You’ve got mail – How to write emails that ‘get things done’ – Part 2

In this post we will discuss some points to be considered during email communication.

Important discussions or debates take place over emails. This may include employees of multiple levels of hierarchy who exchange mails back and forth. Such emails of priority must be simple and clear. Sometimes, in such debates, your argument or points may get appreciation from leaders. Appreciation for good emails from leaders can encourage people to enhance well –written communication.

Make your emails simple, brief and direct (up to the point). Before you start shooting emails define your audience and the message you want to convey. If the email is for a senior person or leader, re-read your message before sending it. A good business email contains a specific purpose/action and a reasonable deadline associated with it. The receiver must understand the purpose of the mail, how it impacts him and what action must he take before the deadline. Such kind of emails put you in a position of power among others.

Prioritize your emails. Instead of sending hundreds of email requests for every small issue, think whether this particular email is necessary to be sent or not. Your emails should not be a burden to others to do prioritize. Thus, the simple solution is to mention only important things in your mails. Divide the issues of discussion into small groups and focus on the most important issue. If you don’t prioritize issues, the receiver may prioritize those according to his interests rather than yours. Try to resolve issues that can be done over telephone or through face-face conversations.

You’ve got mail – How to write emails that ‘get things done’

We are aware that email is an important communication channel in this high speed age of internet. As told by elders, good things donot come so easily. Emails make life problematic if they are not written well. You may send or receive tons of emails in a day. Most of us might be having issues with the emails we receive. Some times we do face issues with the mails we write.

In project management, email is an important medium of communication to most of the leaders and project managers. It is through email a leader controls most of the project communication processes. As a leader, you must encourage your team with clear thoughts and right question to ask. If the leader fails to express clarity of thoughts, it reflects the inability of the entire project team.

You cannot expect to receive good quality of emails all the times from all the employees of the organization. Quality of emails differs with the written skills of people. In general, people do not like to admit that their emails are bad instead they try to push the blame on to others. It is common that when a communication failure occurs people have the tendency to put blame on others.

Failure is not an option – Part 3

In this post let us discuss some issues which will help you to deal the project problems in a better manner. To deal the issues related to the project it a prime necessity to asses the environment you are into. Here is a rough guide to evaluate an environment in which you are into:

Ø Find out the communication styles being used such as direct or indirect, open or reserved.
Ø Evaluate how arguments are made. Their style, format, tone etc.
Ø Find out who is effective at doing what? At the same time,
look out for who is falling down and why.
Ø Find out the most valued and least valued behaviors of individuals and teams.
Ø Find out what your organization best values in an organizational culture.

Based on the above questions you can make adjustments to your own work. First assess the environment and then find out the best way to reach project goals. Here are some tactics which assist you in finding out the routes to accomplish your goals.

Know the authority first. Find out who makes decisions or influences a particular problem or issue. Get time with the person to disclose your case.

Approach the source. It is always good to find the source or actual person and talk to him/her directly rather than depending on written communication. Sometimes, people may tell things that are inappropriate for emails or any written communication.

Look for alternate communication modes. If you find problems with a communication, switch to another mode. Instead of an email, call the person over telephone. Sometimes, you may get different response for the same request while switching modes. It happens because people are comfortable in some mediums than others.

Get people alone. Sometimes, you need to get people alone, to get a frank and honest opinion.

Hunt people down. Imagine a situation in which you need to get a response in an urgent situation, and the guy doesn’t turn up on time, what would be your reaction. You can deal this situation by going immediately after the person and getting things that you want from him done. Ensure that you are polite, however make sure to hunt and get what you need.

Hide from the crowd. If you are busy in meeting your deadline or need block of time to get your things done, hide yourself from the crowd. Reply only to important things or matters, where your assistance is required.

Seek advice. Get useful advice from people on things that you need. Make use of any expertise or experience you can access from others. Respect the act of asking other’s opinions.

Stack the deck. Never attend an important meeting without knowing others opinion in the meeting. Prepare yourself and understand the arguments and counter arguments that can come up during the meeting.

Failure is not an option – Part 2

In the previous post we started discussing about the project problems and ways to deal with them. Let us discuss some more issues related to project problems in this post.
Diligence helps you in progressing towards success. . If you know you are right, make it a habit to stand for your cause and don’t give up until you resolve the issue. This helps people in considering your cause and helps them in understanding your sincerity for the cause which they might not have considered till then. This technique often leads to success.

A Good Project Manager...

Good project managers are relentless in getting things done. They always look forward for the ways to improve their work. They eliminate ambiguities and bring more clarity to work. As a Project manager stay skeptical as well as optimistic in the issue of problem-solving. You have to apply enough intensity and focus to solve issues. As a project manager you need to be clever and confident on your actions. Look for smarter ways to resolve problems. Donot assume doing everything by yourself, share work with others and make effective use of them.

As a Project Manager...

Project managers must pay attention to environments such as social, political, and organizational in which they are in. You need to adopt right approaches according to the environment you are into. Some of the situations where a project manager has to be confident and mindful are in:

Ø Motivating and inspiring people
Ø Organizing teams and planning for action
Ø Settling arguments or breaking the deadlocks
Ø Negotiating with other organizations or cultures
Ø Making arguments for resources
Ø Persuading anyone of anything
Ø Managing reports (personnel)

Failure Is Not an Option - Part 1

A problem or issue can occur at any point of time in a project. When a problem occurs in project, how many of you really put your time and energy to find out a solution and rectify the problem?

Usually, what happens in most of the projects is, either the team gives up or accepts a partial solution, and then drag the problem to make it more worst or start blaming each other. If you are a successful project manager, you take the problem head on and come up with a suitable solution. It requires lot of energy and patience as you have to reorganize the dysfunctional team to agree on goals. A dysfunctional team has various opinions and disagreements on certain decisions. In such situations, as a project manager, you are forced to question your team members to seek the truth regardless of the matter that how uncomfortable they might feel. There might be people with specialized roles who are reluctant to take other responsibilities, which are beyond their scope. It is your responsibility to make them do things which they don’t like.

Conflicts are part of projects. You must know how to resolve disputes between team members. Sometimes, you have to push your team to come up with alternatives and to focus their energy to find out best solutions. An effective project manager always tries to question the assumptions that were left unchallenged by others. One of the best ways to clarify assumptions is ask the question, “How do you know about what you know?”

Believe yourself that 99% of the time, there is a solution to the problem. Sometimes, you may not find a solution at hand in the first attempt itself, you need to go deeper or probe questions that need to be answered for the success of the project. You have handful of alternative solutions, just pick up the right one. Take ownership of the problem, then you will be confident enough to make decisions on solutions. Remember that solutions never come to you; instead you have to hunt for them.

It’s all about decisions about decisions-Part 2

In the previous post we discussed about the importance of decisions in projects. We discussed some tips that help in sizing up the decisions for the projects. In this post we will discuss some more tips which help in sizing up project decisions.

Allot reasonable time
Make sure that you allot reasonable time for decision making process. If you procrastinate your decisions then you end up with minimal choices. Therefore, ensure that you do not waste so much time in decision making process. Sometimes, big decisions need to be taken in short period of time. You may be forced to make tough strategic decisions quickly due to limited number of opportunities you have. In most of the projects, situations are made in which speed of decision making matters more than the quality of the decision.

Admit your ignorance
If you find a task difficult or you don’t have an idea on how to do it, communicate the difficulty to your senior person. Hiding your ignorance is not the solution for that problem. Admit your ignorance. Admission about your ignorance symbolizes your courage. Such behavior helps your team to identify the inexperience you have with the decision and seek help from outside department. Honesty among the team members will improve the quality of decisions.

Consider others opinion too
You may be a better decision maker than others. However, that doesn’t mean that you are the only best decision maker in your team. Appreciate people who know things more than you and seek their consultation whenever necessary. Try to bring such people in the discussion table and value their opinions. Make a collaborative decision rather than a personal decision.

Be careful
You need to be very careful in making project decisions. Collect feedback from various people before you decide on something. Sometimes, trivial decisions will be complicated due to the vested interest of the stakeholders and authorities.

It’s all about decisions about decisions–Part 1

Life is all about the decisions we take from the choices available to us. People choose and make decisions according to priorities in their life. This simple principle applies to the decisions in project too. However, one need to realize that the decisions we make have a longer or deeper impact on the project and people related to it. Most of the people feel decision making is energy consuming aspect keeping in mind about the impact levels of those decisions.

First step in decision making process is to assess the consequences of decisions. Sometimes, we have to make instant decisions which might be right or wrong. In such situations, only after making the decision we can think about its consequences. How can one make right decision instantaneously? I’m sure that many of us must have asked this question to one own self several times. In this post we shall discuss some tips that can help you in sizing up the decisions for the projects.

Analyze the problem first
Most of the times, issues arise due to minor mistakes. So to have a proper understanding, find out the root causes for the real problem to get the actual decision that needs to be made. Re-defining your problem and decision can enhance your decision quality. Keep yourself calm and patient in making decisions for urgent issues.

Assess the impacts of decision
You have to consider the intensity of impact of your decisions that you make. Major decisions can have deeper impact on the entire project. For example, introduction of a new technology into the project will have greater impact. A small decision will have a limited way of impact with less intensity. It is always good to make major decisions at the early stage of the project. Such long-term decision requires lot of patience and rigor. At the same time, small decisions look for speed and clarity.