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Viewing Posts by Judy Umlas
Get Over Your Fear and Acknowledge Your Boss
| Senior managers rank among the most under-acknowledged people in the workplace. Part of it comes down to harried, stressed out, schedule-conscious project managers not being overly concerned with delivering the praise that does pop up in their brains from time to time. And we also wonder if that praise will be taken the wrong way. Will managers think we're just trying to get on their good side? But once they're encouraged to acknowledge upward, people can't seem to wait to take action. In one virtual course I led, a project manager texted "I'll be right back. I have to go acknowledge my boss!" Ten minutes later he was back. "I did it!!!" he texted, and you could feel his pride. We all felt proud of him, too, and shared his three-exclamation-mark excitement. I was pleased to hear a similar story in a different course: Some time ago, I had told my boss privately, but I had not told anyone publicly (so as not to embarrass him too much) that he was my hero -- that he had saved me from an almost intolerable situation and allowed me to retain my dignity. I'd always felt that he acknowledged me, but was especially honored as a result of the appointment to my current position. "What he hasn't known, but will now," I told our class, with my boss sitting right there, "is that because of this, I say thank you to him every day that I've worked here, since November 2008, through my password, which is a combination of a 'thank you' to him and his name." - Jyll D. Townes, deputy commissioner for regional affairs, New York State Division of Human Rights When Jyll told this story, her boss -- and everyone else in the room -- just lit up! It was so refreshing and wonderful to see. He was totally surprised and moved. She took the risk of acknowledging upward in a public setting and reaped the reward. Don't hold back appreciation because of a person's position or influence. Sometimes those in the highest positions need our acknowledgment the most. Theirs can be a lonely and stressful path. Letting them know they made or make a difference in the workplace and in our lives will go a long way. Feel free to post an acknowledgment of your manager as a comment to this blog! |
Pushing the PMBOK® Guide to Include Acknowledgment
| On page 229 of A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide)--Fourth Edition, under "Project Human Resource Management," I'm happy to see the following: "Project managers should continually motivate their team by providing challenges and opportunities, by providing timely feedback and support as needed, and by recognizing and rewarding good performance." I salute and encourage this. Yet I would advocate taking this statement one step further. Teamwork is based on validating all members for their contributions and making sure they feel valued. Rewards and recognition let people feel special and know that what they do is appreciated. Acknowledgment, however, goes right to the heart. It lets people know that they make a difference, that the success of a project would not be as great without them. A heartfelt and authentic acknowledgment can be spontaneous or it can be planned. Send an e-mail to a team member's manager about what a great job the person is doing -- and copy that person on the message. Or just look the person in the eye and tell them how much you value his or her continuous contribution. If you feel moved when you do it and see the person light up as you communicate, you'll know you're on the right track. You don't need to order a plaque or buy a gift card when you're overcome with gratitude to have that person on your team. Just let them know -- from your heart, in a truthful way -- and the impact will be phenomenal. They won't be able to do enough to make the project a success! So, in the PMBOK® Guide--Fifth Edition, I hope to see a reference to the power of acknowledgment. I will even help draft it, if invited! |
The Courage to Acknowledge
| Last June, I blogged about a presentation on acknowledgment that I gave to 800 project managers at a conference in Helsinki, Finland. Afterward, Agoston Nagy, a participant, shared with me a conversation he had with a senior project executive of an Indian power company. Mr. Nagy's colleague asked the senior project executive what the most important competence of a project manager is. "He answered: 'A project manager must have the courage to acknowledge when somebody does a good job,'" Mr. Nagy recalls. We must consider that this executive was responsible for 16 simultaneous power plant construction projects and many other projects in his company. The team took in accolades: One project won an international award for excellence in 2005, two others were finalists in the same competition in 2006 and another project won in 2008. I really appreciate how Mr. Nagy's example illustrated the need for courage when acknowledging a co-worker. Why courage? Isn't it a simple thing to let someone know how much you appreciate them, how their being part of your team makes you certain you will complete the project successfully? No, it isn't. Acknowledging others in a heartfelt and truthful way makes us feel at least somewhat vulnerable. We are not certain that they will accept the acknowledgment in the right way: What if they think we are trying to manipulate them? What if they think we are not being sincere? That's why we need to be courageous and take the risk -- at all times. It is worth it, no matter how vulnerable it makes us feel! |
The Gift of Criticism
Categories:
Teams
Categories: Teams
| I love it when my associate Sonia tells me in her direct, to-the-point way that she really doesn't like a course segment I put together. It's sometimes uncomfortable to hear, but I find criticism invaluable -- and worth acknowledging. When I ask Sonia what she doesn't like about what I have put together for a program, for example, her reasons are solid, helpful and almost always merit making a change. Who needs a "yes" person, when a person who tells you the truth, even if it is uncomfortable to hear, can really make a difference to the achieved results? Ginger Levin, PhD, PMP, PgMP, drove this home in a note that she sent me a few weeks ago: "Recently, I gave a program management boot camp. As it seems too often be the case, people in the class found some items that they felt needed change. I thought this was wonderful and I was so pleased that they had pointed them out to me. One person pointed out the majority of the changes, and I decided to send him a small present as a token of my appreciation. I also thanked each person who did so. One person in the class remarked that such thanks had not been given in previous courses she had attended. I welcomed the comments, as they can only help me improve next time." Can you imagine being given a gift for the criticism you deliver to a colleague? I believe this is a rather rare response to such feedback -- too rare. Wouldn't project excellence be much more commonplace and achievable if we all responded similarly? And it takes a master like Dr. Levin to truly value this kind of input to keep herself in a mode of continuous improvement. So let's acknowledge those who tell us the truth -- and make us and what we do better! Their integrity, their commitment to excellence and their unwillingness to shortchange the end result by accepting the mediocre are their gifts to us! |
Show Your Team You Care--And Not Just About Deadlines
Categories:
Teams
Categories: Teams
| In the process of putting together a new course on Leadership and The Power of Acknowledgment, I've discovered some interesting information about employee engagement. A survey by The Gallup Organization over a 30 year period posed the following question to millions of employees: "Does your supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about you as a person?" Isn't that an interesting question? Most of us might not even think of it as a measure of how engaged we are in our work. But if the truth be told, doesn't the slightest personal attention -- even a small inquiry about an ailing parent -- make you feel like you're more than just a worker to your manager? I love the example cited by Stan Shimizu of Resourceful HR LLC in the podcast about reward and motivation that he and I recently did for PMI. Stan explained how the executive team at his former company made sure, in spite of the long hours everyone normally put it, that he left the office every day by 5 p.m. to tend to his wife who was having medical problems. The executives even sent meals to his home. These actions meant more to Stan than monetary compensation could have and made him feel tremendously valued as a person. He states that these simple, kind acts increased his dedication and loyalty by 1000 percent! Here's another wonderful example. Roberto Daniel, vice president of engineering at Invensys Controls South America, regularly spends one-on-one time with each of the people he manages. During this hour, the person is not "allowed" to talk about work at all -- just about personal interests, family, hobbies and the like. His people look forward to it, as does Roberto. He considers it an essential tool for getting to know his people and what they are about, and he says it makes a huge difference in the productivity and engagement of the team. Since 2006, he has had over 200 of these face-to-face meetings. Especially in this tough economy, we all have to work doubly hard to let our people know that they are valued and appreciated. Let's not let this simple pathway to productivity and well-being be overlooked! |