Some time back I was talking with a fellow project manager about a difficult issue he was having with his new boss. The thumbnail summary of the discussion was that the project manager was feeling overly scrutinized and micro-managed. Now I knew the project manager to be a capable professional who could confidently handle the work assigned to him. Yet his boss insisted on managing every detailed aspect of his work. More so, his boss was very critical of the work being done even though it was performed to professionally acceptable standard. The situation became unbearable for the project manager; he ultimately left the organization.
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E.F. Hutton was a financial brokerage firm founded in 1904 by brothers Edward Francis and Frankly Laws Hutton. In the 1970s, E.F. Hutton created an advertising campaign with the slogan, “When E.F. Hutton talks, people listen.” The slogan implied that E.F. Hutton didn’t mince words, and that any advice given was valuable. For me, it ranks right up there with “Two all-beef patties…” and “Plop plop, fizz fizz…” Now that I’ve planted a couple of commercial jingles in your head that you may be singing the rest of the day, let’s get into how this is relevant to being a great project manager. In my early days as a consultant, I mistakenly believed that my job was to tell, that the client was expecting me to talk on any topic and espouse my wisdom. As a result, I tended to use a lot of words to communicate what I thought needed to be communicated. As I grew, I noticed those who were particularly impactful at getting their point across. They didn’t simply fill the air with words; it was quite the opposite. They sat back and listened while others did the talking, then, when ready to speak, came into the conversation with a profound question or statement that caused others to think. What they said was concise, relevant and thought-provoking. I also noticed something else--whenever that person spoke, others generally stopped talking to yield the floor. People like that make their words count. They have what I call a high value per word. Read more at ProjectManagement.com. Mr. Creosote. Some of you may know the name. He was a character in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life. Portrayed by Terry Jones, Mr. Creosote ate and drank massive quantities in a French restaurant. At the end of the meal, the server (played by John Cleese) offered Mr. Creosote a wafer-thin mint. After some objection, Mr. Creosote agreed to eat the mint, which caused an unfortunate reaction. Those of you who know the skit (or just searched for it) know my description cleaned things up quite a bit. While most could have easily eaten the small mint without any adverse consequence, for Mr. Creosote it was just too much to handle. He had hit a saturation point. This analogy applies directly to how much newness an organization can absorb before things start breaking. It’s the organization’s saturation point. Read more at ProjectManagement.com.
In an earlier leadership role I had been striving to create focus and accountability within each of our major work areas. The team responded beautifully with doing their best to adjust to roles, to stay focused on their areas, and to minimize confusion by stepping across boundaries. They did exactly as I asked.
We were in a team meeting and I could see that there was erupting confusion around contacting customers in an effort to close some sales. There was a lot of respect for my sales & marketing manager in not stepping in on her turf when it came to customers. Where the problem arose, though, was in the fact that the team was confused as to who was supposed to be following up on some key sales activity that had begun prior to our organizational re-alignment.
So maybe you think you're all that and a bag of chips and that you can get more things done than most people in your organization. As managers, though, it's not just about you getting things done on your own; it's about you getting your team to be as effective (or more) as you.
I deliberately use the term effective versus efficient. For me, there is a very clear distinction which I believe is crucial in driving results.
Micromanage: to manage or control with excessive attention to minor details Source: dictionary.com I’ve been a micromanager, been micromanaged, and advised clients on how to avoid micromanaging and being micromanaged. To help peel back the onion on micromanagement and what to do about it, I’d like to start with a concept in my book, Straight A’s, that empowers followers. The Straight A’s focus on five core steps, as follows:
For this to work, both the leader and the follower have to do their parts in each step of the process. For each of the steps, here are responsibilities for both leaders and followers: Read more at ProjectManagement.com. Feedback is a huge part of what I do in my daily life. I give feedback in my role as a consultant to help my client do something better or avoid something bad. Early in my career, I began learning about right and wrong ways to provide feedback. Sometimes I did it okay, other times I really booted it. As a professional, spouse, parent and now grandparent, I’m still learning about how to provide feedback—when to give it, and when to keep my mouth shut. I adopted the mantra, “My job is to tell you what I think; yours is to decide what to do with it.” It gives me freedom to constructively speak my mind, while acknowledging the recipient may or may not use what I told them. When I started writing, I got a better appreciation for the “yours is to decide what to do with it” part of the mantra. I get feedback from you as ProjectManagement.com readers, from book reviewers, and from my editor (who is also my wife). Patty edits virtually everything I write and does an outstanding job of making my work better. Through my career as an author, I had to learn how to be a graceful recipient of feedback—and constructively decide what to do with it. Regardless of how painful the feedback was to hear, I had to recognize it was for my own good. There are four paths a feedback recipient could take: Read more at ProjectManagement.com
My wife Patty and I some time back completed a massive renovation on a townhome in the Seattle area. The townhome was built in the late 70's and was decorated using all of the finest materials that the Disco era had to offer. The original owners liked it so much that they changed precisely nothing for the 30 years they lived there right down to the 8-track player on the guest room night stand. We purchased the townhome in late 2009 with the intention of renovating the townhome and occupying it after our son graduated high school.
So let’s say you went through the 12 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Becoming an Independent Consultant—and you still want to take the plunge. This article will give you the must-do items to complete before opening your doors. It’s common to be excited about getting your consultancy going and landing that first gig—passion is great! But you absolutely need to get a few things in order first. I can’t stress this enough: If you skip over considering the 10 steps below, you are setting yourself up for potentially big problems later. This is a “measure twice, cut once” thing. (I think you get my point by now…) My experience is setting up a U.S. company in the state of Washington. You should use the advisors and other suggestions that are right for your consultancy’s location. Read more at ProjectManagement.com |
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March 2024
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