Archive of category "101 practical tips for the Project Manager"
In his book ‘High performance entrepreneur’ Subroto Bagchi talks about six areas in which a company should differentiate their service, product from the already existing competitors. The six areas are 1. Domain 2. Tools 3.Methodology 4.quality 5.Innovation and 6.Branding.
I feel that every Project Manager can differentiate themselves in these 6 areas.
Let me elaborate.
In the context of PMBoK, I had only learnt about the different leadership styles that I discussed in the last post. In the Laserwords PMP program, Mr.Chandra Kalluri VP-HR, Laserwords explained the concept “situational leadership styles”. He gave examples on how depending on your employees’ competences in their task areas and commitment to the task, the leadership style of PM may vary from one person to another. PMs may also lead the same person one way sometimes and another way at other times. I guess the picture on the top explains it well. You can also think of when you have used a directing vs coaching vs supporting vs delegating / empowering style to manage people and tasks.
As a PM, even after you organize work as project and plan for everything including risk responses, the success of the project highly depends on how much you can convince your team to work for you and align them towards the goals you set. This is where leadership skills and styles come into play. Theorists propose that there are three type of leaders
Though customer is the key stakeholder and what makes customer happy is timely deliveries, the role of a PM is not just taking care of deliveries. It is to involve all the stakeholders (customers, team or employees, senior management, shareholders, society etc) at appropriate phases and ensure that the deliveries meet the project objectives and is successful from all aspects.
I like this quote from Francis Bacon “Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.” Currently I am reading the book “The high performance entrepreneur” by Subroto Bagchi and really chewing and digesting it. And I can tell you it is very tasty. The Golden rules in the book are invaluable for a budding entrepreneur like me. I was at Sri Sankara college of Arts and Science near Kanchipuram today. When I addressed the 300+ students I shared that taste as the message. I told them that “Manager” is not a title but a reward for those who are willing to take accountability for meeting specific results; I elaborated how in this connected world, a manager’s job is to interact with client, performing organization, team, shareholders and society and produce the value that each one of them is looking for; I left them with the message that management study should not stop after college but go on forever through sources like Subroto Bagchi’s book.
Now I am teaching for PMP, I saw a major difference between PMBOK 3rd and 4th edition. In scope, risk, cost, communication and in all 6 processes of project integration area they have added “expert judgment” as a technique. They have also given guidance on who are the typical experts to help with that process. I think it is a very useful update.
1. Read the PMBoK 4th edition two to three times before taking the exam. In that, use mind mapping to take notes, once. On scope, quality and procurement knowledge areas, there will be some questions straight from inputs / tools and techniques / output; In risk management the order of events (the process flow) is important; etc. So reading PMBoK is crucial. If you can get someone to explain PMBoK concepts, from begin to end, with illustrations, you should grab that opportunity. Technical documents can be boring to read by yourselves.
We were talking about building relationships. The one practical tip here is “Remember the names”. The sweetest syllable to the ear of any man or woman is their name. Write down the names of your team members and key stakeholders and create your personal team dictionary. It is all there in outlook or lotus notes, yes. But write down the name picturing the person’s face. Add their phone number and e-mail ID. I don’t mean it should be paper and pen. It can be excel also. But don’t cut and paste from outlook. Type it so that you can get the spelling right.
Know their actual first name if what you heard is a nick name. It may be there in their business card. Use the full first name in formal communications. As you learn more about the person, such as their special competencies, career goals, family details, food tastes, etc. add it to the list.
Sorry, I couldn’t get back to this series for a while. Let’s start where we left. We were talking about project politics.
The best way to tackle politics is obviously open and honest communication. right? But why is it so difficult? Could it be the technology? Although technology provides more ways to keep in touch, it doesn’t automatically build relationships. Building relationship is hard work.
As a manager you may assume that you have some formal powers now to make things happen. You forward a mail with ‘FYA’ and expect some action and reply. Nothing happens. Because the actual power comes only from establishing relationships, building credibility, and team support. This means you cannot hide in your office or work and succeed as a manager. If you are a first time manager, along with role change you may even need a mind-set change. It may even be a challenge and a humbling experience. But it is worth it. If you cross the bridge, you can work more with real people and make larger impact.
We were talking about power play and politics. They cannot be wished away. Consider these projects:
> Running a hotel
> Starting a school
> An ERP implementation
> Producing a movie and
> Taking your team on a tour
They all have stakeholders – 1.customers, 2.sponsors / investors, 3.performing organization / senior management, 4.team and 5.the society in all the above projects. But see how project objectives are set in these projects…
By this time you as Project Manager will be introduced to a lot of people related to the project. Find out how and why they are stakeholders in your project. Stakeholders are people with considerable interest in your project and can influence the course of the project. They could be seniors from your organization, managers from client organization, senior managers in client organization who could be the sponsors, end users, media and so on.
Each stakeholder will have their idea of how the project should be run to meet the objectives and that is the source of politics. Don’t under estimate the power of any stakeholder in helping as well as hindering your project. Check the next few posts to understand more about the power struggles and how it matters, sometimes more than even project objectives or customer satisfaction!!
Now we are ready to begin the first stage – the confused stage called initial planning. Write the project goal statements and keep it clear in your mind. You are going to articulate it to so many stakeholders in the coming days and week to get their support – like the managers who may lend their people and other resources, the team leads, the customer himself, (so that they can keep changing it aoap, as often as possible (-:)
