Five Fundamentals for Project Managers

Posted on 17 February, 2012 at 10:00 PM by with Leave a Comment

Adopt practices for exploring a variety of perspectives.
We think we see what we saw, but we don’t. We really see what we think. Remember the blind men and the elephant. Make it your habit to inquire what others see. You’ll see more together.

There is a saying, 1 person to see near; 2 people will see farther.
As a project manager, you will need to be a few steps ahead of the team, pre-empt the team from unpleasant circumstances. Here are few tips for you to consider.

1.     Stay close to your customer.

Clients’ concerns evolve over the life of a project.  Do not under-deliver or over-promise. Instead over-deliver what you had promised earlier. Stay close to your stakeholders and update them the progress, check with them what they do really want. Ensure they do not give you any surprises in the project delivery process.

2.     Take care of your project team.

Ensure the project team is able to deliver what the project requester wants. Do not over-strained the project team. It is the project manager’s responsibility to take care of the team member welfare in terms of mentally and physically. As a project manager, he needs to bring unity to the team and move forth to accomplish the project common goal.

3.     Build relationships intentionally.

Every team member is different. They do have different skill set and different personality. Thus it is a blessing to have all the different expertise to be in a project team. It is good to build and foster good working relationship in order to strengthen the team spirit.

4.     Tightly couple learning with action.
Every project is different. Even the end result is the same, but the environment is different, unique team member involved. There are always unique lessons to be learned in every project. Do jot down every precious lessons and share among the project team. Every stakeholder in the team will appreciate it. Most important, you can refer this as a guideline for subsequent project managers and also a template for those who are taking over the project.

5.     Collaborate. Really collaborate.

For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. Do not wait till the end or project had already been in the half way mark, and then you start to seek other team member stakeholder to come for rescue. Do it at the beginning. Start to collaborate right from the start and hope to extend the spirit in the next projects.

Articles, Leadership

Comfort Zone or Entrepreneur

Posted on 3 May, 2011 at 11:45 PM by with Leave a Comment

Gathered a few friends on a table and started drinking and chatting in a pub lately.

After some round of drinks, discovered that everyone around the table is looking for opportunities outside. Reason being, as follows

  • Cannot work along well with boss
  • Too much of work
  • Clearing others’ mess
  • Not enough money
  • Increment not enough to sustain the lifestyle
  • Looking for better job opportunity
  • Internal politics
  • Retrenchment
  • And many more

With the escalating living standard, inflation is climbing, commodities price raises gradually. However, our monthly salary rises much much slower than the inflation rate. Thus we are always poorer than the economy. How can one survive?

A wise man says. If you want to survive, you shall not work for others. You should work for yourself.

Simple lay man terms: Be an Entrepreneur and earn money for yourself. Not working for others and trade your time with the limited money.

Are you in your comfort zone and trading your time with money.

Or are you exploring new ways to make yourself to achieve financial freedom.

For a fact, I am exploring new ways always. What about you?

Articles, Employment, Lessons Learned

It’s not What you know, it’s Who you know

Posted on 29 March, 2011 at 11:45 PM by with Leave a Comment

In a typical organization, who is having a slightly better role, the Sales or the technical folks?

For a salesperson, his objective is to get more revenue for the company. Thus he will find more potential clients to sell his products. The salesperson keeps on finding potential clients. Network with people and start to sell to WHO he meets. However, once he gotten the sales deal. His job is more or less settled. He will hand over the sales deal for his back-end team to deliver, either a product or service. It’s the Who you know to clinch more deals. The sales person needs not to know the mechanics on how to build the product or how to deliver the service.

This technical team, on the other hand, is the team that receives the order and has to deliver the service, product on time and meeting the client’s requirement. Thus the technical team is good at what they are supposed to deliver. They know the WHAT very well and can customize to the client’s needs fast and efficient.

To have more WHO factor will get you to know more people. Rich Social skill tends to get things done easily. You can be a well business person and focus on higher level. Look on things farther and further.

To know the WHAT factor well, will only ends up to be a JOB for you because you know the mechanics well. People will come to you for the techniques / tactics.

Simple scenarios:

If the sales person can clinch the deal, he could outsource to another team that offers a more competitive pricing to deliver his products or services. Thus the WHAT is not so critical because he can always find someone to deliver for him.

Let’s say you are in your late 40s or early 50s, and you are retrenched in corporate world. What are you going to do? Your income stopped suddenly, is it easy for you to get another job? Organizations will tend to look for staffs that are more energetic, with drive and more important, cheaper than you. It’s a true business fact, that by the time you are in your mid 40s or early 50s, your pay is almost in the high range category. It is difficult for you to get another job that pays the same salary.

It is not what technical skills or management skills that you know that enables to get the next job. It is your constant networking that the WHO factor can assist in getting you another job in the corporate organization.

Lessons Learned: Be more social savvy as you progress along the career and social path. It’s not what you know to get things done. It is WHO you know to get things accomplished.

Articles, Employment, Lessons Learned
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