New Year = new chance

As this year is coming to an end it's time to fully focus on the new year. The new year has new opportunities, new chances. Many things will be what you make out of them chances or threats, so make the best out of them. Happy New Year!

Short, mid and long term solutions

Are you working on multiple solutions to the same problem at the same time? What I'm refering to is that you have a short term business goal where you don't require any IT help. A mid term goal where you have very limited IT help and then you have the ideal long term solution that is provided by your IT Team. In many cases these solutions are quite different from each other. The challenge with this approach is that short + mid term solutions tend to hang around much longer than expected. Are you using this approach in your company? If yes, how is that working for you? While it is necessary in some cases to follow this approach I do not consider this a valid default approach. What is holding you back from aligning the short, mid and long term solutions into one solution?
In many cases the missing action is a decision. Who is making the decisions regarding your different solutions? Are these the same or different people? Is the communication and training effort worth developing different solutions? To focus only on one solution is much more effective in many ways (e.g. development effort, training effort, communication etc.) and therefore you might want to resist the temptation to always work on multiple solutions.

Do something new!

If you want to stand out in whatever you do you have to do something new. In business that means that when you seek opportunities you should invest your resources in new areas of a business because these areas are neglected and uncontested. When everyone is doing it then it is a standard and no longer good enough to differentiate yourself. To do this is not easy but well worth the effort because instead of following the market you can create your own market. This obviously has some challenges as well because you can't hide behind someone or something. You also need to have a strong personal drive and considerable confidence in your ideas. Generally many of us like to be judged by how well we do compared to others. I think it is good when you try to stop that urge and instead try to differeniate yourself from the group around you. Is it better for you to be No 5 in a large pool of players or do you prefer to be No 1 in a small pool? I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here by the way, it's a personal decision.
If your answer is that you prefer to be the No 1 player then you are in good company with many successful people. We don't have to be geniuses that transform the world every day but if you can find a way to make yourself more unique you will help yourself and the environment around you.

2011 New Year Resolutions

This is usually the time of year when many people come up with challenging goals for the next year. I consider these New Year Resolutions a great opportunity for change, if they are done right. Are you making any New Year Resolutions? I have some challenging and exciting new goals ahead of me and I'm already looking forward to tackle them in the New Year. 
In order for them to come true I consider two things critical, passion and discipline. Most Goals do not come true over night and so I try to measure how strong my passion is for a certain goal. My goals will be challenged, I might challenge them myself and therefore it is critical to look beyond the current moment and try to estimate how much I really want that change. If the answer is that I really want that change (not done in 1 day !!!) then I write down what I need to do to be successful. What would need to happen to make that goal come true? Do I have the necessary discipline to follow up on my passion? Apart from the current excitement and desire for positive change, am I willing to keep going when the going gets tough? If I can answer that positively then I go for it,  not just to feel good for a moment but to achieve the goal. It doesn't always work but in general the success rate is really high (>90%) for me. What do you do?

It's not about you!

What are you doing when you are trying to get others to buy into what you are saying? Are you excited to see if you are successful? Do you carefully prepare the meeting and try to forsee every possible objection?  Are you dumping convincing information on your audience that should make it hard for them to argue with you? Do you try to pull others on your side?
If you do any of these things I suggest that you take a step back and pause for a moment. In order to get anywhere with your suggestions/ideas you have to take the focus off yourself.  Your objective is to learn how you can do something beneficial for them. How do you know what is beneficial to them if you don't listen? As long as you talk and explain everything from your point of view you are not listening.  Take a step back, take a deep breath and listen first!  Once you know what they are looking for you will be much more effective.

Pleasing everyone

You already know that you can't please everyone, don't you? Are you still trying to do it anyway? If you do then try to stop it asap because it is a useless exercise that will cost you a lot of time, energy and nerves. To be clear, trying to please everyone and getting everyone on the same table to discuss differences are very different things. Let's look at an example for pleasing everyone: As a Project Manager you have to decide who within your team is going to perform a certain task (e.g. meeting with a senior executive for a project review). There are three people that all would like to do this task but you can assign it only to one person. You pick the person that seems to be the best fit for this task. In this case you can't please everyone. You will have to disappoint two people and please one.
To make sure you keep a strong and committed team you, as the Manager, have to try to prevent these occurences or at least to soften the impact of these decisions. Nevertheless these situations will arise from time to time. When they do, accept that you can't please everyone.

Logic and decisions

Have you noticed that many people at work try to be logical at all times? Especially engineers and computer programers seem to have an excessive need to look for logic.  But is the world really a logical place? I don't think so. Nevertheless some people somehow seem to hope that logic will always prevail. This will not always be the case as I can show you on one example below.
A couple of years ago I was involved in a Project that was introducing an ERP system to smaller companies (<50 employees). The effort was meant to prove that this ERP system was suitable for these companies. The leaders of these companies though were not convinced that this ERP system could really address their needs but since they had executive level relationships to the ERP vendor they went along with it. For several months we were trying to show them how they could benefit from this system. It wasn't easy and logically it would have made sense to abort  this effort at some time but then the executive level relationship might have been scared. So we kept going and implemented the system. I'm not convinced that these companies really used the system long term, but that was not the point.  The important thing in this case was the relationship between the ERP vendor and these companies.
Instead of waiting for logic to prevail you have to recognize that you deal with people and we all will do illogical things. Expect it and don't be surprised by it!

Communication Inferno?

It seems sometimes that everyone wants to be hip and sage by using Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, Podcasts, your own blog or website and thousand other social media tools. This is fine but can require a considerable amount of time. Is that time well spent for you?
Then we have all the cool gadgets where we can use these social media tools like smartphones, tablets, mp3 players, laptops, game consoles and many other gadgets. It feels good to use these tools because we feel hip. We're "in" because we have these cool gadgets.
In Summary, we have a lot of opportunity to use these cool tools on the cool gadgets and potentially waste a lot of time. I have a job and a family and can't spend all my time on these tools, so how do I stay up-to-date?
I prioritze what is important to me and set a reasonable time (approx. 30-45min) per day for these tools. Some  blogs, PodCasts, Linkedin Groups etc. are great and I want to enjoy them on a regular basis BUT I don't want to be held hostage by them through 24/7/365 pressure.
I do all these things to learn, to stay up to date with what is happening and I want to actively participate and drive these discussions.  In the end all the social media tools are "tools" that are supposed to help us achieve a task. If they become a task all by themselves then something has gone haywire.
What do you use social media tools for and how is that working for you?

Recognize good leadership

How do you recognize good leadership? There are a whole bunch of things that contribute to good leadership (e.g. active listening, walk your talk, decision making etc.) and many books have been written about it but I think two key characteristics make it easy to spot good leadership even from the outside.

1. Business Results
2. Good Team Spirit

When you get real, measurable business results (e.g. revenue increase, cost reduction, more motivated employees etc.) that move your business forward that proves that you can get everyone to pull together. That's a sign of good leadership but in the short term that can be achieved at the cost of the team. Therefore it is important to look at the whole team when you assess leaderhip qualities. Are the team members satisfied to be in your team? Do they feel appreciated? Do you have a we-culture or a I-culture? Don't provide just lip-service to the team spirit because people are honestly your most valuable asset. Therefore treat them this way.

Change

Many of the things I've been writing about in the last 6months or so are more or less common sense. So really nothing new or original but I hope it is still worth reading because I'm writing what I see working and what I believe in and hope that helps you a little as well. In addition to that I want to encourage you to practice more of the things that you already know because I see that many people, including myself, struggling with that from time to time. Common sense in this context means soft skills.
The hard skills (e.g. Business Management Skills, Project Mangement Skills etc.) are easier to test like 1+1=2, if you get any other result you are wrong, period. Soft skills (e.g. time management, leadership, listening skills etc.) on the other hand are much harder to check. What is right and what is wrong? There are so many variables (e.g. environment, topic, timing, people around you etc.) that is becomes very challenging to determine what is right or wrong or better said what works and what doesn't. 
Many people (e.g. Stephen Covey, Anthony Robbins, Heath Brothers, Marschall Goldsmith, Seth Godin etc) tell us what works and what doesn't work (at work and at home). You can read them and agree or disagree with them but it is up to you to make any changes. When you want to improve in any area you need to be able and willing to focus on one or two things that you really want to change and then execute. Yes, they are mostly common sense and it is simple to talk about these changes but it is NOT easy to practice these changes.  Are you really trying to improve or do you feel comfortable just learning what you could do it you wanted to do something?

Does experience still matter?

Depending on your job, experience can be very important or it can be less important. What is always important are your job skills. Let me explain what I mean. If you have led multiple projects that is good but it doesn't mean that you have learned something new in every project. When you do the same thing over and over you don't really learn anything new. All the projects are your experience, what you did in the different projects are your job skills. So you can potentially do projects for years without learning new skills.
Repetition doesn't necessarily add new skills. We want to be challenged, do something new, learn new skills and do something that makes a positive difference. 
For many technical knowledge workers (e.g. Software Developers) I think that experience still matters a lot but it matters less than it did 10 years ago because technology changes so quickly. You can't expect to learn something today and then still make a living from that knowledge in 5 years. Instead you have to be able to apply what you learned very quickly and effectively and then move on to whatever comes next. It is a constant learning and reinvention process. Why would you want to wallow in work you had done 5 years ago anyway? That was then and you can't get it back but you still want to deliver your best work today, right? So focus on getting the best possible, up-to-date job skills for your work today.

Networking and exchange of business cards

The challenge with most organized "Networking Events" is that many people are only interested in themselves. Many attendees want to sell something without being interested in you or your needs. It's easy to spot these people because they usually talk a lot about themselves and whatever they have to offer. Another trademark seems to be the number of businesscards that are exchanged, the more the better. After a meeting like this you can add some contacts to linkedin, and then what? Is it really a surprise that for a good number of attendees these "Networking Events" do not bring the expected results?
Be open when you go to these events and expect a "give and take" (in this sequence). Go only to the events that really interest you and where you expect to meet interesting people.
For sales people this is obviously a different game but for all other occassional Networkers this is something to keep in mind.

Don't let Bureaucracy stop you!

In order to make progress we have to be willing to accept risks. When we are about to do something new or different then we need to lead. In most cases this isn't easy because it means that we don't have cheering crowds helping us to proceed but that we swim against the current most of the way. That can be very tough and dispiriting but it can be well worth the effort!
Are you interested and committed enough to work on a change like that?
A certain bureaucracy is probably needed in large organizations in order to make sure things keep working but it can and it is overdone in some organizations! To break through this bureaucracy is mostly up to individuals. Therefore don't look to others to change things, look in the mirror instead and see what you can do to address these bureaucracy issues. Many well intented efforts are stopped by lenghty processes, documents, approvals, extensive ROI calculations etc.  because in these cases the bureaucrats don't have to say "No" but they send us on an seemingly endless loop instead. Have you experienced this in your organization? This is a classic case of analysis, paralysis and ends with "no risk, no change"!
Don't accept this! Change is possible and well worth the necessary effort. Sometimes you have to break the rules to make progress. Are you up to it?

Know what you can't do

In order to be really successful at anything you need to know what you can do and what you can't do. This is pretty clear as long as we talk about things like skiing, swimming or playing the piano. In case of skiing there are basically three questions

1. Are you interested in skiing?         (Interest, Motivation, Enthusiams)
2. Can you ski?                                (skill, knowledge)
3. Are you physically able to ski?      (prerequisite)

If you answer yes to these three questions you will probably look forward to a weekend in the mountains. When you are not interested in skiing you will lack the motivation and hence chances are pretty high that it won't be good for you or the people you ski with. 
When you can't ski, it can still be good but it might get more costly because you will need to take skiing lessons. In the last case, if you are temporarily or permanently unable to ski then this is a no-brainer, you won't go skiing.
In the work place it is important to know which tasks you are interested in, which tasks you can already perform and if you fulfill the prerequisites to perform a certain task. Focus on the tasks that really interest you, make sure you can perform these tasks and then just do it!

The value of face-to-face meetings

Even though we can do almost every meeting without being in the same room it is critical for some meetings to be face-to-face. If possible, it is always good to have the first meeting with a new person or group face-to-face because you might get a very different impression and you can't repeat the first impression. Note that this is not just the case for very important meetings, this applies also to your regular business partners and direct reports.
I found that, most of the time, I got a stronger relationship with people I first met face-to-face. This is no surprise since 93% of our communication is impacted by non-verbal cues. In addition to that you will probably go on some non-business activities like lunch or dinner where you get a chance to learn more of the other person in a non-business setting. These meetings and discussions help to form a different, more refined view, of someone than just the regular phone or web meetings. Keep this in mind before you decide about the next travel budget. Nevertheless once you met,  I found that it is perfectly fine to work with them remotely as long as you can see them face-to-face on a regular basis.

Ship something today!

It seems that we sometimes spend 90% of our time talking about all the great things we would do if some things were different. If we had more people onsite then ... if we had a greater budget then ... if we had more experienced people then ... etc. Does that sound familiar to you? If it does, challenge this situation! Ask why we have to talk so much before we can get anything changed, started or done. Raise the urgency level to speed up the discussions and get ready to make a decision. Yes, this is part of what management and leadership is about, you have to make decisions. You will not always have the data you need and so you need to get comfortable with making decisions based on incomplete data. Just to be clear, I'm not recommending you to jump into action after one short discussion but instead of getting lost in Analysis-Paralysis you should strive to get started.
What counts in the end is that you and your team have delivered something useful. You will not get credit for all the great thoughts you had or for all the huge documents you've produced but for what products or services you have provided to your customers.

Do you do what you learned?

Have you ever attended any training that was supposed to enhance your job skills (e.g. Project Management, SAP, Siebel etc.) and then you ended up never using what you had learned? Or have you read books that you thought were great but you never really applied what you read? I have, and I consider it a waste of time. To handle this more efficiently it is critical to think ahead of time how important a change is for you and how much effort you are willing to put into it. Once you are clear about this, you can really practice what you have learned. Let's look at an example: You are struggling to get all the necessary tasks done during your regular working hours. In order to find more time you prioritze tasks by reading time management books, you listen to podcasts, go to speeches etc. Nevertheless too many emails demand your attention during the day. In fact these emails distract you so much that all the benefits of your task prioritzation effort seem useless. In this case it would make sense to start strictly regulating the times when you check email. Instead of reading more books (or listen to more podcasts or ...) it would be more effective to practice what you already know. You already know what the challenge is and you also know what to do about it but you have a hard time to actually do it.
Don't read about the same skills in 50 different books just in order to feel that you do something about your challenges. Instead find a book (or whatever works for you) that works for you and then practice what you want to master.

Are you setting standards?

Do people in your organization refer to your ideas or your approach to solve challenges? Do they make an effort to connect with you? Do they listen to you and engage with you? If they do these things that shows that you are setting standards. What is even more important is, if people do that when you are not in a position of authority. It is the hallmark of a true leader that their influence is present even if they are not present.
In that case you stand for something bigger, something that is there even though you are not there. Note this does not depend on your position in the organization! Sure as a Senior Manager you will obviously get more people to listen to you. In that case it is easier because these Managers can use their organizational authority to make you do these things. It doesn't have to come from the heart and you don't have to buy into it. You just have to do it. When you get people to do that even though you have no authority then it is truly remarkable.

Give something today

Today is Thanksgiving in the US. This is something that is worth celebrating everywhere. I don't mean the Turkey and Pumpkin Pie frenzy but to be thankful for the people in your life that support you. The nice thing about this holiday is that it doesn't feel like it has been really commercialized yet. It's about being with the ones you love and think more about what you can give them instead of thinking "what's in it for me".
What (valuable, non-commercial thing) are you giving your loved ones today? In any case I wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving!

Strategy and operational solutions

According to the Oxford dictionary this is the definition of strategy: "a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim". In many companies this is a plan that covers somewhere between 2-5+ years.
The strategy is key to any organizations success because in that plan the organizations leadership should clearly state what the organization is going to do and what it is not going to do. Note that the decision what to do and what not to do is a key element of any strategic plan. A crisp and clear strategy will make it easier for your operations team to actively support you. In addition to the strategic goals there are also short-term or tactical or operational plans for up to 12 months.
How often are your short-term goals in conflict with your organizations long-term goal? I see on a regular basis that we have to come up with short-term solutions that might present a considerable departure from the strategic goal. In some extreme cases it might even be the opposite from the strategic goal. While I agree that in some special, isolated cases it is necessary to have these workarounds I disagree that this can be a valid default answer. You shouldn't always have to come up with a short term and a long term solution. If you have to do that you should have a hard look at your strategy process.
Make sure that the strategic goal setting provides a workable framework for your operations team. Stretch goals are desired but unrealistic goals should be prevented.

What are you standing for?

Do you dare to tell people what you are standing for? It seems to me that a good number of people do not want to openly say what they stand for or where they stand on certain issues. If you use this "Teflon behavior" at work you make it challenging for your team/organization to make progress.
Maybe it's because you don't want to hurt someone's feelings, maybe it's because you want to wait for someone else's opinion to make sure you're not walking into a political minefield. Whatever the reason is for this behavior, for business purposes, I think we have to overcome it in order make progress. When we take a stand for our convictions we have to keep in mind that we respect other opinions. Standing respectfully for your convictions, without reverting to defensive or aggressive behavior, is an art. If it's done correctly it will allow an open and constructive discussion.
In addition to respect we have to stay open to adjust our convictions if we're confronted with better arguments.
The challenge I see, if convictions can't be expressed adequately in business situations, is that it is very challenging to have a meaningful discussion about business issues. If I don't tell you that I have a concern about a certain project task we won't discuss why I have that concern and hence we might end up with a  less than optimal solution.
As long as it is not clear to others where we stand and why we stand there it is very hard to start a meaningful discussion. Make your team/organization move forward and have an opinion that can be adjusted.

Make sure your good ideas don't get killed

As I mentioned in my last blog post I'm currently reading the book "buy in" from John P. Kotter. This book is trying to explain how you can successfully get buy in for your ideas. As you well know whenever you are trying to get others to buy in to your ideas you can expect some resistance. Kotter identifies four different ways on how good ideas get killed. He refers to them as attack strategies.

1. fear mongering: He identifies this as an attack strategy that is raising anxiety. People start with undeniable facts and then tweak the story in such a way that it becomes frighting.
2. delay: Killing the idea by delaying it. An example might be: We have so much on our plate now we can't do it.
3. confusion: Bringing up irrelevant facts or offering too many options makes it impossible to get a clear message out and hence to get buy in.
4. ridicule (or character assassination):  Sometimes people try to make you look silly. They may raise questions about your competence etc.

Here is how he suggestes to deal with these attacks

• Get everyone included in the discussion and give them a chance to shoot at your idea. This is to get peoples attention.
• Don't try to react to attacks with data and logic. Respond instead with short, clear language (no jargon or complex arguments). This is to keep their attention.
• Don't counterattack! The negative effects of the counterattacks will overshadow any kind of short term satisfaction that you get out of it.
• Don't focus on the attacker and their arguments e.g. if 20% of people provide these attacks, focus on the 80% of people that are with you
• Be prepared. Even when you need to get only buy in from a small and friendly group. Always prepare

This is obviously just a very short summary. If you're interested read the book. I think it is very helpful to go into more detail on these ideas.

How to get buy in for your ideas?

What do you do when you are looking for buy in from another team, Senior Management etc? Have you tried to exclude the most difficult participants by scheduling a meeting at a time when these participants are not available? Did you try to convince them to listen to your point of view? How was that working for you? In the book "buy in" from John P. Kotter, he suggests to first get peoples attention before you even start to explain your idea. I think this makes a lot of sense. Think about all the information everyone of us gets every day: email, cell phone, SMS, Social Media, TV, Internet, friends, family etc. All these communications contribute to our information overflow. When people are distracted they won't listen carefully or long enough to your ideas and they might ignore you.
Therefore the first thing you have to think about is "How do you get peoples attention?" . As a starter (again from the Kotter book mentioned above) allow everyone to express their opinon about your idea. That is risky yes and if done wrong it might get your idea killed right away. Remember the goal is to get peoples attention and if they are paying attention they become engaged. If you get their attention you can use it to your advantage so that you get real commitment for your good ideas.

Tell your team how important they are!

What happens if you don't do your job well? Would the customer satisfaction go down, would the Sales Team get stuck when they try to create a quote or an order, would the Sales systems and processes be mis-aligned? These are some Sales related examples of what might happen. Answer this question for your job. In most cases you work with a team to achieve your objectives. Now when you have a team that brings up another question. What happens if your team is not doing their job well? Again look at some examples in your environment. If you work in a job that you are passionate about and your team is passionate about their work then you have to recognize the importance of your teams work.
As a Manager or Lead you have to make sure that everyone in your team understands that you appreciate their contribution. Recognize the importance of others honestly. Don't fake it because you think you should do it. This is about changing the work culture and aligning your organization's values and behavior.

Your tone is important!

When you speak you should consider your tone. It's something your parents probably told you when you were younger and it is still true. Make sure that the meaning of your words and your tone are in sync.
Are you showing some hint of power, impatience, arrogance, sarcasm, indifference or cynicism when you speak? Do others notice this? If the answer is yes, if doesn't matter what you say. Let's look at an example. A business Manager is asking an IT Manager  "When will the performance of our Sales Tools be in the agreed upon range again?". When asking the question the tone of the business Manager might suggest sarcasm and irritation. What do you think will then come out of this? I suspect the IT Manager will get defensive because he can sense the underlying feelings. The question and the tone were sending two different messages. When you speak you should not only think about what you say but also which tone you want to use.

Who is making decisions?

For simple problems, it is highly likely that you can find the root cause easily and you can fix the issue quickly. Unfortunately not too many of our issues are in that area.
For complex problems, in contrast it is hard to find the root cause and it might not be trivial at all to fix the issue. The question here is who is making the decision to address these issues? I think that for complex problems the decisions have to go to that level in the organization that have the most experience with these problems. Because complex problems require mostly complex solutions. Let's look at an example: We run into a Software Issue and have agreed how the solution should look like, then it is the best to assign this to the Software Development Team responsible for that code to fix the issue.
Imagine how much time and effort you might waste if you have to explain all the technical details to a Senior Executive so that he or she can make a decision.
Therefore remember that before you go and try to find a solution yourself ask if the problem is simple or complex. If it is complex then determine which team has the most knowledge with that issue and take the problem to them. You do that because you trust those most familiar with the problem to make the right decisions.

Interrogation or Interview?

The difference between an Interrogation and an Interview is that Interrogations are meant to be stressful. When you look at your environment and your meetings which of the two is prevailing? I consider a stress-free environment conducive for positive business outcomes and therefore prefer Interviews. Have you been in meetings where you start with questions like "You have a problem", "This is the fault of Team ABC", "Don't waste any time just gimme the bottom line"? This can cause quite some anxiety and if you don't fend off the related stress early the meeting might be useless. Whereas when you manage to reduce the stress level with intelligent questions you can focus on potential solutions. Get away from the negative outcomes and focus on options that are under your control. This will create a safer environment for people to speak up.
Interrogations can sometimes be effective in creating indiviual responsibility. Nevertheless this will increase stress which in my opinion reduces the creative problem solving abililty.
What is your organizational Preference? Interrogator or Interviewer?

Don't propose solutions!

If you as the leader have an idea how to solve a problem, do you share it right away? If you answer yes to this question I think you should review this approach because

• it spoils the learning process for your team
• the team might stop thinking about other options and just focus on your suggestion
• the buy-in will be less as when the team comes up with a solution. The team is doing it because the Manager told them to do it.

Tell your team instead what you expect. Example: We have had too many errors with our sales orders lately. Can you come up with a plan how we can get back to a 95% clean order rate by January 1, 2011? Ask your team for a recommendation. Their solution might not be as good as your solution BUT the team (or person xzy) came up with it. Therefore the implementation of that plan will have their full commitment. Your objective is to address a business challenge not that everyone agrees with your suggestions, right?

Give your idea's a test drive

To make the best possible decisions it is helpful to imagine different scenarios. You can bring these different scenearios to life by visualzing different outcomes. A good example is when a Project Manager works on getting effort estimates for a Software Development Project. In a perfect scenario where everything works out just fine the development effort is 5 days. Then you have the worst case where everything goes wrong and the development effort is 10 days. Lastly you have the most likely scenario where some things work and some things don't. In this case the development effort is 7 days. One of the main advantages I see with this approach is that you make the possible future more concrete by visualizing it. You can see some potential challenges ahead of time and you can generate some good ideas. When you go through this exercise you might recognize some key conditions or choices you need to keep in mind, some key allies or partners you need to get on board. Set aside some time for this exercise, at least for your more important decisions,  to go through this in as much detail as possible. I find this works well in your private life as well in organizations.

Deliver value regularly!

Have you been in meetings where you keep discussing business cases, systems and processes over and over without making real progress? It might be because we don't have the right people in the meeting or we don't have the necessary data or any other reason. In any case we can't deliver at the end.
While discussions are good and important you have to keep in mind that at the end of the day you and your team have to deliver some value (e.g. product, service or make a decison). When we get lost in discussions we can't deliver. If we can't deliver we don't add any value and we don't learn. Therefore I think we have to determine your organizations Pain Threshold in hours/days/weeks/months for these discussions. Once you know that theshold you can act accordingly. For example: How long are you willing to discuss if you want to offer a certain Product via a Partner Channel in the Americas region? You obviously want to make the right decision and so you and your team spend 2 weeks to get all the data you need. Let's assume that 2 weeks would be an appropriate amount of time for this task. For various reasons some people weren't available and so you can't make the 2 weeks. What do you do? If you do nothing you just get used to delays and you actually ingrain this in your companies culture. Is that what you want? If not, do something about it and deliver value regularly. No excuses!

Some thoughts regarding "asking questions"

Have you ever noticed that we sometimes stop asking questions because we believe we already know the answer anyway? If that happens I consider it a warning sign because in a good, open and honest relationship between people or teams it should be possible to ask questions again. Now you don't need to ask 3 times in a row "Are we there yet?" or something along those lines because is it really surprising when we ask the same people the same question at different times? Why would you expect a different outcome?  We might be more successful if we reframe or rephrase our questions. How about refining our question strategy with better or more open ended questions before we ask again? In some cases we might have to do  more data analysis before we ask questions. Sometimes it can help to ask a question in a group instead of in a one on one situation. Or how about asking through someone else? In many cases there is an option to get a different outcome. Think about it, put some work into it and only ask again when you're ready and can expect a different outcome.

When do you stop trying to achieve an objective?

It's important to know when you should stop trying to achieve a goal. Many people love to refer to this quote from Albert Einstein "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is stupid".
As an example of this quote let's look at a Software Development project that is trying to achieve it's objectives by following the traditional/waterfall Project Management Methodology. If you tried this 5 times before and you always struggled to deliver what you set out to deliver then it's time to realize that something needs to change. You might have changed your approach to an agile Project Management Methodology and realized it wasn't quite the smooth ride you expected. That means even though you changed the approach it was not really successful, maybe it even was a disaster. Does that mean you can't do any projects anymore because neither approach worked? It doesn't mean that you give up (!) but instead of following a certain approach you have to adjust it to your needs. For me there is a difference between being persistent and being delusional. If a certain approach doesn't work then you have to be innovative and try something new. You have to stop wasting precious energy on something that doesn't work. You don't want to do that without really trying but you also don't want to wait until it's too late. Always check your approach as often as possible to see if something needs to change and determine what needs to change. The timing for these checkpoints depends on your cicumstances, but don't be afraid to stop one approach and switch to something more promising. Just don't give up to find a solution!

How important are meetings?

If 80% of your calendar is booked with meetings then you might want to review how you schedule your days. I understand that the more senior a manager is in an organization he or she will have to be more aligned with other teams and hence will need to meet more often. Nevertheless if the alignment takes around 80% of your time something might need to be adjusted. How do you decide in which cases you need to have a meeting? Do you have more "FYI" or "decision focused" meetings? Is the planned meeting time a good use of time for all participants? Does your company culture measure your importance based on how many meetings you are invited to? Are you delegating enough tasks to your team? It makes sense to thoroughly check why you go to that many meetings in order to free up more time. In order to do more great work you need to have some time to do this great work. One of the major risks I see with an excessive amount of meetings is that it gets very hard to innovate and be creative. Many leadership tasks are based on creative problem solving. My question to you is how do you do that on an ongoing basis if you don't find enough time? Many meetings just drain energy out of you. You can and probably have to do that for certain periods of time but you should not give in to that on a permanent basis. Review your schedule and only keep the meetings that you really need to achieve your desired outcomes.

Listen effectively

In order to learn anything we have to listen. Naturally we seem to have the ability to do that since we listen to our parents and others from early childhood on. We do it unconsciously but we do it and that is how we learn to speak. As we get older it seems to get harder to listen. We are more focused on our own interests and less on what others want. The interesting and sad thing is that the more we focus on ourselves the less we will achieve with others.
Let's look at a simple example: Wayne the Project Manager has a meeting with Mary the Controller about a potential budget cut for one of Wayne's Projects. Wayne has learned about the potential budget cut through the company grapevine and he is getting suspicious when Mary sets up a meeting with him. Wayne is preparing his defense and getting in his full battle mood even before he meets with Mary.
In order to have a meaningful and constructive meeting it would make sense for Wayne to first listen to Mary to understand her point of view better. He doesn't have to agree with her (!) but he needs to understand why she considers a budget cut. Once he has this information he can much more effectively address Mary's point of view. If Wayne prefers to just voice his frustration then he doesn't need to listen(!) and he will not achieve his objective to reverse or at least minimize the impact of the budget cuts. So listen really means that you have to stop thinking about yourself, put all your thoughts and interests aside for a moment and focus on the other person 100%. That is hard to do if you don't have a real interest for others.
You might be able to fake this for a little bit but the truth will come out quickly. Therefore stop faking interest because real interest has to come from the heart. Listen, learn and evolve!

Are you Micro managing your team?

Are you sometimes tempted to give too much detailed advice or instructions to your team on how they have to approach certain tasks? If you do, how is that working for you? Is your team thankful for the detailed advice that you give them? In most cases that I know of it is hurting team morale considerably if you micro manage your team. 10-20 years back it was expected that a good manager knows everything a little better than their team. That was the reason why you were the manager. With the dawn of the knowledge age and the data explosion that has changed. I think it is no longer reasonable to expext that a manager knows every task better than the team that is working for him/her. That means the tasks of a manager have changed considerably.
As a manager of a team you spend probably a considerable amount of time in negotations with customers, other teams and management while your team is working full time on their tasks. Why would you believe that you know the detailed tasks better than your team? They spend 100% of their time on these tasks and are better at these task than you are. In any case that is fine since the leadership tasks are different.
Instead of trying to shine more than your team it is your task as a leader or manager to make your team successful and let them shine. Think about what you can and should do to make your team more successful.

Don't just execute - ask questions!

If you are interested in how things work you ask questions right? For me that is a clear Yes! Therefore I consider interesting and intelligent questions a good thing. For example if  you are interested and excited in the work that you do you ask questions because you want to learn more things, faster. When you are interested in your child's education you ask how the school is doing, how good the teacher is, if that teacher is the best fit for your child, how the school is rated compared to other schools etc. You ask all these questions and many more because you are interested and because you honestly care about the answer. If you want to achieve anything you have to have enough passion and interest to ask questions.
Are you paying attention to these questions in your team? Does the majority of people in your team just execute without asking questions? If yes, that is an alarming sign. Many teams talk about innovation, employee participation and exploring interesting new options but fall short concerning taking action to really engage their teams. Sure there are teams that work smoothly and everyone knows what they need to do and there is not much need for asking questions. Nevertheless most teams don't stay together for a long time and therefore you should pay close attention to how engaged your team is.

Leadership is about leading yourself first and foremost

Every day we learn about Leadership discussions in the News. Sometimes it's about Corporate Leaders, sometimes about political leaders, sometimes about Military Leaders or any other leaders. All these leaders represent a group of people and have some kind of decision authority. Our focus is very often on what these leaders decide on behalf of their group. What seems to get forgotten is that leadership is not only about leading others. It starts with leading yourself.  We have to manage ourselves first before we should start thinking about managing others. You have to work on your personal leadership skills before you can become a leader of others. Here are some examples of what I mean by that.

• What are your personal goals? --> Where are you now? Where do you want to go? What do you value most?  (Organization)
• How do you manage your own time?  --> Are you executing around priorities? (Time Management)
• How well do you communiate with others? Do others understand you and buy into what you are saying? --> Are you interested in others? Do you listen? Do you inspire openness and trust? (Communication)
• Do you care about others?  (Emphaty)

Do you have answers for the questions above? Instead of focusing on others focus on yourself first. Work on improving yourself and you will become a better leader. Check the website of former Starbucks CEO Howard Behar's book "It's not about the coffee" to get some interesting perspectives on this topic.

What is unique about you?

It's important to have an answer to that question because you need to know what special skills you have in order to show that to someone else. It doesn't matter if you own your own company, if you're an employee or if you are a Manager and it doesn't matter if you're unemployed and looking for work. I consider it a basic form of Self-knowledge and Self-Marketing. If you want others to buy into what you have to "sell" you need to be able to make a compelling point. What are your special skills? What have you achieved with your special skills? Why should I care that you have special skills? Are your skills really unique? How could these skills be a benefit to what you're trying to do? I think everyone has something unique to offer and in order to show that to others you have to put some work into it. If you haven't done it yet, sit down and make a list of your strengths and weaknesses, your likes and dislikes, your experiences and desires. Take your time and be very specific about the results you have achieved so far and what you want to achieve going forward. Focus on your unique skills and experiences and don't copy someone else becaue if you do what everybody else does why do you expect a different result?
Put some effort in yourself to be able to show others that you can contribute and how you plan to do that.

Are you busy or effective?

There is a fine difference between busy and effective. You can be busy with many different things and they don't have to be important or urgent or effective. It is fairly common to talk to our colleagues and friends as if a lot of work would equal a lot of important work but that is not necessarily the case. In order to be effective you have to know what you need to achieve and agree that the goal is important. This requires considerable time management skills since you have to say NO to many requests in order to achieve your critical goals.
Do you practice this on a day to day basis? For example at the beginning of a Project you might want to focus on the different stakeholders and their requests in order to understand what you team needs to achieve to be successful.  Once you know that and the key stakeholders agree on a goal it is about execution. Note that this applies to traditional Project Management Methodologies as well as Agile Methodologies.
In any case once you have agreement on the Project objectives it is not the time to discuss rejected requirements over and over. It is important to know how the teams success is measured and then focus on these goals. It is your responsibility as a (Project) Manager to ensure the agreed upon goals are something your team bought into. Stop the busy work and focus on the important work.

Empower your team

To empower your team is a critical skill for any leader and it is more than just delegating or assigning tasks to people. The background for empowerment is that you can't do all the tasks in your organization or project by yourself. You need help! It also assumes that you are not afraid to empower people who are stronger than you are. Now this assumes obviously that you are self-confident and that you are not afraid to make the team stronger by giving up some control. Are you this type of Leader?
If you are, you will have to hand off some responsiblities to others in your team. Before you do that you have to check who is ready for which responsibilities. Do the people you have in mind have the knowledge, skills and desire to accept the responsiblities? Once you found the right people you have to show them what you expect. Take enough time to communicate the objectives well to prevent any unpleasant surprises later. At that point they should understand that you genuinely want them to succeed.  To make sure that everyone in your organization or project team understands that you are empowering someone to take on certain responsiblitlies you should publicly transfer these responsibilites to them. This way the whole team including the person that gets empowered understand that you are confident in the empowered person and that they have the authority to make decisions and initiate actions.
I consider empowerment the hallmark of a true leader. You, as the leader, get more time for other important things in your organization/life. In addition to knowing that you help others and your organization or project to succeed it will also help you to increase your influence.

Dream big!

Whatever kind of project or changes you are working on you should dream big because the world gets changed through dreams. The bigger the dreams, the bigger the changes. Most changes are based on unproven ideas/dreams. There is no clear "Return on Investment" that you can perform before you do the change. At that stage it is mostly enthusiasm and a deep conviction that something will work. If you always want to be on the safe side this is a risky stage. Let's look at an example: Apple came out with the iPad even though the idea with the table was not new. According to many "realists" there was NO big market for these products.  Nevertheless instead of being discouraged Apple went full steam ahead. Now this, very desirable, market seems to be clearly dominated by Apple. Everyone is rushing to get a comparable product out and to get a piece of that market. Who wouldn't want to change with Apple now? If they had listened to the sceptics they wouldn't have been successful.
There are many more examples for this Hypothesis like Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Yahoo, Amazon, VMWare and many others. For every one of these companies someone had a big dream to succeed. There were no other people who told them what to do and how to do it. Based on some standards the founders of these great companies might not even have been hired by other desirable companies at the time. Still they believed in what they did. Shouldn't that be a lesson for all of us? I think yes, dream big!
As a word of caution, just dreaming big is not enough but it is the most important first step. Many people don't follow up on their dreams, they are not ready to pay the price to make their dream(s) a reality. Are you ready to dream big?

Listen more - talk less

In order to achieve anything in an organization or in life in general it is important to listen. Note that I'm not just talking about your Management chain. Listening to people shows Respect and that you care. Care enough to listen because you can build relationships, increase your knowledge and refine or generate ideas.
This should be pretty common knowledge to everyone who has ever worked in a project because you first have to listen to understand what the requirements are. Only after you understand the requirements you can start working on solutions. Now this doesn't always seem to be the case in our day to day communications. Do you remember a situation where you just waited to respond. You basically stopped listening and prepared your response. When you stopped listening you missed a chance to learn more about the other person. If you want to relate well to others you have to be willing to focus on what they have to offer.  That also means to stop focusing on yourself. Stop being preoccupied with your thoughts. Focus on the other person, listen to what they have to say. Really listening is not easy and you will need quite some practice to get really good at it but the good news is you can practice every day.

Some thoughts on Business Goals

A common business practice is to distinguish between short-term and long term business goals. Short-term goals are less than 12 months, therefore they are more tactical in nature. Everything above 12 months is a long-term goal and is more strategic. Short-term goals should be detailed, specific and measurable. The timelines should be realistic but challenging so that you have a reasonable chance to achieve them. A project plan with specific actions by specific people would be an example for a short-term goal. The tricky and most important part is to tie the short-term goals to the more lofty long-term goals. Have you had a situation where you implemented a “quick fix” just to see it becoming a permanent fix? Keep track of your “quick fixes” and ensure they don’t contradict your long-term goals. Also don’t set too many long-term goals because you

• want your team and you to remember all the goals
• want to decrease the chance that some of the goals are contradicting
• want to keep your team motivated by making progress towards these goals

Do you care about about your team?

Look at this quote: "Nobody cares how much you know unless they know how much you care." Author unknown.
What are you doing for your team concerning the "caring" part? This sounds like a simple question but in truth it is a very challenging question, isn't it? You want your team to perform well and in order to do that you need to provide encouragement, recognition, security and hope. For many teams it is too easy to pass by these important steps. There are timelines to be met, impatient colleagues and Management Teams that require our attention, simply tons of work that prevent us from stopping and thinking about what we can do for our Team.  For a good team to emerge and thrive we need to have a genuine concern for others. We need to have positive feelings, respect and a honest concern for the team. If you secretly think that the team is not good or is less important than other tasks or people this will not work. Here some notes to clarify what I'm refering to
Encouragement: Even though we're all adults everyone likes encouragement. So help others and say "Thank you" more often.
Recognition: Give credit to your team! Do it regularly and while others are around.
Security: People don't trust you if they don't feel safe with you. Walk your talk!
Hope: Does your team believe in the growth opportunities you can offer? Are you actively working to grow your team?

Three Top Priorities

What are you're 3 Top Priorities at work? I mean what 3 things are most important to you and your organization? If you don't have a good and fast answer for this question you probably should do some work in that area. From a business point of view it is dangerous to not have an answer because if you don't know what your top 3 priorities are then how do you and your team spend your day at work? If you want to increase your teams and/or your own efficiency, engagement and focus you have to know what your 3 most critical business challenges are. Write it down and review it with your Key Stakeholders and the Team. Get agreement that these are the most important tasks to work on. Without agreement it will be challenging to get the necessary commitment from the Team to really own the tasks. These Key Tasks should be communicated regularly to everyone. Be transparent, show what you and your team are working on, review it regularly in your Project or Staff meetings.
Why 3 priorities? In general 3 priorities is a good guidance based on my experience because most people can remember up to 3 objectives. If you use more you're running the risk of diluting your objectives. Don't try to be everything to everyone.

Not everyone needs to agree!

I know that this might sound provocative to some of you but it is still true. If you want to get anything done you can't try to please everyone. Let me explain why I say that. First of all I'm not suggesting any kind of top-down decision structure at all (after all I'm with HP) but instead I ask you to stop hiding behind others as an excuse to not making a decision.
For example I'm in many meetings where we have stakeholders from multiple teams and not everyone can agree to a common approach to an issue. Every Team has their own valid and sometimes invalid reasons why they want or don't want to do something. If we wait until every Person, Team or Region (e.g. Americas, Europe, Asia) had a chance to follow up with everyone that might have some interest in the outcome of this decision we will drag down enthusiasm, accountability and the general agility of our organization. This price is too high from my point of view. If you've done your homework and you're clear about your priorities then you can make a faster decision even if you encounter opposition. In some cases it will be the wrong decision and that is OK because it is a learning experience that will ensure that the next decision is better. Inaction as a consequence of Indecisiveness is not an option. Gather all the information and input you can get in a "fixed amount of time" and decide with the Key Stakeholders what to do next. Don't look for everyone's approval.

Teamwork

As a (Project) Manager you can't always pick the team members or the topics you have to work on. Nevertheless you're still expected to build, or to be a part of, an effective team quickly.This is a challenging task because it usually takes time to get to know each other while you work toward a common goal. A good team requires a certain degree of trust and respect in each other. Everyone in the team needs to have a desire to contribute to the teams objectives and to help each other out. Only when you achieve mutual trust within the team you can expect real teamwork. This means that indiviuals place their own interests beneath the best interest of the team. In order to have this success you also have to be willing to pay the price for it. Every Team member has to be willing to sacrifice time and energy and to be accountable. In the end it will come down to the desire, dedication and enthusiasm of every individual on the team.
In a successful team people look out for each other. When team members care only about themselves the whole team suffers. Based on my experience I think that the best way to build relationships is to get people together outside of a work context. What are you doing to build a successful team?

Increase your fun at work

Today I want to look at one option that might increase your motivation at work considerably. Have you heard of Google's 20% projects projects? (look for "As a motivation technique, Google uses a policy often called Innovation Time Off?"). Isn't it interesting that Google's Management confirms that 50% of their innovation comes from these 20% projects. Some examples are Google Mail or Google News. Think about this, people invented these very successful services as side projects! That shows very clearly that when you care about something deeply you are doing more, much more, than expected. This should normally ensure that companies listen because you do more with the same number of people. Is your company listening?
This general approach is also true for Agile Software Development, as soon as you give more responsibility and accountability to teams, the performance goes up. That shows that people deliver amazing things if they have the environment that allows them to perform. Give your teams a chance to get together and work on improvements they are really interested in.
In many cases you don't need to get different people to get different results, you need to give your existing people the necessary room to perform. This approach is obviously not for everyone but if your company supports it I'm sure you get amazing results.

Grow your Team

As Peter Drucker said "No executive has ever suffered because his subordinates were strong and effective."
If you want to have a strong team you have to have strong team members. That applies to Project Teams as well as to functional teams. One way to grow your team is to ask for advice from your team before a decision is made. This gives the team a possibility to contribute and to help you form an opinion before a decision is made. This is very different from going back to the team after a decision has been made and then explain why you did what you did. For most Leaders there are so many tasks to be done that you can't do them all by yourself. You need help, sooner or later. If you try to do it all by yourself you get burnt out quickly. Therefore I consider it the responsibility of a leader to develop other leaders. What do you do in your team to develop leaders? Here are some benefits of developing leaders in your organization: They can help you to

• see things you might not want to see,
• get things done
• make better decisions 
• provide security and direction to others

What are the Qualities of a leader?

Today I read a book that stated that these are the qualities of a leader:  good character, influence, positive attitude, excellent people skills, proven track record, confidence, self discipline, effective communication skills and he/she should be discontent with the status quo.
Now a couple of these are pretty self explaining like confidence and effective communication skills. Others are pretty fuzzy like good character. What is a good character? It might be something different for you than it is for me. Then I think some characteristics are missing like: appropriate functional knowledge, someone who cares for his/her team and passion for your work. We could go on and add more but I think all this is trying to do is assigning labels to people. That makes live easier because you meet someone and give him a label and then you don't worry about it anymore. In turn this also shuts the door to some learning opportunities. I think it's worth to take the time and acknowledge that different industries, teams and people need different leaders. You can't just read a book or practice a certain Leadership style and assume that this is THE way to do it. Stay open and learn. There are many right ways so learn as much as you can and adjust your leadership style as needed.

Does your Team know what you expect from them?

If you want a professionaly productive and satisfied team you have to clearly state what you expect from them. This sounds fairly easy doesn't it? Now when I look at many teams it is obvious that the Roles & Responsibilities are not always as clear as they ought to be. Why is that?
In any case the result is people either seem to feel that they are vaguely responsible for everything or they are responsible for nothing.That doesn't help anyone, in fact it hinders them and the whole team. Therefore it needs to be very clear what your team members/employees are responsible for and what they are NOT responsible for. Just think about any team sport, not every player is playing every position. Your job as a (Project) manager is to make sure you get the right players at the right position. Once you have that clarified, maybe with a job description, you have to make sure that they have the right priorities. To stay with the sports analogy you don't want a Basketball Shooting Guard to focus on training for a Center. The priority and focus of a Center should be to 80% to  increase his Center skills.

Email, IM or Meeting?

It's worth to think about how you can address an open question or requirement before you send out the next level of an email chain or setup another meeting. There is a place for every communication (e.g. email, IM, Phone calls, face-to-face meetings, blogs, wikis, SharePoint etc.) it's up to you to use it appropriately.
Take some time and think what you really need and who can help you to get it. Don't give in to the temptation and just "throw it over the fence" to the next team. Also don't involve people just FYI (for your information) because they don't care in most cases. In addition to that you might earn a reputation as someone who sends meaningless communications.
I sometimes get long email chain's where the last person doesn't repeat the question/requirement but instead refers to a statement within the email chain. Now I have to go back and read the whole email or send it back to the sender to clarify. This is a serious time waster! Almost always multiple people are copied on these emails and so the waste is multiplied. Here I have some example guidelines that help me to choose a proper communication tool.

• IM: If you have a quick question and know that it can be answered without typing a novel
• email: When you want to clarify a situation, maybe even ahead of a meeting. The email should be concise and focus on some key points. As a guideline I always use 3 points, if it has more I keep refining it. If I have to read the email multiple times to make sense out of it, it is too long
• Meeting: (Phone, Face-to-Face, Web) When you have multiple stakeholders and a problem where not everyone has the same understanding it is good to have a meeting. To make the meeting successful you have to prepare it. Don't schedule meetings that you can't prepare.

Idea Sharing - Share people, not documents

What is the most effective way to share idea's? When something works well in a project or program it is always a question how you can spread this idea to more teams/people. In many cases the approach will be formalized and added to a "Best Practices" Document. While this might spread the idea, maybe via a Project Management Office,  it also takes some life out of it.  Generally people are excited if something works and they are typically glad to share what made them successful. When you just write it down in a document you take some life out of the idea.
To keep the idea alive and get the excitement to more teams have you thought about sharing people instead of documents? You can get some "live" feedback from "future idea adopters" and see what they consider good or bad and improve the idea even further. In addition to the feedback itself, the process of getting together and sharing the idea improves the relationship with colleagues/clients. Whenever your idea lends itself to being spread in such a way, do it. The idea will spread faster and will have a longer lasting impact.

Increase efficiency by taking breaks

When I walked my dog a couple of  weeks ago I listened to a Podcast from the Cranky Middle Manager show.  This episode was with Tony Schwartz and was about 4 needs (physical, emotional, mental and spiritual) that we all have. I thought it was 25 minutes very well spend especially since he had some interesting, practical idea's combined with scientific evidence like planning your day in 90 minute blocks. Focus 100% on a task for 90 minutes and then take a break. Breaks are important!
A couple of years ago I didnt' take any breaks. I was in projects where I was so consumed by some tasks that I didn't want to take a break. I wanted to get the tasks done, I needed to know that the open tasks were properly addressed. So I spend many late hours without any breaks and still didn't get it done properly. Then in the late evening I even had problems getting to sleep because the open tasks/questions were still following me.  When I got up the next day I was exhausted and the tasks got even harder. Then a couple of days later ,after I had a short break and some distance, I was walking the dog or running and I got the idea that helped to solve the task. Tony Schwartz describes some of these learning's in an entertaining and concise way in this podcast. Listen to it! It can help you to plan more efficiently.

Functional Skills are important

In my blog posts I focus mostly on the necessary soft-skills to succeed. Obviously that doesn't mean that functional skills (e.g. agile Project Management, Product Management) are not important. In fact they are very important! It is up to you to get, or keep, your functional skills where they need to be so that you can do what you want to do. If you are truly passionate about your job or desired job it shouldn't be that hard since you do what you want to do. On the other hand if you do it only for money or recognition from your peers or friends that can be challenging. I think you achieve the best results when you deeply care about something.
Something you don't forget as soon as you leave the (virtual) class room. In some companies you will be required to attend some classes but that is not what I'm referring to. I'm talking about functional skills YOU really want to master. YOU want to learn this and become better and better at it. You get a real desire to master this topic and help others with your skills. 
Maybe you need an additional degree or you need to study for a certification or maybe you need to get some funding to finance your start-up company. Whatever it is that drives you make sure that you clearly define your goals and objectives and then go for it.

Too many options

What do you do when you have many, maybe too many, options and a hard time to decide what to do? Whatever strategy you come up with it is important that you don't forget to act.
Depending on the situation you might need more or less time to make up your mind and that is fine. I consider it important though that I can make up my mind as quickly as the situation allows and that I don't get stopped because I'm afraid to make the wrong decision. In most cases I learn the lesson from the wrong decision quickly and there is time to do something against it. Versus when a decision and hence the action is delayed, valuable time is lost. Think hard and act swiftly!  Yes, you can and will make wrong decisions but you learn from them and that will help you grow. Don't get me wrong I'm not recommending to decide everything on the spot without thinking. I recommend to lose your fear to make any decisions because you might make the wrong decision. We want to change things, make them better and along the way we will make mistakes. That is ok! Learn quick and don't be afraid of mistakes.

Take control of your Inbox

How many emails do you get every day? The more important question is how many emails can you read, understand and potentially answer on a daily basis. Many people struggle with the sheer amount of messages they get on a daily basis. It is not your job to permanently read or answer emails. In terms of productivity excessive email is damaging because instead of encouraging a proactive work style it promotes a reactive work style. Email is a great tool but you should consider some tips to make sure you use it effectively.

• Check email only at certain times during the day (e.g. check it in the morning, after lunch and in the afternoon)

• Turn off all your email notifications so that you don't get pushed to see what message came in (do that also for your cell phones etc.)
• Before reading/answering your email put them in 4 folders. Focus on the Important ones and discard the Not Important / Not Urgent one
• Important / Urgent
• Important / Not Urgent
• Not Important / Urgent
• Not Important / Not Urgent
• Set a reasonable time limit for working on email.  Focus on the Important ones! They have to be read, understood and answered on time. The time limit will help you to ensure that you don't waste time.

Don't be controlled by email but control the email instead.

Daily Inspiration

Positive daily inspiration is important because it provides the encouragement to pursue a desirable goal consistently. Lately I've been listening to podcasts in the morning, e.g. from Seth Godin, Marshall Goldsmith, and found that this was a good way to start the day. It keeps my compass in the right direction and it is fun and educational to listen to. There are many things that can help and that I've been practicing these for many years

• have a daily check sheet to write down what your days personal and professional goals are in prioritized order. Rate how you perceived the day at the end, rank it from a scale from 1-10 (10 being the highest) in the different areas
• have a weekly plan. This would have more high level goals that you want to achieve (e.g. do something interesting and educational with the family on the weekend, finish a certain book by Saturday)
• Read something daily that helps you to grow as a person (e.g. personal development books, blogs etc.)
• Read professional magazines that you are deeply passionate about (e.g. I find "Entrepreneur" an inspirational read once a month, blogs) on a regular/daily basis
• schedule your day so that you have time for all the things that are important (e.g.  sometimes it is work and sometimes it is the family)

There are many other things you can do and so I find it's always interesting to be open minded and see what other people consider helpful. What do you do to get your daily dose of inspiration?

Just do it - Initiative is important

In order to get any task done you need a desire to do it and someone who is taking the initiative to do it. Isn't it disappointing to see how many tasks get delayed or never done? There can be many reasons for this like unclear company policies, too many rules, missing self-confidence, people are afraid to do something wrong or to not have the backing of their Management chain. In any way the bottom line is tasks are not getting done and moral is suffering. If your team or organization is stifled by these "delayed" or "never done" tasks it is time to think about how you can reverse this trend. Energy and endurance is what you need to get tasks done and you want people who are self-motivated and consistently take initiative to tackle these tasks. Look for these people today because nothing will help you more than people who possess real interest and initiative. Check what people did in the past and how long it took them to pick up an interest and then pursue it with vigor. That will be the best possible indicator to determine what they will do going forward. Remember it is your job as a leader to build an enthusiastic team of talented people.

Personal Goals

In order to achieve any goal you have to know where you want to go and you need a plan on how you want to get there. This is nothing new to a Project Manager but do you do it in your personal life as well? It requires considerable self discipline to approach your own life like a project. The reward for this effort is that it makes you more conscious of your own goals. You are forcing yourself to clarify what is and what is not important to you. Once you spend some time to come up with an honest answer you can more effectively spend time on the things that matter most to you. The challenging part is then to adjust your life according to your priorities.
When I note in my weekly plan that I want to help my kids at least 3 times with their homework it helps me to follow through on it.  Through this planning my life becomes more productive. I spend more time on the things that matter (e.g. my kids education) instead of giving in to distractions (e.g. surfing the web). Whatever your goal is, it can be achieved if you really want it but it won't happen without your help. How do you keep track of your personal goals?

Business as usual ?

If you want to get extraordinary results you can't just follow a methodology or another person or team. YOU need to put all your passion and energy to work and prepare the path yourself. In order to do that you have to be passionate about what you do. Are you passionate about your work? I mean do you really care about the things you work on, on a daily basis? Do you get up in the morning and see the day as a chance to knock down some problems to get closer to your (/your teams) goals? You should be full of energy and excited because of another chance to meet new people, situations and to make a lasting and positive impact. If you don't have that energy and focus it will be a challenge to excel. I say that because there will be many obstacles along the way and without a real passion chances are high that you give up somewhere along the way.
It is obviously still possible to do good work and to even get promoted but it might not be enough to feel truly satisfied with your work. You spend at least 8 hours at work and most likely more so we talk about at least 1/3 of your life. Take care of it and stop doing "business as usual", do something extraordinary.

Multi-tasking does NOT work

Just type "Multitasking studies" into Google and you will find that there are many studies over the years that confirm it doesn't work. So why do you still try to do it? Because only really intelligent and capable people can do it? I don't think so. I think, based on my own experience, that multitasking makes you less productive. Instead of trying to type an email while I'm in a meeting and at the same time I'm also working on an Excel Spreadsheet I prefer to do these tasks sequentially. The reason is I can't focus on the meeting, email and spreadsheet at the same time. I get so distracted that I don't do anything well because it's hard to decide which task to focus on. What works better is to effectively schedule your time so that you can jump from topic to topic. Do the meeting first, then the email and then the Excel Spreadsheet. It will actually save you time. Also don't take on more than you can handle. Most Management personnel I've worked with over the years will go along with this approach as long as you can communicate your challenges well. When you work on your next tasks schedule your time effectively and categorize your tasks instead.

Task Categories

• Dump it --> task is not urgent and not important
• Delegate it --> task might be urgent or important but you are not the best person to address this
• Defer it --> task is not urgent but might be important. You need more time to analyze this
• Do it --> task is urgent and important

Effective Time Management

With all the distractions through our "always on" and "always available" culture effective time management becomes more important than ever before. There are many good books out there (e.g. First things first from Steven R. Covey)  to help you get better at it. The real challenge is to use the knowledge from these books consistently to manage your time effectively. If you don't think about how you use your time chances are high that you try to do everything haphazardly just to find out it doesn't work. Or you don't focus your time on the right tasks. Isn't it easy to spend just a little too much time on your iPhone/Blackberry, Internet (e.g. Facebook, linkedin) etc?

Whatever you do requires your energy, if you run a project or if you spend time with your partner. Since time is limited and energy is your most important resource you want to manage these precious resources wisely. Think about what is important to you and make time for these tasks.  Here are some things I consider useful

• Do NOT always be available. Set clear time limits and stick to them.
• Delegate tasks, especially in areas where you are not that strong. Why would you spend more time than absolutely necessary to get from less than average to average?
• Focus on the areas where you are strong, because when you are already good at something and spend even more time to refine the skill you become a linchpin and you can add even more value
• Make a Priority list of tasks (personal and business) to make sure you spend your time on the things that are important to you
• Focus on your areas of influence, everything else is a waste of time.

Focus on the Bottom Line

Most Projects are measured by what is delivered at the end. What is the bottom line of your project? What is the Return on Investment? Are you increasing revenue, reducing costs or increase customer satisfaction etc? In any case, make sure that your project objectives are very clear in order to be successful. Also ensure that you  have some metrics in place to track the ROI. You want to be able to document and track your teams success. If you don't then you should think if this project is really needed or whom it is supposed to benefit. To build your reputation (as a Project Manager) you need to present results. Projects change all the time because of the typical conflict of time, cost and scope (triple constraint). Nevertheless you can't be everything to everyone and therefore you have to set priorities.
In order to become a trusted adviser to your stakeholders as well as your project team it has to be very clear that you walk your talk. This is critical and there are no excuses at any time to not adhere to this.
In an ideal case that means you and your team deliver what you said you will deliver on time. In a more common scenario this means you need to focus more on either time or cost or scope. This requires a honest discussion at the beginning of the project but will benefit the project.  Then execute and don't get distracted.

What makes you remarkable?

We meet someone new (e.g. new colleagues, customers, other parents) most days but how these people remember you? Do you have anything that makes you remarkable or memorable? If not, you are just another person they meet, greet and forget. You don't want to tout yourself or coming on too strong. So how do you make these first introductions meaningful? You need to have a remarkable story (unique selling point, elevator pitch) for yourself and that is NOT your job title or description. It also shouldn't be something average or fuzzy, like I'm the main contact person for Project Management related questions. This doesn't mean anything to most people so they probably will forget it quickly. You want to show what you are really great at and what your are passionate about. Think about how you remember people. What get's you interested? Can you put in some time and effort to do something similar for yourself? When you do it use humility and not arrogance and expect that even the best approach doesn't always work.

Clear Communication?

Clear communication is a challenge, isn’t it? As an example take the use of acronyms and general company slang you use at your work place. Here some easy examples: KPI, SLA, COTS, COB, COGS. Could somebody who is not familiar with your company grammar understand what you are referring to? Does everyone in your company understand what you are referring to? My guess is, probably not. What is even worse is that this “not understanding” is de-motivating for many people. For your company these ineffective meetings can become costly mistakes. Use this link to get a first idea how much money you might use ineffectively. Imagine what we could achieve if we could communicate clearly and with a strong passion to our stakeholders/customers. What are you doing to get better at it?

Are you an Innovator?

In Project Management (and many other professions as well) there are so many things to follow it's hard to find time and innovate. We get inundated with information from colleagues, the internet, magazines, blogs, interest groups (e.g. Linkedin), meetings etc so that it is impossible to grab and digest all the information available. In addition we use Project Management Methodologies that have the size of "War & Peace" from Leo Tolstoy and it requires considerable time to understand them. I think it is great that we have all this information but see a challenge how to best manage our time to find and use the available information effectively. And even more important, how to use all that knowledge and add something ourselves? I think we have to take a more active role on the innovation side. It's easy to get overwhelmed with information but there is lots of room for us to add real improvements.

After we acquired knowledge we want to use it. The delivery part is key here because otherwise it's just an academic exercise. To achieve real and lasting improvements we need big and small innovations and I'm confident EVERYONE can add some innovations. The question is do you want to contribute? Do you want to innovate? Are you ready to get involved, take ownership and be accountable for results? It won't be easy but it is worth the effort because you can lead the way instead of just following others.

You have to break the pattern if you want to invent something new, something extraordinary. This also means you can't just follow the path others made for you. YOU have to find a path for others. Look at  Google and Apple as corporate examples of innovation. They created markets out of nothing, they made the path that others follow. Do you want to do something, on a smaller scale obviously, as well?  Yes? Then you have to get ready for it and that is not going to happen if you just follow and execute a Methodology. Don't get me wrong I don't suggest that methodologies are bad but I suggest that YOU have to fill them with life and you want to add your innovations to them.
Here is the Merriam Webster Definition of "Innovation"

1. the introduction of something new
2. a new idea, method or device

Instead of trying to digest and use only existing information why don't you rely more on yourself and put in some effort to come up with some improvements you think will work? There will be challenges but if you really want this I can't see what is stopping you. You have to set aside some time and be prepared for some setbacks but it will be worth the effort. It's up to you to innovate, so what's stopping you?

Meeting Frenzy

Are you going from meeting to meeting? If you spend half your time or more in meetings then the question is really does it have to be that way? In general I expect it's fair to say that the bigger the company the more meetings you will have to go to. This is not a bad thing by itself since many processes and systems are complex. Therefore it is necessary to have meetings because in these meetings you can

• get everyone on the same page quickly instead of meeting with everyone separately
• you can get creative feedback from others to come up with a better solution
• use the opportunity to motivate team members
• build a team spirit
• save time
• and establish a leader

Now that is the case if everything runs smooth which is rarely the case, in most companies anyway. Many meetings are demotivating and in general seem like a waste of time. Based on my experience this is related to

• There is no clear Agenda for the meeting
• There is no clear objective for the meeting
• some people talk too much
• some people complain too much
• some people just like to shine (e.g. with knowledge that nobody can follow)
• no content leadership from the meeting organizer

This leads to many unhappy meeting participants. Now the question is what should you do to make this better. I think you should really think before you setup a meeting. Can the topic/issue be addressed by a face-to-face meeting, a phone call or a video conference with one person? Can you maybe address the question/topic yourself? If you have to have a meeting with a group it is essential to

• Setup an agenda for the meeting. How much time do you need for your meeting? Think about using a meeting cost calculator to see the high level cost for your meeting. Present the Agenda at the beginning of the meeting to ensure everyone understands what is expected.
• Setup a meeting objective. What do you want to get out of this meeting? Who is supposed to provide what?
• Which attendees do you need? Make sure you do not have every function twice or more. You are looking for accountability and that works better with 1 person.
• What pre-conditions need to be addressed before you can have the meeting?
• How can you make the meeting more interesting and memorable? If you always do the same things (e.g. presenting PowerPoints) it gets boring.
• Attention seems to decrease after 30-40 minutes (e.g. especially on phone conferences). So think about planning for short breaks.

Focus on your area of influence instead of trying to change others. You are responsible for your meetings and should review what works and what doesn't work in your meetings on a regular basis. A positive example will inspire others.

Agile or traditional Project Management for Software Development Projects?

Which Project Framework do you use and why do you use it? Is it agile because everyone seems to do agile these days or is it because you are convinced that you need to change your approach since the traditional approach didn't work for you? Or do you use a traditional project management approach that is customized to your needs and looked at by your Project Management Office? These days it seems there are two parties in the Project Management world. On the one side you have the agile believers vs on the other side you have the PMI certified (and similar certifications) Project Managers. They mostly don't seem to value each other very much. Why is that? I'm very passionate about Project Management and I want to know as much as possible from both worlds because, like in most cases, there is something to learn from the other side. Without some of my traditional project management experience and learning I couldn't appreciate the agile approach that much. For the traditional project management certifications you need to spend considerably more time than for the agile appproach. I am PMP (Project Management Professional from PMI) and CSM (Certified SCRUM Master) certified and hence know this first hand. In any case some of the traditional and agile tools can be nicely combined (e.g. Risk Management Plan, RACI charts, Communication Plan)
For Software Development Projects it is now (almost) common knowledge that an agile Framework is working better than a traditional waterfall approach. I won't go into all the details why that is the case but refer you to http://www.agilealliance.org/ instead.
In many, mostly bigger, organizations it is not possible for various reasons to change to a real agile approach immediately and in that case you have to deal with whatever project framework they use. Does that mean you can't or shouldn't try to introduce agile practices? No, because the greater objective for any project is to deliver our projects with the agreed upon scope, on time and within the assigned budget. And we want to get better at this all the time. That's what continuous improvement is all about no matter which project framework you use.
Even though I consider agile the better approach for Software Development Projects I'm realistic enough to recognize that not every organization is ready for this. But instead of being an agile purist and waiting for the organization to change I prefer to focus on our circle of influence and try to introduce as many agile practices into our organizations as possible. Use the practices that are working independent from which project framework they come. In the end a successful project decides if you used the correct approach!