Category Archives: team dynamics

04-Managing a project team, 05-Creating & constructing good solutions, problem statement, team dynamics

A post about the birds and the bees: The Five Habits of Highly Effective Hives

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Think back to the first time you had to make a decision in a corporate setting. Take a moment and ask yourself some question:

– What was the problem at hand?
– Did you have all of the information that you needed to accurately make a decision?
– Did you have enough time to think over all of the potential outcomes?
– Or conversely, did you have so much time, that you started to second guess yourself?

Now, I will ask a different question. Think about the first bad decision that you made; a decision that had an outcome that was not what you were hoping for. Ask yourself the same questions. Then ask yourself, what would have been different, had you sought help from those around you, and made a decision as a group, rather than as an individual?

I personally find the group mentality to be frustrating, even maddening, at times, since, typically the more minds that come together, the more lag there will be until a decision. I know that many share my feelings, and in fact, the majority of corporate decisions are made on an individual basis. It is always easiest to have someone to point the blame at if things go wrong. Is this mentality the most effective decision making tool that we have in our arsenal?

In the HBR article entitled, The Five Habits of Highly Effective Hives, Thomas Seeley analogies the group think process to that of Honey Bees. Professor Seeley explains an effective method for maximizing our collective IQ, and ultimately obtaining better solutions then one might without a group. His five step method is below:

  1. Remind the group’s members of their shared interests and foster mutual respect, so they work together productively.
  2. Explore diverse solutions to the problem, to maximize the group’s likelihood of uncovering an excellent option.
  3. Aggregate the group’s knowledge through a frank debate.
  4. Minimize the leader’s influence on the group’s thinking.
  5. Balance interdependence (information sharing) and independence (absence of peer pressure) among the group’s members.

Decision making is arguably the most overlooked competency in organizations today.  People are promoted based on an assumption that they are better decision makers than others.  Yet, group decision making proves to be an insurmountable hurdle for many corporations today. Mastery of both theory and implementation of this soft skill will not only positively impact your corporation, but also your personal brand. Practice this skill and help to raise the collective IQ of the group.

 

**Sorry, I left out the birds….

The Five Habits of Highly Effective Hives

 

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

Get Rid of the Performance Review

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In our office, it’s nearing the end of the fiscal year and that means performance reviews. The annual performance review was completely redesigned this year. In addition, there has been a huge push from above to make sure many more employees averaged close to a “3” in a 1-5 performance scale. Due to these changes, there was a lot of general confusion about what was expected of each employee for their personal review as well as what to expect at one-on-one reviews with supervisors. These changes ultimately had little to no effect on raise decisions; however while speaking with colleagues, it became obvious  that the cumulative effect of these changes was a destruction of morale and trust that had nothing to do with money.

Destruction of morale is just a small part of the damage a performance review might have on an organization. An article in the Wall Street Journal discusses several reasons why performance reviews, as they are commonly structured, are damaging and ill-advised. A few of these reasons are detailed below:

1. The boss and subordinate have two different mindsets walking into a review. The boss wants to talk about “skill limitations and relationships,” while the subordinate wants to negotiate a raise. At best, this discussion accomplishes nothing but, the author states, it more likely causes ill-will between the two people that has far reaching problems in day-to-day life.

2. There’s a widely held belief that performance determines pay; however raises are generally determined by the yearly budget and the overall economy and marketplace. The performance review often turns into a thinly-veiled justification for the raise the employee will receive, good or bad.

3. Performance reviews are generally set up to appear “objective” but because a single person is reviewing a number of people, the assessment cannot be free of the bias, motives, and feelings of the reviewer at that moment.

4. This same boss who must review a number of people simultaneously might be comparing very different people with sometimes very different job responsibilities but holding them all to the same criteria. For example, a trait that might be seen as an asset in one instance or by one reviewer could be seen as an impediment in a different situation or by a different reviewer. Similarly, two different employees may have two different ways to get a job done. Although both employees might achieve the same outcome, the boss may agree with one methodology and rate one person higher than the other. Unfortunately, this rating has little to do with actual performance.

5. Reviews in general impede personal development. If employees need help, they’re often afraid to speak to their bosses. Employees may feel that by acknowledging that there is a gap in their ability or knowledge, bosses will see that in a negative light and will decrease their potential raises for the upcoming year. Therefore, people do not grow as employees because they fear the retribution from asking questions.

Performance reviews seem to be a necessary evil but do they have to be? Perhaps there are alternatives to the performance review. The writer of the WSJ article focuses on addressing reviews as a team endeavor between the boss and subordinate and not as an adversarial experience in which both players enter the discussion on the defensive. He defines these meetings as “previews” instead of “reviews” in which both the boss and subordinate assess each other and when there is a problem with their teamwork, both members of the team must discuss and work to fix the problem at hand. The hope is that perhaps these changes lead to a more productive and healthy work environment and less game-playing and morale destruction.

What would you suggest reviews be replaced with?

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

MANAGE AND PLAN LIKE A FORMULA1 TEAM

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Manage and Plan Like A Formula 1 Team

“You don’t drive races on paper” – Kimi Raikkonen.

I have been a Formula1 racing aficionado since a kid. I would watch live telecast of a race hosted in any time-zone and also attended the Grand Prix at Austin. Their planning, strategy, risk management and precision has always amazed me. For once I saw the race from the eyes of a Project Manager and not a race car aficionado. There is so much that I have learnt which helped me in handling my projects much efficiently.

If we compare, Formula1 season is like a project and each race is like a milestone. The season has a Scope, Timelines, Requirements, Resources, Budget, Strategy, WBS, Quality assurance, KPIs and so does each race. Engineers, designers, mechanics, PR all work for the driver to help him minimize risk and increase the opportunities to win the race.

A race car driver is faced with competition, risk of crash, financial loss if any damage to the car and more. With all these, it is only imperative that the team provide an early identification and assessment of risks. The point is to know and stick to a threshold. We need to go through the hardship of taking the risk to either be successful or learn the lesson and move on.

“ I accept every time I get into my car, that there is a 20% chance I could die, and I can live with that risk – but not 1% more” – Nikki Lauda

Project management shall lead to the team success. Project plan which is monitored and updated as necessary, maintaining communication with all the stakeholders, maintain all the project documentation including meetings notes, technical reports, Analytics, diagnostic reports, KPIs and develop contingency plan for all the risks. All the above apply equally the same to Formula1 or software development or construction of a building or any other project. Any slight error to capture or communicate information would have an impact on the productivity and performance. Thereby posing huge threat on the budget or deadlines.

The project manager should be wise to have the technical resources working only on the dedicated project without having any internal pressure to work on other projects. If resources have to be shared project manager should plan to have the phase prior to entering the core of project work as switching projects would interfere with engineer’s concentration. All communication should happen at the discretion of the project manager, who in turn should be capable of knowing what to speak, when and to whom.

It is also very important to know who is responsible and who is accountable for what. During the race the Pit stop-team is responsible for changing the tires, cleaning driver’s helmet, replacing the damaged body parts, etc. It is the responsibility of one ‘lollypop man’ to control the car’s departure from the pit stop. The precise timing and millimeter perfect choreography plays an important role in the race. If a nut is loose, someone at the pit-stop is held accountable. If departure timing conflicts with another race car, the lollypop man is held accountable. In any projects RACSI (Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Supported and Informed) plays a vital role to manage the roles and responsibilities of stakeholders and team members of a project.

I could writes pages and never give a closure to this article. There is a lot to be explored and learnt and every race gives me a new insight. 

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

9 Traits of Successful Startup CEOs

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This is an interesting and short article from INC magazine on the traits of successful startup CEOs.  After running a business for about 3 years, a lot of these make good sense.

1. Good at hiring and firing – hiring people is easy and makes you feel good about yourself. But knowing when to cut loses is hard, and delaying can result in bigger problems. It’s not easy to do, I struggled with this for a long time.

2. Builds a culture, not a company – a company cannot grow if it has the wrong culture. Spend time finding employees with the right skill set AND the right culture. The first hires at a startup are crucial to building the right culture.

3. Listens to feedback

4. Resilient – someone said to me early on “sometimes the road is straight and easy, other days you can’t see 10 feet ahead of you.” Keep chugging along.

5. Has a vision – People need to believe that you have a plan and direction.

6. Stay focused – I interpret this as not getting distracted by other things that may pop up. Keep your head clear and focused to the important matter.

7. Speak clearly – When I first started I talked a lot to be friendly, thinking that I could get people to be more willing to do stuff for me.   But all that did was confuse people. Now I know to keep my instructions simple and concise. Explanations may or may not be necessary.

8. Customer advocate – I have to say “the customer is not always right.” Sometimes you have to fire customers. There’s certain customers that I don’t deal with, either because they are cheap, or because I know they will never be happy.

9. Good at convincing people – also related to being concise and clear. Don’t talk yourself into a trap, learn to stop

99-Spreadsheet modeling, charts & graphs, Excel resources, team dynamics

My Challenges with Excel

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C.S. Lewis (1898-1963), Fellow and Tutor in English Literature at Oxford University, and Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge, was an intellectual giant of the 20th century. In later life, reflecting on challenges he faced in his younger days, Lewis remarked:

“I could never have gone very far in any science, because in the path of every science the lion mathematics lies in wait for you. Even in mathematics whatever could be done by mere reasoning as in simple geometry I did with delight. But the moment calculation came in I was helpless. I grasped the principles but my answers were always wrong. Yet though I never could have been a scientist, I had scientific as well as imaginative impulses and I loved ratiocination*.”

To be candid, I have some apprehension when it comes to Excel . . . made all the more pressing because of how central excel skills are to the practice of finance. So when I consider my excel challenges I draw much encouragement from these thoughts of C.S. Lewis.

Although I have a deep passion for finance, and have worked in investment management for 10 years, my position at work has been more about interpreting and leveraging excel generated data, rather than performing the actual work of creating spreadsheet models myself.

The result is that up till now, my excel skills have languished.  Thus I’m grateful that our MBA program has forced me to improve. In this spirit, (and acting on the advice of professor Noonan) I’ve set out to build my own personal top 10 excel skillset, that will be useful to my financial career.  Some of these may seem rather obvious, but excel is my self-selected focus area and I figured that I could subject my list to public opinion and scrutiny, in the hope that collaborative discussion might occur. I also thought that some of this material might be useful for those considering a financial career.

Rough draft of “Top 10” excel skills for investment management and financial planning for high net worth individuals, families, trusts, and charitable foundations:

  1. Precision tree
  2. Sensitivity analysis, useful for evaluating insurance policies
  3. Goal Seek
  4. Historical market and financial instrument analysis
  5. Excel integration with Word and PowerPoint
  6. Configuring excel for pleasant appearance and functionality
  7. Mortgage / Bond / Annuity amortization schedules
  8. Learning to manipulate and efficiently sort data – this is hugely important for many areas within our business such as ranking client positions, asset allocation decisions, analysis of individual positions, and assessing performance in order to prioritize investment decisions
  9. Graphing portfolio performance vs. relevant market benchmarks
  10. Leveraging excel with proprietary finance software used by major financial enterprises. (our firm uses Advent)

When I reflect on the challenges of the first year of MBA school, I am glad that I have improved in several of theses areas and incorporated them into different assignments and projects. Our cohort has aided much of my improvement.

For example, during first semester, I was fortunate to be on a team with Shehzad Shabuddin, who was quite generous with his time and patient with helping me make progress on excel. Shehzad’s blog post, The Excel trap, reminds us of the dangers of reducing life to data and mathematics. Excel-ing in Real Estate by Bob Caperton and the article by Barry Slaymaker on MBA level excel skills were both particularly helpful. I’m also hopeful that I can persuade Joe Song to give me some Excel lessons between now and graduation.

One of the most powerful lessons I have learned in life (and a “key content” area of MP) is the importance of surrounding yourself with others whose complementary strengths have the capacity to offset your personal areas of weakness.  My next blog post will examine a leader who intimately understood just how powerful this principal is, and became a great, and most unexpected, actor in history.

*Ratiocination, noun. – the process of logical reasoning. [1520-30]

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

The 7 Things Great Teams Execute Flawlessly

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As business school students, we’ve all had a great deal of team interaction with classmates with a variety of backgrounds and experiences.  Undoubtedly, this has made for a richer experience both inside and outside of the classroom; I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the Goizueta program.

Over the tenure of my career, I’ve had to work on teams of various sizes with various backgrounds and skill-sets.  Recently, our team at work has been growing to meet growing business needs.  As one can imagine, the larger the team, the more complex the relationships and the more difficult it is to coordinate all the moving pieces and players.

I came across this article that speaks to how best to maintain a cohesive unit.  I found the list to be not only insightful for me as part of the larger work team, but also beneficial as I lead my own growing team, especially as we prepare to be MBA professionals.

The article uses the San Antonio Spurs NBA championship to illustrate the importance of teamwork and states that, “Teamwork occurs when every member is in the zone, working in unison with one another.”  As we lead our own teams, here are seven points to keep in mind per the article:

1) Remain Poised; Don’t Panic – When things get tense try to keep calm and proactively diffuse any uneasiness.

2) Stay Focused; Execute the Plan – It is important to stay focused on the task at hand.  This is more assured when leaders assign tasks according to their team members’ interests and passions.

3) Accountability; Deliver Your Role – Be accountable to yourself and to members of your team.

4) Trust One Another; Treat Each Other Like Family –  In essence, value each member’s contribution to the team.

5) Support Diversity of Thought; Embrace Differences – This can help challenge status quo and encourage innovation.

6) Expectations are in Alignment; Adjust to Each Other’s Strengths – Strong teams  adjust to the strengths of each team member, evolving as they go.

7) Great Leadership;  Strong Culture and Identity – The team’s leader is ultimately responsible to set the tone for the team. They never stop leading, coaching and teaching. 

As a part of a fast paced work environment, I find item #7 to be the most challenging.  It’s hard to make the time with so many competing priorities.  I’m particularly curious about other’s experiences as it pertains to being “coached” at work.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/06/20/the-7-things-great-teams-execute-flawlessly/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics

7 Ways to Build Accountable Organizations

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I believe that my organization needs to change our system of accountability and feedback.  We all walk the halls and complain to each other about how things could be better and that so-and-so department doesn’t do their job properly, but no action is ever taken!  It’s almost as if pointing out someone’s flaw is looked down upon instead of seen as trying to build a weakness into a strength.  We do have annual reviews with our managers but I don’t think any real constructive criticism takes place because we all continue to work in the same manner that we have for the past seven years since I’ve been at this company.  Don’t get me wrong- I really enjoy my company and plan to make a career there, but I think we could definitely be better.

This article I found on Forbes.com expresses some views of how to create a culture of accountability. http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccl/2012/02/28/7-ways-to-build-accountable-organizations/2/

My wife is blessed to work in an organization where feedback is constantly provided on an employees performance.  It is amazing to see how efficient her co-workers behave and how well motivated they all seem to be.  Their feedback driven culture echoes the authors sentiments about continuous improvement and constant evaluation.  I need to figure out a way to get my wife’s company’s culture into my company.

I believe that I will soon be in a position to lead one of our three sales teams so I will definitely start with what I can control.  The more challenging task will be to take our model of accountability and spread it into the other departments.  In order for our company to succeed we all need to know that the other groups are performing as well as possible.  To me it all comes down to communicating clear expectations and not being shy to question a process, especially if things could be done better.

Is your company one of constant feedback?  Do you have any interesting methods of enforcing accountability besides compensation structure?  I am all ears . . .

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

How to Give Constructive Feedback

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Giving feedback can be one of the hardest things we do as managers or employees. Somehow the word “feedback” has taken on a negative connotation. But getting or giving feedback doesn’t have to be painful — and it’s a skill we are all going to have to learn.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard at my company is the fact we don’t get enough feedback throughout the year.  Many people joke that if they don’t hear any complaints, they just assume they are doing a good job.  But feedback is essential for mitigating problems — and helping employees realize their full potential.

Forbes has a great article on tips to how to make the feedback process better for you and your employees. Here are some of the key tips I got out of it:

1. Be honest. Employees can spot a manager that’s not being straightforward a mile away. Just keep your comments short and sweet.

2. Give real-life examples. Keep track of what the employees is doing wrong or right. It helps you to understand where they’re coming from, and why they’re doing certain things.

3. Lay out a plan of action. Figure out ahead of time how to mitigate negative behavior or reward good work.  It doesn’t help to say “You need to work on this,” or “Great job!”  You and the employee need to put a plan in place that’s actionable, achievable and will help them move forward.

4. Be willing to accept feedback yourself. Employees aren’t perfect. And neither are managers. This helps foster trust between employees and managers if you can take your own advice!

So what’s been your best or worst experience with feedback?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2013/11/19/how-to-foster-employee-trust-and-growth-through-constructive-feedback/

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

Exerting Influence Without Authority

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In the business environment today the “I leader, you follower” mentality may not always be the most appropriate approach anymore.

With so many business structures relying on partnerships and working with teams inside and outside the company, the traditional leader tactic will not always work. Many managers and executives need to be able to adopt a more lateral style of leadership in order to coordinate, communicate, and complete work with these interwoven relationships.

The article explains lateral leadership as the ability to combine multiple essential skills. The article explains 4 essential capabilities to assist you with understanding how to use lateral leadership to your benefit.

1) Networking – “Cultivate a broad network of relationships with the people inside and outside your company whose support you need to carry out your initiatives.”

2) Constructive persuasion and negotiation – Look at persuasion and negotiation as a way to  heighten your influence not as way to manipulate.

3) Consultation – “Take time to visit the people whose buy-in you need. Ask their opinions about the initiative you’re championing. Get their ideas as well as their reactions to your ideas.”

4) Coalition building – “It’s a fact of human nature that several people who are collectively advocating an idea exert more influence than a lone proponent.”

A few more take aways:

  •  Lateral leadership can be challenging for managers to execute. It is difficult to master many of the capabilities that go into achieving lateral leadership. It may take time.
  • It is important to find the people in your company that have a lot of influence. Take the time to meet these people and get to know them before jumping into a project with them.
  •  A natural positive environment can help bring relationships together. A company should encourage opportunities for people to meet, but let the relationships form on their own and not be forced.

Exerting Influence Without Authority

 

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

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership

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This Harvard Business Review  article outlines how to be an authentic leader and explains that you do not have to be born with a specific set of characteristics that labels you a leader. Rather authentic leadership develops from a multiple of facets that make up ones life. Their study shows that you do not have to be in a high position at your organization or wait for that tap on the shoulder to be recognized or portray authentic leadership.

The authors and their research team surveyed over a 125 leaders at multiple levels. This proved to be one of the most extensive study on leadership development.  The team wanted to know how these leaders developed their leadership skills. They found that after “Analyzing 3,000 pages of transcripts, our team was startled to see you do not have to be born with specific characteristics or traits of a leader. Leadership emerges from your life story”.

One of their interviewees was Ann Fudge, Chairman and CEO for Young & Rubicam. She stated, “All of us have the spark of leadership in us, whether it is in business, in government, or as a nonprofit volunteer. The challenge is to understand ourselves well enough to discover where we can use our leadership gifts to serve others”.

There are 7 areas in which the authors express make up authentic leaders. Please read below for a brief description of these 7 areas.

1) Learning from Your Life Story – Many leaders use life experiences and happenings to help motivate their leadership. They use these experiences to give meaning to their lives and find the inspiration to lead.

2) Knowing Your Authentic Self -This article expresses that one of the most important capabilities of a leader to possess, is to have self awareness. As time goes on many leaders who may find benefits from the outside world such as money, fame, and power will eventually feel like something is missing. These leaders have left no time for them to understand and develop the inside part of their leadership.

3) Practicing Your Values and Principles – The article explains “leadership principles are values translated into action. Having a solid base of values and testing them under fire enables you to develop the principles you will use in leading”.

4) Balancing Your Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations – It is easy to get caught up in the external motivators such as promotions or financial rewards, but in the end of the day intrinsic motivators work closer with your values and will be more fulfilling then extrinsic motivations.

5) Building Your Support Team – Authentic leaders maintain strong relationships in multiple forms. These relationships help them continue their forward movement. These relationships can include family, mentors, colleagues, and close friends.

6) Integrating Your Life by Staying Grounded – This can be very challenging for many leaders. It is important to integrate a balance between work, family, friends, health, and even spiritual practices. This allows leaders to maintain an authenticity.

7) Empowering People to Lead – An authentic leader recognizes that leadership is not defined by their success but rather the success of an organization by empowering leaders at all levels. Authentic leaders will motivate and encourage people to lead.

I found that this HBR article offered a great perspective of what we can focus on to develop our abilities as authentic leaders. We do not have to wait to start becoming the leaders we want to be, the best time to start is now using our life stories and experiences to lead the way.

I want to end with my favorite quote from the article.

“Authentic leaders demonstrate a passion for their purpose, practice their values consistently, and lead with their hearts as well as their heads. They establish long-term, meaningful relationships and have the self-discipline to get results. They know who they are.”

Here is pdf version of the article

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership