Have you ever felt an unease about a project you are leading? Maybe it feels like the team isn’t meeting its full potential, or the customer impact is smaller than you expected. You might not be able to put your finger on it, but you know something is off.
This feeling is common for leads, but having the tool kit to solve the problem is not. When we train new project leads we teach them the basics: how to read a contract and how to manage financials. Then we expect them to produce voluminous status reports, QA/QC deliverables, and approve time sheets. The missing link in this training, and perhaps one of the most essential skills to drive successful project outcomes, is goal mapping. Goal mapping ensures all project stakeholders have a clear vision of how team activities align to the project goal. I can hear you saying, “but that’s in the contract, that’s in my master schedule!”. Let’s dive in…
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Do you remember a moment early in your professional career that changed you? Here is one of mine from the ripe old age of 15. Let me know if you can relate :)
Her eyes widened as she franticly blurted out, "The landlord is here, I'm going to hide in the freezer." Apparently, she had not been paying the rent. I was 15, this was my first week, at my first job. At $5.75/hour, working at a bagel shop wasn't about the money, but I don't remember applying anywhere else. So there I was being taught about brewing coffee and refilling napkins when I got thrown a curve ball, "can you cover for me?" At Blackstone, I was part of a team tasked with building project management training for current and upcoming PMs. The content was the sort of thing you wouldn't find in Agile or PMP training, more on the ground tactical knowledge. I led a similar effort at Terathink, creating a managers working group and I've since joined the mentor program at CGI to mentor upcoming leaders. One of the questions I've spent the past year thinking about is: "what qualities do all great leaders share?". I tend to over analyze things, so after reading 17 leadership books here are the top three characteristics I uncovered:
One of the hardest decisions to make as a leader is when to remove a highly talented/poor character staff member. It sounds easy enough on paper, but for a variety of reasons many leaders struggle with this problem. A great historical example of this leadership dilemma is the relationship between Charles Lee and George Washington.
Lee was a vocal critic of Washington's military leadership while serving beneath him. His arrogance and hubris led him to visit a brothel (alone - far from protection), where he was captured by the British. In exchange for luxurious lodgings and food, he taught the British how to defeat the Americans. Later released as part of a prisoner exchange, he was accepted back into the army with open arms where he continued to ridicule Washington. Lee was ultimately courtmartialed and removed from service when Washington caught him deserting the battlefield with his men. Washington should have removed Lee at the earliest signs of betrayal. However, he was short staffed of leaders with military experience and was willing to overlook Lee's character flaws. The problem with this approach is simple: Great People = great capabilities + great character. Talent can be trained and improved upon, serious character flaws cannot. Removing staff with great capabilities/poor character will cause short-term pain but it avoids the much higher cost of long term chaos. Great people and great culture are the two most important things to get right. But... they take work and are easy to claim without evidence. Like when I say, "I regularly go to the gym", but regularly means once a week and my nightcap is a pint of Ben and Jerry's. I can't think of a company that wouldn't claim to have both, yet most have neither. The firm Bridgewater does a great job defining them:
With common definitions it's much easier to see how most companies fail to meet either standard. The good news is, this is 100% fixable. As with most revolutions, the key is to start small and get some quick visible wins. The competitive edge brought when a firm has great people and great culture is immense. The typical window dressing of game rooms, happy hour photos and free candy is what most settle for - don't fall into that group. |
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