Project Management – thoughtLEADERS, LLC: Leadership Training for the Real World

Which of the following skills is your team most in need of improving?

April 9, 2020/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Communications, Leadership, Poll, Project Management /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: Which of the following skills is your team most in need of improving?

Communications: 34.7%
Decision-making: 9.0%
Problem-solving: 9.7%
People leadership: 13.0%
Strategic thinking: 19.3%
Time management: 14.3%

It’s all about the communication. A significant portion of you listed communication as the most critical skill gap on your team. That makes sense. Many other skills like leadership, decision-making and problem-solving require strong communication skills at their foundation. Even skills like time management have roots in communication — how can you delegate or push back on requests if you can’t communicate clearly? Given this demand for communication skills, the question is: What are you doing about building your team’s capabilities in this arena? The ability to get recommendations approved and convey thoughts in a clear and compelling way is something that can be learned. Are you investing in building your team’s skills? Given the current environment, it seems there’s no better time than the present to start working on it.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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How to See Your Projects to Completion

April 1, 2020/0 Comments/in Books, Leadership, Project Management, Strategy /by Ryan Shaw

Most of the major initiatives we pursue are conducted as projects. What do you do when those projects go up in flames? There are seven common reasons our projects go bad and the ways to avoid them.

Today’s post is by Mike Figliuolo, Managing Director of thoughtLEADERS.

Projects go off the rails all the time. Some statistics I’ve seen say only 1 in 8 projects can truly be declared as successes. Why are we so horrible at executing projects especially when we have all these “tried and true” project management methodologies?

There are seven deadly killers of projects. Any one of them can undermine your project’s success. The good news is we teach people how to avoid these issues as part of our Project Management Reality course (CLICK HERE to learn more). For the benefit of all my readers, I’ve outlined these seven killers below along with ways to overcome them.

Team Disengagement

The team is just checked out. Low morale. Disinterest. Apathy. Their work products are late or low quality.

To mitigate: ensure your project is listed on their personal goals, get their manager to commit them to the project, and show them how the project benefits them personally/professionally.

How would you describe the “back office” functions at your company (finance, procurement, legal, HR, etc.)?

March 26, 2020/0 Comments/in Business Toolkit, Career, Leadership, Poll, Project Management /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: How would you describe the “back office” functions at your company (finance, procurement, legal, HR, etc.)?

They occasionally add value and respond in a reasonable time. 29.78%
They add value in every interaction and are highly responsive. 25.56%
They are extremely frustrating and overly bureaucratic. 19.38%
They rarely add value and tend to slow things down. 17.98%
They make my life a nightmare, and I can’t get anything done. 7.3%

Improving the back office. Eighty percent of you report your back office functions like procurement, finance, legal and HR only occasionally add value (30%) or even worse, rarely add value or make your life extremely difficult (55%). That’s alarming. But blame resides in two places. One place is with the back office. If you’re in one of these functions, remember these other groups are your customers. While policy and procedure has a place, responsiveness to their needs helps business performance. If you’re more interested in process and bureaucracy than you are in getting things done, it’s time to rethink your priorities. The other half of the blame is with those who consume back office services. Going to them with short timelines, ill-formed requests and excessive requests for exemptions doesn’t make their lives easier. You need to plan your requests better. Give them time to respond (they have a lot of customers!). Respect their rules and processes. The answer lies somewhere in the middle here (and 26% of you have found that sweet spot). It’s a partnership — treat it as such.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to managing your time?

November 7, 2019/0 Comments/in Career, Leadership, Poll, Project Management /by Ryan Shaw

Our reader poll today asks: What is the biggest challenge you face when it comes to managing your time?

Too many meetings: 18%
Too many emails: 22%
Too many interruptions: 40%
Poor calendar planning: 2%
Difficulty estimating task length: 10%
Something else: 7%

Pardon the interruption. The clear winner in time management challenges is the dreaded interruption. Once someone breaks your concentration, it takes 5 to 15 minutes to get back on track. Find ways to minimize the interruptions. Close your door. Work in a conference room outside your normal work area. Work from home. If an interruption does happen, try telling the person “It sounds like this is an important issue. I want to give it the attention it deserves. I’m focused on something else right now. Can we set a time to reconnect later today to discuss?” It acknowledges their issue and tells them they’re important. It allows you to get back to your task. And a lot of times by the time that meeting has rolled around, the person has resolved the issue without your help. Everyone wins. If you don’t protect your time, no one else will do it for you. Be proactive about it if you want to actually get things done.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!

In the Absence of Clarity There is No Accountability

December 24, 2018/0 Comments/in Books, Communications, Guest Blogger, Leadership, Project Management /by Mike Figliuolo

A leader’s number one job is to create clarity. Leaders who fail to create clarity will struggle with holding their people accountable because their people will choose to perform the activities that fit closest to their current comfort zone.

Today’s post is by Hamish Knox, author of Accountability the Sandler Way (CLICK HERE to get your copy).

Stop reading if you’ve never said or heard this from a leader, “but I thought they knew what they were supposed to do!”

A leader’s number one job is to create clarity in their organization. Lack of clarity leads to lack of accountability and ultimately frustration and conflict.

As much as we’d like to think we aren’t, humans are animals. Social animals. In the wild social animals are led by an alpha who provides guidance (usually in the form of violence) on what is acceptable behavior in the pack.

Animals also have no capacity to process language so all of their clues about what is acceptable and how to be accountable come from the alpha’s behavior.

When an alpha (in the wild or in business) is unclear about the behavior that is acceptable and/or the consequences for not showing the right behaviors, the animals in their group will demonstrate the behaviors that they believe the alpha wants. If the alpha doesn’t punish or correct those behaviors, their group members will continue doing those activities until their alpha erupts with frustration, which they caused.

With humans, our team members filter the behaviors they believe their leader wants from them through the filter of their hopes, dreams, fears, and comfort zone. A recurring theme in my coaching sessions with the leaders I work with is “why aren’t my people doing (behavior expected)?!” The answer is usually “because they didn’t know you wanted them to do that and that behavior is outside their current comfort zone.”

In the context of executing a project, a lack of clarity from the leader creates roadblocks to successful completion because the project team isn’t sure of their accountabilities.

Our clients find the “RACI” structure works well for creating clarity with project teams. “RACI” breaks down to those who are:

What has your experience been when working on a cross-functional team?

November 8, 2018/0 Comments/in Communications, Entrepreneur, Innovation, Leadership, Poll, Project Management /by Mike Figliuolo

Our reader poll today asks: What has your experience been when working on a cross-functional team?

It’s been great every time: 17.3%
It’s been OK most times: 40.7%
It’s been hit-or-miss: 32.0%
It’s been horrible: 3.3%
I’ve never worked on a cross-functional team:6.7%

Cross-functional teams function — most of the time. Most of you have had good experiences on cross-functional teams. For those who have had it be hit-or-miss, consider the following culprits for the misses: team members aren’t fully committed to provide time and effort, they don’t have their supervisor’s support, goals aren’t aligned or there’s no clear charter for the team. These are some of the most common dysfunctions of a cross-functional team. All of these can be solved during the initial stages of forming the team. Do all you can to drive commitment, alignment and direction as soon as the project starts. Skipping that step can spell disaster.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

Did you enjoy this post? If so, I highly encourage you to take about 30 seconds to become a regular subscriber to this blog. It’s free, fun, practical, and only a few emails a week (I promise!). SIGN UP HERE to get the thoughtLEADERS blog conveniently delivered right to your inbox!