Managing Through Delegation
Categories:
Teams
Categories: Teams
| Project managers should never feel like they have to do anything that someone else can do as well or better. Delegation begins by determining tasks necessary to reach project goals--and then finding the best people to do it. But you still have to check results regularly. I suggest the following four steps for effective delegation: 1. Define the purpose, importance, deadline and scope of the project, along with the responsibilities of everyone involved. But be clear. You can't just expect team members to ask enough questions. 2. Provide the authority, resources and support team members need to get the job done. Otherwise, their requests to others for help and information may be ignored. 3. Set standards and then make sure staffers know they are responsible for meeting those standards. The key here is accountability. And when a problem arises, don't second-guess your staffer. Use the opportunity to show him or her how to handle it. 4. Set deadlines and enforce them. This establishes a commitment, ensuring decisions and tasks are handled promptly. |
Listen Up!
Categories:
Teams
Categories: Teams
| All good project leaders should have a good relationship with their
people and project stakeholders, but sometimes cultural differences
make it a little harder. In Spain, for example, people look in the face of the other person when speaking, while in some Asian countries they consider it offensive to look into the face or eyes of the person you are talking to all the time. Listening is such a routine project activity that few people think of developing the skill. Yet when you know how to really listen, you increase your ability to acquire and retain knowledge and understand and influence your team members and project stakeholders. Listening is hard work. Unlike hearing, it demands total concentration. It is an active search for meaning, while hearing is passive. Try to listen with these questions in mind:
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The Brass Ring of PMOs
Categories:
PMO
Categories: PMO
| All successful project management offices (PMOs) have one thing in common, while all failed PMOs lack this same thing. Indeed, if your PMO has this one thing it's next to impossible for it to fail; similarly, if your PMO lacks this, you will not succeed, not matter how much more, time and energy you invest. So, what is this "brass ring" of PMOs? Cooperation. It's funny, too, because of the wildly divergent theories out there about how project management ought to be performed and advanced, and what manifestations of the organization are indicative of success or failure. Some believe that only cost and schedule baselines contained in one software represent a successful PMO, while others hold a rival software combination as the only acceptable setup. Many auditors will express outrage at the lack of internal procedures and guides, still others want widespread professional certifications. Many managers who, at some time, had been associated with what they perceived to be a successful PMO will have misidentified the primary casual factor that led to that success. As I discuss in my new book, Things Your PMO Is Doing Wrong, the idea that organizational clout can be leveraged to compel successful project management advancement is a myth, whether that clout-leveraging takes the form of forcing the tool (mandating the use of a certain software), issuing procedures and guides, or any of the other so-called coercive strategies. The only way your PMO will succeed is if you adopt a technical approach to advancing project management capabilities that centers on obtaining that brass ring--cooperation--from the other parts of the macro-organization. And that level of cooperation can be elusive, indeed, but consider what you, the PMO director, are asking: You essentially want everybody else to change the way they've been doing business, for decades in some cases. I would submit that asking anybody to change anything they've been doing a certain way for years, even in the face of overwhelming evidence that the new way is better for everyone involved, is difficult in the extreme. Difficult, but not impossible. How is it done? To find out, you can pose a question on the blog that leads me to tip my hand and disclose the optimal technical approach. But there are two problems with that: 1. You still won't know my take on things that can blow up your implementation, even with the optimal technical approach 2. I'm expecting people to try to get me to reveal this secret, so I'm on to you. Editor's note: You can purchase Michael Hatfield's new book, Things Your PMO Is Doing Wrong, in the PMI Marketplace. |
Sorry, I'm Booked
Categories:
Teams
Categories: Teams
| IT professionals at companies across the United Kingdom need more project and program management training--but they can't seem to find the time for it. That's according to a recent study by U.K. firm Parity Consulting. The study questioned 225 IT professionals at 50 large U.K. companies and 75% said they would be investing in program and project management training next year, but 66% said they are too busy at work to undertake as much training as they would like. So what should they do? Whose job is it to make sure the employees get the time for training they need? In this case, I'm going to say it's the organization's job. They are the ones calling for training, so they need to create an environment where employees feel empowered to get training, even if it means time away from their work. Organizations willing to make an investment in their employees are more likely to keep their employees. And with the talent crunch in full swing, that's something organizations better be focused on. |
Better Government Projects
Categories:
Communications Management
Categories: Communications Management
| People want more accountability out of U.S. federal government programs, according to a new study. Conducted by Primavera, Government 2.0--The Performance Opportunity reveals "that both federal managers and average Americans are calling for management reform in the next administration." Some of the key takeaways from the online survey of 3,868 members of the general public and 382 federal managers, included:
And it is just more proof that project management adds value--and that it's not something that just project managers see. Even though the general public may not know all the proper terms, they understand the basic concepts behind project management. They are the stakeholders and they want full transparency. And they understand the value accountability brings. |
