Mentor's Musings

Writing a year end note of appreciation to your mentor

2010-12-26T00:45:00.002-05:00

Writing a note of thanks or appreciation is a great way to end the year on a positive note. It could be to your mentor, a senior or your manager.

You can make the “thank you” note more relevant and personal by highlighting what you have accomplished together and at the same time, use this as an opportunity to bring more visibility to your own achievements.

Remember, if you don’t promote yourself, nobody else will :)

There are 3 essential things you must capture in your friendly note –

a. Results of all your efforts

Remember to focus on achievements rather than tasks. Emphasize the results you accomplished, not the steps you took to create the results. Focus on the service, product, or deliverable that has resulted from your efforts this year.

b. Behavior you showed while accomplishing your work

This is very important because this communicates your analytical and decision making abilities to your boss by showcasing how you have been able to make the most of what was available to you. Management always values troubleshooters.

c. How your work contributed to your organization’s goals

It is to your advantage to point out how well aligned you are with the organizations’ goals and how you have directed efforts to meet its objectives. Communicating this enhances the management’s perception of your leadership skills and goal setting abilities.

Capturing these 3 elements is highly recommended as it helps highlight your most significant work achievements using your own words and provides your boss with a clear picture of how you see your own performance and contributions.

You can make the note a simple one - it doesn't have to be too formal or just nice words.

Just remember the acronym S.C.R.A.M. As you capture each of the following, make a note of how your boss helped you in these. Your appreciation note will not only be personal, but also genuine.

S – What were the situations you were involved in?

C – What were the challenges you faced?

R – What were the results from your efforts?

A – What are the notable actions you took and behavior you showed?

M- How did you measure your progress?

You can use it to encourage and build up team members or support a colleague. You will be surprised at how far this simple note can go to improve relations, better understanding and build a more satisfying workplace for you.

This is an opportunity for you to shine out from the crowd, make a statement and open new doors the year ahead. Make the most of it :)

Planning Work Segments

2010-10-27T02:32:00.013-04:00

Strategic planning cannot be "strategic" if everything you are going to undertake is considered as "priority". When everything is a priority, nothing is really a priority.

So, how can you plan your work segments for the year ahead without overwhelming yourself, making your team nervous or pushing the budget envelope?

Here are 4 keys to unlock that planning grid you are looking at

1. Translate your objective into "results"

Draw up a simple list of what you want to see in hand as the outcome of your planned efforts. Keep it simple and crisp.
For example: For your objective of 'improve customer satisfaction', the targeted result of your efforts can be listed as 'set client response time to 4 hours'.

This way, you are clear about what it is that you are trying to achieve through your effort. This will not only give you a clear start and end path to your work plan, but also open up areas of improvement, support and creativity.

2. Relate your "results".....read more...

(to see previous post on planning, click here)

5 answers you must "know" before you start planning ahead

2010-10-19T12:41:00.004-04:00

You are only as good as your plans. Areas where you fail to plan are the areas where you are planning to fail. As you plan for the year ahead, here are a few questions you must ask to gain a greater understanding of the work ahead and plan better.

Question 1. Do you understand how the work you are responsible for, forms a part of your organization’s yearly objectives (specific ones not the larger goal or vision)?

This is significant because unless the work outcomes are related closely to what the organization wants to share as part of its yearly progress, chances are that the basis for the work required from you is vague.

Unless you have a clear understanding of how your work contributes to the organization and how, it could result in lesser management support to your initiatives over a period of time.

4 more answers you must "know"...read more..

Are Project Deadlines Realistic – Part 3

2010-05-21T08:00:00.001-04:00

In this third post on project deadlines, let us discuss advantages of having deadlines.

Deadlines are necessary for the projects. Deadlines ensure the completion of the tasks within the reasonable time frame.

· Right time to do right things:

Proper business deadlines need to be fixed and this enables you to manage all the business tasks well within the scheduled time frames. This also helps you to concentrate on the business standards and quality.

· On time every time:

Having deadlines helps people to accomplish the tasks on right time every time in comparison to the people who donot have proper deadlines. Most of the times the teams or people who donot have deadlines procrastinate their tasks and the projects are delayed.

· Deadlines, measure of your potential:

Setting deadlines and finishing the tasks within the deadlines depicts your organization’s potential and the potential of the systems and employees of your organization.

· Gives recognition:

Setting deadlines to the tasks, achieving them and delivering the products within the specified time creates you a good place in the market and the gives you good reputation and you will be recognized by your customers.

Conclusion:

At the end, the result of an action is important, the path and means don’t matter. What matters is how you achieve your goal in practical time implementing realistic methods.

Deadlines must be dealt as if missing them is not acceptable. The mindset should be framed well in such a manner that missing that is not a desirable. The teams must be educated about the importance of meeting deadlines and the ill effects of not meeting the deadlines should be explained to all the team members. The teams must be motivated to meet the deadlines but should not be threatened or forced immensely to complete the tasks within the deadlines at the cost of employee’s health and other factors. An efficient Project Manager motivates his team members to meet the deadlines by encouraging them and assigning them the right and appropriate tasks.

Are Project Deadlines Realistic – Part 2

2010-05-12T00:34:00.001-04:00

In this second post on project deadlines let us discuss carious types of dead lines. Basically, deadlines can be classified as business deadlines, artificial deadlines and not so firm deadlines.

#Business deadlines:
Most of the deadlines fixed in the organizations are business deadliness which are very important and which cannot be postponed as these deadlines might have been fixed before the occurrence of some event.
#Artificial deadlines:
Artificial deadlines are the deadlines which may not be propelled by business events but which are firm and need to be achieved on time. The tasks which are very important as several tasks may be based on that task.
#Not so firm deadlines:
Some tasks do not have firm deadlines and they are not propelled by business events or which may not be firm. Generally tasks which are not of much urgency donot have firm deadliness.

Are Project Deadlines Realistic – Part 1

2010-05-06T01:03:00.001-04:00

“A deadline is negative inspiration. Still, it's better than no inspiration at all.”
- Rita Mae Brown

In this new series of posts we will discuss the aspect of project deadlines in detail. We know that crafting a project plan and setting deadliness to achieve the milestones in that project plan is a Herculean task for Project Managers.

Sometimes due to inexperience and lack of proper vision Project Managers set impractical and unrealistic deadliness to the tasks. This hampers the total spirit of the project and flow of the project.

Realistic deadlines can be framed when the Project Plan is appropriate. Project Planning can be made perfect when there is perfect idea of the sequence of the events that follow each phase. The Project Manager needs to have idea on the problems that can be faced in the implementation of the tasks at each phase and the deadlines need to be framed accordingly. The deadlines need to be realistic they shouldn’t be impractical and unachievable.

Leadership in Project Management – Part 4

2010-05-04T00:47:00.002-04:00

In this final post on Leadership let us discuss some more tips on increasing leadership qualities to lead team through a difficult project:

Motivate and inspire your project team. When challenging situation comes, team members usually get emotionally drained to face problems. As a leader, you must motivate the team and show them how the project can be rescued. Leaders should be optimistic and make the team think and act positively.

Be a good listener. Understand and ask opinions from your people. Try to be open to comments and criticisms. A good leader appreciates and encourages inputs and disagreements. But be neutral and objective. Involve your team in your thinking.

Always find ways for small victories and give your team the credit for your success. The project manager has to create path for winning and such victories bring positive attitude, esteem admiration, and job satisfaction to the team members.

Keep a sense of humor. A leader can look for opportunities filled with fun. Provide time to your team and yourself to know and respect each other. However, pleasing everyone at all times is not the key to success. An effective leader must know his boundaries he has to work within.

There are many success leaders such as Thomas Watson, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, so on who know what they stand for and in living by that to their success. One of the keys to success for leaders is the ability to ‘enable others’. Providing directions and getting others to act on defined directions make a leader successful. A true leader believes that his success lies in the abilities of his team and gains his strength from the team. Asking help from team members does not belittle the leader, but shows the sign of true leadership. If the project manager exhibit good leadership quality, the project team automatically falls into line.

Leadership in Project Management – Part 3

2010-04-29T03:41:00.000-04:00

In this third post on Leadership let us discuss some tips on increasing leadership qualities to lead team through a difficult project:

Always see the project from a big picture/perspective. As a project manager, you should always focus on achieving the project objectives despite facing tough situations and challenges. A leader must act as a source of energy to keep the project moving. Your leadership ability has to inspire every individual involved in the project to view the project from a larger perspective.

Maintain team spirit among project team members. When a worst situation hits the project, team members have a tendency to shoot each other for whatever mistakes they commit and try to find fault with each other. In such situations, the project manager has to co-ordinate with each team member and help the team to stick together to make the project successful. A strong leader can build confidence among team members to help them work together.

Be ready to share the pain first. To accomplish project deliverables, if the team requires working overtime the project manager also need to work as well. Always support team members while they strive to improve and take on extra tasks. Encourage your team members to develop and learn.

Never get emotionally negative with people. Try to be calm and maintain self control in your work environment. Do not panic in tough situations. Such features enable him to understand one’s limitations, mistakes and accordingly make right decision at right time for the entire project team. Establish trust among your people.

Leadership in Project Management – Part 2

2010-04-27T00:07:00.009-04:00

In the first post on Leadership in Project Management, we tried to define the term Leadership. In this second post we will try to identify the critical skills of a Leader.

We know that there are different leadership styles and the one which works for one leader may not work for another leader. Some leaders follow different leadership styles for different situations. In an internet survey more than 85%of the respondents said that the following ones are the critical skills needed to be a successful project leader:

# Listens to others
# Ask questions, to stimulate thinking
# Clarify roles, expectations
# Establish trust
# Recognize individual accomplishments
# Develop a sense of teamwork

The survey also states that “90% of the respondents rated "most project leaders" technical skills as good and 75% rated interpersonal skills as average or poor.” Often, we presume that good leaders have all the required qualities to lead, but there is always a need to improve to produce better results.

Leadership in Project Management - Part 1

2010-04-22T01:26:00.007-04:00

“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader” – John Quincy Adams

We know that every Project Manager is not a Leader even though leadership is part of his job. In this new series of posts on Leadership we will will discuss different aspects related to leadership in project management.

Every Project Manager tries to become a good leader as they lead the projects. Maintaining strong leadership quality in project management is one of the biggest challenges for all project managers. The term leadership is a key management skill that includes setting directions, aligning people, inspiring, and motivating them to achieve desired goals.

It is so easy to explain the term; however it is difficult to practice it. Directing people to execute a particular task without causing any emotional or psychological resistance is a tough job for a leader.

Many people misinterpret leadership as management since it relies on management skills too. However, leadership focuses more on integrity,honesty, commitment,sincerity, confidence, determination, and compassion and so on,while management focuses planning, organizational and communications skills.

Project Exit - Part 3

2010-04-20T00:20:00.002-04:00

In this final post on Project Exit we will try to understand the concept of project exit in a better manner, consider an example of School which is starting from scratch . Assume that you are assigned the task of constructing the school building and after this phase of project you are supposed to exit from project and handover it to others for further operations of school. Your main job is to construct school building. Try to understand exit process with the help of School example.

Take up all the actions that need to be taken at the end of exit process

Before handing over school building to relevant authorities you need to make sure that construction of building is done as per the plans. This is your exit plan for the school project. You need to check these basic things at the time of project exit :

To whom are you handing over: It is important to check and make sure if you are exiting at the right time and transferring project to right authority in the right time. In this example of School, make sure that you are handing School building to rightful authority.
What info are you giving to maintain it: Make sure that you provide all the supporting information needed for the maintenance of the project. In this example of School, make sure that you pass all the information required in the maintenance of the school building.
What and to whom are you sharing the project info : Make sure that you share details , documents and further important information related to project. In this example of School, make sure that you transfer files related to plan of the school building, documents related to permissions and other information.

Project exit is done after checking the project exit criteria. Project exit criteria are set of requirements or criteria which have to be met to complete a process. Consider the example of school building; some basic conditions need to be checked before handing it to school authorities after its construction. Basic criteria like the quality of construction of the building, permissions related to the building etc need to be checked before the exit of this process.

Having a proper project exit process in place helps smooth transformation of project processes in the organizations. To exit the project, proper exit strategy need to be applied.

Project Exit –Part 2

2010-04-16T02:06:00.002-04:00

In this second post on project exit, we will try to understand the basic steps in project exit process. Some of the basic steps to be followed in project exit process are:

Step 1: Re-evaluate your project outcomes:

First step in project exit process is to re-evaluate project outcomes in the current scenario. You need to visualize outcomes of project as per current pace and standards project is undergoing. On this basis you need to analyze its impact on other sections of project and entities related to project.

Step 2: Make a decision on the actions to be taken

After evaluating current state of project and its outcomes make a decision on the changes that need to be made to realize your planned project outcomes. Make use of tools and techniques that depict current state of project, so that this helps stakeholders and all others related to project understand status of project. Suggest necessary actions to be taken. Make sure that the decisions are made on actions to be taken.

Project Exit -Part 1

2010-04-12T23:55:00.001-04:00

In this new series of posts we will understand the Project Exit process in detail. Project exit plan is the planning that is done to finish a project work and derive maximum possible value from that work that has been funded.

What does it include

Project exit planning includes some control mechanisms which verify processes that have been used to complete the work and subsequently check if outputs are of acceptable standards. This ensures if right quality of work is sent to next level in entire project. In general, project exit strategy is implemented when targets of project are met or when deadlines are reached.

To speedup the process

Some of the situations which speedup the implementation of exit strategy are:

#When goals of the project are reached

#When project goals are not reached and deadlines are missed

#When there are unpredicted external factors which force the project to conclude

#When stakeholders show no more interest in the project

#When there is change or transfer of leadership to others

#When project funds are withdrawn

The Importance of Team Spirit – Part 2

2010-03-31T01:12:00.001-04:00

In the previous post we discussed the basic difference between team and group. We discussed the importance of team spirit. In this post let us understand the things to be followed by team leader in building the team spirit. Here are some suggestions:

1) Team leader should try to improve the cohesiveness among team members. The team members should be proud to be member of the team and this happens only when there is proper team spirit.

2) Developing the right team spirit among team members helps to increase the team performance. When there is proper team spirit, team members do not mind working extra hours and taking additional responsibilities.

3) Team leaders should ensure that their team members are happy with respect to the work they are doing. People cannot perform well holding grudge.

4) Team leader should mentor the team members well. He should be in such a manner that the team members look at him for any help related to the project work.

5) The factors which inhibit the progress of the team should be identified and corrective measures should be taken by the team leaders.

6) The team leader should customize his leadership style according to the attitude of the team member. Same leadership style does not suit all.

7) Identification of team destroyers is one of the important tasks. There might be some team members who discourage fellow team members in having a right team spirit. Team leaders should identify such people and take necessary measures to control them.

8) Constant and constructive feedbacks to the team members, as a team and individuals helps the team members understand their work better.

9) The art of building on each others strengths and weaknesses must be developed. The act of helping the team members help each other in their low performance areas helps in increasing team spirit.

10) Keeping the project related matters simple and not complicating them is important during the course of project.

11) Team leaders need to give autonomy to the team members in doing the tasks. Moderate level of autonomy helps the members perform with more creativity and enthusiasm.

12) Transparent and timely communication among team members is primary to have a healthy team environment. Team leaders need to ensure that the communication flow is proper in the team.

13) Last but not least, appreciating and acknowledging about the project milestones achieved helps to have a right team spirit.

The Importance of Team Spirit – Part 1

2010-03-25T00:56:00.000-04:00

Did you ever think about the difference between a group and team? We can say that a “group” is a collection of people and a “team” is a collection of people who share common set of goals, expectations and targets. In this post, we will discuss about the importance of teams and team spirit.

For the success of any project it is essential for the employees to work in right teams with right team spirit. Just being a group does not serve the purpose of the project. For the effective performance of the teams and success of the projects, the teams must have effective team spirit. Team spirit is a sense of oneness, the confidence and good will among the team members to make the team successful.

Basic ingredients of a successful business are capable employees, effective marketing strategies and needed technology in place. All these are useless if the employees don’t work without any emotional commitment. All the members of the team need to work with right team spirit in achieving the common goals of the project. The challenge of the team leader is to build proper team spirit among its team members.

All the team members can work towards the common goal only when they have right team spirit. Team members need to build on each others strengths and weaknesses. Team leader need be proactive and take proper action in building team spirit.

Know About Brainstorming - Part 3

2010-03-11T01:07:00.002-05:00

In this last post on brainstorming we will try to discuss some rules to be followed during brainstorming. Brainstorming has some basic rules to be followed, upon following which, these sessions become effective.

Have proper time limit:
Ensure that you limit the length of the brainstorming session. Make sure that the discussions do not procrastinate for hours without any considerable results. To avoid the problems related to procrastination of the session, fix the time scheduled for the brainstorming prior to the beginning of the session.
Don’t interrupt others:
Make sure that you do not interrupt any person when he is sharing his idea. Interruption of the ideas may hamper the process of sharing ideas. Do not think that your ideas are superior or better than others ideas.
Don’t evaluate the ideas:
Make it a point not to evaluate the ideas of the participants. Brainstorming is not for the evaluation of ideas. It is just for pooling the ideas related to topic brainstormed.
Elect a Facilitator for the session:
It is important to have a facilitator who keeps track of the brainstorming session, who ensures that the rules are followed and who makes note of all the ideas discussed. Ensure that you elect the facilitator right at the beginning of the session.
Structure the brainstorming session:
Ensure that there is a proper format and structure in which the brainstorming session is conducted. Have clarity about the topic of discussion and the goals of the discussion.

Conclusion

Once the brainstorming is completed, evaluate the conclusions, ideas obtained. To analyze the results it would be better to check if there any redundant ideas check if the similar ideas can be grouped and then check if there are any unrelated ideas. After the completion of evaluation make a clear list of the useful responses and work them further.

Know About Brainstorming - Part 2

2010-02-23T05:52:00.003-05:00

In the previous post we started discussing about “Brain Storming” and in this post we will discuss about basic requirements of brainstorming.

When is Brainstorming used?

Brainstorming process is used whenever there is a necessity of having new ideas for a specific issue or concept. However, this process helps in generation of new ideas which might not be possible in normal work conditions. In general, brainstorming is helpful in generating innovative ideas and finding different approaches for:

#Developing plans, new products and marketing strategies

#Designing events, campaigns etc.

#Identifying potential risks and analyzing their impact

#Improving processes

#Solving conflicts

Basic requirements for a brainstorming session

Brainstorming helps in finding the best solution or idea amongst lots of solutions or ideas. Brainstorming sessions will be effective with the groups of 6-12 people. This should be performed in a relaxed environment where the participants can make use of their minds in a more creative manner. These sessions will be effective if the group comprises people from different backgrounds.

However, brainstorming will be effective with the help of proper facilitator who ensures that the discussions are ignited and proceed in the right direction. These sessions require basic material like white board or flip chart to collect the ideas generated.

Know About Brainstorming - Part 1

2010-02-17T23:36:00.003-05:00

Brainstorming is the common word used during projects. Project team members brainstorm whenever they need ideas. In this new series of post we will try to understand the concept of ‘Brainstorming’ in detail.

Brainstorming is the process in which a group of people assemble to generate new ideas about a specific issue. This process helps people to remove their inhibitions and share their ideas more freely as a result of which generation of more ideas about the topic of discussion becomes easier.

In brainstorming, participants share their ideas aloud and fellow participants build their ideas on the ideas shared by all. Ideas shared are noted down without any sort of criticism. However, discussion of ideas does not take place except for making a note about them.

According to Alex Osborn, the man who proposed brainstorming concept, brainstorming is "a conference technique by which a group attempts to find a solution for a specific problem by amassing all the ideas spontaneously by its members".

In a nutshell, brainstorming is a process adopted to identify problems, analyze possible scenarios and generate fresh ideas about a specific issue.

Project Metrics – Part 2

2010-02-16T04:23:00.004-05:00

In this second post on Project Metrics we will discuss in detail about the broad categories of project metrics and their importance.

Every project requires right project metrics which helps in assessing the growth of the project. Right project metrics help project teams and the organizations to evaluate their progress in meeting the desired goal. Selection of right project metrics requires key project personals to initiate proper planning and monitoring.

Classification of Project Metrics

Project Metrics can be broadly classified in the following manner and some of the issues discussed related to these metrics are as follows:

#Communications: Are stakeholders reported on timely basis?
#Scope: Is the project executing according to the planned scope?
#Cost: Is the sanctioned project budget sufficient to requirements of the project?
#Time: Is the project on schedule?
#Risk: Is there proper risk management system in place?
#Resources: Are the resources procured sufficient for execution of the project?
#Quality: Are product quality requirements of customer met?

However implementing these metrics require good interest, dedication and effort from all the people involved in the project. This can happen only when there is proper communication, coordination and understanding of the objectives and goal of the project among all project people within the organization.

Conclusion

Project metrics may not consider all the practical project management issues. However, having right project metrics in place helps the project managers as well as the organization in putting the project processes in right place.

Project Metrics – Part 1

2010-02-11T03:57:00.007-05:00

When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge of it is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced it to the stage of science. – Lord Kelvin

This quote of Lord Kelvin is applicable to all projects immaterial of their project size, cost and duration. In this new series of blog posts on “Project Metrics”, we will discuss about project metrics and their importance in projects.

#What exactly are these 'Project Metrics'

A project can be defined as a concentrated effort with specific resources and defined duration to complete. Projects need to be measurable and only then they are manageable. To measure the progress of the project there should be certain defined agreeable standards and these standards are called “Project Metrics”. These metrics help in determining how far the project is from achieving the desired goals as well as help in validating the project growth on a regular basis.

#What is the nature of 'Project Metrics'

Project metrics provide early warning signals; which help in assessing the project situation. The inputs provided by project metrics help project managers to take action (proactive/reactive) and address the situation effectively. The standards or metrics defined for the project must be understandable, simple and applicable. These metrics help in depicting the progress and status of the project.

Qualities of a Project Manager - Part 3

2010-02-08T23:00:00.004-05:00

In the previous post on ‘Quality of a Project Manager’ we discussed about the necessary and unique qualities that a project manager should hold. In this post we will try to discuss some more qualities in detail.

#Empathy
A good project manager understands and considers personal life as important as professional life and has empathy to the fact that his people are not machines, but men with flesh and emotion.

#Competence
Competency can be measured in terms of the ability to inspire, encourage, challenge and demonstrate as a role model to coworkers and team members. A project manager should be capable of guiding his/her team members and inspire them to perform.

#Delegation
A project manager has the responsibility to delegate tasks to the team, monitor their implementation and control when necessary. Project manager must have the ability to identify skills and expertise of the team members and delegate work accordingly. Project manager should also have attitude to share work with team members. For this, project manager needs to build trust among team members. Trust is a significant factor valued in the relationship between a project manager and team members.

#Team building ability
A project manager should be a good team builder, who can hold the team together in various circumstances to work for achieving a common goal or objective.

#Problem solving skills
Project manager is also required to possess problem solving skills to avoid project stalls. He/She must be willing to seek assistance or advice from his colleagues or senior management and should also have the ability to evaluate conflicts between team members and other stakeholders.

#Focused and cool mind
Sometimes, things can go wrong during project development. In such situations, the project manager must have a strong and cool mind to resist pressures and keep the project on track. He/She should also be ready to accept the ownership of a situation to complete the project successfully.

Qualities of a Project Manager - Part 2

2010-02-04T22:44:00.003-05:00

In the previous post on ‘Quality of a Project Manager’ we discussed about the necessary attributes and unique qualities that a project manager should hold. In this post we will try to discuss those unique qualities in detail.

#Good organizational skills
A project manager must be capable of prioritizing activities and time effectively to get the job done. Project Manager needs to be well organized in his work along with good analytical and planning skills. PM should have a control over important facilities and documents at any given time.

#Good communicator
Communication is always a crucial cornerstone of project management and project managers are intended to be good communicators. They are expected to communicate project goals, responsibilities, performance, expectations and work feedback clearly to their team members and stakeholders. Effective communication from management enables great leadership, negotiation and persuasion to ensure project success.

#Shared vision
Good project manager must have a vision about the project – how project outcome would be, how to tasks should be executed etc. A project manager must be capable of communicating management’s vision. Genuine interest in team members comes from such vision and it will boost their morale, making them feel as a part of an organization (not just a project).

#Good technical skills and knowledge
In project management community whether a project manager should possess technical skills is still perceived as an issue. However, project manager should have sound knowledge and possess necessary technical skills in line of work. An efficient project manager having in-depth knowledge on the areas of work certainly helps to lead the team to move ahead.

#Loyalty
Loyalty represents a set of values to be followed and be honest with yourself and others. A project manager must set standards for ethical behavior and practice them before preaching. Project manager should be a good example to the team members through right actions and deeds. Reward people who follow these standards in their work front.

#Enthusiasm
Enthusiasm, passion and dedication can be added attributes of a project manager. Project manager must be enthusiastic with a ‘can - do’ attitude. It is also important to have the right attitude and commitment towards work. This will make others to feel good about project manager and show confidence in his decisions and appreciate his actions.

Qualities of a Project Manager - Part 1

2010-02-02T03:46:00.007-05:00

Project managers are one of the valuable resources to the success of an organization and its projects. What are the qualities or attributes that take a person to be a project manager? Is it the managerial, technical or knowledgeable ability that makes someone become a good project manager or leader?

Any of these abilities alone will not make anyone become a successful project manager. An efficient project manager must possess all theses skills together in hand. In this new series of posts, we will try to discuss about the desired qualities of a project manager.

One can’t be a perfect project manager. However, one can assess his/her own strengths and weaknesses by comparing with the great qualities of many successful project managers. The unique qualities that a project manager should hold are:

# Should be a good organizer

# Should understand the organizational and managerial aspect of projects

# Should be customer centric

# Should communicate more often with stakeholders and project team

# Should have sound knowledge on issues that can head up during project execution

# Should take unfair opinions and suggestions about your work positively

# Should always expect the unexpected # Should look for solutions instead of blaming others

# Should be open to deliver negative feedback when required

Managing Resistance to Change – Part 4

2010-01-29T06:29:00.002-05:00

In this final post on ‘Managing resistance to change’ we will discuss the process to manage resistance to change. If you are entitled with the job of overlooking a change in your organization, then make use of the following tips to manage resistance to change successfully.

#Convince yourself first :
Ensure that you are comfortable with the changes to be implemented. It is important that the leader is confident and well convinced about the changes to be implemented before announcing to team. Make sure that you are well convinced about the changes and get clear about what you need to do. Making a detailed analysis of the changes helps you in understanding employees’ perspective also.

#Present your views on change :
Once you are well convinced, make sure that you highlight the benefits (advantages) of the changes and be prepared to answer employees’ most probable queries. Encourage your employees to ask more queries as clarification of doubts help them in understanding need for change.

#Make them understand urgency of change :
Even though employees understand the need for change, they would not be ready to adapt them. This is because they need to modify their current style/state of work; which they are reluctant to do. As you are responsible for implementing the changes, first you need to make your employees understand the urgency of implementing changes in your organization. You should be able to convey the urgency of changes without hurting or frightening your employees.

#Choose right people and delegate tasks :
When your employees are completely convinced about implementation of changes you need to delegate the task of implementing the change. First, you identify required number of staff capable of implementing the change. Explain what each staff is required to perform and delegate tasks to them. This helps them to take up the changes with more interest.

#Evaluate your employees :
Delegate tasks of change implementation to your employees and then evaluate their performance. Encourage regular communication between you and your employees. This helps you in analyzing their level of adaptation to change. You can also help them in the areas they feel uncomfortable due to the changes in work.

#Recognize and Reward :
Make sure that you evaluate the work effort put by your employees in adapting to the change. Recognize and reward the employees who adapted the changes well.

Managing Resistance to Change – Part 3

2010-01-27T03:36:00.007-05:00

In the previous posts on ‘Managing resistance to change’ we tried to understand the most common reasons for resisting change and reactions of different people to organizational changes. In this post, we will discuss the 'Force Field Analysis' concept.

# What is does it say

Force Field Analysis model developed by sociologist describes any current level of performance as a state of equilibrium between the driving forces that encourage upward movement and the restraining forces that discourage it. This helps you in indicating the problematic areas where you need to devote your energies.

#What do they mean
According to Kurt Lewin, driving forces are positive, economic and logical, whereas restraining forces are negative, emotional and illogical. Both of these forces are necessary when a change is being considered.

#What is their role
Restraining forces and driving forces should be balanced to make a successful change. However, Lewin suggested that it in the view of long term benefits it would be better to reduce forces against change instead of increasing forces for change.

Managing Resistance to Change – Part 2

2010-01-21T01:53:00.001-05:00

In this second post on ‘Managing resistance to change’ we will try to understand the reactions of different people to organizational changes.

In general, employees can be classified into four categories - enthusiasts, followers, objectors and underground based on their responses towards organizational changes.

#Enthusiasts
This type of people, are proactive and accept to the change as well. They see the change as an opportunity to improve their work performance and career prospects. They volunteer to make their colleagues understand about the importance of the changes.

#Followers
This type of people, initially do not like to adapt to the changes. However, they take the path of least resistance and follow the changes accordingly. They do whatever is told to them to do and nothing more than that.

#Objectors
This type of people, never miss an opportunity to oppose any type of change. They try to show their resistance in all the possible ways and even persuade others not to follow the changes.

#Underground
This type of people, never make their motives public. They do not show their resistance in common form with the fear of punishment or any loss to their job and reputation. They take covert methods like incorrect work, damage to the office assets etc.

Managing Resistance to Change – Part 1

2010-01-19T01:39:00.010-05:00

The art of progress is to preserve order amid change and to preserve change amid order. - Alfred North Whitehead

Reluctance to change is most common human phenomenon. Regardless of an efficient change management process at work place, employees will not be ready to adapt to the changes easily all the times. In this new series of posts on ‘Managing resistance to change’ we will try to understand different factors which inhibit people from accepting change.

Employees resist change when they feel their position, stability, competency, and security are threatened. It is not easy to find all the reasons for employee resistance to change. However, they resist change mostly due to socio, economic and physiological causes.

Most common reasons for resisting change:

#Magnitude of change
When they do not have any estimation about magnitude and urgency of the change and have improper understanding about the necessity for change.

#Comfort zone
People don’t like coming out of their comfort zone easily and to avoid this they resist the changes.

#New skills
Often people do not like to shift to new areas of knowledge in which they do not have experience. They do not have belief in them that they can learn those new skills.

#Competency
Some people do not trust their Managers. They feel that the changes are being made only for their degradation.

Better understanding on the reasons for reluctance to change helps the managers in dealing their team members in a better manner.

Help your boss in dealing the crisis - Part 3

2010-01-11T23:36:00.002-05:00

How can I help my boss in his communications? Is it really possible to help him? Here are some tips to help your boss in his communications.

Minimize the interruptions
You can minimize the interruptions that you create to your boss. Make sure that you collect all your queries in a planned manner and then go to your boss instead of disturbing the boss for every query. This saves your boss’s time as well as yours.

Suggest possible solutions
Go with some possible solutions for your problems. It may not be possible for your boss to accept your solutions as they are, this idea at least helps them to look the problem in your perspective.

Submit data in right format
When you are asked to submit any data, ensure that you submit the data in the right format and in the format useful to your boss. If possible try to do the analysis, depict the info through bar charts, bar charts etc. This helps your boss a lot.

Request for mentoring
Don’t hesitate to request for mentoring. No one can improve or change you unless and until you make an effort to improve. You are the primary in-charge of your life and career. If you feel that you need mentoring from your boss, don’t expect him to come to you and train you. Approach your boss and ask for help without any hesitation.

However, it is not possible to change/control unfavorable situations at all the times, however at least we can try to minimize the affects. By making small adjustments and changes in the way we look at the things, we can deal with the tough times in a better manner. It may sound unrealistic to understand the boss all the times. However, one need to understand that boss is the promoter, mentor, advocator of pay hikes of any team member and these can happen only when the boss is able to work in effective manner. So helping the boss is helpful to your organization, your boss and you.

Help your boss in dealing the crisis – Part 2

2010-01-06T23:40:00.003-05:00

In the previous posts we discussed the importance of having proper relations with your boss and how to help the boss during the times of project crisis. In this post, we will discuss some more steps to help your boss.

1) Have Open Communication

Develop the habit of communicating with your boss regularly. Ensure that you get an opportunity to share your ideas, suggestion and convey any displeasure you have with your work. If you have any issues bring them to the notice of your boss. An open communication between you and your boss can avoid misunderstanding and helps him/her in knowing your ideas, views and problems better.

2) Make use of your expertise

Work experience always helps a person deal the work related issues in a better manner. If you are an experienced team member, make use of your experience to help the boss. Tell your boss that you are there to help him/her. Ask about the problems he/she is facing. Suggest some solutions to the problems posed by your boss based on your experience and creativity.

3) Help your boss in communication

Your boss will have so many communications to be made with team members, clients, suppliers and his/her management. When your boss in busy with all these, you can help him to some extent.

Help your boss in dealing the crisis - Part 1

2010-01-05T01:38:00.002-05:00

Most employees have some ill feeling about their boss. Employees feel that their boss does not understand their needs. However, one should realize that their boss is the main channel for them to get a pay hike, recognition a promotion or to get right task in the project. He or she is the person who talks to the management on behalf of you. So, it is necessary to work with coordination and better understanding with your boss. When the economic slowdown is affecting all the employees, it naturally affects your boss too. You need to help your boss in dealing tough economic times. This not only helps your boss but also your organization and your career. Here are some interesting steps suggested to help your boss:

1)Reach to office a little early
Make a habit to reach office a little early. This habit of going a little early to office is also a way to impress your boss. This convinces him that you are sincere about your work and you do not mind spending some extra time in completing your office work. However, initially you may get some mixed response from your colleagues; they may think that you are trying to butter up your boss or doing some personal stuff. Pay no attention to these things as this habit helps you have some extra time for your work.

2)Stop whining
Some people who have the habit of questioning more often have an additional habit of whining (complaining) for everything. Whining is sometimes irritating to the boss and team mates. At the end of the day no one wants to have a whiner in their team. When your boss is going through tough times, it becomes difficult for him/her to handle a person who whines for everything. Stop whining and if you cannot stop at least ensure that you are doing so to make the things in a constructive and positive manner. This change in habit of yours helps your boss and team a lot.

3)Come out of comfort zone
Completing the work assigned to you on right time is always good. It is always advantageous to stretch your limits and explore your potential. Try to look the aspects in the organization from the shoes of your boss. You will understand the things in a broader perspective. Take initiative and ask your boss if he needs any help from your side.

Things to be considered while planning a Software project – Part 2

2009-12-24T06:22:00.002-05:00

In the previous posts we learnt importance of project planning, things considered in project sizes of different size. In this post, we will discuss some basic questions that must be answered before you make plans for project.

Who has the requirements authority? Someone must be responsible for defining the requirements to get approved by the necessary parties. In a small project team, the client will have the authority over requirements and design. Big staff projects have committees or divisions which may include high-level authority and low-level authority. In a solo-superman project, the single person has the entire control on requirements.

Who has the design authority? There must be someone to define the design of work. Usually, designs are negotiated between different parties. Different designs are there to fulfill a set of requirements. The design processes are controlled and ideas are developed by a team or an individual. Another team provides feedback and assistance to the first team’s work.

Who has the technical authority? The technical authority defines which approach must be used, and these definitions are co-related with design, requirements and budget. In many organizations, technical authority has more power than requirement or design authorities. Usually, all theses different authorities maintain a collaborative relationship in most organizations.

Who has budget authority? Every project team has some department which makes decision on the allotment of the resources to a project. This authority provides money for the project requirements.

How often the requirements and designs are reviewed? Planning involves all these authorities. It requires lot of efforts to keep all authorities in sync during the project.

Requirements can be communicated in different ways. If you are communicating it in a written form, please make sure that the right information has been documented and right people are sharing it. Here are some tips on how to document various requirements and plan information accurately.

Marketing requirements document: This document describes the existing business opportunities in the world and how projects can make use of such opportunities. Some organizations use this document as reference for decision making.

Vision/Scope document: Vision document explains project goals, high-level requirements, features and dates for projects.

Specifications: They define the questions related to the project from the design perspective. Specifications detail the end result of project work/the work to be done. They are derived usually from a set of requirements.

Work Breakdown Structure: WBS narrates how the work has to be done by the project team. It provides details on sequence of activities, the responsible person for each activity and how to track all activities etc.

Things to be considered while planning a Software project – Part 1

2009-12-24T06:16:00.006-05:00

In the previous post we discussed the importance of project planning and took note about the important activities in software project. In this post we will discuss different the things to be considered in software project on the basis of project size.
Projects are of different types. The nature of requirements and design made varies based on several criteria. Projects differ in their team size, authority relationship, organizational structure etc.
Small contract team: In this type of project team, the client hires a team of 5 to 10 programmers and one manager to develop a software application. A contract is drafted to specify their commitments to each other and the relationship lasts till the contract ends up.
Big staff team: Example for this type of project team will be an organization with more than 100 employees who need to work on a new version of an application. It can be a product sold to the public or something used internally.
Solo-superman: This includes a simple project handled by a single person. In such project all the project activities are accomplished and handled by a single person.

Things to be considered while planning a Software project -Intro

2009-12-17T23:34:00.004-05:00

Any project needs proper planning. However, the planning structure of a project depends on the complexity of the project. In this post, we will discuss some points to be considered while planning a software project.

Gives an Opportunity...
Project planning provides an opportunity to highlight the assumptions, review the decisions, and clarify the agreements between people and organizations. Good planning saves the time spent on the project work. Most common and obvious questions raised before staring a project are ‘What do we need to do?’ and ‘How will we do it?’. Proper project planning answers these questions. The first question specifies to the aspect of gathering requirements and the second one specifies to designing of the project.

In a software Project...
A requirement, is a written description of a criterion that work is expected to satisfy. It is easy to understand requirements and they can be fulfilled in various ways. Specifications are plans for developing something that satisfy the requirements. In any software development project, the three activities namely gathering requirements, designing, and implementing are of greater significance.

You’ve got mail – How to write emails that ‘get things done’- Part 3

2009-12-15T06:26:00.000-05:00

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

Don’t Assume. Stop assuming that people read anything that you send to them. They may be getting tons of mails each day and many might be important as yours. If you think your issue is more important than others, you have to put more energy to get it done.

Avoid unimportant information. Avoid information that is unimportant to the reader. Make it clear in the first two lines about the subject of the email. Don’t write emails that focus on the contributions of others. Write emails in such a way that the reader can understand his role in the issue from the introduction of the mail itself.

Control FYIs (For Your Information) emails. Never entertain emails which are not directly relevant to the work such as industry trends, tech updates to dominate your communication forum especially in works. You can set up a separate email alias title with industry trends or entertainment updates where the team can post cool things they find. If these kinds of emails are acceptable to everyone, ask them to set up such mails with low priority or request to add FYIs to the front of the subject line that can enable the receiver filter such mails.

Keep the mails short. If you are not able to understand something on email that you have received, don’t respond with a descriptive 1000 word questions. The best alternative is to make the information clear over telephone. Interpersonal communication is always better than emails as it can avoid confusions and conflicts. Remember, a one minute conversation is far better than a time consuming lengthy email exchange.

Avoid half-baked thoughts. Bad emails are often lengthy, poorly written and may contain many attachments along with them. Usually, people ignore such kind of emails or it becomes a great challenge for them to read them. However, the more dangerous emails are the ones which appear well-written but contain plenty of distractions, half-baked thoughts and ambiguities.

Therefore, remember that each mail you send might have a different purpose. Your emails must make sense as well as thoughtfully written with clear reasons. Shoot right emails at right times to get your things done.

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

2009-12-11T02:00:00.001-05:00

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’

2009-12-08T05:26:00.002-05:00

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

2009-12-01T22:59:00.008-05:00

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

2009-11-26T01:39:00.006-05:00

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

2009-11-24T05:19:00.001-05:00

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

2009-11-18T23:06:00.003-05:00

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

2009-11-17T03:56:00.003-05:00

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.

Your survival guide to project politics: Tactics to influence power - Part 2

2009-10-29T05:36:00.007-04:00

We learnt that we need to adopt some tactics to influence power to survive in project projects. In the previous post we learnt about some effective tactics to influence power. In this post we will discuss some more tactics.

Ø Multi phase influence
When you cannot influence the main person directly you need to check persons who influence that person. After identification of such persons, make a direct request to those persons and ask them to forward your request to the main person. This method is used in most of the situations where the main person is inaccessible to you.

Ø Conduct a group meeting
Conveying the ideas by conducting a group meeting is a challenging task. In this method you can clearly discuss with all the people and can have their opinions. In a meeting it is necessary to handle people with different ideas. Display of power in appropriate manner is necessary in these situations.

Ø Converge their ideas to your idea
In this method of influencing power, you need to initiate the discussion in such a manner that their ideas are converged to your idea. In fact it is necessary to drive their ideas to your idea. This requires communication and management skills. This idea may not work when there are senior people with rigid ideas.

However, we need to understand that wielding power in appropriate manner avoids any misuse of power or politics in the work place. Assess your project situation and use ample power according to the situation to get the project tasks done successfully.

Your survival guide to project politics: Tactics to influence power – Part 1

2009-10-27T05:23:00.003-04:00

After developing an understanding on the work allotted, you need to assess your work situation comparing with all other situations. Consider various methods adopted by different people in dealing these situations. Make an assessment on the resources allocated to you, the power allotted to you and the problems associated in wielding the power. Adopt a suitable tactic method which helps you best in dealing your project work.

Now that you made an assessment about the situations people face in their work. Try to understand different tactics to influence power.

Ø Making a direct request

Now that you know how to assess the people and the levels of the power they possess in the organization. In this method of direct request, you are suggested to go directly to the person who possesses power and helps you in giving the power you need for the project work. Communicate with that person directly without any mediators in between. Make use of communication methods like email, telephone or one to one meeting. Requesting directly helps you deal the power related issues easily.

Ø Negotiations

Negotiations work well when there is competition between two people on same issue. In the situations of competition, the interference of third person and resolving the problem as a group helps in most of the situations. Having a healthy discussion as a group helps you in solving the issues. This method is suggested my most of the managers as this solves the problems quickly.

Ø Voicing your objectives through others

Voicing your ideas from other influential people is another tactic of influencing power. In this method, instead of arguing your ideas, you ask influential persons of the group to support your idea. However this idea is successful only when the people who support your ideas are really influential.

Your survival guide to project politics: Understand the power sources

2009-10-22T05:01:00.008-04:00

In this third post on survival guide to project politics we will understand about the power sources in an organization.

People and their influence
As a part of fulfillment of the project activities you need different levels of powers to be given from different people. To understand the sources of power and the persons to be contacted for that power transfer, you need complete understanding on the hierarchy of the organization roles.

Once you understand hierarchy…
Ø After developing understanding on the hierarchy of roles in the organization, identify the person who can give you power to accomplish the work assigned to you.
Ø Understand his ideas, working style and mindset. Try to adopt your working style with his work style and check how things work.
Ø Now, observe the type of people he trusts and has influence on him. Trust and respect on the people are the two factors which need to be emphasized during the project work process.
Ø Check if you can share your ideas about your work with them, if possible take their suggestions and this helps you in your work.

When you discuss your project ideas with these people, put forward actual work and its status. Present your arguments and facts about the work without any hypocrisy to get a proper feedback from those people.

Group Power
Project meetings are the best places to observe the power display of different team members. Most of the times we find that in the meetings some groups of people wield power in that meeting. When we observe carefully we find that it’s not the group but the individuals in that group display power. Those individuals are with good presentation skills and who use their power effectively to present their ideas. You need to understand different people and their power display.

Therefore, basic understanding on various power sources of organization helps you to survive well in the organization.

Your survival guide to project politics: Communicate with your manager

2009-10-20T00:14:00.009-04:00

In this second post on survival guide to project politics we will understand the importance of communication with manager. We know that over 80% of effective project management time is spent on project related communication. Poor communications, lack of feedback and review have often been cited as leading factors of project failure. After developing clarity on the project tasks it is necessary to have a discussion with the manager on the project tasks assigned. The priority is to communicate right information to right people in right time.

What can be done?
To make the discussion helpful ensure that you cover the following concepts in the discussion:
Ø Expectations of the management on the work allocated to you
Ø Resources necessary for the accomplishment of the task
Ø The review process and the reporting method

This task helps you in making a proper estimation on the levels of the support you can expect from others and the quality of your deliverable.

Your survival guide to project politics: Have clarity on the work

2009-10-13T07:33:00.005-04:00

Are your project goals defined? Do these goals motivate you in the achievement of your goals? If you have a negative answer for any one of these two questions then there is ample room for you to learn about your survival in project politics. People demand for more power with the increase in responsibility. In this new series of posts I would like to discuss the processes that help you in dealing the power related problems.

Develop clarity on the work allotted:
Before taking up any project task it is necessary to have clarity on the tasks allotted to you and the expectations of the management on your work. It is necessary to have proper clarity on the project tasks, the resources necessary for the accomplishment of those tasks and the methods to get those resources. Every team member should have clarity on the following:
Ø Project tasks assigned
Ø Resources like money, time , staff necessary for the accomplishment of that task
Ø Adjustment in your tasks goals to manage with other’s goals
Ø Point of contact for advice, support

In spite of having clarity on the goals, it is necessary to be flexible to the new ideas and the new developments in the project work.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Preventing misuse of power

2009-10-08T03:20:00.005-04:00

In the series of posts we have explored some of the common reasons for the misuse of power, examine several cases where we see the ’misuse’ of power and different causes for the misuse of power. In this last post of the Use and abuse of ‘Power’ series, we will understand how we can prevent misuse of power.

For the development of the organizations, misuse of power should be reduced. Following are the factors that contribute to the growth of the organization, team members and the individual:

Ø Team members must be informed about the project goals and objectives.

Ø Team members should be well informed about the organization procedures.

Ø Ensure that standard procedures are in place in the project process. These standards bring certain discipline in the teams.

Ø Make sure that there is proper team discipline. Effective team discipline does not give any scope to politics or misuse of power.

Ø Ensure proper communication amongst team members and the management. This solves most of the problems regarding power misuse.

Ø Encourage healthy competition amongst project teams and project team members. This can be achieved by means of proper review procedures and communication.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Motivational causes for misuse of power

2009-10-06T07:01:00.008-04:00

In the previous post we discussed about the ‘process causes for misuse of power’, in this post we will discuss in detail about the ’motivational causes for misuse of power’.

Almost all the human beings are self motivational. Any human tries to have proper recognition to his efforts. There are several factors related to human psychology, emotions which make the humans to indulge in politics.

Motivational causes for misuse of power:
Ø The urge to prove one’s smartness often makes the individual indulge in politics or misuse the power he is empowered with.

Ø Developments in life by means of promotions in the job, increase in the pay are the factors important to any individual. People who cannot develop in normal methods try to get those promotions by indulging in politics.

Ø Some people think that they are perfect and they don’t see any reason to change their methods or hear the suggestions of any other person. These types of people often misuse their power.

However, these causes are not evils if they are managed well. It is up to the efficiency of the organization management to deal with these causes and use them for the development of project and its team members.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Process causes for misuse of power

2009-10-01T01:09:00.009-04:00

In earlier post we studied different situations in which power misuse happens. Next we will understand the causes for the misuse of power. We can classify the causes into two categories namely process causes and motivational causes.

Most of the times, the power misuse arises because of any one of the two causes or combination of both. In this post we will analyze the 'process causes for the misuse of power' in detail.

Process causes for misuse of power
Process causes are the reasons for power misuse which arise because of faulty processes of the project organization. These causes encourage all the team members to misuse the power.

Ø Spineless project goals often make the team members misuse their power. Weak project goals and improper implementation of the project goals may make the team members lose their confidence and interest in the project activities

Ø Lack of clarity on the decision making process in the team may lead to the misuse of the power by some of the team members. When the decision making process is made clear to the team members there is no chance of politics or misuse of power by any team members.

Ø Miscommunication is one of the key reasons of politics in the project teams. Teams which communicate well have transparency and there is no scope for miscommunication. If the communication is proper, the difference of opinions are well conveyed and well solved.

Ø Lack of accountability in the project works encourages politics. When the team members are not accountable for their mistakes there is ample scope for politics in the project. This misuse of power in terms of politics leads to mistrust among the team members. When there is no trust amongst team members they try to misuse power for self defense.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Situation Analysis

2009-09-29T00:09:00.002-04:00

In the previous post we have discussed the concepts of project politics and misuse of power. In this post let us examine several cases where we see the ’misuse’ of the power.

1. Personal Motives vs. Professional goals
Every team member has separate personal and professional interests & goals. Often, we find team members trying to fulfill their personal goals or interests by means of the work. This is not a bad idea; personal motivations can be used for the fulfillment of project goals. However, misuse of work for personal motivation is harmful. In such a case, team members are bothered more about fulfillment of their personal goals rather than the work/project goals. The project organization should take care that the team members don’t try to misuse their power as this has its impact on the team. Project leadership needs to take care that the team members identify their personal motivations with the project success.

2. Peers with different opinions
Often team members have different perspectives and plans for the project. Display of one’s power may be perceived as misuse of power by another team member. The difference of perceptions among the peers may lead to disputes. In fact members involved in the dispute may be really working for the best use of the power. They might not have any selfish motives.

3. Several teams and divergence of interests
A large project may have several teams working in it. When there are several teams working for a single project, sometimes it may happen that the teams are bothered more about their team benefits rather than the overall project benefit. In such a case there is a misuse of the power by the team players. Therefore, when the divergence in opinions is more, the rate at which the power is misused is also more. To handle such situations organizations need to have a proper leadership which helps in resolving these divergences of interests.

Use and abuse of ‘Power’: Project Politics

2009-09-24T00:32:00.001-04:00

Most of the times we discuss about projects and project teams with our peers, we hear ‘Project Politics’ as one of the major concerns. In this post I would like to make an effort to define ‘Project Politics’ and explore some of the common reasons for the misuse and abuse of power, why it happens and how you can recover from it.

Politics @ work
Every team member is given some power as a part of accomplishment of project activities. We know that power is the ability to act or the capability to accomplish some purposeful task. When there is lack of clarity about one’s accomplishments in their work and their project team goals then there is a chance of deviation in one’s contribution to the project. In such situations there is lot of chance of politics at work.

Politics at work is nothing but misuse of given powers. Politics and Power have a correlation; in general, politics is nothing but the ability to manage people effectively without any problems. When we refer ’Politics’ as an adverse entity, we mean the impacts of the misuse of the power, entitled to the team members. Misuse of power is neither useful to the project nor to the project team members.

When does this happen?
In most of the projects, we can find individuals who influence fellow team members and help in the positive growth of the project activities. Such individuals use their power in the motivation of fellow team members and extend their power in support of the project growth. This type of effect of an individual’s power on team members is good for the project and project team members. We can say that the power is misused when an individual focuses on his personal benefits, more than the project goals. When the person misuses power then the personal objectives and the project goals match only to a little extent. This happens only when the project leadership is ineffective.

However, James Bullock in a Roundtable on Project Management put forward above mentioned situation in the following manner, "If you don't know what you are doing, what will deliver which value to whom, and how it will be implemented, the project self-organizes around some other goal or goals. Typically, political wrangling of some kind erupts. This guarantees pointlessness."

Artificial Pressure: Is it a necessary evil?

2009-09-22T01:07:00.006-04:00

In the last post, you learnt about natural and artificial pressure. By this time you might have understood that pressure is imposed basically to increase the performance. In this post, I wish to discuss in detail about different forms of artificial pressure.

Positive Artificial Pressure
Artificial pressure may create positive or negative impact based on the levels of the pressure imposed. The artificial pressure may be imposed in a positive manner by promising incentives, promotions etc. This type of pressure yields results in most of the situations as this arouses competitive spirit among team members.

Negative Artificial Pressure
Negative forms of artificial pressure include scolding, guilt-tripping, or threatening as ways to get people to work harder. Sometimes, this involves leaders blaming the team for certain failures, and asking them to work harder to fix the problems that they may have caused. This type of pressure is implemented on the teams which need constant monitoring and disciplining.

However, we need to understand that imposing pressure on team members in artificial manner is necessary; even though it is evil it is necessary evil.

Pressures and its types

2009-09-17T04:51:00.002-04:00

Now that, you know what a pressure is, questions that arise in your mind are what is the right method to deal with pressure? Does it have impact on the performance? Before knowing all these, it is necessary to know about the types of pressure in detail. Pressure can be categorized into two basic types’ namely

# Natural pressure

# Artificial pressure

Natural Pressure

Natural pressure is the pressure felt by an individual when he sets some goals by himself and is investing lot of energy for its fulfillment. For instance, consider the work plan of an employee, if he sets target of one week for the completion of a task. The pressure felt by that employee in trying to complete the task within one week by working more hours is natural pressure.

Most of the times the natural pressure has positive effect on the individual, it helps in improving the efficiency of the person. However, if the individual does not reach the targets set, there is a possibility of getting disheartened and losing interest in the goals.

Artificial Pressure

Artificial Pressure is the pressure imposed on a person or persons to increase their performance. Artificial pressure may be imposed by promising incentives, promotions or by shouting, threatening. For instance, consider the example of an employee. You try to increase the performance of that employee by promising some presents, promotions or by threatening, or shouting at him. Your final motive is to increase the performance of the employee by putting some pressure on him to perform more by working more in an organized manner.

However, you should know that artificial pressure may create positive or negative impact based on the levels of the pressure you impose.

Dealing with pressure, emotions, and the ego

2009-09-15T06:42:00.002-04:00

Can you guess the most common thing people complain about? People complain about “Pressure”. A student complains about “Exam Pressure”. An employee complains about “Work Pressure”. What is Pressure? What do people imply when they complain about “Pressure”? Pressure is a compelling force or constraint which is additional to the present situation and which cannot be avoided. The constraints related to pressure may be in terms of more effort at work, management of the resources, and usage of less time for the accomplishment of tasks.

Do you have a choice?
Pressure is inevitable part of life. The only choice an individual can make is his reaction towards the pressure he has. People deal with the pressures imposed on them in different manner. The methods to deal with the pressure vary from person to person. Some may choose having a walk in solitude, long drive with loud music and exercise in gym etc. Most of the people really don’t have a clue on how to respond to the pressure.

Help people to deal with it
Pressure related to work or anything adds stress to that individual, suitable stress reliving methods need to be adopted. Adopting methods to relieve from the stress is not a sign of weakness. The team leaders need to take proper care that the stress relieving methods of their team members are not made fun of. Leaders of the team should not try to degrade the morale of the members by discouraging them if the members adopt a stress relieving measure such as meditation, walk or time in gym. It should be noted that time spent on stress relief is nothing when compared’ to the time spent on worrying because of pressure.

However, its time to ponder on Peter Marshall’s words:
“When we long for life without difficulties, remind us that oaks grow strong in contrary winds and diamonds are made under pressure”.

The Power of “Trust”

2009-09-02T00:20:00.000-04:00

For every project leader, it is necessary to develop understanding and trust with the team members. As a project leader, clear understanding with the team members helps you in convincing them with your action plans. The trust laid on the team members adds responsibility on them. The more the team members trust you, the easier it becomes for you to convince them. Convincing strong thinkers and intelligent people of the team is a Herculean task. In many cases, team members do not require continuous help and support from you 24 X 7 during the course of the project. The main task lies in convincing them to do the required project tasks.

Use the ‘right power’ in ‘right time’
Granted power and Empowered power have their own advantages and disadvantages. When things in the organization are out of control, using granted power brings everything into an order. This is the quickest way to solve issues in the organization. However, using granted power may not find out the reasons for the problem. Hence, permanent solutions cannot be found. However, empowered power helps in finding the real problems and their solutions.

“If you wish others to believe in you, you must first convince them that you believe in them”~ Harvey MacKay

The Power of “Earned Power”

2009-08-27T00:35:00.002-04:00

In the previous post we have discussed the concept of granted power. In this post we will discuss in detail about earned power.

Hazards of Autocratic Power
Using autocratic power may not be a healthy move in the project teams. It may drive away strong thinkers from the organization. Only calm people with limited ideas stay in the team adhering to the autocratic rules. Tyrants build work cultures that can be tolerated only by minions. Subsequently, prospective leaders who come from this type of work culture too become tyrants. These types of behavioral patterns amongst employees poison entire organization.

Earn the ‘Power’
Every time you cannot extract work from your team members by wielding autocratic power. You need to ‘earn the power’. Power earned by the leader due to the trust of the team members and the value they give to the leader creates lot of impact on the project team. This type of power is called earned power. This power can be earned by consistent performance and timely actions. You gain this power not because you are ‘entitled with a higher position’, but because your people think you are capable, smart and helpful.

When the leaders wield earned power, all the team members value the decisions of the leader. The team members try to perform their best and work for the success of the project. Wielding earned power requires lot of effort from the side of the project leaders.

Earned power fetches qualitative and quantitative results from the team members easily. However, you are a real leader only when your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more.

Granted Power: Use it effectively

2009-08-25T04:38:00.001-04:00

In the last post, you understood what a granted power is. But do you know how to use it effectively in projects?
Right use of granted power makes your job easier. You should know the effective way of using granted power to get things done in time.
As you know, project teams consist of team members with different attitudes. Some people like performing in a calm manner adhering to the rules imposed by the leader. Some others like to consult their peers, leader and then implement the ideas in their project work. Some may deliver more results when they get trusted more. However, granted power need to be used according to the situation and the people.
Sometimes, the team members may refuse to share their ideas and try to restrict themselves to the work completion.
Excessive use of the granted power can lead to autocracy. Initially, the team members may respond timely and correctly as they fear actions can be taken against them, if they won’t perform well. Later on, they too may start using their granted power to resist the autocratic power. They may stop timely reporting and performing as they lose interest in the project work. This has an adverse effect on the entire project. Hence, use the power whenever it is necessary. Proportionate and timely use of granted power definitely delivers good project results.
“You do not lead by hitting people over the head - that's assault, not leadership” - Dwight D. Eisenhower

How to get things done using your rightful authority

2009-08-20T01:41:00.001-04:00

Managing a project team is a powerful task which involves lots of responsibilities. Project Managers are entitled with certain power to function all project activities.

What exactly is this “Power”?
Power is the ability to influence and accomplish defined tasks successfully. People in organizations are grated with various powers. Do you know what Functional power is? It is the power used in the process of functioning of the project tasks. Functional power has been classified into two broad categories namely: Granted Power and Earned Power.

Granted Power and Earned Power
Let us examine the concepts of granted power and earned power in detail. Some people are granted with higher power as they are entitled with higher positions in the organization. This type of power is called “Granted Power”. Roles like project manager or team leader hold such power in a project. The person with the granted power has the authority to make major decisions in project such as decisions on team members, allotment of roles, team members’ performance appraisal etc. This power has nothing to do with the knowledge and skills of the person wielding the power.

Earned power is the power achieved by a person based on his knowledge or experience and behavior. Team members choose to hear the authority with earned power because they think that he has the capability to lead them and he is helpful.

However, you need to ponder on these words of George S. Patton before using the power and he said “Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.”

Create a vision document – How & who?

2009-08-18T04:26:00.005-04:00

Good vision documents make the project successful. You need to ensure that the claims made in a vision document are supported or clarified clearly in the document. It means that customer needs and their major complaints, reliability etc. must be defined well in decisions making. While developing a vision document, leaders or executives must assess how resources and skill gaps will be filled.

A vision document can be brief or lengthy in details. The plans and structure for vision document vary based on the nature of the project. Usually, high-level vision documents are created by the group manager or the upper project leader. The correspondent area leaders understand those vision documents and derive specific goals for their team. The team leaders will share individual goals and responsibilities with each team member.

Following questions help you to frame a good vision document for your project.
# What kind of people and organizations are impacted by the project?
# How to place project expectations up, down and across organization?
# What are the valid questions the project team has with them?To what extent do they need to know what they are doing and why they are doing it?
# As a project leader, do you need to remind the team often about the project goals? Do they argue about any recently agreed issues?
# To what extent the project team can have access to think strategically during project development?
# In project level decisions, does the project leader need to provide an in-depth knowledge to the organization?
# As a project leader, what type of research you do for project planning and how will you deliver it to the senior managers or executives?
# Do you need an explanation of decisions to do in person?
# Do you expect an in-depth feedback about the project from external people?

If you have specific answers for these questions, you can create a valuable vision document for your project. Once you frame the questions, it is easy to get hold of people accountable for them.

Vision document – Is it significant? Part 2

2009-08-13T02:06:00.002-04:00

A vision document aids to create a natural synergy of shared goals for the entire project team. In the previous post, we discussed about two important characteristics of vision document. Here, I would like to discuss three more characteristics.

# Consolidated
A vision document is a collective representation of best ideas from research, analysis, strategic planning and other such efforts. The goals and its supporting materials are mentioned separately in the document. There is a consistency between them in the form of templates, formats etc. It helps the reader to identify important references or sources related to the goals.

# Inspirational
A vision document conveys defined solution to a clear problem to inspire the readers. An efficient team leader can help in inspiring readers without changing the quality of ideas in the vision document. The document provides a solid plan to make use of the existing opportunities in the world. Try to solve real-world problems rather than sticking to technological challenges.

# Memorable
A good vision document is a memorable one. It keeps your interesting ideas to stay in the minds of the readers till the project completes. It is direct and understandable. Good vision document communicates the core decisions and concepts effectively to make your team feel confident about what they are doing. A clear and simple vision document can convince people who are reluctant to agree to the core decisions.

A good vision document encourages or motivates the project team to focus on their contributions to the project.

Vision document – Is it significant? Part 1

2009-08-11T07:01:00.005-04:00

Do you know what a vision document in project is? A vision document defines project objectives or high-level project goals. In large projects, three levels of project goals are inevitable – project vision, team goals, individual goals. Team goals are considered as the subset of project vision defined in detail. The subset of team goals is defined as individual goals for which each individual is responsible.

The first two levels, vision and team goals are considered as public record to the entire project team. Individual goals are discussed between the team members and the reporting manager. In this post, I would like to explain the characteristics of a vision document.

# Intentional
Vision document is a major input in defining project goals. It provides information on how many goals are required for the project, how a real goal looks like, how much refinement is required etc. A well-defined project goal can easily identify activities those are contributed towards it. If the project goals are high-level, stronger becomes the vision document. Generally, a project vision document has three to five high-level goals.

# Simplifying
A vision document answers all the core questions an individual has about the project. It acts as a tool to make decisions on everyone’s work; brings clarity to all; makes boundaries clear as well as avoids miscommunication and conflicts among team members. This document has lot of ideas that leads to new questions that are useful to the team. Vision documents are referred and discussed usually in the early phase of the project. This helps the project manager to review and modify the document to include the unforeseen questions before implementing the project.

Remember, a good vision document simplifies the project and make people to get into actions with confidence.

What to do with projects that go wrong -3

2009-08-06T09:42:00.004-04:00

Great companies “first got the right people on the bus, the wrong people off the bus, and the right people in the right seats – and then they figured out where to drive it.” – Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t – Jim Collins

You have the best and simple plan in your hand. Now, you need to execute it successfully. Just having a foolproof plan is not sufficient. You need effective people to execute that plan. Hence before executing the plan, ensure that all your team members are clear about their project assignments and responsibilities. Discuss with your team members before delegating work to them. Never give a chance for ambiguity or assumption.

# Execution
Keep checkpoints to make sure that the work has desired effect. Check the following aspects related to project to ensure that your project survives the rough times.
# Communications: Are stakeholders reported on timely basis?
# Scope: Is the project executing according to the planned scope?
# Cost: Is the sanctioned project budget sufficient to requirements of the project?
# Time: Is the project on schedule?
# Risk: Is there proper risk management system in place?
# Resources: Are the resources procured sufficient for execution of the project?
# Quality: Are product quality requirements of customer met?

# Debrief
Once you accomplish the defined project tasks, make a list of lessons learned from the project. At the same time, document various solutions to different problems. For big issues, you may get lot of questions and answers. Archive all these documents and this will help you in future projects.

What to do with projects that go wrong – Part 2

2009-08-04T04:44:00.002-04:00

In the previous post you have evaluated and understood the problem thoroughly from different perspectives. Once you understand the seriousness of the problem, get back to the problem to work on it. Express yourself freely and calmly to find right solution for solving the problem.

Here, I would like to explain next steps to be considered to take the project ahead.

# Get the right people in the room
It is necessary to have a stable team in taking decisions. Communicate the problem clearly to the team. If anyone of your team members gets disturbed due to the situation, help him/her to calm down. Identify people who are accountable for the problem and discuss with them to find a solution. Let them come up with suitable solutions. Keep the team small if the issue is complex.. If you are not part of the team, just offer your support instead of taking responsibility.

# Explore alternatives
You can share alternative solutions with the team. Communicate the immediacy of works to be done rather than assuming things. Specify your expectations for immediate responses.

# Make the simplest plan
Choose the most feasible and simple plan for your solution. If the issue is urgent make your plan clear and simple. You can divide the plan into simple steps to avoid confusion. Identify two lists of people, people whose approval is necessary for the plan and people who need to be informed of the plan before executing it. Get feedback and support from the first group and then communicate necessary information to the second group.

A good leader takes responsibility for the situation and accelerates the recovery processes to resolve the issue.

What to do with projects that go wrong – Part 1

2009-07-30T03:20:00.005-04:00

You might be involved in several project developments. As part of it you might have come across some difficult situations. How did you resolve those issues or problems? In this post, I would like to suggest you some tips that you can practice to tackle such situations during a project development.

# Control your emotions
First, calm down yourself. Learn to control your emotions in such situations. Sometimes, your feelings make the situations worse. Usually, when something bad happens to you, your emotions or feelings start dominating you. They ultimately influence your thinking and behavior. You may tend to act with anger, fear or frustration. Hence, try to be patient and attentive to the problem rather than over reacting to it.

# Scrutinize the problem thoroughly
When a problem occurs, evaluate the problem thoroughly from different perspectives with a cool mind. Here are some suggestions on how to evaluate the project problems:

# Practice the art of questioning, check if the problem is really affecting your project, what can be the impact of the risk etc. Such questions can make you think rather than react to situations.
# Ensure that you frame the problem in the right emotional and intellectual scale.
# Delegating work to team members can eliminate your assumptions concerning the problem.
# You must have a clear understanding of the problems and its consequences.

After evaluating and developing clear understanding on project problems, you can prioritize the project issues based on their severity.

How to survive ‘Meeting failures’ – Part 3

2009-07-28T00:30:00.005-04:00

Organizations conduct different types of meetings. Here, I would like to point out three important types of meetings and the things need to be noted in the meeting by a facilitator or organizer.

Types of Meeting

# Interactive meeting: In an interactive meeting, participation of attendees is of prime importance. Each participant gets an opportunity to have their say. Brainstorming and group discussions are examples of this type of meeting.
# Information conveyer meeting: Usually, participants’ involvement is very less in this type of meeting. The meeting is held just for communicating the decisions taken by authorities to the participants.
# Review Meeting: In a review meeting, participants can have their say if necessary. They just update their project work status and share their ideas about work.

Things to be noted in a Meeting

Here are some pointers to help you at the time of meetings:
# Are right people invited for the meeting? Don’t waste time inviting irrelevant people for the meeting.
# Are you done with all preparations for the meeting? The facilitator and the participants must come with ample preparation for the meeting.
# Do the participants arrive on time? Make sure the meeting starts on the scheduled time.
# Do all participants active in the meeting? Ensure that everyone is actively participating in the meeting.
# Do the meeting have smart ending? Ensure that the meeting ends well with the recap of the things discussed in the meeting. After all, well begun things end well only.

Meetings are not only a useful tool to communicate but also a great way to reach your goals by getting things done in time.

How to survive ‘Meeting failures’ – Part 2

2009-07-23T01:35:00.005-04:00

In the previous post, you understood that facilitation is all about leading a discussion in a fruitful manner without dominating the participants. It requires expertise.

To excel in the art of facilitation, you must learn the right methods of facilitation. Here are some measures you as a facilitator can take while facilitating.

#1 When you hold a meeting, first take your position in a place where you can be noticed by everyone in the meeting without any obstructions. Initiate the meeting with a proper introduction.
#2 Observe various communication styles of participants. Help the participants in conveying their ideas clearly by filling all gaps in the communication process.
#3 Direct the discussion to the right track without dominating one another. If you try to dominate, the meeting environment gets disturbed and people couldn’t be able to express their ideas clearly.
#4 Ensure that you keep boundaries for ideas on topics to be discussed. If the discussion goes beyond the limits, bring it back on track. Follow decent methods like posing questions on the main topic, displaying those questions on the projector screen to keep the focus of the discussion.
#5 Keep note of the discussion points in the meeting. This will help you to have a quick recap of the points that are discussed in the meeting. It also clarifies your doubts that occur as a part of the meeting.

Be a successful facilitator to make your meetings or discussions meaningful and fruitful. Remember, facilitation depends on the type of meeting held and the intervention of the facilitator varies on each meeting.

How to survive ‘Meeting failures’ – Part 1

2009-07-21T11:26:00.009-04:00

You might be conducting and attending several meetings with your clients and team members everyday. Do they all deliver the desired results? How successful you are in holding such meetings?

Usually, meetings in organizations take place in two situations; one- while informing the employees about the decisions taken; another- while discussing with the employees regarding decisions to be taken. However, all the meetings cannot be effective and completely productive. Some of them go haywire due to the lack of focus and the inability to restrict to the desired topics.

See the following ingredients that are essential for a successful meeting:
# Good Meeting Agenda
# Fixed time schedule
# Good arrangements for meeting attendees
# Active participation of all the attendees
# Presence of skilled facilitators

Facilitation – all about putting things on track
Facilitation is the act of making things easier by settling issues. It is a skill people in organizations adopt who has some authority. Successful meetings include skilled facilitators. They bring back the focus of the meeting if other participants lose the track.

Generally, every meeting starts with some specific topic. When the discussion continues some participants may get deviated from the original topic. In this situation, the facilitator should bring those participants' attention back to the main topic without hurting their ego. This act requires certain skill and authority. Usually, facilitators are the organizers of the meeting or people with some granted power such as project managers or project leaders. Whoever does the task, facilitation is all about putting things on the right track.

It’s the Attitude Stupid – Part 3

2009-07-16T07:15:00.006-04:00

Build a positive attitude. It will help you to make things better and ensure your success as a project manager. If you have a constant positive attitude, you can be a good example to your co-workers and management at your workplace.

In this post, I would like to discuss about three more traits a project manager must be aware of handling a project team.

#6 Impatient
Sometimes, disruptions in the form of unavoidable activities – political or bureaucratic- can slow down project progress. Your impatience in such situations may spoil the entire project environment. Being a project manager, you must stand as a “action fanatic’ in projects. You need to develop a sense of “Get on with it” attitude. You must know when to force an issue and when to let things happen.

#7 Fear
Fear of failure is a common trait seen in many project managers. If you are controlled by fear, you will never achieve the desired results. Be confident enough to face challenges in project. You must possess good motivational skills to convince your team members in completing the project successfully.

#8 Skepticism
Never doubt yourself in doing things. As a project manager, you must have confidence in what you are doing. Have a clear picture of the goals to be attained in project. At the same time, you need to be aware of the possible risks. Be ready to challenge the assumptions of others without losing their trust in you and your work.

An efficient project manager possesses only the positive aspects of the above mentioned traits and balances them properly. Many people fail to calculate in balancing these confronting forces correctly. However, these traits can help you in improving your own abilities to make better and smarter decisions in your professional as well as personal life.

“Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character” - Albert Einstein

It’s the Attitude Stupid – Part 2

2009-07-14T03:34:00.005-04:00

Attitude has significant role in one’s career. If you have defined attitude towards your work, you will definitely reap success. Being a project manager, you should know how to maintain a balance of attitudes.

In the last post we discussed about the traits ego and autocrat, the project manager need to be aware of while handling a team. Here i would like to point out some other traits a project manager must be aware of.

#3 Ambiguity
Projects often have ambiguities and uncertainties. As a project manager, you must handle ambiguities confidently. Develop good ideas for your project by eliminating ambiguities. At the same time, bring precision into your work. You need to have a zeal for attaining perfection in doing work.

#4 Communication
Effective communication of ideas enhances the quality of work. You must have proficiency in both verbal and written communication. Being a project manager, you must encourage open communication among your team by holding project meetings, negotiations, discussions and brainstorming sessions. A good project manager knows what type of communication is effective in various project situations.

#5 Complexity
Learn to acknowledge complexities that come in your way. You may face big challenges while dealing with complex-multi organizational projects. In such situations, you need to know how to solve issues and drive the project in right track. Try to ‘keep things simple’ as the project progresses. In brief, you have to appreciate forests as well as trees.

Exhibiting right attitude will help you to gain respect and value from people around you.

“Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference” - Winston Churchill

It’s the Attitude Stupid – Part 1

2009-07-09T08:45:00.004-04:00

‘Attitude’ makes one person to react positively or negatively to a situation. What does attitude mean? It is one’s feelings or mood towards things, situations and people. It happens often that conflicting attitudes can head up when people work as a team in an organization. In projects, you have to work with different people to achieve a common goal. As a project manager or team leader, you must be aware of your team’s traits and be able to react to people or situations appropriately.

I would like to point out a few traits that a project manager must be aware of handling a project team.

#1 Ego
Ego is who you think you are. Being a project manager you may feel like receiving credit and attention for every work you contribute to the project. Never allow ego to get into your way. Learn to avoid your own interest take ahead of the project. As a good project manger, you should delegate work to others and share credit with your team members when project becomes successful. Be careful about your language. If you use “I” and “Me” often in your conversations, your co-workers may think that your ego is stopping you from being part of a team. Hence, include words like “We” and “Us” in your language so that people will understand you are giving space for their contributions too. By keeping your ego aside you can build a good reputation among your team.

#2 Autocrat
As a project manager, you must keep things simple as the project moves forward. Be confident of your responsibilities. Sometimes, you have to take control of actions which are not in your territory, or you must impose certain actions on your team. Suppose the lights of a conference hall went in the middle of an important business meeting. In such a crisis, the person in charge of electrical equipments must take the initiative to resolve the issue before the chief becomes aware of it.

A positive attitude in the workplace helps you to be successful in your job.

“It is your attitude, not your aptitude, that determines your altitude” - Zig Ziglar

Create specifications – How & who?

2009-07-07T04:59:00.001-04:00

Creating a good and simple specification is a difficult task. Here are some tips to help you in creating good specifications.

# Keep your target audience in mind
# Don’t describe everything by yourself. You can borrow explanations from other specifications using appropriate hypertext.
# Avoid jargons and obscure language.
# Avoid excessive use of flow charts or diagrams. Sometimes, a good paragraph is better than a diagram.
# Keep old specifications which are good. Those may help you in describing a complicated concept or diagram.
# Use simple language to describe (complex) algorithms.
# Seek advices from others. Ask for better ways of understanding things.

When authoring specifications, information that is useful to both project manager and team must be separated. Hence, divide details of functionalities and issues or questions.

Now, who prepares the specifications? It is business analysts, clients, or project managers who create specifications often. The responsibility is given based on the nature of the project team as well as the responsible authority.

In large projects, project manager or designer is the person responsible for feature specifications and programmers for technical specifications. Usually, technical specifications are shorter as its audience is small in number. However, it should map to the supporting design in feature specifications. In small projects, generally the project manager or the lead programmer generates a single document containing all the four specifications.

Specifications communicate a set of intentions so that people know what they need to do exactly for the project. It helps the project manager in gathering useful information about project to accomplish its goals.

Specification – Different types

2009-07-02T02:52:00.002-04:00

Generally there are four basic kinds of specifications. Usually, these four specifications are separated on a large team and combined on a small team. Do you know which these four specifications are?

#1 Requirement
A requirement specification consolidates all the requests and obligations to be carried forward in the project. This provides a point of reference for the project. It includes a list of success criteria which describes much about the project end results instead of describing how to achieve them.

#2 Feature
Feature specification is the main outcome of a design process (usually in software projects). It describes the functionality and behavior of a set of scenarios from the customer perspective. For example, it explains software functionality through the user experience, which means it talks about the work in a non-technical perspective.

#3 Technical
Technical specifications talk about the engineering approach required for the feature specification. It details the complex or reused components required for a project as well as provide supporting evidences for the work items required for feature specifications. An in-depth nature of a feature specification avoids the need for a technical specification.

#4 Work-item lists
A work- item list details each work item/programming assignment required for feature specifications. It breaks down each work item into separate tasks along with estimates based on their priority. This list is generated by the programmer and reviewed and approved by the lead programmer or project manager. Technically, this list is not specifications, but plans to fulfill the specifications.

Test criteria will be prepared for new functionalities in the project. In projects, all the four specifications provide groundwork for the next. If the project is complex or the team size is bigger, you need to have more formalized division of specifications.

Specification – is it significant?

2009-06-30T03:48:00.010-04:00

What is specification? Do you think it is significant in work? Specification is nothing but a form of communication. When we define specification, it is a written document that consists of a set of requirements defining a piece of work. This document conveys work information in clear and simple way. If you don’t know how to use specifications, it will be difficult for you to understand and accomplish tasks successfully.

Specifications are important for executing a project. Some times, your project team may come up with awful specifications as they lack knowledge about the possibilities and limitations of specifications. Here are some possibilities and limitations of project specifications.

Possibilities
# Describe the functionality of project outcomes effectively
# Help designers to be specific about clarifying decisions
# Support reviews and discussions of detailed plans before implementation
# Communicate information to everyone
# Generate team-wide point of reference for specific plans and use them as living documentations in projects
# Help to prepare a realistic schedule milestone to guide/focus the team
# Provide insurance for author(s)
# Encourage and improve the frequency of healthy discussions
# Provide opportunities to leaders to set quality bars and give feedback
# Add sanity and confidence to the team (and author)

Limitations
# Reduce the frequency of discussions between team member
# Prove author’s smartness to the team
# Shows the importance of a particular feature, why is it inevitable
# Make people think from philosophical point of view
# Act as a play ground for author’s vision

If you are a team leader, you can prepare a list of specifications regarding the project work you have undertaken and can pass that list to your team. Ask your team to review and provide feedback on it before anyone starts up the actual documentation of specifications. Hold a meeting or discussion so that you can identify and remove items from the list that the team doesn’t need specifications, and if required add items to the list which are essential to the project.

How to get your schedules work for you

2009-06-25T00:40:00.010-04:00

My project end date is round the corner and I find it very tough to work according to my schedule. What can I do to resolve this issue?

Usually any delay in project schedule has its impact on other project parameters such as cost, resources etc. This delays the entire project progress. Your schedule can be managed if good measures are in place.

Here are some pointers to help you in managing your project schedule effectively.

#1 Set milestones according to project change rate
Project milestones need to be setup according to the change rate in the project. If the changes in the project take place at frequent intervals, then the milestones need to be of shorter length. This will minimize the risks involved in achieving the milestones.

#2 See the schedule through the eyes of a skeptic
When you prepare a project schedule, think about the practicality of the schedule through the eyes of a skeptic. This helps you to plan your schedule well by focusing on project goals and objectives.

#3 Set frequent review intervals
Accurate and timely project reviews will help you in checking the work progress and implementing corrections. You must allocate appropriate time for the review processes.

#4 Create awareness about the schedule
Discuss with the project team about various approaches that need to be adopted for schedule preparation. Such awareness will give the team members a clear understanding about their roles and project goals.

#5 Estimate the team’s capability
Prepare a schedule by keeping the performance levels of the project team in mind. Consider the performance history of the team.Prepare for the expected risks: Prepare yourself for predictable risks associated with the team and the project situations. Based on this, you can prepare your schedule well.

In brief, good planning helps you in reducing your stress level to work around with your schedule. It also prepares you in facing problems that may occur in project process as well as helps you in checking your success levels.

What to do when the work is uncertain?

2009-06-23T07:27:00.004-04:00

What can I do when my team members say they can’t do estimates as the work is too uncertain? The best way to handle such situation is to make everyone understand clearly about what needs to be done.

First, you need to get the team’s mind set right. Usually what happens is your team member may feel unsure about providing an estimate for the work he does as he is forced to do it. Change your approach to delegating work. Ask your team members to work piecewise on what’s being asked of them and then develop an estimate. They will be clear about doing their part of work.

Here are some pointers to help you in reducing the uncertainty in specific areas.

#1 Seek suggestions and information about work from experts outside and within the organization.
#2 If the work seems unclear, ask your team to get detailed estimates for the tasks they can define in that particular area. This can include reviews and decision points for interim milestones as part of decision making.
#3 You can develop a prototype to schedule and track the work.
#4 If possible set up interim reviews for uncertain areas so that each team member can measure their work and know how far they reached off. As more areas of the project get covered, update the schedule with more details.
#5. To balance the unknown works, you can have a rough estimate of best and worst scenarios along with supporting documented assumptions from the team. These estimates will help you in preparing overall estimates of the project schedule.

Now, if your management asks an end date for the work, you can actually put a level-of-confidence number of the work estimates. It can be like about 60% confidence in meeting the end date or having a 75%confidenece level schedule. Consider the best and worst case from the estimate and provide a reasonable schedule.

How to address the fear of being committed to any dates?

2009-06-11T08:19:00.007-04:00

My team member says he can’t commit to any dates. Why he feels so? Do they fear their estimates might get them committed to an impossible schedule? What can be done to address this fear of being wrong? The best way is a step-by-step planning process.

#1 Estimate individual work effort
Ask your team member to develop an estimate about their own work. Help them in decomposing their work into smaller tasks. It will enable them to define and understand their work clearly.

#2 Assist your team in exploring unknown areas
There may be areas in project which the team member doesn’t know enough about it. Help them in clarifying those unknown areas. In the first trial, you may not get an accurate estimate about those areas from the team member. However, you can indicate it in the project plan so that special attention can be given to those areas to avoid any schedule risks.

#3 Eliminate the fear of risks
The chances of various risks can be a main reason for the lack of commitment. To get an estimate, you can reduce the level of risks by decomposing the efforts into smaller tasks. Start working together to define activities that are known to you all. At the same time, think about alternatives to know about the unknown. The defined tasks can be estimated and incremental milestones can be prepared to review the risks. Add a placeholder into your schedule so that you can balance the work.

Don’t forget to integrate all schedule tactics that you have learned while planning the schedule.

What can I do when my team member refuses to provide his part of the schedule?

2009-06-09T08:16:00.011-04:00

The simple solution for this is keeping a straightforward, head-on approach.

Here are some pointers to help you tackle such situations.

#1 Find out the root cause
Your first action must be finding out the root cause of this person’s dissent. It is possible, if you conduct a one-on-one conversation with the person. Build a mutual understanding between both of you and start working step by step to solve the problem.

#2 Train your team on schedule
Sometimes, your team members may afraid that their inputs are inaccurate which can cause schedule slippage. Give training on managing their part of schedule to get the work done. Some people might be afraid of committing to any dates. You can assist them in developing their task lists and estimates so that seeing the result can make them believe in their own efficiencies.

#3 Let your team acknowledge the bigger business need
Let your team know how their efforts fit into the larger business need. Then it is easier to get their cooperation with the scheduling. They will also understand what impact might occur if the team didn’t get their part of effort integrated with other’s efforts. Further, each team member will be able to know the dependencies for completing their work.

Remember, before you try all these approaches, ensure that you are not asking for schedule detail you really don’t need to have. The objective is letting your team members know the importance of their participation in the entire scheduling process.

What to do when executives wants changes to a work already behind schedule?

2009-06-04T09:03:00.015-04:00

You are already running late on your work deliverables and the pressure on your team is high. You are trying hard to balance the situation when one of the executives comes in to ask for some modifications in your work. You appreciate the need for including this change, but this can set you back in time that there is a risk for the work objective to be lost. How can you handle such a situation?

There are two aspects to this situation– a positive side and a negative side. Both has it own pros and cons. Both aspects have to be handled very tactfully. Let’s look at each aspect individually.

If you say YES to your executive and accept the change proposed, you feel confident that you are meeting customer requirements as the requested change is a current need which was not identified during the earlier planning process. You also know that the change proposed will further delay the outcome, which can have a negative impact on you as well as on your team.

The best approach to address this problem is to:

#1 Know the objective behind this new change proposal. Does it align with the overall work objective?
#2 Request for a meeting with the executive (who proposed the change) and try to analyze the actual need. It is possible that your work deliverable already address it.
#3 Explain in detail the pros and cons associated in implementing the change and how it impacts the outcome. This will help both of you identify alternatives, which may meet the need better.
#4 Listen to his viewpoint after your explanation, so that you are able to articulate and suggest a possible solution from his perspective.

Why can't my people follow my work schedule?

2009-06-02T08:30:00.008-04:00

I am convinced about the importance of work scheduling and try to work around a plan. However, I find it challenging at times to get my team stand by my schedule plan and work accordingly. Is there anything I can do to get my team stay committed to the work schedule?

The first question we need to ask is whether your team was involved in planning the schedule? It can be challenging for the team to commit to a schedule NOT created by them. Apart from this, it is critical that the team agrees that the “outsider” plan is reasonable and feasible.

Here are some pointers to help you gain their participation and commitment.

#1 Let your team walk their talk.
Involve your team in the scheduling process. This gives each member the opportunity to assess their work effort and estimate it in terms of time. If you are working with a large team or have team coordinators estimate the work effort for individuals, ensure that each team member has the opportunity to review and adjust their work effort estimates if needed.

#2 Place the team on the same page
It is important that the team shares the schedule they have prepared and been involved with. Make regular team reviews part of the schedule preparation and planning process. This will help team members identify, plan and agree on timelines for work that share dependencies.

#3 Use a schedule tool to review your schedule
A ‘tool’ does not confine its definition to a software program. A schedule checklist (you can ask for one) is a good tool to use for a schedule review. You can create your own schedule checklist to ensure that it includes all the work identified to create the end result. The team will also have clear guidelines to help them get through the planning phase successfully.

#4 Use a team probe
Ask probing questions. Help your team zero down to their task as specifically as possible. Your work is at risk if your team cannot commit to the overall plan and dates. Ask probing questions to identify why team members don't agree with the plan. Identify work elements or scheduled activities/dependencies that cause them concern. Help them own their work by asking for alternative solutions. It is critical that you listen to their concerns. Consider if they avoiding commitment due to risks that are weighing on their minds, but not discussed during planning?

#5 Let them hold the baton
If you find that your team is not able to agree to a common schedule plan, ask them to recommend changes or alternatives that will increase their confidence and gain their commitment. You must however let them know that their alternative cannot compromise the overall work schedule or resource objective.

To sum up, gaining your team’s commitment is to involve individual team members in planning the work schedule, reviewing the schedule with them to identify loopholes, asking them questions to eliminate reasons that cause lack of commitment, and listening to them to address those reasons.

Common 'People Mistakes' - Part 3

2009-05-21T06:34:00.017-04:00

Communication is a two way process. It is not only about sharing a message but also comprehending and responding to it. Discussions and meetings are part of our profession. As a person of responsibility, you must know the common mistakes people make while communicating. One such mistake is NOT listening to the person who speaks in a conversation.

‘People mistake’: Not Listening

I'm sorry, I missed that...
Are you able to pay 100% attention to what your boss, colleague or customer is saying to you? It is a common ‘people mistake’ to get distracted. We end up partially listening and sometimes even thinking about something totally unrelated to the conversation. Why do our dialogues fail? Our personal filters, assumptions and judgments can distort what we hear.

Sometimes, we miss important details because we are busy with second guessing- we try to figure out the hidden motives behind what the other person is saying. We often assume that we have heard what the speaker wants to say several times before.

At times, we are impatient to to put forth our own viewpoint. Instead of listening, we try to frame our next response to the speaker. This can kill a good conversation.

Some people have the tendency to relate or compare what they listen, to their own experiences and interpret it accordingly. They listen to or respond only to those statements which they are likely to agree with. This can distort the communication.

Listening is vital to good verbal communication. How good a listener are you?

What can be done?
‘Practice active listening’ - Put away all your distracting thoughts to pay attention to what the speaker is trying to convey. In this cross cultural world, it is often neccessary to interpret the message along with cues of body language and local usage of words.

People may use phrases differently in various regions of the world and you may miss the mark. Listen with a focus to understand the message rather than simply hearing the speaker’s words. Repeating those words will help you internalize the thought being conveyed and help control mind drift.

Use your own body language and gestures to convey your attention - a simple nod of the head or verbal comments like “yes” or “uh huh” will encourage the speaker to continue the conversation. Don’t interrupt the speaker with counterarguments while he or she is trying to convey a point.

Ask questions, restate and paraphrase to ensure that you understand the message. Respond actively and assert your opinions respectfully without putting the other person down.

Communication Pointer
Be deliberate with your listening to avoid conflicts and misunderstandings. Active listening makes your communication effective and purposeful. Understand your personal style of communication, so that you can influence, persuade and negotiate at your workplace.

Common 'People Mistakes' - Part 2

2009-05-19T02:40:00.004-04:00

Communication is highly personal even in a professional environment. There is more to meetings and reports in a working environment. Decisions are made within organizations based on how communication is analyzed and interpreted.

'People Mistake': Lack of Clarity

I thought...
One of the other 'people mistakes' we do is to offer or make a wrong interpretation. Ambiguity and vagueness in communicating with our peers, clients or customers can distort the meaning of what we are trying to convey.

Other people may not share our perspective and life experience lessons. It is important that we take the effort to communicate our thoughts and opinions clearly. Language and diplomacy at the workplace must go hand in hand. To ensure that our communication is not misinterpreted or misunderstood, we must keep our language simple and be polite. It is important to ensure that our communications are always based on accurate facts / statements, are stated briefly (but adequately) and is clear.

What can be done?
Keep it simple - use simple words and sentences to get your point across. Where needed, support your communication (report, presentation, talk) with verifiable facts and figures. If you have to communicate something that is uncertain or away from the norm, put forth your perspective using 'observations' and 'suggestions'. This way you are less likely to offend others.

Communication Pointer
Understand that you are a piece of the puzzle your workplace is. To ensure a good fit, you must be able to communicate clearly without ambiguity. When asked to make a personal judgment, remember to support your viewpoint with reasons, while encouraging others to share their observations and suggestions.

Common 'People Mistakes' - Part 1

2009-05-13T08:09:00.001-04:00

Communication failure occurs inevitably in one manner or the other during the course of a project. Time and again, it has been seen that the behavior or attitude of people involved is the causative agent behind most breakdowns. As a project manager or team leader, you must be aware of these reasons and be able to resolve issues whenever they occur.

I would like to explore some of the common communication problems that occur, why they occur and how you can recover from them.

'People Mistake': Assumption

I knew it!!
One of the common 'people mistakes' we do is to perceive our situation based on personal assumptions. For instance, if you do not receive a report on time as expected, you are likely to assume several reasons that may have contributed to the delay. Sometimes these assumptions may arise out of prejudice or preconceived notions.

While some of your assumptions may be based on facts, personal perceptions or prejudices about a person or previous experience can distort your view. You may wrongly charge a subordinate or peer with laxity and this assumption can negatively influence your communication with them.

What can be done?
If you can take the time to validate your assumptions before 'reacting' to other team members, it will save you a heartburn. Good communicators always make it a point to seek clarifications and confirm facts before deciding on a response to a tricky situation.

Communication Pointer
Before you act or react (as a response) to a sticky moment in your people interaction, ask questions - gently and politely - so that your assumptions are based on facts, and you are in the right frame of mind to make sound decisions.