Jaeger Consultants Ltd

#projectmanagement #leadership #projectmanagers

Many a times we find ourselves taking over project started by someone else. No matter the reason, we always need to ensure we handle this careful.

Any time key personnel in a project are changed it can cause major rifts and definitely unrest. At times it may even cause even fear. Hence it is important to handle this situation carefully and with emotional intelligence.

Here are a few tips:

• Be gentle
• Listen to the individual team members. Really listen, listen to understand
• Take time to engage each team member individually & meet each stakeholder
• Build meaningful relationships with each
• Don’t go ready to change every thing – if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it
• Spend time getting to know the corporate culture and the project team culture
• Look at any documents and artifacts that have been prepared, make sure they are updated
• Ask questions to understand how things have been done
• Do a lessons learned and / or ask for pain points
• Ensure you do site visits as early as possible if applicable
• Include some team building exercises so that the team gets to know you

Take it slow, the team needs to get to know you and you need to get to know them. Then build up momentum slowly.

The Key

Key is to make the change as gentle as possible for the team. Include them in what you are doing. Ask for their input. Then draw them out so that you can really hear their concerns. This will help you build the relationships you will need.

If you follow the steps mentioned above one after the other as applicable you will quickly win the team over and have a great start into the new project. While doing all this, remain positive and try to have some fun together with the team as well.

Use your emotional intelligence and your relationship intelligence to show true leadership

#Projectmanagement #maturity #development #mindset #leadership

The more mature your company is in terms of leadership and in terms of project management the easier it is for you as a project manager to build up systems, processes, develop a methodology and introduce a project management office.

It is important to assess the maturity first. Companies like ACTS Integration Ltd. do project management maturity assessments, where they analyze a number of things:

• Elaborate assessments in both management and the PM Teams
• OPM3 used as a guide
• Testing PM knowledge
• Assessing Leadership Maturity
• Agile Mindset both in the project teams and in Senior Management
• Solidity of processes and templates
• Level of strategic alignment

The consultant tailors the actual assessment to your needs. This will give you a clear analysis of your current status. From there the consultant identifies training needs, defines future goals and drafts a path for them.

Consultants will work with you to tailor to your Needs

While doing the assessment the consultant will interact with your team and get to know them better. First the consultant together with the client discusses & documents requirements and goals. At the same time they will identify skills, strengths and gaps during the actual assessment. The assessments are a series of workshops, actual questionnaires, questions on sample scenarios etc. The result will then be documented together with the requirements & goals and a suggested way forward will be formulated. Then you the consultant formulates clear training needs and recommendations and a suggested approach for a consultancy. From this recommendation the company can the decide on the tailored solution that fits their priorities and their budget.

Why Consultancy?

A consultant usually has at least 15 years solid experience and has worked with many companies. Hence they can draw on their experience. They also have an outside view and may identify shortcomings you can not identify from the inside.

Getting such an outside guidance and recommendation from an experienced consultant will help you avoid mistakes you would otherwise make.

This kind of  helping hand will help you grow and mature faster and you will have better results sooner. Choosing a well experienced consultant for such an exercise will also safe you money and headache and is an investment well worth it.

Consider hiring a professional Consultant

#Projectmanagement #leadership #Teamdevelopment

When you start a new project in a new place it is always challenging. This could be as an employee or as a Consultant. You are presented with a new challenge, which is twofold: You have a new project to deliver and a new team to do it with.

So what is the best approach?

I want to look at 2 key things today: Team Development & Project Planning

Team Development

It doesn’t matter if the team knows each other already or not, if you have not worked with the team in that combination, you need to shape your team and pull them together. The team will need to go through the stages defined by Bruce Tuckmann:

Any time you join a team has a new leader, the older team members will try to show their prowess and also show you they are better at this than you are. There will be some storming going on. Use this as an opportunity and take note of the opinions voiced. Don’t ever try to make them shut up. Here are a few tips that have helped me in the past:

Spend some time on Team Building

The team needs to get to know each other and become comfortable with each other. This is best done in a relaxed informal way. Think of short ice breakers at the beginning of meetings and simple team building exercises. Give the team time to share about their experience and express how this can contribute to the team.

Come up with a Team Charter

A team charter is a simple document that the team develops together. It determines any pre-defined roles and the character & strength of the members. It also defines how the team wants to engage together by defining some team rules. You should also lay out how the team will deal with issues among each other.

It is a team internal document and should NEVER be shared outside.

Build Trust

You need to win the trust of the team and build trust among the team members. Trust is the basis of true team work. Team member need to be able to rely on each other and know the others have their backs.

So spend some time on helping them develop trust

Remember you are the Leader, not the Instructor

Go back to the Leadership 101, you need to enable your team, not instruct them. Sit together and make decisions together. Each team member has their unique character, set of skills experience and back ground. They can all contribute in a way that you can’t. If you try to tell them how things will be done you will miss out on so much innovation and you will destroy the team spirit.

If everyone can contribute and feels his / her opinion is valued, then they will feel appreciated and the team will pull even closer together. Come up with the project management plans together

Define Escalation & Problem Solving Paths

Define as a team internally how you will solve problems encountered within the project and how to escalate them.

 

Project Planning

I am sure you are guessing it already: Project planning is a team effort!

It is essential for you to enable each team member to contribute to the planning. This way you will get to tap into each team members knowledge and experience. You also help them to buy in and feel part of the project. It will be easier for them to own the processes if they were involved in planning them.

Make it a mix of team workshops, and individual preparation. You as the project manager take on a more coordinating role. All the project planning from developing the methodology over the estimation process to the final project plans is team effort.

Keep the documents and templates simple and at a minimum. Lean is the way to go. The more documents you have the less likely you are to get full compliance.

Mistakes to avoid

The worst, but very common mistake is to want to dictate to the team what is being done one and how long it will take. You are not the Subject Matter Expert, hence you do not know. Even if you have the experience, every project is different. If you dictate you will loose your teams trust and their engagement. Should you feel some time estimates are too long or too short, let it be a conversation, where you find out the thought process your team member(s) used.

If the boss or the client wants different time lines, don’t dictate them! Again make it a conversation, first with the boss & client, where you tell them that you need to discuss with the team first to see if it is possible at the quality level the work requires. Then meet with your team. Let them vent first, then discuss possible solutions. Clearly list the challenges and risks the team sees. Then come up with the best plan and best time line reasonably possible, without overstretching them. This is what you will present to the boss / client. You also explain why it will take this amount of time.

If you fall into the old trap of trying to please the boss / client by working unnecessary overtime, and overstretching the team you risk shoddy work, short cuts, unconcentrated team and the future expectation will be based on this performance. Hence in future this kind of overwork will be expected. This is the best way to loose team members

Conclusion

In a new project your leadership skills are needed. The 5 practices of exemplary Leadership are essential skills for project managers:

1. Model the Way
2. Inspire a shared Vision
3. Challenge the Process
4. Enable others to Act
5. Encourage the Heart

Build meaningful relationships with each team member and get to know them. See how their individual strengths complement each other and how they add up to the team strengths.

Then keep on working on enabling your team members to bring out the best in them.

 

#thelonggame #patience #relationshipbuilding #leadership #relationshipintelligence

These days everyone wants to win quickly and get rich or successful quickly. But in an old German saying we say

A good thing takes time

Every “overnight success” takes years of planning, practice and preparation. The same in business and / or a career one needs to progress slowly for real lasting success.

As Dorie Clark lays out in her book “The Long Game”  It’s about doing small things over time to achieve our goals—and being willing to keep at them. Only then will you build a solid, lasting success that will stand the test of time.

What do we need to do?

Here are  a few tips that have helped me personally:

• Get a Mentor – someone who has walked the path before you. I actually have several mentors at any given point in time. A good mentor may / will cost you money.
• Get a Coach – someone who teaches you to ask the right questions that will help you make wise decisions. A good coach will cost you money, but it will be well worth the investment.
• Learn how to build relationships. This takes time. Dorie Clark actually talks about building relationships over 1 year before you bring up any business propositions etc.
• Learn how to network effectively and network not only in your professional circles. But develop a wide network across all circles and sectors.
• Build credibility – this can be done in many different ways, which are explained below
  •  
• Define the niche you want to be in, you do not want to be a Jack of all trades who is master of none. Instead you want to be seen as a master
• Work on several legs to stand on
• Develop strategic partnerships. These are not traditional partnerships, but agreement with relevant peers, to work together on projects or contracts as & when they come up.
• Volunteer – for example volunteering for the PMI Kenya Chapter has really helped me to get known in project management circles. I have also developed skills I needed later in my career

Build Credibility

You need to be visible and share your knowledge.

• Comment on relevant articles in professional online spaces or on LinkedIn
• Post blogs or articles (learn the difference, before you do). Do this for free, and remember you are building credibility. You can see it as an investment
• Use relevant Hashtags and copy relevant companies and people with “@”. This will increase your reach and the likelihood to be seen.
• Be active on relevant professional spaces, so that you are seen. The more often you post, comment, forward or like, the more you are seen.
• Mentor young professionals and get them to give you recommendations on your LinkedIn Profile and / or your website
• Have a website – creating a website is not so difficult. You do not need to hire an expensive web developer for a simple yet effective website. Just be open to learn, Understanding readability and SEO is important.
• Publish things you have posted on your website on your social media accounts as well, to get people to know about it. Getting traffic to your website takes time and dedication. I am also still learning about it
• Offer to speak in relevant professional events, seminars and conferences. This will be for free in the beginning as well. See it as investment, you are building credibility

I think you are getting the gist of it. It is important to share your thoughts and skills and to be seen. Let your work speak for you. You definitely need patience to build a good name.

Side Effects

When playing the long game many good things will happen as a by-product. You will make new friends and widen your circles. At the same time you will learn new skills. Over time your name will be among the first to come up when a specialist is needed.

Have fun with it! The long game is well worth it and patience pays off.

#leadership #integration #culturalintegration #teamdevelopment

The minute you have 2 or more people working together, you have more than one culture working together. This means integration will be needed. Most of us work in multicultural environments. Here in Kenya you usually have a minimum of 4 or more cultures in any team.

Let’s all be sensitive of other cultures.

What influences Culture?

Our individual culture is influenced by many things. This also includes work ethics, expectations and moral believes. These are all influenced by:

• Nationality
• Tribal background – we all have one or more tribes we come from
• Religion
• Family traditions and believes
• Political believes
• Work culture

When we assemble a team and try to pull it together, we need to remember these different backgrounds. This means we need to be sensitive to each other. At the same time it also enriches us and gives us a chance to learn.

Integration among team members with all our different back grounds and cultures can also be very enriching. It depends on what you want to make out of it.

Let’s embrace out differences and learn from each other. It will widen our horizon.

How can we integrate?

Integrations starts with a willingness to learn. Once again my own attitude is what will make the difference. Here are a few tips for pulling multicultural teams together

• Ask questions
• Find out about the individual believes, dietary requirements and holidays, anything that can influence how the team will work together
• Celebrate the different holidays and give the relevant team member a chance to share about the meaning of a holiday and how they celebrate it.
• NEVER look down on any culture
• Remember that even among Christianity there are different denominations. And for example Seventh Day Adventists may have difficulties to work on Saturday since it will not allow them to attend their services.
• Remove internal filters and biases and open yourself to new experiences.
• Be willing to go out of your comfort zone
• Attend other culture’s ceremonies both religious and traditional and learn

Integration starts with understanding and willingness to accept. If you are willing to immerse yourself it will even be more educative.

An example of Cultural Integration

My partner is from the Sikh community and as I am writing this I am actually attending a Saptahik Path, the weeklong reading of their holy book done at the family’s home. The holy book will be read from beginning to end. But, at the same time the family also spends quality time together. In our case people have come to visit and participate from 3 different continents and are enjoying catching up. The entire event is in memory of one of the family patriarchs who passed away 11 months ago.

I think this is an amazing way to celebrate the life of a loved one, who has passed. Attending this path has definitely opened my eyes on new possibilities and has brought me to rethink how I do my own mourning and remembering of loved ones.

What does this help me in Work Situations?

Understanding the other person and their culture, will help you understand why they react the way they do. That way you can then help others also to understand. In turn the entire team will learn to be more accepting and open their eyes.

Having several cultures and back grounds represented also is an amazing opportunity! Different cultures have different ways to approach things and different ways to think about it. Take these opportunities and come up with new and creative solutions.

Let’s make a difference and be integrative!