Several years ago, I invested in a business with someone who was my best friend at the time. It all started with a lot of excitement and dreams of how we were going to change the world together.

As time progressed, reality set in. The idea was great, but the financial return wasn’t there. My best friend worked incredibly hard but just didn’t have the right skill set the business demanded. We weren’t aligned on my engagement, particularly as I saw the financial demands of the business exceed my willingness to provide. I ended up shutting off funding, the business failed, and I lost a friend.

Ah, the naivete.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com. 

Bill was a newly appointed project manager over a mission-critical systems development initiative. Ann, Bill’s boss, trusted Bill to lead the initiative and gave him the latitude he needed to execute without getting in his way. While the two worked well together, they did struggle in one area: decision-making. They had several instances where Ann was surprised by key decisions Bill made but didn’t inform Ann. Bill also didn’t benefit from Ann’s experience on several issues and made uninformed decisions that hurt the project. Ann asked Bill to include her more on decisions, but Bill took that as him needing to come to her on decisions he could have made on his own. Bill grew frustrated with his perception of Ann micromanaging him, whereas Ann just wanted to ensure she was in the loop on key decisions. The project ultimately got done, but not without a lot of friction between the two.

Friction that could have been avoided.

Several years ago, I consulted with a large IT organization working for the VP of program management. This VP and I have a long history of delivering results for more than 25 years. His organization was comprised of program directors with varying levels of project managers working in each program director’s organization. The program management VP had a peer VP accountable for product management. The product management VP also had directors, which included product managers and product owners.

The product management and program management organizations didn’t get along well. There was confusion on role clarity, and a chronic “that’s not my job” mentality. The product managers didn’t think they should be accountable to the program managers, and the program managers had difficulty pinning down what the product managers were—and were not—accountable to deliver.

Shortly after I started my consulting gig, the VP of product management hired a new product management director. In one of his first meetings, which included the program management VP, the product management director referred to himself as “CEO of the Product.”

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

I love baseball. I grew up playing as a kid. I had a pretty good fastball and a knee-buckling curve. I like to think I could have broken into the pros if it only I was bigger, stronger, faster, and had more talent. (Only a few minor details that stood between me and the Cooperstown Baseball Hall of Fame.)

I particularly enjoy going to spring training games in Arizona. This year, I went to four games in five days, including a day and night game on the same day. At the night game, Patty and I took my 91-year-old father-in-law. I bought good tickets that minimized the number of stairs, and we sat in the section behind home plate.

We had peanuts and beer during the game. The weather was beautifully comfortable; not too hot or cold. We stayed until the middle of the 8th inning and left to avoid traffic. The one thing from that game that will stick with me into my old age was during the seventh-inning stretch.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

So we've all been to the doctor.  We know the feeling of getting marched into a sterile examination room, given a gown that only covers the front half of your body, aked to step on a scale, prodded with a thermometer, asked to pee in a cup.  Then there's what seems like an eternity of sitting on an examination table with your hind quarters hanging out waiting for the doctor to come in the room.  Then after what seems like an eternity the door bursts open and the doctor pronounces, "Hello, I'm Dr. Goofleblat..."

In my article How to Flex Your Quadrant II Muscle, I discuss Stephen Covey’s four quadrants of time management which categorizes your tasks:

• Quadrant I: Urgent and important tasks (e.g., crises, emergency meetings)
• Quadrant II: Not urgent, but important tasks (e.g., proactive goals, planning and prevention)
• Quadrant III: Urgent, but not important tasks (e.g., irrelevant meetings, unimportant emails/messages)
• Quadrant IV: Not urgent and not important tasks (e.g., avoidance activities, time wasters)

The model, also known as the Eisenhower Matrix (thanks to some readers for pointing that out!), was foundational in helping me minimize time-wasting activities and not get distracted by non-important tasks. More importantly, it helped me to allocate time to focus on things that are important but not necessarily urgent. It was groundbreaking for me and has helped me immensely ever since I implemented it over 30 years ago.

Because I feel this is so important in how we all manage not just our careers but our lives, I want to share with you my quadrant II (Q2) list and give you a boost on how to think about your own Q2 items.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

In Part 4 of Persuasion Atrophy, I talked in-depth about securing credibility. Securing credibility is job one when it comes to your persuasiveness. Credibility must be earned and reinforced; it’s rarely just granted. The final installment of this series uses the last of The 4 C’s of Compelling Presentations pillars: being concise.

An organization I belong to holds an annual convention, which includes bringing in several subject matter experts as speakers. I was especially interested in hearing one particular speaker. His credentials were impressive, having written several books on his area of expertise. I got to his session early to ensure I had a seat as I expected the room to be full. His session was right before a break for lunch, so there wasn’t another speaker people needed to run off to.

He took to the stage on time and started his presentation.

His content was a meandering mess. He repeated himself. He didn’t talk about the topics on his slide. He was difficult to follow. And he went way over his allotted time, acknowledging that the only thing people would be missing out on was lunch.

I expected to be inspired. Instead, I was bummed.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.