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

First-Time Manager Survival Guide

4 Comments

One of the motives for me in obtaining my MBA is to learn more about managerial best practices and apply what I learn in the classroom to the workplace. This is why I’m especially looking forward to taking ‘Managing Groups & Teams’ in the fall. Currently, I have only had the opportunity to supervise student workers and have yet to manage other full-time professional staff members. Many of you may be in a similar boat, as you find yourselves only a few years out of college and still trying to establish your place in the office hierarchy. As we continue to move up the chain and are promoted to management positions, we will be entrusted with increased responsibilities, and with this comes its challenges. Our success now is not only dependent upon our own performance, but also of those we oversee.

In order to be a successful manager, I believe you must be a leader first and foremost. Here are some guidelines to becoming an effective leader from Bill Gentry’s article 3 Tips For Surviving As A First-Time Manager:

1) “It’s not me, it’s you”

Schedule an individual meeting with each of your direct reports as soon as you move into the new management role. You need to figure out what motivates them, how they like to be led, and what questions or concerns they may have. Communication is critical in every (work) relationship, so this is the best place to start. Using the Birkman Method Assessment may be a very useful tool to utilize here as well.

2) “Mentor others for a win-win”

Mentorship is also a big factor in a successful supervisor/supervisee relationship.  Research has shown that it not only benefits the person being mentored but also helps the manager doing the mentoring become a more effective and efficient leader. Regular check-ins and providing feedback (both constructive and positive) will help both parties involved.

3) “You are 100% the boss, but only 50% of the relationship”

This is something first-time managers struggle with the most. You must accept the fact that you are only responsible for your own actions, behaviors, thoughts, etc. You cannot control other people’s opinions or feelings about you, so you must learn to let it go. It is impossible to make everyone happy 100% of the time. Just focus on being the best leader and manager you can be, and the rest will fall into place.

From my personal work experience, I feel like I’ve learned what not to do as a manager. I value this Forbes article because it’s provided me with some actionable takeaways or “To Do’s” rather than “Don’ts,” which we too often focus on.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccl/2013/05/10/3-tips-for-surviving-as-a-first-time-manager/

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

Managing Your Time Effectively

6 Comments

We all know how difficult it can be juggling school, our jobs, friends, family and goodness knows what else. Sometimes it seems like we’re burning the candles on both ends, and we just can’t seem to catch up no matter WHAT we do. It’s so easy to get distracted, especially with all the electronic devices filling up our lives, whether it’s the TV or your smartphone.

I’ve often observed this with managers and co-workers as well. They get so caught up with the little things,  it can be difficult to stay on track.  Projects then get pushed back, things pile up — and then they end up spending 12-14 hours a day working 6 days a week. Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg talks about trying to balance family and work in her book “Lean In”.  When she first became an executive at Google, She said she constantly felt worried about missing something – if she was at home with her family, she was concerned about things at the office, and vice versa.  So she implemented a pretty similar policy outlined in Michael McKeown’s article The No. 1 Time Management Mistake. She cut out the non-essentials — whether that was extra meetings, phone calls, etc. She kept strict office hours, but made herself available, if needed, on her BlackBerry. She prioritized to-do list every day — and her employees soon followed. Soon, her team was completing projects more efficiently – and in less time.

I think these lessons are especially key for us as students and future managers. Learning how to focus on the essentials and eliminating distractions will help our stress levels and our work flow. And having effective time management seems particularly essential in this shortened summer semester! So how do you make time for school, work and your personal life?

 

feedback, team dynamics

Stages of Skill Acquisition

Leave a comment

My career path in the last few years has been in workforce development. As a Program Manager for a graduate school work-study program, I work to find meaningful applied work experiences for students. 

For many of them, these positions provide them with the opportunity to be mentored by their supervisors or by another worksite colleague in the field of public health.  As a result, I am always working to find the ways in which we can teach students to search for valuable mentorship experiences and engage in those opportunities.

A former mentor of mine introduced me to a what’s known as the Dreyfus Model (often used in field such as education) to demonstrate how students can gain skills through application, instruction, and practice.
The model consists of 5 stages— how a student goes from “novice” to “expert” in the acquisition of these skills:
  1. Entry-level (novice)
  2. Capable (advanced beginner)
  3. Competent 
  4. Proficient
  5. Expert
In summary, think about how each of these stages relates to your career progression thus far. I leave you with the following questions to think about when considering how this framework relates to your professional experiences:
  • Where are you in Dreyfus Model?
  • What experiences did you have previously that lead you to where you are now
  • Did you have a mentor at any of those stages?
  • Did you serve as a mentor to someone else at those stages?
  • How have you been able to implement change in your department or organization at those various stages?
  • How have you used the “stage” you’re in to work effectively in a team?
  • Have you been able to accept and provide different levels of feedback based on what stage of the model you’ve been in?

As career paths change and at times we may enter an entirely new industry, it is very possible that we enter the Dreyfus Model at a lower (or higher) stage than we were before.

Sources:
Miner, Kathleen. “The Mentor’s Virtue.” Mentorship Training, Emory Public Health Training Center. Emory Conference Center, Atlanta. 24 July 2014. Oral presentation.
Lester, Stan. “Novice to Expert: the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition .” Stan Lester Developments 2005 . Web. 30 June 2014. <http://www.sld.demon.co.uk/dreyfus.pdf
03-Planning the work of a team, 04-Managing a project team

Not So Linear Improvement

1 Comment

Most of us are taking a hard look at areas that we perceive as weaknesses or need some additional improvement to round ourselves out. As we use various methodologies of pin pointing those areas for improvement we set in action a plan to learn, progress, and improve over time.

Given the 13 week semester, will we all progress the same amount if we all put in equal amounts of effort? David Brooks points out in his article, ‘Learning Is No Easy Task‘, that progress is rarely linear. Tasks yield results in different proportions, and being aware of this phenomenon is the first step to mastering the learning process.

Some learning progressions are logarithmic in shape yielding great advancements on the front end of the learning process; you make a lot of progress when you first begin the activity, but as you get better, it gets harder and harder to improve.

Conversely, some learning progressions are exponential in shape, yielding little progress on the extensive efforts put forth on the front end, but your progress multiplies quickly on the back end of the process.

Learning progress curves come in all shapes and sizes. Some are step functions and some are valleys where you have to go down before going back up to higher highs. Whatever the curve shape, the importance is to be aware of the shape so you can effectively change your mental and strategic approaches to successfully master the learning task.

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

Ways for Improving Management Skills

1 Comment

The attached link contains an article that not only assesses your current management skills but offers suggestions as to how to strengthen them.

I find this particularly useful as I am currently a Senior Analyst and do not have the opportunity to manage anyone. This is a challenge that I face as I attempt to gain management experience and strengthen my management skills. This article offers ways for non-managers to improve their management skills.

Some suggestions that I plan to implement are:

– taking a leadership role in facilitating meetings. This improves your  communication and plannings skills. Both of which are listed as key skills for managers to possess.

– training and/or mentoring new employees. This is something that I actually already do as the most senior analyst in my group, but I never considered it as a vehicle for gaining managerial experience. Again, this strengthens your communication skills, your ability to motivate people and your ability to understand and encourage good relationships.

Anybody who has set out to improve their management/leadership skills through MP this summer should definitely read this article and take the assessment to determine areas that they should concentrate on. I found this article especially helpful and will be implementing some of the suggestions in my every day work life.

http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_28.htm

04-Managing a project team, feedback

Good Leaders Make Employees Feel Safe

2 Comments

I love TED.

Sorry, but this isn’t an article, but a video of a presentation that’s 12 minutes long. At least it’s not a 3 hour Makadok video… My boss sent this to me and I’m passing it on.

The video talks about the origins of cooperation based on the first paleolithic reactions to danger. In all, it talks about cooperation in any collective, be it a tribe railing against hunger and predators, or someone in a business that’s competing against others in an industry.

In either case, in-fighting and mistrust within the company damages our ability to work together and effectively against a common external danger.

There’s a company, NextJump that has a lifetime employment policy where no one can be fired, but if there are issues, will be coached. I must admit that I kind of laughed at that concept.

I didn’t laugh about the Barry Weymiller 2008 furlough decision, however. If you watch one thing in this video, skip to 8:30.

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics

The Communication Loop

9 Comments

Throughout my professional years, I have found myself in working situations where the majority of the people that I interact with are not in the same office as me. I imagine several of you have experienced a work relationship like this as well. Satellite environments have made me a huge proponent of closed loop communication.

Steve Adubato describes the impact of this tool in an article entitled Great Communicators Close The Loop. Proactively closing the conversation eliminates confusion as to what the next steps are for each party. While I know some people hate to receive “Thank you.” emails, I am not one of those. Those simple emails say so much. I read those two words as, “I received the document that you have provided, and it fulfills my needs perfectly. I will contact you back should I need anything further.”

When I receive no communication back, I am left in a state of confusion. Did my file go through? Are they too busy to respond? Is that all they needed?

Sometimes I imagine how this interaction would play out in person:

Christine: “Hi John. Here is the file you requested. Please let me know if you need anything further.”

John: (Grabs paper and walks away without responding)

Not an entirely beneficial exchange, but I know we all witness these types of passive conversations daily via email.

Steve also describes the importance of proactive communication. Don’t always force people to remind you that they are waiting on a deliverable. Bringing the topic up, explaining your work to date, and acknowledging a completion date all provide confirmation that you are hard at work on their task. People like to feel that their work is important to you, and these simple behaviors will reinforce that feeling.

Am I the only one that saves “Thank you.” emails as a sign of confirmed receipt? Do you all find yourselves frequently in email limbo, wondering if your document was received or if anything further is required of you?

04-Managing a project team, team dynamics

Did Netflix reinvent HR?

2 Comments

“Candor is not just a leader’s responsibility, and you should periodically ask your manager: “If I told you I were leaving, how hard would you work to change my mind?”

This is just one of several unusual or surprising policies or questions posed in a Powerpoint presentation shared by Netflix CEO and Chief Talent Officer. I find it interesting and relevant to share with all of you because I think these notions of being consistently honest with ourselves and our colleagues goes against what we inherently believe, which is that good things will come to good people.

Netflix encourages speaking up both as an employee and a manager. If you don’t feel you are getting the most out of your team, it is encouraged that you find new team members who will outperform the ones you have, even if they are doing just fine. As an employee, you are rewarded for “sustained A-level performance, despite minimal effort,” which I find a little infuriating. Imagine a scenario where a coworker rarely came into the office and rarely contributed in meetings, while you worked long hours and coordinated large meetings, but due to some arbitrary scale of success you were terminated and your colleague was not. Or, even worse, imagine watching that happen from afar. I would feel paralyzed, unclear how I should behave or react.

Netflix also promotes a process-free (or limited) environment where employees are authorized to spend within their budget, make decisions on assignments for which they are ultimately responsible, and cut much of the red tape that paralyzes other businesses. How does this continue to work for Netflix? Are there employees just that much better at communication, following the prescribed guidelines or role descriptions, or is it something else? I think empowering employees is huge and can have massive implications for eliminating much of the red tape  we have all experienced.

The rest of the presentation, along with a Harvard Business article, can be found here. I could spend all day detailing the rest of the Netflix value system, but instead look to you for your thoughts on what Netflix is doing, how sustainable it is for the long-term, and if any of these policies or lack-of-policies are things you would adopt or wish your organization would adhere to?

04-Managing a project team, team roles

Finding or Acting as a Mentor

8 Comments

In my career thus far, I’ve been in mostly start-up environments that lack a formally structured mentor-mentee program, but I’ve still had the opportunity to discover how important it is for growth. My career has exploded when I’ve had the opportunity to work with a mentor and, conversely, grown stagnant when I’ve simply worked for a boss.

This article by Rachel Ensign of the Wall Street Journal takes the point of view of someone looking to climb the corporate ladder, seeking out a mentor. You and I are more somewhere in the middle; many of us have direct reports or are managing teams, but are still in the early stages of careers.

I’ll pose these questions as conversation starters:

  • How many of you have a mentor rather than a boss (it’s possible to have both)?
  • How did you find/develop that relationship?
  • How many of you take an active role in being a mentor to others, past the required exercises of formal reviews?

Any time I interview for a job, “Who would serve as my mentor?” is one of my questions. The worst feeling in a job is just doing the work and feeling no professional progress with no one to talk to about changing the situation (or that person not listening).

A link to the original article: “http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303404704577309750220810364“