Compassion is not weakness, it is a mark of a true leader

Some people believe that compassion and especially compassion in the workplace is a form of weakness. Perhaps they think survival of the fittest in the corporate jungle leaves no room for something like concern for other people and their feelings. March ahead, take no prisoners!

Yet report after report shows that us that those who have a high degree of emotional intelligence come out ahead at work. Empathy is an important part of emotional intelligence. To relate to others, you need to be able to see things from their perspective. That means acknowledging that some of your actions could be causing them distress.

Consider active listening for a minute. To have successful communications with others we should employ active listening. This involves really understanding what the other person is telling you, again trying to put yourself in their shoes.

It is difficult to successfully show empathy and active listening without caring component, you the part where you truely care what this person is experiencing?

Of course compassion is more than just understanding or acknowledging the feelings of others. It is going beyond & wishing to alleviate their suffering. If you continue to interact with others and as a leader or influencer do not try to improve their situation(where possible & appropriate), then quite frankly - you suck as a leader.

It is easy to bury your head in the sand and ignore when others are having a difficult time, it is easier to make their difficulties their fault, to feel anger at them, to blame them for bringing difficulty onto themselves. It takes much more courage to step in and take action, to actively work to improve their situations.

Compassion in workplace and on your projects takes strength & courage. Bring that to your project management style and trust me, the results are phenomenal.

I am the smartest guy in the room effect!

In Greek mythology Narcissus was a favorite of Apollo and considered one of the most handsome young men alive. His beauty has been compared to Adonis, whom Aphrodite the Greek goddess of love herself, loved.The story goes that Narcissus, having come to a pool of water to quench his thirst, saw his own reflection in the smooth surface of the pool and fell in love with it. Since he could not obtain the object of his love, he died of sorrow by the same pool. The nymphs grieved the loss of Narcissus, but when they prepared his funeral pyre, they could not find his body—only the flower that bears his name. Supposedly, Narcissus still gazes upon his own reflection in the waters of the river Styx, in the underworld.

Yesterday, CIOZone caught my eye with an article they titled, Sometimes IT Leaders Are Too Smart for Their Own Good, where they suggest that, "Even the smartest person in the room can benefit from listening to others, provided those people have been chosen wisely." The author, RD Lewis calls it "Social Cognition-driven Hierarchy Level Establishment and Positioning (SCHLEP)."

He suggests, "The subject isn't emotional intelligence. People who lack that can't effectively work with other people—a related but different affliction." He suggests that these people "...don't listen because they don't see the point."Lewis asserts, "It's the intellectual version of a well-known tendency among male, muscularly-advanced high-school students: looking at their social world as a pecking order, within which they seek their level—preferably, someplace near the top—but through intellectual rather than physical pushing and shoving."

I think most people who have been in the workforce for any length of time have had to contend with a narcissistic personality at one time or another. Sometimes they are called "the smart person in the room," Lewis calls them "SCHLEPers," I just call them "Narcissists."I once worked with a guy who thought that he was the only one with any brains. He wouldn't listen to anyone and his fingerprint needed to be indelibly stamped on every initiative. In fairness, he was very smart, but his organization couldn't grow beyond what he could personally control. I didn't stay there very long.

I don't think it matters whether you are the project manager, the CIO, or the CEO—surrounding yourself with people who know things that you don't know is smart, very smart. Having the self-control and trust to actually listen to them is brilliance—and critical to accomplishing things greater than oneself.Lewis suggests that, once you "[s]tart down this path you'll discover something wonderful: Many people who are far less intelligent than you know something important you'd be wise to learn from.

It has to be this way, because no matter how smart you are, and how little sleep you think you need, you only have 168 hours in a week to add to your fund of knowledge. Line up nine decently smart employees who each spend 20 hours a week learning more about their professions, and every week one of them will know something you don't.""Most people know something you'd benefit from hearing," he continues, "You just have to help them figure out what it is."Regardless of how you manage project-based work or your particular project management software, always being the smart guy in the room just isn't a good idea. It alienates both stakeholders and project teams—and ultimately inhibits project success.What do you do when you need to work with a narcissistic personality? Or, if you tend to be what Lewis calls a SHLEPer, what do you do to foster dialog and keep from always being the smart guy in the room?

Outcome Management Vs. Project Management

Outcome Management is a set of methods, processes, tools and techniques for planning, selecting, managing and realizing results of benefits. It addresses: What problem are we trying to solve? So begin with the end in mind..

However, very often it is confused with project management. The table below attempts to point out some differences between the two and hopefully broadens your perspective on outcome management.

The Difference between Project and Program Management

I see many of my clients struggle with this on a regular basis and there is a general mixup between a project manager, program manager and a system/process operations manager.

Here are some quick observations:

From juggling balls to juggling jugglers with balls!

I think you can liken Project Management to juggling a set of balls (projects) and ensuring your hands and brain is acting quick enough to keep them all in the air, whereas Program Management feels like you’re co-coordinating several jugglers, who all have lots of balls in the air, and you need to manage the jugglers passing balls to each other on a very regular basis!

You really do need to look at and take in the bigger picture and overall strategy, without this larger view and forward planning; the ongoing projects won’t be aligned strategically for both the business and IT.

More strategy, less dirty hands

This doesn’t necessarily mean you don’t EVER get your hands dirty again in the joys of managing projects on a daily basis, as you do have to do this as well! It just means that you tend to have to step back a bit more and let other specific project managers or business team members run the daily stuff, while you just ensure strategy and alignment of overall goals is still on course.

Negotiation and High Level Support

You’re here to manage and deliver a program of work, which may involve 50 projects, all intrinsically linked (or not) and all with their risks, issues andinternal/external problems. I’ve found my leading change, resolving, negotiation, peace-keeping, support skills being put to the test on an almost daily basis.

A communication conduit

In Project Management, you need to be able to communicate effectively between the project team you’re working with, the client and any teams you are supporting, and finally the project board.

With Program Management, your communication channels are much more diverse and far reaching, you basically have to communicate right up tothe top levels for Concept, Benefits, Progress, Delivery and Review. While working with the ranging projects that are under the program umbrella, ensuring all teams are clear on goals, direction and status.

Finally you have to ensure that there are clear communication channels between any projects that are linked into your program projects, and be a conduit for information, strategy and knowledge.

Change

The project manager tries to keep change to a minimum, and controls change requests and scope creeps with an iron fist. Of course thanks to Agile Methods that project management is more open to changing environment.

Program management on the other hand is about expecting change, even embracing it at some levels, and being adaptable and flexible enough to run with it without jeopardizing the projects under your umbrella.

Conclusion

Project deliver a certain capability, whereas Programs deliver business benefits!

I think Program Management is far more then managing a group of related Projects. Program Management starts with a clear definition of business need and goals at a high strategic level and from there develops into a roadmap, or Program, as to how best satisfy the business needs. Of course aligning it with company strategies is key.

The roadmap should articulate how each Program and the Projects within each Program connect, the relationships, dependencies and data / information management. The roadmap should also be visited periodically to embrace the changing conditions.

Would love to get some more thoughts on this...

PMI-SAC Award Winner - Humbled and Honored

I am very excited and humbled to receive the "Project Management Excellence as an Individual - Business & Information Technology" Award from the Project Management Institute, Southern Alberta Chapter (PMI-SAC).

I feel deeply honored as this award recognizes Project Management Excellence of an individual throughout his/her career and accomplishments in the various areas of Project Management ranging from Project Management, Program Management, Portfolio Management, Strategic planning, Change Management and so on.

It was a great night of celebration and I would like to thank all my guests who came out and attended the dinner and cheered me up. Many many thanks to the PMI-SAC chapter for recognizing all of us nominees as professionals who continue to work with a lot of passion and excel in delivering projects for their clients

PMI-SAC Award Nominations

A great opportunity to nominate project managers who deserve recognition for the fantastic work they have done. Also, check out the keynote speaker. I definitely look forward to this event!

For more information, please visit: http://www.pmisac.com/

Project Managers' Dilemma

"Project Authority..... You've got it only if you think you've got it."

How can a Project Manager be responsible for the outcome of a project if he/she has no authority over resources and decisions in the orgainzation? After all, there are very few people who report directly to the project manager, especially in a Matrix organization or for a consultant project manager like myself where we have to manage project for a client and the team members mostly belong to the client organization, other vendors or sub-contractors. To complicate matters further, none of the above players have a direct reporting relationship.

"They've given us all the responsibility for the project, but minimal authority over what we need for the project...... Responsibility without associated authority!" is the common lament of project managers. I guess this is always the case, we will never have the authority we wished we had but we will always have the full responsibility for the project.

In fact the very reason we are asked to be the project managers is usually because of our skills to manage this dilemma.

How do you get the work done as a PM?

When I was a novice project manager, I often wished that I could carry a baseball bat to the office, swing it and let people know about it's existence just in case they don't deliver on their commitments. Or, perhaps, settle such issues with a one-on-one confrontation in the parking lot. However, we all know that this not the way to gain people's commitments or to drive projects.

The only thing that you have at your disposal is the ability to effectively communicate with everyone including your clients, stakeholders, team members, executives and sub-contractors. Communication involves knowing when and how to use the different tools for communication including written, verbal and presentation skills.

In fact, the trick to getting work done is know first and foremost how to excel in communication skills. Outstanding project managers spend 70-80% of their project time and effort in some form of communication. They serve as nerve centres for projects by keeping communication channels open for collecting, analyzing, processing and disseminating needed information and decisions. They know how to delegate and provide the discipline, environment and motivation most importantly empower the team members to get the work done. I will soon write more on how we can empower our team members.

Project Managers and Leadership

The other day, I was sitting at Starbucks and reading a book by Ram Charan, the renowned CEO consultant on leadership. The more I ponder on it, the more I believe is the need for great leadership from project managers to get things done.

Failing to getting things executed can kill big innovations. I was reading the case study of Xerox and how the CEO Richard Thoman was fired for not being able to execute on some of the innovative ideas which he had brought to Xerox.

I do not mean to give a big leadership lecture here, but I was surprised to read that: the CEO complained that he was not allowed to select his own management. That happens a lot with us project managers too. Sometimes, we just have to work with whatever resources we have to get things done. Being able to work with people of different personalities creates diversity in team and promotes challenge and thought. Being able to consolidate the differences between the team members and creating a shared mental model is one of the biggest tasks of project managers.

Earning respect is another challenge, so you have to be knowledgeable enough to be able to help out the team members. The best approach is act as a service provider to your team rather than someone trying to manage them. By Service provider, I mean someone who provides umbrella to the team when its raining and clears stones and pebbles from the path when the team is moving forward. Empower the team! I would write another blog on strategies to empower the team.

These are some of the things which Ram Charan recommends for CEOs to do at a higher level. I am not saying that as project managers we are like CEOs or trying to act like one, but there are certainly leadership traits which we can learn. As project managers, I would recommend my fellow colleagues to be more of leaders rather than managers. By doing that, project management actually provides strategic advantage to the organization. Below is an interesting comparison between leaders and managers:

LEADER

1. Focusses on what and why

2. Innovates

3. Focusses on people

4. Inspires Trust

5. Has a long range view

6. Has eyes on horizon

7. Originates

8. Challenges Status quo

9. Does the Right thing

MANAGER

1. Focusses on when and how

2. Administrates

3. Focussess on systems and structures

4. Relies on Control

5. Has a short-range view

6. Has eyes on bottomline

7. Initiates

8. Accepts Status quo

9. Does things right