Project Management in Real Life

I had an experience of a flaming email years ago from a contractor Mr. PMP type. He was an arrogant you know what. That contractor sent out an email to a distribution after hours to slam me on something. I was out of the office already having dinner. I had a smartphone and was composing a response and before I could send my response out I received an email from a team member responding to that flaming email defending my position on the issue. She slammed Mr. PMP with facts that put the arrogant Mr. PMP in his place. She made it easy for me, all I had to do was thank her and concur with her email and case is closed. By the way Mr. PMP did not respond back. Silence is golden. When you gain respect from your team and have a reputation people will defend you and stand by you. It's a priceless good feeling that you are making an impact on your team.

Mr. PMP never spoke to me again and avoided me. What a cry baby he can only dish it out, but when he is proven wrong he won't admit it. We don't need Project Managers that behave this way to discredit the profession by acting arrogant and unprofessional. Mr. PMP was an older gentleman that should have known better on how to exercise people skills. 

(Note - this article was originally written by Drake Settsu and published on DrakeSettsu.BlogSpot.com in April 2014)

* This incident happened a long time ago. Please use email responsibly.

When you make a request for information orally or by email be very clear on when it is needed by. Providing a date and time that you need a response or action taken will make it crystal clear.

Mistakes made when requesting information using commonly used acronyms that have different interpretations. We hear them all the time, but do not understand there true meaning. Here are the three common mistakes made.

1. Please provide your status by COB. If the organization is (24 x 7 x 365) there is no close of business. When do you think a response will be sent?

2. Please make sure you get that status report sent out by EOD. Now what is the end of day. If we start at different times and stay late at work and you are waiting for that status report to provide information for a deadline that you are working on. When do you think you will get a response?

3. I need you to jump on that issue ASAP.  You are asking for it on this one. As soon as possible. The keyword is possible. What if that person feels they are not able to jump on the issue because they have too much on their plate that day. It will not get done and there is a possibility that it could slide two days before action is taken.

Using all those cute acronyms will eventually get you a response or results, but you don't know when. Time is being wasted and you send out another email or call the person on what is the status of getting the requested information. Well you left it wide open with no clear date and time.

Summary

Cut out the use of COB, EOD, and ASAP. People will be more accountable when they are held to a deadline with a clear due date/time. 

There are the exceptions to not get your information on time. I have received some good excuses for not complying with a deadline.

My favorites excuses:

- My email is crashing.

- I'm working on it right now.

- I need to reboot my PC.

- I'm working on some issues right now that I need to resolve.

Email Email Email

Let's put a stop to the flood of emails that we keep getting everyday consuming our valuable time that could be spent better. Here are some tips to tryout and also educate the senders of unending email.

1. Use FYI - on the subject line to indicate it's just for your information. The intent is for no one to reply to your email.

2. Indicate No Reply Required in the body of the email to emphasize that you are not expecting a reply from anyone.

3. Use care with the To / Cc. The recipients on the To line have involvement in the subject. The recipients on the Cc line are being included for courtesy situational awareness and should not be hitting any reply button.

4. If your company uses a chat app then use it in place of an email to get a quick response from the group of co-workers that can address your question.

Just think how much time you spend in the office and mobile mode reading and responding to never ending emails. Make the emails count and spare the amount of wasted time on unnecessary email. Eventually you will miss that important email that is buried in the pile of email waiting to be read.