Joan RoseChange & Technical Project Manager| Samaritan Health Services
Any resources you can recommend? Tips or tricks specifically related to bringing engineers along on the soft skills side of Project Management? I'm looking specifically for ideas related to helping them manage scope, changes and risk, as well as not postponing discussions about budget just because it pushes them outside their comfort zone. Saving Changes...
Stéphane ParentSelf Employed / Semi-retired| Leader MakerPrince Edward Island, Canada
Joan, for the soft skills I would highly recommend Toastmasters. It will develop communication and leadership skills. Consider joining a club near you then invite your colleagues to experience it. Saving Changes...
Dominic LawProduct Manager| PCCW GlobalHappy Valley, Hong Kong
I see it is more the mentality of certain engineers to pick up the project management skills, and they are usually the team leaders of the project team. Note these leaders are different from technical experts. And these engineers understand the importance of scope, risks, budget etc as project success criteria, and so they will proactively look for the relevant training. Those engineering institutes also put high value of these management skills in their continuous learning or PDU. Otherwise PMI have plenty of such training that they can join too. Saving Changes...
Dr. Hemant KagraPrincipal Chief Signal & Telecom Engineer| East Coast Railway, Indian RailwaysBhubaneshwar, Odisha, India
Creating an environment of good communication and trust shall go a long way to enable the managers to tackle 'hard' issues and to take difficult decisions. Saving Changes...
Saurabh MathurProject Manager, PMP, PMI-ACP, CSM, ITIL®,SSGB| Publicis SapientGhaziabad, Uttar Pardesh (U.P.), India
I feel every persons had different capabilties and issues and we need to handle or mentoring them in different ways.We can try to mentor them by involving them in the management tasks according to there interest and skillset. You need to make sure the environment provided should be healthy and regular communication need to be there to solve there initial queries.In the earlier phase responsibilities should be shared and eventually they should be made responsible for the particular task. Saving Changes...
Beth SpriggsHome Furnishings AssociationWoodbridge, Va, United States
Here is the advice I give managers that need to have hard conversations. Don't trade off a moment of discomfort for months or years of dealing with poor work. If you do nothing, then you're choosing to live with the behavior. Its your responsibility as a manger to say something, to point out what needs to change. Then its up to the other person to change. But you can't expect them to change until you tell them the change you want to see. The longer you wait, the more your hurting yourself as well as the other person. And then I coach them on how to start the conversation. I coach them in asking questions, learning the other person's perspective, and how to talk about the difference between intent and perception. Saving Changes...
Some great answers already- also try defining some learning objectives first, stage them on a quarterly basis and review regularly. Also get a coach in to help you, different people respond in different ways - find out their preferred learning styles.
As you are trying to turn your engineers into project managers, why not put them on a path towards the PMI exams? Saving Changes...
good suggestion fro TIM, why not train and put them towards PMI certification course. What we have done in the past was also to establish coaching and mentoring for the 'new' PM's. The coaches are experienced PM's or the leadership from the PM organization and the mentors are the folks from the PMO, who would support the PM's in understanding the risks and how to get information and gain traction in performing their activities. Also that helped was the concept of part-time PM's, where the in-experienced folks would lead (very small) projects or work packages in this way also they get the help needed Saving Changes...
Elizabeth HarrinDirector| RebelsGuideToPM.comLondon, England, United Kingdom
I'd suggest that you get them to workshadow someone with more experience who is about to have one of those difficult conversations. It's often easier to do it yourself if you've seen someone else do it and that can give you ideas of what to say in what sort of circumstances. Saving Changes...
Joan RoseChange & Technical Project Manager| Samaritan Health Services
Some great suggestions. I especially like the idea of including them in an observation role of someone skilled as well as a reminder on short term pain for long term gain. This is a group of engineers who function in the PM role occasionally so most are not interested or equipped to go the full PMI route. That said, we offer training in those Knowledge Areas. Thanks for your feedback. Saving Changes...
I would recommend Career Academy (http://bit.ly/2fnjzjJ) for PMP training and exam prep courses. They have a good price for their annual membership and they are PMI Registered Education Provider (REP). Career Academy is an institution that offers online on-demand video-based learning solutions for IT Networking, Cyber Security, Project Management and Office Professionals. You can prepare for the certification exams by taking courses from Career Academy. Saving Changes...
