in general, and what it means to the project management industry.

Just look at these headlines, all from this month's issue:

• Attracting--and Keeping--top talent
• Executive Identity: Project managers should learn to think like executives
• A People Person: Succeeding in project management---and getting what you need from thise around you---requires a well-honed set of people skills
• Virtual Reality: Dispersed project teams are sparking shifts in management and leadership styles

Clearly, the talents needed to manage projects go way beyond schedule, budget, and cost control. Notice I said "talents" as opposed to skills or knowledge. As Marcus Buckingham points out in his excellent book, First Break All the Rules, there is a huge difference between skills, knowledge, and talent. The first two can be taught. The last one--talent--is innate, and cannot be taught.

This becomes clear when you apply Buckingham's definition of talent as "ANY recurring patterns of behavior that can be productively applied." Everyone has talent. It's just a matter of discovering it and matching them to the right role. The key point is that a person's nature cannot change that much, so it's important to select someone with the right talents (i.e. innate traits). Once that's done, you need to set clear expectations, motivate the person (through praise and recognition of their strengths), and ultimately develop the person (building on the strengths that already exist instead of fruitlessly trying to fix weaknesses).

So what does this mean to the project management field? Everything. It means we need to begin thinking about these innate talents when we hire and assign project managers, when we staff the project, and when we consider how to motivate the team. The talents needed for each role will be different. And, based on the nature of the project and the stakeholders involved, the talent required to manage each project may be different. There is no "one size fits all" when it comes to talent selection.

It's not that skills and knowledge aren't important, but these two items without the correct talents will not bring about success.

What I like about Buckingham's book is that it's based on facts---years of research with the Gallup organization. Anyone who selects and manages people should read this book. And when you do, think about the diverse talents needed for each person on your team, and for the project manager role for each individual project.

Project Management Winds Are Changing

There's an excellent article by Betsy Morris in the current issue of Fortune Magazine about how the Jack Welch way of winning is---dare we say---a thing of the past.

How is this relevant to the project management field? Well, for one, it means recognizing the winds of change in the industry, and how projects are selected, promoted, and managed. Above all, this impacts program and portfolio management. Particularly, note four trends in management thinking:

Innovation:

Let's take Welch's old rule of being number 1 or 2 in your market (or else fixing, selling, or closing the business). The new rule is to find a niche and create something new. The article uses CocaCola as an example of a company that was basking in their glory as number 1, but eventually realized (although it took a while) that energy drinks and bottled water were about to pass them. As the article points out, energy drinks "are now expected to outearn every other category of soft drink within three years." Parhaps marketing guru Harry Beckwith said it best in Selling the Invisible when he said that it's fine to do something 10% better until someone else comes along and does it 110% different.

Customer-Centric Management:

Welch started a whole movement of focus on the shareholder, which led many organizations to ignore the future amid pressure to appease shareholders and "make the numbers." Now, organizations realize that the customer is king. The article references several companies that have made this realization, and the trend is heading in that direction. After all, statistics show that even a minor improvement in customer retention leads to a major increase in profitability. The days of short-term thinking may be finally coming to an end.

Reinvention vs. Incremental Change:

Since it seemed Jack Welch could do no wrong, everyone imitated whatever Jack did---and Six Sigma was no exception. The problem is that, according to the article, of the 58 large companies that announced Six Sigma programs, 91% have trailed the S&P 500 since. As the article points out, that's mostly because Six Sigma is intended to "fix an existing process," whereas innovative companies that developed new and unique products (or reinvented their business) took the lead.

Stop Ranking Your Players; Inspire Passion:

Once of Welch's most controversial systems was to constantly rank his employees and regularly weed out the "C" players. But companies have had difficulty getting productivity and innovation out of "increasingly disenfranchised employees." In the article, Christopher Bartlett of Harvard Business School put it best:

"People don't come to work to be No. 1 or No. 2 or to get a 20% net return on assets. They want a sense of purpose. They come to work to get meaning from their lives."

Side editorial: For the "enlightened" approach of finding the hidden strength in everyone (something Peter Drucker always suggested), read Marcus Buckingham's Now Discover Your Strengths (or any of his books for that matter). Or read Dennis Littky's The Big Picture: Education is Everyone's Business. I assure you, you'll never be the same.

Meanwhile, I highly recommend the article (the link is below) for those looking for the latest trends in management thinking, and who want to remain one step ahead.

From a project management perspective, the handwriting is clearly on the wall. The traditional "execute to a set of deliverables" approach won't cut it. Today's project manager needs to be thinking about things like innovation, customer focus, business transformation, business acumen, change leadership, and team passion. Those focused on merely schedule, budget, and scope will soon be dinosaurs.

Fortune: The new rules - Jul. 11, 2006

Agile Project Leadership ...

Agile network sustains mission with election of new board members. I like the relentless focus on value and all of the core principles. Worth a quick check. It's valuable to anchor back to principles periodically. ...

... "Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN) New Officers and Board Members: The Agile Project Leadership Network (APLN), a partner non-profit organization focused on making people great project leaders by focusing on value, teams, context, customers, individuals and uncertainty also named several new officers to its roster. APLN was founded in 2004 by individuals active in writing about, practicing and evangelizing the movement toward fast, flexible, customer value-driven approaches to leading projects of many types. Although the organization is separate from the Agile Alliance, the group's aim is to work closely with the Agile Alliance to help them become better Project Leaders. " ...

Via Yahoo Finance: Agile Alliance and The Agile Project Leadership Network Announce New Board Members and Officers for 2006-2007 ...

The Distributed PMO: Lessons From Strange Places

I've read two pieces of information lately that couldn't be more different, and yet they both got me thinking about the benefits of what I call a "distributed PMO."

First, as I mentioned last week, I had read about Ken Kizer's magnificent transformation of the formerly abysmal Veteran's Health Administration (a poorly run group of hospitals mired in government hierarchy and bureaucracy). He established an network of regional "hubs" (what he called Virtual Integrated Services Networks, or VISNs - pronounced "visions"). Each VISN was itself a network of partnerships, associations, alliances, hospitals, etc. that worked together for the good of the customer.

The VISNs had the benefits of standardized quality with local presence. Decision-making was moved from Washington HQ to the VISNs, who were closer to the action than Washington HQ could ever be.

The role of headquarters became one of support, guiding principles, consulting advise, information services, and change leadership. Headquarters drives behaviors that benefit the overall structure.

Forms and approvals were reduced to a bare minimum. A relentless focus on the customer/patient (one of my battle cries, as most of you know) now guides all decisions and research.

If this isn't a good model for a PMO, I don't know what is. If project managers and functional experts (each who rely on one another for success) operated in various "regions" and/or functions (close to the action), and the PMO's role were to provide (and I repeat from above) support, guiding principles, consulting advise, information services, and change leadership, more PMOs would become a valued and integrated part of their organization.

And if the focus were on reducing forms and bureaucracy, helping project teams be successful, and improving the customer experience (as opposed to an internal focus on merely schedule and budget metrics), PMOs might find themselves more popular as well.

Incidentally, this also happens to mirror the Toyota organizational model.

The idea of a distributed, integrated network isn't unique to business. It even happens in nature (here's where the strange part comes in). I was reading about a giant sea creature, larger than a blue whale, called a Giant Siphonophore (Praya sp.). The creature (yes, this is true, folks) runs 130 feet long and is actually made up of many other life forms, each having its own specialized role that works to service the whole entity, yet is unable to exist on its own. In other words, the Giant Siphonophore is a "colonial life form." As I read this, I was again reminded of the concept of a virtual, yet integrated network.

Yes, I actually make these odd connections, but ideas can come from anywhere. By the way, the creature can be seen in the IMAX film, The Living Sea (available on DVD). Here's more info on the colonial nature of the Giant Siphonophore and it mutually dependent parts. Food for thought.

Is the Role of the Project Manager in Jeopardy? - An Editorial

A few weeks ago, I posted a blog about the new Program Management credential from PMI. In it, I referenced PMI's definition of a program manager vs. project manager in their FAQ page.

A project manager, according to PMI, has the following responsibilities (I've put some of the key points that jumped out at me in bold):

• Perform their duties under general supervision and are responsible for all aspects of the project for the life of the project
• Lead and direct cross-functional teams to deliver projects within the constraints of schedule, budget and resources
• Demonstrate sufficient knowledge and experience to appropriately apply a methodology to projects that have reasonably well-defined project requirements and deliverables.

A program manager, according to PMI, has the following responsibilities (again, I've bolded the key points):

Under minimal supervision, program managers are responsible and accountable for the coordinated management of multiple related projects directed toward strategic business and other organizational objectives. These programs contain complex activities that may span functions, organizations, geographic regions, and cultures. Program managers build credibility, establish rapport, and maintain communication with stakeholders at multiple levels, including those external to the organization.

Clearly, a program manager must be closely tied to the strategic goals and benefits, monitor the program accordingly, and have a strong connection to senior management. And I also feel that the new credential seems on the surface to set the bar appropriately high.

But I can't help but feel that, in contrast, the PMP credential is losing steam. First, there are myriad organizations virtually guaranteeing an "instant-PMP" after a crash course and some tweaking of one's background experience (although PMI is now doing audits of work experience).

Second, a project manager must, in many cases, go beyond the PMP/tactical focus and possess the same traits and skills that PMI has designated as requirements of a program manager, especially in the case of an enterprise and/or global project, such as a business transformation effort. I realize PMI's role definitions are a way to differentiate and justify the new certification and I suppose one could organize their effort into a "program" to qualify for that certtification, but in these changing times (and with greater challenges for project managers), I think PMI needs to evaluate and revamp the PMP certification as well.

When I do presentations on principle-based leadership training, I have a slide where I present what I call "The PM Challenge." I present it as a boxing match. In one corner, we have a project manager, armed with MS/Project and the PMBOK, but lacking:

• Business Acumen
• Leadership Skills
• Conflict Management Skills
• Negotiation Skills
• Presentation Skills
• Communication Skills
• Strategic Intuition

In the other corner, we have the "challenger," represented by "the project," with the following characteristics:

• Global, virtual team
• Complex technology
• Complex change
• Multiple vendors
• Offshore resources
• Conflicting Stakeholders
• Scrutinizing Executives

Such a project manager, without the appropriate leadership and soft skills, doesn't stand a chance. Wouldn't a person with the skills PMI describes as a "program manager" be more apt to have success?

In the latest PM Network magazine from PMI, there are not one, but TWO articles that illustrate this point. One is titled "Project Management 2.0: Project Management is at a Crossroads," by Peter Fretty. The other is titled "No Limits," by Marcia Jedd, and talks about what project managers must do to crash through the glass ceiling and elevate it from the tactical trenches.

Perhaps a start would be to take a new view of project management beyond just "executing to a set of requirements to deliver on-time and on-budget." The current tactical focus might explain the consistent failure rates of projects. One problem is that PMI has traditionally "followed common good practices in the field," which of course is what a standard is supposed to do. The problem is that common practices have brought common results, which aren't all that good. Time for an upheaval. Perhaps they need a section, apart from the "standard" itself, for "new frontiers in project management," which could outline those who are breaking the mold with good results.

I'd be interested in others' thoughts on this topic. Who knows---It just might help drive requirements for the next version of the PMBOK and/or PMP credential.