Category Archives: 04-Managing a project team

Keeping things moving forward, managing team dynamics, giving & receiving feedback, making sure all the team roles are covered

04-Managing a project team, team dynamics, team roles

How do you Team?

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I personally have found that every project I start I find myself re-integrating with a new team. On one project I may be working with a local group of people I know well and the next day (or even a few minutes later) the team I work with may have oceans between them both geographically and in our experience/knowledge base. I find myself constantly searching for a new role to play on each team. Every time the team changes, new expectations or even demands are imposed upon me.

Being able to succeed in these constant environment changes isn’t easy; it demands that I develop myself to be flexible in the roles I play on each team. I cannot always be the best communicator or the best analyst or the best manager; I may be assigned projects for which I am the least knowledgeable person on the team. Yet, I need to always find a role to play that adds value if I am to be successful.

In Amy C. Edmondson’s blog she describes “The Three Pillars of a Teaming Culture” that fuel successful teams in this rapidly changing environment. She states that we should create a culture of; curiosity towards each team member’s abilities and knowledge, be passionate about the task at hand to motivate cooperation and be empathetic enough to not only hear but rather comprehend other opinions.

These three “pillars” have already helped me re-think the way I approach my constantly changing environment. By listening and engaging more with the people I am working with, we have collectively gained an understanding of where each other’s frustrations and inspiration comes from. We are exponentially increasing the quality of work we do collaboratively and independently, as we are now able to gather thoughts, debate them and decide on a direction more efficiently without hesitation.

Do you think the three pillars can help you get more out of yourself and your team? Are you able to constantly find a way to bring value to a changing environment? Do you feel that working in a team is making you more productive? Do you teach others, learn from others or truly collaborate as a team? How do you team?

More on the 3 pillars:
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/12/the-three-pillars-of-a-teaming-culture/

03-Planning the work of a team, 04-Managing a project team

How to Avoid Collaboration Fatigue

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One quote that comes to mind to me all of the time is that of John Donne, “no man is an island.” This was true over three hundred years ago and it rings true today. We are constantly in a state of collaboration whether it be at work, school or our personal lives. Collaboration is key for our survival, if you do not believe me, just think about how the successful projects in Management Practice have been completed – with a team.

Because we must work together in order for us to survive, it also key that we avoid what HBR describes as collaboration fatigue. Have you ever been on a team that meets constantly, but there is nothing accomplished? Of course that does not happen at Goizueta, but I have had that happen with other teams I have been on. We have met multiple times and it seems as if we end up discussing the same topics we went over weeks ago. What happened? Why did we not accomplish anything?

To avoid collaboration fatigue and ultimately an ineffective team is more simple than we think. It is best to first determine the purpose of meetings or the project itself. Sometimes meetings occur, but the the purpose of the meeting or the desired outcome is unclear. Instead of assuming what the desired outcome is, have a discussion and set the purpose… it will save time and frustration later. It is also extremely important that the key decision maker up front. Sure we all want to be the one with the final say, but in reality it is just not feasible for that to occur.

If the above tasks are considered, it will be highly unlikely that you will encounter collaboration fatigue on your next project.

04-Managing a project team, creativity methods, feedback, stress-testing recommendations, team dynamics, team roles

4 Ways You Can Drive Seismic Performance

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As I reflected on Professor Noonan’s closing remarks last week, I thought about how can I make a difference to my team. How can I bring value not only to my department, but also to my employer. Professor Noonan emphasized that everyone has the potential to make a contribution, to think of some process or task that can help drive results and improve productivity.

I came across this article on Forbes that drove home this point for me, “4 Ways You can Drive Seismic Performance”
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericschiffer/2014/08/13/3-ways-you-can-drive-seismic-performance/

The article suggests the following key takeaways:

1) Face Yourself On the Stand And Fire Away – Step back and reflect on what matters most to the company to elevate it. It can be as simple as automating a report.

2) Act to Kill – This sounds a little violent :), but it is just a sensational way that the article suggests that you should be deliberate and consistent in achieving your daily professional goals. Act!

3) Commit or Go Home – Commit and do not fear failure.

4) Rewire the Jet at 36000 feet – Keep progressing even in the face of hindrances.

In essence, “figure it out” and “get it done!”

04-Managing a project team

Notes on Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln, our 16th President, is one of the most admired and studied leaders in history. His gift for storytelling, his humor, his spiritual depth, and extraordinary wisdom continue to inspire and amaze. How did this unknown, modest country lawyer from Illinois, who grew up poor, lacking college training or formal education achieve such remarkable feats of leadership? Sixteen thousand books and even entire libraries have been devoted to an effort to understand his greatness.

Lincoln is perhaps best known for the leadership he provided during the Civil War. He freed the slaves and saved the Union. I believe that one of the most remarkable qualities he possessed was a primary management practice learning theme: effective team management. A key to Lincoln’s successful leadership was his ability and skill to bring people together under one mission.

Doris Kearns Goodwin, in her book Team of Rivals, makes the insightful and compelling case that a vital factor of Lincoln’s leadership was his willingness to assemble his cabinet from the men who had opposed him for the 1860 Republican Presidential nomination – notably William Seward, the governor of New York who would become Lincoln’s secretary of State, Salmon Chase, Ohio’s Governor who was appointed as Treasury Secretary and later Supreme Court Justice, and Edward Bates from Missouri as Attorney General.
Lincoln had an amazing ability to recognize the unique strengths that each of his rivals would offer and that they all possessed invaluable talents that the country needed if it was going to survive the Civil War.

It has been said that a nation can be known and judged by its heroes, by whom it honors above all others. We pay ourselves the highest compliment, when we say that Abraham Lincoln is that hero for us.

Sources:

Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. Simon and Schuster, New York. 2005

McDonald, Alonzo L., Abraham Lincoln: The Spiritual Growth of a Public Man. Trinity Forum 1993

Koehn, Nancy F. Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. Harvard Business School Case 9-805-115. Rev. May 21, 2007

01-Structuring a problem, 05-Creating & constructing good solutions, 99-Applying business intelligence, creativity methods, evaluating evidence, feedback, scoping

Performance evaluation

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As part of this semester’s MP course I wanted to solicit feedback on my performance from constituents beyond my direct supervisor. I looked through the web for different options, and I found that I favor MIT’s performance evaluation templates the most. They have two formats that I think can be used to capture a lot of information about feedback on our professional performances.

One of them is focused on a quantitative evaluation of your performance along several parameters; the other is more narrative style and asks for stories regarding your development in your role and your organization.

As a quick summary, here are the parameters around which the quant one measures performance:

1. Proficiency/skill in carrying out assignments (ability/competency)

2. Planning/organizing/prioritizing work load (analysis/time management)

3. Holds self accountable for assigned responsibilities (accountability/reliability)

4. Proficiency at improving work methods/procedures (continual improvement)

5. Effective communicator

6. Ability to work independently/ or with a team

7.  Willingness to take on additional responsibilities

8. Adeptness in analyzing facts, problem solving, decision-making, and demonstrating good judgement (sensible thinker)

All managers are different, and some people may have managers that have unclear expectations, or do not communicate their expectations. This points to the importance of being able to manage oneself. I think that pointers such as these can lead the individual to continually reflect and evaluate their own performance. Of course, we may not be as objective as an outside source (but heck, they are likely not to be objective either!), but at least we can bring a greater awareness to monitoring our performance. By bringing a higher level of awareness, we should be able to hone in on issues, and do a little trouble-shooting ourselves.

 

stakeholder analysis, stress-testing recommendations, team dynamics

3 Ways to Manage Personal Burnout

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Recent polls suggest Americans have had enough at work. The labor market seems to require more and more of the workforce – balancing continuing education, extracurriculars, and networking all while doing the job leads many of us to feel burntout. As a class of Evening MBA students, I’m sure every one of us can relate.

I’m quite a collector of “better living through research” materials and have noticed three burnout coping strategies that have proven themselves useful again and again.

1. Schedule daily quiet time. 

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“Everyday I start off happy, but then your boss is calling, your phone is ringing, and the dogs are barking. You’re trying to write an email and suddenly three people text you about a firedrill involving an SVP and a rejected project proposal. How am I supposed to manage stress if I can’t escape it?”

It’s a stress management trope for a reason: it works. Some call it unplugging, prayer, or meditation but no matter how you label it, humans were not designed to have constant stimuli interrupting their thoughts and functions. I subscribe to meditation twice a day, and have recently picked up transcendental meditation as a way to further my own practice.

2. Make time for nothing. Yes, nothing.

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As my mother likes to say, “It’s your job to take care of you”. Schedule downtime and protect it fiercely. Sometimes that means protecting it from yourself – leave an hour a day to unwind and relax, and resist the temptation to fill that time with distractions like housework or chores (unless that means relaxation to you).

3. Learn to recognize burnout behaviors and have an action plan at the ready.

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“I left the stove on last night, really? Yes, that is a nervous eyelid twitch.  No, I will not stop watching Parks and Rec and eating waffles – Leslie Knope gets me.”

Humans are creatures of habit and when threatened, we tend to revisit the same patterns that make us feel safe – whether it’s drinking too much, sleeping in, or even becoming selectively forgetful; when we’re burntout or stressed, our personal coping mechanisms rear their ugly heads.

If there’s a behavior in your life that seems to appear every time you’re facing a heavy workload or are scraping the bottom of the energy barrel, it’s a safe bet that burnout is on the horizon. Once you recognize these patterns, have a plan ready to address them.

team dynamics

Emotions: Friend or Foe?

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Emotions: Friend or Foe?
The role emotions play in negotiation, collaboration, and team work intrigues me. We are instructed to be skeptical of emotions and in fact being professional is synonymous to being stoic.

Yet, this is at odds with the evolutionary development of our brains. According to the triune model of the human brain, the three parts of the human brain are: reptilian brain- responsible for unconscious actions like flight, fright,  or freeze response; limbic brain (mammalian brain)- responsible for attachment within society, care for young ones; and finally pre-frontal cortex- responsible for analysis, planning, communication etc. Hence,  we can see that our analytical abilities are in fact a recent addition to our brain structure and ignoring the emotions can have insidious effects.

But how can we use our emotions genuinely and strategically.  This article from HBR  lists out some great points( which are listed below in my words):

  1. Being aware of ourselves and emotions
  2. Recognizing the trigger causing the particular emotion.
  3. Reinterpreting the trigger to elicit a positive emotion.

Lesson Learnt: Emotions are not bad we just need to use our superior analytic abilities to use them strategically.

04-Managing a project team, Uncategorized

Steve Jobs and the Value of Deadlines: Real Artists Ship!

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jobs-real-artists-ship

I recently listened to Walter Isaacson’s book Steve Jobs, in which the reader (or in my case the listener) is treated to a behind the scenes view of the rise of Apple, Inc. and the role played by its founder.  One of the most memorable moments in the book comes when only a week before the scheduled launch of the Macintosh a  small team of engineers and designers approaches Jobs to let him know they won’t be able to make the deadline.  In an effort to rally and cajole his team to meet the deadline, he exclaims, “Real Artists Ship!”

The concept was that it doesn’t matter if you’re the most creative person in the world if you can’t deliver on that creativity.  There are no shortages of accounts in Isaacon’s book that suggest Jobs was a lover of creative thinking and artistic design –some might say he held that in higher regard than anything else –but this particular instance indicates his clear understanding on the value of delivering the goods –on setting a deadline and sticking to it, no matter what.

All too often in life (with the exception of legal filing deadlines during my years as a litigator) I have been soft on deadlines.  Whether it’s with myself or with people who are reporting to me.  I adopt an “okay, we can push it back one more week,” mentality, believing, like Jobs’s engineers that one more read through of a contract or one more week spent practicing tennis before a big match is going to make a substantive difference.  Jobs’s point, however, was that it does not matter if you have written the perfect contract or crafted the perfect forehand volley if you can’t get out there and share it with the world.  The reason “real artists ship,” is that you only know about the artists that actually sat down and delivered their work –the others, well, they weren’t artists, they were just dreamers.   So set your deadlines for yourself and your team and stick to them!  Real Artists Ship!

If you’d like to read a firsthand account of what it was like trying to meet the Mac software deadline, you can do so here, where Andy Hertzfeld shares his perspective on running under the gun of Steve Jobs.

 

04-Managing a project team, 05-Creating & constructing good solutions, creativity methods, feedback, team dynamics, team roles

Yes, Work Can Be Fun

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The phrase “work can be fun” may seem like an oxymoron. But it doesn’t have to be! Now it doesn’t mean we all should start coming to work in Hawaiian shirts and drinking mai tais at the office (as fun as that may sound).  But we all can certainly make work less monotonous in a few easy ways — and help motivate your team as well.

One simple way to boost morale is to throw a potluck. We frequently do this at my work to celebrate promotions, new babies, weddings, etc. Everyone on the team contributes, so it’s a nice way to celebrate relatively inexpensively. We usually set it up in the office so people can stop whenever they get a moment. This way, people can take a quick break from the normal workday, but it doesn’t cut into productivity.  Plus, it’s just a nice way to make your co-workers feel appreciated!

I also love Barbara Corcoran’s idea of “surprising” your office or team with something fun. Corcoran is a successful businesswoman and judge on the show “Shark Tank”.  In her article below, she described how she got some of her best ideas while “playing” outside the office. Of course, she has the resources to rent hot air balloons or camels to ride at the company picnic.  But I don’t think the surprises have to be grand. It could simply be letting everyone wear costumes to work for Halloween, or buying the first round of drinks at the company happy hour.

One thing I would not recommend is cutting “fun things” from the budget, especially when times are tough.  I know it may seem like an easy way to save money, but it can really affect morale in the office. A few years ago, management decided to cut out the annual holiday party. When they made the announcement, it was like someone had let the air out of the office. People complained for days about how unappreciated they felt. I also remember the level of animosity toward the management. Luckily, a few astute supervisors saved the day by putting together an “unofficial” party at a nearby restaurant. But it really affected the mood of the office for weeks.

So the next time your team needs a little motivation, take some advice from Barbara — and go have fun.

04-Managing a project team, feedback

A Few Lessons on Managing Teams From Dale Carnegie

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I’ve recently been listening to Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People. This classic book, published originally in 1936, tops many top 10 lists of most influential business books ever published. Since it is so frequently included in such lists, I figured there might be a few things to learn from Carnegie’s words.

The first section of the books covers a few basic concepts of handling people. As a manager I am always interested in ways that I can more effectively motivate my team and give them feedback. Carnegie mentions three fundamentals of handling people.

Fundamental Techniques in Handling People
1. Don’t criticize, condemn, or complain
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want

The basics of these idea are that it is easy to criticize, condemn and complain but doing so won’t gain you the respect of your team mates or direct reports and certainly doesn’t help you motivate them to continue to improve. Instead, Carnegie suggests approaching team mates with an open mind and a genuine level of respect for their decision making process.

Additionally, Carnegie suggests making a concerted effort to personally acknowledge the ways that your team mates contribute positively to the team and the company as a whole.  When your direct reports feel that you respect them and that you see and acknowledge the ways they are positively contributing, it is much easier to offer suggestions for continued growth and improvement.

Personally I’ve found this advice to be very helpful as I work with my team. I noticed that I wasn’t always making sure to stop and acknowledge my team for their successes, both big and small. I now make a point to voice my appreciation for what they’re doing in person. I also make sure that I share successes our team has accomplished with the rest of the company as well as sharing individual team member’s successes. I’ve found that while my team does gain fulfillment from our group successes, it goes a long way for me to acknowledge their individual contributions as well.