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, feedback, team dynamics

Effective Delegation

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At work I am often tasked with ensuring that younger engineers are  billable on my projects. I find this task much more difficult than the project itself, probably because of my ineffectiveness at delegation. Carl Selinger, in The Art of Delegating, discusses 4 ways engineers can be better delegators:

  • “Clearly describe what needs to be done and by when”: Here Mr. Selinger discusses creating the proper framework to allow the delegate to be successful and communicating this framework to them. I have experienced where a misinterpretation by the person helping me results in them progressing down the wrong path. However, it is also important to not construct a framework that is too restrictive as it limits the delegate’s creativity. Mr. Selinger’s next point also speaks to this.
  • “Accept that the work will not be done exactly as you would have done it”: Provide the delegate with some freedom in making decisions – this may result in them making mistakes, but in my experience the feedback they receive from those mistakes is their best learning tool.
  • “Keep track of delegated work”: It is up to the delegator to keep track of all delegated work. I think it’s important to let the delegate concentrate on the details of tasks they have been assigned and leave the tracking of their progress to me.
  • “Give constructive feedback and criticism”: As I mention above, the feedback engineers receive on their work is the best way to learn. Mr. Selinger calls for “good, substantive points”. I think all feedback should first discuss the project at hand and also include a more generalized version so that the younger engineer can apply it to future tasks.
03-Planning the work of a team, 04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics

Managing [Remote] Teams

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Remote work is a passion of mine. Since 2007 I’ve worked remotely in multiple jobs and in multiple capacities. Yikes — that’s 7 years of self-discipline, Skype calls, and lunchtime showers.

While I do not have any direct reports, I’m a Senior Project Manager, which means for every one of my 33 projects, I manage a copy writer, designer, data manager, implementation specialist, and client team — none of whom are in the same state as I am, let alone down the hall.

I’m always looking for ways to improve team work, manage better, and communicate clearly. All of these skills need to be at a different level when there’s no face-to-face, but some of them can translate to an office environment.

Jana Rhyu wrote a blog post on LoopUp that hits several familiar points on managing remotely that I’d like to share with you.

1. Hire the right people
Jana gives some tips on what “the right people” are. You can probably guess “autonomous self-starters” lead the list of good remote employees, but did you know that introverts are some of the best remote employees? Extroverts tend to shrivel without that face-to-face and introverts shine.

Our method of hiring the right people includes a company favorite interview, affectionately called the “Why You Don’t Want to Work Here” call. People think that working from home will be a cakewalk, until they get on this call with a random five people from across the various departments of Fire Engine RED. We tell them things like “your home will be your workplace, so some days you might hate your house,” “your friends will not understand/believe you’re working when they have a day off and try to swing by,” “your spouse will try to ask you to do errands because you don’t have a commute,” “you’ll check your email before you eat breakfast and later realize you’re starving and it’s suddenly 2pm,” and “your boss will still give you work because s/he can’t see your full plate.” It’s a relatively fun call, but a sobering one at the same time.

What would you have on your WYDWTWH call?

2. Get the right tools
Tools for telecommuters are tools for everyone. If you don’t have an IM program in your office, you might consider bringing one in. Shoot a message to a colleague when she’s on the phone and get a response, or ping someone on another floor to see if they got your file.

Google Docs is something I can’t live without. Even in an office it just makes sense to have certain documents shared and thus have the newest version accessible (and editable) on the go.

The list in the article is longer and I definitely use every one and a few more. Ask any MP team member of mine who had a long commute spared for a group project.

3. Communicate regularly
The curse of telecommuting isn’t a lack of communication, but rather an over abundance of communication. Christine Shealy wrote about The Communication Loop and I can tell you that with all your team members able to reach you on your IM, your cell, your home phone, your email, Skype, and by text, that loop gets closed! You can be on a client call but you’ll still be expected to respond to an urgent message about another client.

I’m not sure I’d recommend all the regular meetings in the blog post (what’s the point of a bi-weekly call if you already have a weekly meeting?) but regular meetings to go over progress, outstanding items, and potential problems is a must.

Meeting just to meet, however, is a pet peeve of mine. In very busy seasons with dozens of projects going at once, I understand meeting every other day to keep each ball in the air. Still, it’s great practice to cut unnecessary meetings to once a week so as to not negatively impact productivity.

4. Set the tone
“Be willing to get and give feedback” is the most important on this list, followed closely by “be direct”. I’ll let you read through these points and comment below on what’s most important in a remote or office environment.

Link to the original blog post: http://loopup.com/blog/communicating-effectively/managing-remote-teams-top-4-tips/

04-Managing a project team

Managing Change, One Day at a Time

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http://hbr.org/2014/07/managing-change-one-day-at-a-time/ar/1

Are you currently managing organizational change? Seeking to transform your department, team or company? If so, read the full article as it provides an interesting correlation between effective transformation and addiction treatment programs. Ferrazzi presents 10-steps, but I have no doubt we can identify a few more to round it out to 12.

The 10-steps for change:

  1. Nothing happens without readiness to change.
  2. It’s important to replace old habits with new ones.
  3. Peer support and pressure drives change.
  4. Sponsorship deepens commitment and sparks results.
  5. Community without hierarchy is a catalyst for change.
  6. You are the company you keep.
  7. Continuous introspection is key.
  8. Changes in practice may represent breakthroughs.
  9. It pays to acknowledge small wins.
  10. The goal is progress not perfection.

My two take-aways from Ferrazzi:

  • Be persistent. Change is hard.
  • Know that people can adapt to new ways of thinking and acting you may just have to find some creative ways of getting them there.

I am interested in organizational change and how others have managed developing plans to enact change, worked through the process within your team or organization, and any strategies or success stories. Please share!

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

Listen, Learn and then Lead

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2) Planning the Work of a Team, 3) Managing a Project Team

http://www.ted.com/speakers/stanley_mcchrystal

So I openly admit bias on my inspirational and informative reference (but in fairness most of my other Military Officer vets have incredible admiration for the guy). The former commander of US and ISAF forces in Afghanistan, General Stanly McChrystal, gave an incredible lecture via TED that is applicable to anyone wishing to take on a leadership role in a not just challenging environment but seek to implement transformational changes to said organization. As with many of my peers, I too have been in (and will seek post-MBA) leadership positions that have entirely different duties and responsibilities than my previous roles. From the transition from a Platoon Leader as a Second Lieutenant in a Sapper Platoon (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp5LqGCtzYI ) to my other less interesting (and more plans-oriented) positions I realized that there are certain traits that make leaders excel in any field or organization that they are placed in.

One of the common themes at the US Army Officer Candidate School is leadership is leadership: irrespective of your specialty or organizational level responsibility. It has taken years for me to develop (and am still learning in the corporate world now) but the key traits I have observed and am now especially cognizant of are best summed up by General McChrystal:

Listen, Learn and then Lead.

Reflecting on all the skills one learns during his or her MBA experience I believe it to be equally important to understand how to implement your ideas to fully utilize lessons learned from classes such as Management Practice. In the course of leading often skeptical clients or coworkers (or Soldiers and civilians in the General’s case), McChrystal suggests to first listen. Listening is quite possibly the most difficult task leaders have, particularly as we are prone to defaulting to preconceived notions on how the role and responsibilities should play out before we even arrive; this is especially difficult when compounded with issues such as generational differences, prior experiences and job diversity. Throughout the learning phase (continuous) the main goal is to build trust and rapport; people tend to work harder and with more conviction when they believe someone has their best interest in mind; this is particularly true when it comes to leading higher risk maneuvers or actions where the natural tendency is risk-aversion to prevent failure / negative performance reviews. Finally there is learning when to fully lead. “When in charge be in charge” is one of the idioms always taught to military officers; when you have demonstrated the listening and learning traits to your group this becomes significantly easier to execute. I have found these leadership maxims to be of extreme value regardless of leading Soldiers in warzones or my peers when implementing a new sales strategy as a novice to seasoned sales representatives.

The “Listen, learn and lead” design is paramount to a leader’s success, particularly of importance when leading teams with informational and generational differences.

04-Managing a project team

Microinequities and Management

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I attended a Microinequity conference hosted by Stephen Young, the former Senior Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer at JPMorgan Chase, who managed the firm’s diversity strategy worldwide. If you are not aware what Microinequities are, the excerpt provided (from his website) summarizes it well. Being aware of, and controlling, Micro-messaging is just as important for a brand new manager as it is for a tenured one.  If after reading the description below, if you think that learning a little more about this would be beneficial, I have included links to three articles for you to gain a little more depth on the subject.

Research shows that words mean very little in terms of the real messages that we send and receive. The meaning of our messages is frequently delivered through subtle micromessages. These subtle, often subconscious signals represent the core of the messages we send, and can either demonstrate inclusion or exclusion.

Listening with your arms folded, losing eye contact with the person you are speaking with, ignoring a female colleague’s success while rewarding a male co-worker’s same accomplishments, are all examples of small yet powerful biases communicated in the workplace. Also known as, MicroInequities these often subconscious, negative messages and actions can affect company productivity and morale.

MicroInequities are cumulative, subtle messages that occur when these signals are negative or promote a negative bias. MicroInequities are not one-time events. They are cumulative, repeated behaviors that devalue, discourage, and impair performance in the workplace.

Research shows that words mean very little in terms of the real messages that we send and receive. The meaning of our messages is frequently delivered through subtle micromessages. These subtle, often subconscious signals represent the core of the messages we send, and can either demonstrate inclusion or exclusion.

Listening with your arms folded, losing eye contact with the person you are speaking with, ignoring a female colleague’s success while rewarding a male co-worker’s same accomplishments, are all examples of small yet powerful biases communicated in the workplace. Also known as, MicroInequities these often subconscious, negative messages and actions can affect company productivity and morale.

MicroInequities are cumulative, subtle messages that occur when these signals are negative or promote a negative bias. MicroInequities are not one-time events. They are cumulative, repeated behaviors that devalue, discourage, and impair performance in the workplace.

Harvard Management Article

Time Magazine Article

Star Ledger Article

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

Making the Move into a Management Position

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I just read an article that discusses the issue of wanting to transition into a management role, but needing management experience in order to qualify. How do you gain experience if you need experience to get the position. This is a tricky situation that many people face as they try to climb the corporate ladder.

The article suggests some ideas for making yourself more visible at your firm and forming the opinions of your superiors so that they see you as someone with management potential. The author states that your focus should be doing your current job very well. Nobody will consider you for a management position if you cannot perform your current job well. Presumably this is because a management role will have much more responsibilities than your current role as you will now also be responsible for other people.
He then lists 4 steps you should take:
1) Do your homework. He suggests observing managers at your firm and what they do. Another great suggestion that he made was to read books on leadership. These books can give you a great insight into skills that you may need to develop. One book that he suggested that I plan to read is ‘The One Minute Manager’ by Kenneth H. Blanchard and Spencer Johnson.
2) Develop people skills. This may seem as a given, but people skills are truly important to be an effective manager. You need to be able to relate, speak to and influence people. You also need to realize that the same techniques may not work for different people. I think that one good way to enhance your people skills is through group work that you may do at work and school. Pay particular attention to how you handle group dynamics. Pay attention to how you handle situations of disagreement and conflict. These are opportunities for you to learn and grow.
3) Show initiative. Volunteer to do things that may not be specifically required of you. Showing that you are willing to go above and beyond what is required of you puts you in a favorable light with your superiors. Volunteer for planning committees. Again, this shows that you are willing to go above and beyond, but it is also a great opportunity to showcase your planning and people skills. Both of which are very important skills for a manager to possess.
4) Ask. The author suggests asking for a management position if this is what you want. This is something that I find particularly difficult as you do not want to come across as aggressive, especially for a female. However, my career has taught me that you cannot wait for anything to be handed to you. There will be other people willing to stand up and ask for what they want and they will be seen and heard more than the person who quietly sits back, working away. Voicing what I want is out of my comfort zone, but I have some to realize that it is necessary to achieve what you want.
I believe that these simple suggestions could produce a meaningful difference in your career. As someone who wants to move into a management position, these are steps that I can easily implement in my every day work life.

http://management.about.com/cs/begintomanage/a/FirstMgtJob.htm
feedback, team dynamics, team roles, work plans

Effective Leadership & Knowing Your Team

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I’ve been able to work in a small office over the past 5 years, and one of the things I’ve really come to appreciate is the flexibility provided to our employees in terms of their work roles and job descriptions. Oftentimes, we hire someone with the intent they’ll complete a specific job or task in our office but then find their skill-set or personality lends itself better to a completely different role. We’ve had the ability to frequently re-organize and assign people to new areas with their specific strengths in mind, oftentimes leading to an increase of quality work output.

This seems to support the phrase “you should hire for personality and train for skill,” which I’ve heard on occasion. Given my experience, and within reason, this seems to make sense. If your employee fits into the office culture and has the basic intelligence level needed to succeed after a period of training, how can you go wrong? To effectively do this, a manager undoubtedly needs to know their team well. Good leaders need to understand their employee’s strengths and weaknesses, their goals and professional aspirations, as well as how each member interacts with the others.

I’ve copied two excerpts below that highlight these points. You have to know your employees well and then help them assume the role that not only makes them most happy at work, but will ultimately benefit the organization as whole:

2. Know Their Stories – Take time to get to know the people you work with, especially your direct reports. Have coffee or a meal with them. Ask questions to learn about their lives and what’s important to them. Questions unrelated to work might include “so you were born and then what happened?”; “what are your interests outside of work?”; and “where did you grow up?” These questions typically open the door for you to ask follow-up questions. This will give you insights into how the people you work with are wired, including what they value at work and in their lives outside of work.

3. Help People Get Into the “Right Role” – Help your direct reports get into the right role that fits their interests and strengths, and provides the right degree of challenge. If you are not able to get them a role that is a good fit, consider responsibilities or projects you can assign them that fit well with their wiring.

 

What I’m most curious about, is whether the flexibility and real-world practice of these two traits carry over into larger corporations or organizational structures. Do those of you who work in larger environments experience this type of management style and job responsibility flexibility?

See the full article here: http://www.foxbusiness.com/business-leaders/2014/07/10/7-best-practices-to-boost-employee-engagement/

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

Transitioning from Management to Leadership

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I read an article this morning on HBR by Vineet Nayar that briefly outlined three ways any manager can improve, and all of them are based on the concept that to “manage” is to do a disservice — you’re much better off leading.

Though my MP path of self-improvement is about how to better “manage a project team”, it’s safe to say that we’ve all entered Goizueta with a goal to become improved leaders rather than improved managers.

What are a few differences? Vineet Nayar provides a 3-step litmus test.

1)  Do you count value or do you create value?
A manager counts value and holds rigid milestones while a leader might instead create  a team dynamic that will hit those milestones on its own. One of the commenters likened this to someone who is sick taking some pills to resolve the issue, versus someone eating right, resting, and exercising, thus staying well.

2) Do you present a circle of influence or a circle of power?
This goes into the article I posted a few weeks back about the importance of trust in leadership. Wielding power is a negative trait, but being that person who others come to for advice or encouragement is an indicator of leadership. The author only mentions how one can recognize their leadership in this point, but doesn’t recommend how to position oneself. Any thoughts here?

3) Do you manage work or do you lead people?
This relates to oversight (managing) and influencing by working alongside those in the trenches.

All in all, it seems that both are necessary, but influence and leadership are more proactive approaches to problems. Management is more reactive. The three litmus questions are overlapping and somewhat redundant, but I like the underlying point. What Vineet never says is that both management and leadership are necessary, but I’m not sure if he agrees with that.

As a general rule, after reading an article, avoid the comments section. Except in HBR.

I broke this rule and read a different take on Leadership vs Management dichotomy by “John R. Shultz”:

Leadership and management are not opposites, but two sides of the same coin. And as a coin, there is value that buys quite a lot. Flip it, and you can’t lose. It’s a win-win toss-up. Each side, when skills are sufficient, will produce outcomes that are beneficial to the enterprise and its stakeholders alike.

There are distinctions between leadership and management. Each position has its own characteristics and functional activities, but these activities are related and complementary arrangements for coordinating, controlling, and advancing organizational operations. Leaders typically envision and managers implement. But that doesn’t mean that managers aren’t capable leaders. In many cases managers have to be leaders as well as coordinators and controllers of complex transactions.

Management is an organizational construct. It exists because large public and private sector enterprises would find their existence—because of the many inputs and multifaceted process interactions—difficult if not impossible without such oversight. Accordingly, management is all about dealing with complex operations. These are practices and procedures concerned with planning, organizing, staffing, controlling and then problem solving so activities function at some kind of optimal level. Management is concerned with the immediate, the day-to-day activities, and making sure organizational transactions are completed efficiently and effectively.

Leadership, on the other hand, is about the long-term, staying relevant, and coping with changing economic and social-political forces. These include: competition, unstable markets, ability to finance short-term obligations, overcapacity, an inefficient supply chain, an underperforming workforce, and the constant pressure by stockholders for higher and higher returns. Consequently what worked today will not necessarily work tomorrow. The need to adapt and change becomes a necessity for survival and growth. Leadership at its core is about finding opportunity and then making a case for constant renewal.

Yes, managers and leaders do have different responsibilities, but their roles are not exclusive. They are joined in a mutual and beneficial relationship where leaders rally people to a cause—to a purpose—and managers’ make it all work. This however, doesn’t mean that managers and supervisors are not sufficiently expert to be leaders. Quite the opposite, these individuals are leaders at their own level and often urge fellow employees to the finish line while producing noticeable results. Being resourceful and skillful, in most cases, they ably set direction, align people, and inspire as well as deal with the mundane and the nitty-gritty. This is a symbiotic association that, in most modern enterprises, is difficult to differentiate as separate and distinct individual activities.

Which point of view do you find speaks more to you?

 

Original article here: http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/08/tests-of-a-leadership-transiti/

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

What Makes a Great Manager?

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The article “What Great Managers Do” by Marcus Buckingham uses the old aphorism “he’s playing chess while the rest are playing checkers”, but in a different light.

Here the phrase doesn’t represent managers who are simply more strategic in their style, but likens a checkers approach to management as one that treats all employees as uniform pieces toward a success goal. Meanwhile, chess is a more apt comparison, since employees are never homogeneous.

Some employees excel in types of projects, but struggle endlessly in others. A great manager exploits the strengths of each employee and can work outside the framework of an original plan by recognizing who should be working on what.

How many have seen people fired for failing in one aspect of their job when you’ve seen them excel elsewhere? I’m thinking about the “A for effort gets generous severance” from our Netflix recruitment slide deck in particular. Would a great manager be able to save that human capital and repurpose the employee where their strengths lie? Or is that kind of effort a waste of time and resources?

Article: http://hbr.org/2005/03/what-great-managers-do/ar/1

Edit: Here’s more on the topic, including info behind the research and the book by Marcus Buckingham. http://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-be-a-great-manager-2013-8

04-Managing a project team, 07d-Delivering a presentation, feedback

Starting a conversation you are dreading

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In the HBR Blog post by Peter Bregman, “How to start a conversation you are dreading,” Bregman talks about how to best deliver not only disappointing news, but decisions overall.  First.

While many of us may hesitate to deliver the punch line, Bregman provides several examples where delivering the resolution first is key- with a single employee or to a team.

Waiting till the last minute causes one of two situations:

1) It makes the decision seem unclear. Not delivering the outcome first, causes confusion with your team. By delivering the decision first you are defining the outcome and giving clarity so the employee knows where the conversation is going. By doing this, you can follow-up with appropriate evidence to support the news.

2) It allows your team to question factors relating to the decision. Giving the facts before the decision, can side track your team or audience and open the door to debate. Therefore, ending the conversation before you deliver the final outcome.

Lesson learned: if their is a conversation you are dreading, or one resulting an important decision- deliver the resolution first. This will eliminate any confusion with your employee(s).

http://blogs.hbr.org/2014/07/how-to-start-a-conversation-youre-dreading/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=pulsenews