Most project managers use multiple methods and tools to keep organized. We’re tracking people, tasks, files, updates, and changes while trying to make sure the quality of work is up to standard and that deadlines are met. Many companies use Project Management software for collaborative task tracking and communication, and then we supplement with spreadsheets, notebooks, to-do lists, calendar reminders, and, for those of us who are visually minded, bulletin boards.
Task Board
If you need an easy way to keep track of your projects, you may find that a revamped bulletin board, called a task board, can help you maintain a bird’s-eye view of what you’re working on. It also helps when we need backup: the internet goes down, the PM platform is unavailable due to maintenance, or some other issue means you need a physical (not virtual) means of managing of your project.
Depending on how you use it, a task board can tell you what you’ve committed to, what you’re working on, what you’ve accomplished, and whether or not everyone on the project is collaborating well.
Poster Board
One example of a task board is a large piece of poster board divided into three sections: to do, doing, and done. You can color-coordinate sticky notes and place them on the board depending on your needs, whether it’s by the person doing the task, the project, or another system you’ve created that works for you.
Window Board
Another option is to use a window. This takes a little more time to set up, but it can look more elegant since it uses a clear background (glass) instead of paper or brown corkboard. Once you’ve decorated your window and created sections, you use this version of a task board the same way you would the Poster Board.
Corkboard
On a corkboard you can use icons representing the work to be done. Use different paint colours to indicate the To Do and Done sections on the board.
Magnetic Board
Beyond the poster board, window, and cork board, you can also use a magnetic board. Each of these options have their own pros and cons, and then you have more than a few options for how to organize your projects on each.
Whatever you end up doing, if you use the task board in your office, it may help your team if you hang it in an area with high traffic so they can see at a glance where a project stands. In Agile this concept is known as an Information Radiator.
Benefits of a Task Board
Furthermore, to make it more interesting for everyone, try using photos of each team member instead of just their name: This can reduce confusion and make the board and its tasks feel even more important. For PMs who work remotely, task boards can serve as a colourful way to decorate your home office space, with the added benefit of making the work visible. If you can, put the board on the wall behind you so that it’s visible on video calls and during online meetings.
Task boards are excellent tools for any kind of project, especially Agile projects. Your team will appreciate a task board because it’s easy to update and shows valuable information in a visually appealing, easy-to-understand way.
If you’d like to learn more about task boards, check out this infographic, with compliments from Quill. It goes into detail about each type of task board and different ways of organizing the information on your board. You can also, of course, make your own completely unique task board that suits your project and flow of work. This infographic will give you a great place to start.
When I first transitioned to Agile, coming from a traditional project management background, I quickly realised that one of the keystones to become successful in Agile, would be to change my mindset. The mindset that needs to be adopted, is the Agile mindset, based on a set of key values and principles designed to better enable collaborative work and deliver continuous value through a “people-first” orientation. This means a huge move away from being very process driven and a focus on output (PMI’s PMBOK has 10 knowledge areas and 49 processes after all); to becoming more people focused and outcome driven. What a shift to make for any experienced professional project manager! Many project professionals rightfully ask how do they become credible Agile Project Leaders? This article aims to answer that question.
For the past few years many organisations have been on a mission to improve their Organizational Agility, meaning their capability to quickly sense and adapt to external and internal changes to deliver relevant results in a productive and cost-effective manner. The need to become more agile, has been fast-tracked by the world-wide COVID epidemic.
According to the PMI Report: Achieving greater agility, 2017, companies will be successful if they build a culture of Agility. Culture is a critical enabler. It needs to be a culture of readiness that supports flexible processes and employee training in support of agile practices. Those who succeed gain considerable efficiencies.
The Report goes further to state that 88% of organisations with high agility realise significant benefits including more efficient and effective processes and higher customer and employee satisfaction. These organisations are more likely to align their projects with strategic objectives which is critical to benefits realisation and success.
The Role of Project Leaders and the PMO
In addition to executives to advocate agility, project leaders could become evangelists for greater agility. In organisations with high agility, it is noted that 77% have an agile PMO or agile working group who are leading Agile Transformation. Successful transformation commonly requires new approaches in fundamental areas of business. Those include budget cycles, hiring practices, procurement practices, and role delineation.
An agile oriented PMO has a customer-collaboration mindset. In many cases, this means the PMO operates as an internal consultant, tailoring project delivery approaches to accommodate resources, timelines, and overall business needs, even as they change. Based on a documented case study in the PMI report, of TD Bank, the PMO can continue to perform similar functions than before, like:
Establishing standards
Serving as the Centre of Excellence
Educating the organization
Training and building talent
To achieve the above there are practical ways for a PMO to support and lead an organisation’s agile transformation. The PMO leaders need to become subject matter experts in agile. Develop and/or acquire the expertise to help guide agile practitioners, develop training, and establish a community of practice that provides coaching services. They need to define the value proposition of agile and the PMO’s role in agile delivery. Help the organization define the agile target state and a roadmap to get there. Drive the change beginning with successes in project delivery and extending it beyond projects to business agility. Build the capacity by acquiring and/or retooling the workforce with the necessary agile skills, build a culture of agile within the project delivery organization, apply agile concepts to all projects regardless of delivery method.
The Agile Project Manager
Where does the Project Manager fit in and continue delivering value in the agile context? Project Managers need more than technical skills. To sense change they need to be well informed about an organization’s strategic objectives and how their projects align. They need to forge strong relationships with business owners who request projects as well as with the functions that support them (e.g., finance, legal, risk management, and HR). Those with leadership skills and strong business acumen, can lead strategic initiatives and play a role to ensure projects stay aligned with strategic goals. Agile Project Managers will help to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of how work gets done, including identifying unnecessary steps in work processes, as well as to share essential information broadly with all stakeholders.
The PMI Report: What’s next? Identifying new ways of working, Dom Price, a Futurist and Head of R&D at Atlassian is of the opinion that Project Managers will take on a more strategic role by managing for complexity, ambiguity, agility, and communication. As knowledge workers they will continue to learn and grow their strategic value. Project, Program and Portfolio Management will drive innovation and change by playing their role to enable the organisation to navigate change every day.
In a case study from AstraZeneca, they have evolved their PMO and Project Management capabilities by demonstrating the value of project management to build trust across the organisation, by:
involving project managers to identify smart and efficient processes,
improve ways of working,
streamline key areas such as risk management, planning, and control.
Enterprise-wide agility really requires everyone to understand what agility means—that it’s the capability to quickly sense and adapt to external and internal changes to deliver relevant results in a productive and cost-effective manner. Everyone also needs to adopt agile practices. The PMI Report conclude how project leadership can facilitate and advocate organisational agility by supporting the following:
Remove impediments and streamline processes when working with other areas of the business, such as HR and finance
Expose and communicate bottlenecks
Align stakeholder needs
Advocate for training in agile practices
How to be a credible Agile Project Leader
How do Project Managers become credible experts in Agile? To answer this question, I’m going to use guidance shared by Jo Ann Sweeney, a transformational change consultant based in the UK.
“To be viewed as a credible expert, you need to know the subject inside out, but expertise is not just about our knowledge on the topic. Substance does come first; close behind comes sincerity and passion.”
She explains that you don’t need to know everything about a topic. You need to be honest about the gaps in your knowledge, respect expertise in others and have a passion for your topic aligned with a passion for sharing. Credibility comes from three things:
your confidence – how you view and present yourself
your character – the innate qualities that make us unique based on your trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, fairness, caring and social responsibility
your capabilities – your knowledge, skills and aptitudes; the natural talents you’re born with and develop throughout your life when you interact with others as well as learning through academia, training, mentoring and coaching
What’s next
I would say that experienced project managers (often PMP’s) have confidence based on their past experiences and ability to lead projects. They are able to display character, based on upholding the ‘Code of Ethics’ and professional conduct expected of project professionals. And any gap in capability can be addressed by training and coaching. There are various good certifications to consider for Agile, see this article for more information.
In a Techrepublic.com article, Allen Barnard stated that tech-savvy project professionals with business skills are highly valued for their ability to understand and facilitate change. The trend is to solve problems by using a design-thinking perspective. This means you view challenges from different stakeholders’ point of view and generate ideas to address them with clients. To facilitate these types of problem-solving approaches, project managers will need to develop leadership and technical skills, as well as empathy to build the strong relationships that are required to support organizational change.
There is a massive contribution to be made while helping organisations to build their Agile culture. An Agile Project Leader can help with establishing standards, to educate, to train and to align stakeholder needs. Do use your strengths of improving processes and enabling teams towards high performance. In a world with so much change, Agile Project Leaders are ideally positioned to help executives to turn their ideas into reality.
Sources
PMI report: Pulse of the Profession 2021 Beyond Agility
What’s next? Identifying new ways of working, 2018
Forbes.com: Agility, not efficiency, is the key to business success In 2021, by Sherry Suski. December, 2020.
TechRepublic.com: Project managers playing larger role in organizational agility. February, 2020.
PMI Thought Leadership Report – Achieving greater agility, the critical need for cross-functional support, 2017
There are people who spend an extra-ordinary amount of time on social media daily. You tell yourself that you want to uncover news and industry trends in real-time, or perhaps you want to spy on your competition. Or you use social media to provide better customer service. You want to connect with colleagues and thought leaders. There are many reasons, some good, some less so. As a Project Management professional there are good practices to keep in mind when you engage on social media. Here are great guidelines on how to navigate social media with colleagues from Quill.com.
Some companies have have very strict social media policies, and if that’s the case, you’d best read up and follow these policies closely or risk accidentally committing a fireable offense. It is best to keep it professional considering your position at work. Generally, it’s easier to keep your personal and professional lives separate and not to become friends with your entire office.
Consider the platform you’re using as you would approach the various networks differently. Post with care and maintain your privacy by knowing how the privacy settings work on each platform. Always think before you post and a good rule of thumb is to stick to what you would say in public, as people tend to think they can hide behind account pictures and say anything they like when they are not seen in person.
One example of approaching it could be to use Facebook only for friends and family, whereas LinkedIn is a good platform for professional connections. If you receive a Facebook friend request from a colleague, you can politely decline with a reason and ask them to connect on LinkedIn instead. When you consider these guidelines and keep it professional, you should be good to navigate the murky online waters in a professional and respectable way.
Early in 2021 there was a political leader who received a standing ovation when retiring at the age of 67 years old after leading the Christian Democratic Union for 18 years. This leader was born in July 1954 and grew up in East Germany. The first political leader with a doctorate in quantum chemistry who worked as a research scientist. Then she became the first female chancellor of Germany. She is a Protestant Christian who stated that she keeps religion as her constant companion and that Christians should not be afraid of standing up for their beliefs.
The person described here is Angela Merkel, known to be called “Iron Chancellor”, in comparison to the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, often called the “Iron Lady”.
This article will summarise the top leadership lessons that we can learn from the political career and achievements of Angela Merkel during her reign as the Leader of Europe’s biggest economy since 2005.
Leadership Lessons
What follows is an overview of her leadership qualities, the traits that distinguished her as a successful leader, her style as a leader from a strengths and weaknesses point of view and a powerful quote.
She can be well described using the letters of her country G-E-R-M-A-N-Y.
G – goodness, generosity
E – epitome of purpose-based leadership and she’s a master of leading from behind, which means viewing leadership as a collective activity. Explained by professor Linda Hill in her 2015 book: Collective Leadership, ”what makes people willing to do the hard tasks of innovation together and work through the inevitable conflict and tension.”
R – ruthless, took bold stands, rational thinker.
M – methodical, likes to work patiently through a problem, splitting it into its various parts, weighing up pros and cons, and crafting a solution step by step, bit by bit; known to be the best-prepared person in the room, always on top of her briefing material.
A – assertive, independent as part of her self-expression
N – named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in Dec. 2015, and she topped Forbes magazine’s list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, as well as multiple other awards.
Y – youngest German Chancellor since the Second World War; first woman to be elected German Chancellor; the first to have grown up in the former East Germany, and the first born after 1945. She was also the first female leader of a German political party, and the first German Chancellor with a background in natural sciences.
Longest-serving leader
As a four-term Chancellor of Germany she was the longest-serving leader in the European Union. The leadership traits that distinguished her as a successful leader are:
High self-regard and self-actualization
Emotional self-awareness
Assertive, independent as part of her self-expression
Interpersonal strengths – empathy, social responsibility
Her leadership style is described as both pragmatic and methodical; a person who stayed away from risky decisions and who sought the middle ground. She played her plans close to her chest and was not afraid to take bold stands. Her values – humanity, generosity, tolerance – helped her to provide steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply.
Perhaps her most admired qualities can be summarised as her determination, giving her extraordinary drive and staying power, an incredible inner strength that allowed her to stay at the table and push the negotiations over the line. This is evident in how she dealt with the Euro sovereign debt crisis. Also, her sense of duty, because she dealt with Europe as a “matter of the heart”, believing in a prosperous and peaceful Europe that is committed to diversity, freedom and tolerance.
Like most people, she has weaknesses which are described as her strategy, the fact that she’s so rational and that she tends to think only about Germany, with her low point being the ongoing refugee crisis.
Above all, much inspiration, wisdom and good learnings can be taken from the life and leadership style of a woman who earned the trust and respect of her colleagues, her country and the neighbouring countries through her tenacity, principles and purposeful leading from behind.
Angela Merkel has embodied this spirit of courage and leadership that opened up the possibilities of a better future for all. In her own words:
“Let us not ask what is wrong or what has always been. Let us first ask what is possible and look for something that has never been done before.”
Working from home might sound like a less stressful option than braving the daily commute or dealing with face-to-face contact with coworkers, but it doesn’t eliminate those daily workday anxieties completely – and it can bring its own set of worries along with it. Since the coronavirus pandemic, stay-at-home orders have meant that more people than ever are working from home and facing the realities that homeworking can bring. Many people ask: “How do you deal with stress when working from home?”
5 Great Tips for Handling Stress when Working from Home
1. Differentiate between home life and work life
When you’re working from home, the lines between your home life and office life can easily become blurred. It brings a whole new meaning to “bringing work home with you”. Therefore, it’s essential to make sure that you create a space in your home that you only use for work purposes so that you don’t constantly immerse yourself in your work life or let work-related stresses bleed into your daily routine.
When you finish work, it’s imperative that you can switch off and enjoy your family time or just find time to relax. Put down your pens, turn off your computer and step away from your desk until it’s time to start work again. Don’t be tempted to check your inbox and find ways to distract yourself if you feel that niggling desire to write that email you just didn’t have time to complete earlier in the day.
2. Create a comfortable workspace
When creating your home-based office, try to find a quiet space that’s away from distractions such as the television, or your children. By immersing yourself in an environment that’s conducive to productive working, the transition from office to homeworking will be much easier.
Be sure to set up your home office in a way that will keep you relaxed and make you feel comfortable at your workstation. Most importantly, don’t skimp on breaks. When you’re in the office, it’s natural to get up from time to time to chat with a colleague or wander into the kitchen to get a coffee. In your home environment, it’s much easier to forget to take these breaks – but they’re essential for mental well-being and stress reduction.
3. Don’t let social isolation impact your mental health
For anyone who is used to working in the buzz of a busy office environment, the change to homeworking can be quite isolating. Whether you have a family or live alone, the lack of interaction with coworkers can create a deep void.
Scheduling regular calls with colleagues and your managers can really help, especially if you have weekly team sessions to check in with each other.
Outside of work time, video calling with friends and family members can ease your loneliness. Sharing your feelings with trusted friends will allow you to channel and ease your stress instead of repressing it.
4. Make time to do something you enjoy
One of the best stress-busters is doing something that you enjoy. Whether it’s a daily run in the park, spending time with your family, watching your favourite show, taking your beloved dog for a walk, or simply sitting back and listening to music, fun can be the best medicine for beating stress factors.
If you’re still struggling with stress or anxiety, try guided meditations to help you unwind, or breathing techniques for effective stress management.
5. Talk to someone who can help
If the stresses of homeworking are proving to be a significant burden, talk to your manager or call the Samaritans (UK) in a crisis situation. Sharing your worries can help to alleviate them and make you feel better. Remember that, although work is an important part of life, the most important thing is your mental health and well-being.
When you’re leading a team who is working on digital projects (or if you are in the process of becoming a project manager), you may normally seek advice on how to manage different personalities, how to keep everyone on track and tips on how to stay sane juggling multiple projects at once. But have you ever stopped to think just how important other aspects of your company — such as the connection between project management and eCommerce — directly affect your projects?
While it might not be common for Project Management Practitioners to dive deep into eCommerce trends, the information can be more valuable than you’d think. By gaining a better understanding of what your company’s customer base is looking for as well as how they interact with your brand online, you can strengthen your current projects and ensure they meet their goals.
Say for instance you are a product manager, leading a small team to create a new product line. How can you even begin to launch a new line of products without first understanding your consumer’s sale patterns, their needs and what they are willing to pay for similar products? And while you could rely on another team to get you that information (which is the easier route by far) you will get the most value diving into the data yourself.
To help Project Management Practitioners of all kinds take the leap into research, the team at WebsiteSetup has created a Guide to eCommerce Trends that you need to know about. From industry-wide statistics to a deeper breakdown of consumer behavior both before and after the pandemic, check out the top stats below or visit WebsiteSetup for even more information.
How the eCommerce industry has changed
Before you and your team dive into your target market’s specific preferences and trends, it is crucial to understand how the eCommerce industry behaves as a whole. Though online shopping has always been popular, it has taken on a new life in recent years, surpassing previous records on an almost yearly basis. And this past year, thanks to the global pandemic, this trend has only continued to rise.
You may ask: “Why exactly do consumers flock to brands with eCommerce sites in place?”
For one main reason, the convenience. Being able to shop for what they want when they want it! It means no waiting in traffic to get to the store and no lines at the checkout counter. Plus, they can shop on their own schedule, even late into the night when traditional brick-and-mortar stores would be closed.
Another aspect of the eCommerce industry that consumers really love, is delivery. Whether through the brand directly or through a third-party service provider, consumers are almost always willing to pay more for expedited shipping straight to their door.
View these statistics to better understand how eCommerce industry as a whole, influences the market:
eCommerce sales hit $794.5 billion in 2020, which is a growth of 32% from the previous year’s sales.
During this year (2021), over 2.1 billion people are estimated to make purchases of goods or services online.
The eCommerce industry is expected to grow to over 450,000 jobs by the year 2026.
Over 95% of all purchases will be completed through eCommerce websites by 2040.
To help business owners create a website with ease, online platform use has skyrocketed in the past few years:
WordPress powers over one-third (39.5%) of all websites currently live.
From March 2020 to April 2020, the number of stores created on Shopify grew by at least 62%.
Looking Deeper into Consumer Trends
Now that you and your team understand a little bit more about how businesses operate online, lets dive deeper into specific consumer trends. While of course, your proprietary data about your own customers will always offer the best insight into how to manage your products, and the related projects, looking at consumer trends is a good place to start (especially if you are working for a new business that doesn’t have a large customer base yet).
Find the most important statistics on how consumers interact with eCommerce brands:
Convenience drives sales. In fact, 11% of consumers admitted that even before the pandemic they let convenience drive their purchase decision.
Even older audiences have mastered eCommerce, as shoppers 55 and up have moved to online shopping and say they plan to continue shopping this way.
When it comes to user experience, having a properly run website is crucial as 84% of customers say that they will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience.
Customers of all kinds prioritize convenience over cost, as they are willing to pay more for an easier online shopping experience.
When designing a customer service program, go with real people over bots. Studies have shown that over 65% of consumers trust a brand more if they can talk to a real person.
Delivery is important, as 98% of consumers will be more loyal to a brand if they offer these types of services. Even better if it’s free and fast!
Check out the infographic below for even more tips on eCommerce trends from WebsiteSetup!
Most of us from time to time say something (or do not say something) that we regret. Our intentions were good but our behaviour did not match up. Our good intentions were hijacked by our emotions. Often, this is stressful for us and for others. This is where our emotional intelligence (EI) and specifically empathy can assist us to manage our emotions in order to live our good intentions.
What is Empathy?
Empathy is the ability to see a situation from the perspective of others. It is understanding the feelings and thoughts of others as they experience the situation and putting yourself in their shoes.
Empathy means being there for someone, listening to them and having a sincere interest in their feelings and perspective. It is an honest and practical demonstration of their importance to you. Empathy is about connecting emotionally. In the process, we build bonds that often last a lifetime.
Lack of empathy
Why are we considering empathy? A lack of empathy affects the bottom line in companies. It leads to morale problems, disengaged employees, poor conflict handling and resulting loss of profit. Customers experiencing a lack of empathy leave. They tell everyone willing to listen about their bad experience and encourage them not to do business with you anymore. By not being empathetic, you may be seen as not caring, aloof, not respecting others and insensitive to their feelings. This may trigger feelings of anger and resentment leading to broken relationships on a business and social level. Sometimes, when your name is mentioned years later, these feelings are rekindled.
Benefits of having more empathy
Empathy helps to build long lasting trusting relationships. Seeing the world from the perspective of others helps you to act appropriately in any given situation. When you show empathy, the other person feels valued, respected and listened to. This will connect you to them emotionally. People will feel drawn to you and stay by your side. This will result in give-and-take behaviour where they will be more likely to care, listen, help and support you as well.
Empathy self-test
Consider the following statements:
Yes/No: I sometimes struggle to understand what someone else is feeling and what they might be thinking under their current circumstances.
Yes/No: I find it difficult to see things from the perspective of others or put myself in their shoes.
Yes/No: Sometimes, I am not able to feel with the other person.
Yes/No: I often fail to assure others that I am there for them and that they are not alone.
Yes/No: I am indifferent to people dealing with emotional anguish, loss and sadness.
If you answered yes to some of the above questions, you may benefit from further developing your empathy.
10 Tips to improve your empathy
Actively listen and pay attention to the other person in a conversation without being judgemental.
Focus on the non-verbal cues to understand the emotions behind what is being said.
Ensure that your body language show that you are interested in the other person’s point of view and that you want to listen (keep eye contact and do not look at your phone).
Try to understand the other person’s perspective and their reasoning behind it. Ask sincere questions for clarification.
Imagine yourself in their situation and how they might be feeling.
Watch a conversation from a distance. Try to identify what the participants are feeling
Think about friends or colleagues that in your opinion are empathetic. What do they do that makes you feel this way?
Make a list of what you can do to make people you have contact with on a daily basis feel more valued and respected.
Always be thankful and kind.
Show gratitude.
Empathy can be further developed. You must however be willing to consider the perspective of others, even if you do not agree with their view of the world. Empathy does not only benefit others. As we develop our empathy, we but broaden our perspective of the world.
This assists us in responding more appropriate in the situation when dealing with life on a daily basis. Especially in trying times and crisis, empathy will pull us through. It will help to bind us together as a team. As a responsible member of the larger community we live and work in, we will do our part and come out stronger in the end.
Prior articles in the Emotional Intelligence series:
Eben holds a Doctor of Technology degree from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, as well as an MBA degree from Stellenbosch University. He is an experienced emotional intelligence author and speaker. In addition to presenting emotional intelligence talks and facilitating emotional intelligence workshops, Eben has published articles and book chapters on leadership and emotional intelligence in local and international publications.
Contact him on LinkedIn if you need a speaker or workshop facilitator on emotional intelligence for your next team engagement.
All of a sudden, nearly overnight, huge swaths of the world’s workforce was asked to work from home. Instead of face-to-face meetings, they now had to figure out how to do all that work remotely, over online meetings. For Project and Programme Managers one of the biggest questions became: “How to lead productive online meetings?”
Challenges to overcome
Of course, we’ve all adapted, and are trying to do our best in work circumstances that may be less than ideal. Some of us had many challenges to overcome. For example:
Some may not have dedicated office space.
Some may be trying to balance a lot of family demands.
Some have children who are at home without daycare or school age children who are doing virtual learning.
Some have life partners who are also working from home.
Some have pets who may cause interruptions, or are barking in the background.
That means productivity during work time has gotten a lot trickier than it used to be. So how do you figure out what to do to move forward, to stay productive and to keep meeting attendants engaged? One good place to focus is technology. What can you put in place to strengthen this and other issues?
Kathryn Casna is a digital marketing and travel writer from San Diego, California. Customer-facing retail, hospitality, and event production make up her professional roots. Today, she runs her own writing business from whatever new locale she happens to be exploring.
Why should leaders practice kindness as a leadership strategy? And can they – really? A bit like weight training, leaders can build their compassion muscle in the brain, and have a direct impact on their team’s wellbeing and effectiveness [overall performance]. This means we all show up feeling valued, as people, in addition to placing value on the process and outcome of our project and work goals.
“Acts of kindness activate the part of our brains that makes us feel pleasure and releases a hormone called oxytocin that helps modulate social interactions and emotion. Being kind is good for our own and our employees’ mental health. And that translates to improved morale and performance.”
This quote is emphasising the need to expand managers’ toolkits by showing kindness as a leadership strategy, as well as offering some good simple tips for giving attention to being kind.
There are endless benefits of kindness in our interactions at work relating to wellbeing for effectiveness. More than ever, there is an evidence-based need for kindness as stress levels impact mental and physical health of leaders and teams. Think burnout and psychosocial stressors that are ongoing and unchecked when relationships at work are destructive, even if not overt, in addition to the current stresses during this time of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Kindness is an ACT and not a STATE
My thoughts on kindness in this context immediately connect to the recent references to character in leadership in the acceptance speech by elected Vice President Kamala Harris where she quoted the late John Lewis as saying ‘democracy is an act and not a state’. Kindness is just that too, an act and not merely a state of being. Kindness needs to be demonstrated through our behaviour and relationships with others.
“The Human brain is set to detect threat signals in an automatic and unconscious way. Due to evolutionary reasons, these ‘automatic’ paths get priority. Therefore, growth and change do not happen by chance: it has to be carefully focused on to be triggered.”
The BONUS for leaders positioned more on the continuum of task vs compassion is that kindness can be developed and learnt!
For the sceptics there is evidence-based research and scientific data that shows:
We can change our thoughts, our behaviours, and our ability to thrive in this world by adapting [learning] in ways that result in physiological changes in the brain known as neuroplasticity where new neural pathways are formed and hardwired. Coaching is a powerful way to integrate learning and change, helping to reinforce good practices through actions that support positive behaviours.
The good news is kindness can be taught and ingrained through practice by developing the compassion ‘muscle’ in the brain. When kindness is experienced, this reduces stress and raises the right neurochemicals in our body-brain system to inspire us to move forward to achieve goals and growth.
Developing hard skills that were previously referred to as ‘soft skills’, relate to the human factor such as empathy, compassion, collaboration, communication, a coaching-based leadership approach, etc. These hard skills touch on EQ [managing my emotions] and SQ [managing others’ emotions] and make a difference to all aspects of performance, organisational wellbeing and effectiveness – for people and teams.
Sustained change and growth can be achieved. Empirical research by Richard Boyatzis and associates shows how more powerful results for sustained change is accomplished through coaching for compassion [like positive coaching-style approaches and processes] vs coaching for compliance [ensuring people meet certain behavioural requirements]. What this means for leaders and teams is to focus on people development vs people management as a more effective leadership approach.
I conclude on developing and demonstrating a strategy of kindness with a connection to the bigger picture and aligning with our global collective sustainable development goals.
“In many ways, acting out of kindness is a way to protest the present trend of pursuing happiness by increasing personal consumption and trying to capture as much as one can for oneself. Kindness – the word that is missing from the 2030 Agenda – might be the only means by which we can achieve our goals!”
I invite you to connect and commit to acts of kindness in leading yourself and your team to experience a healthier and more meaningful and fulfilling work life.
What can you do differently in this next week?
About the author
Mandy Carlson of ‘Carlson Coaching and Consulting‘ practices as coach, change consultant, and learning facilitator. She is a certified Results Coach through Neuroleadership Institute as well as an accredited coach through Neurozone, and recently studied through Coaches Rising. Mandy is constantly learning through studies and practice of contemporary neuroscience findings, systems thinking, positive psychology, and more. Mandy has an honours degree in organisational psychology and a background in organisational development (OD). She is passionate about empowering teams, leaders and individuals with simple tools to learn and bring about lasting change for wellbeing and effectiveness.
Whenever large-scale organizational change is planned and managed by executives, project managers are on the front lines of incorporating those changes. Most employees don’t enjoy the prospect of undergoing large-scale organizational change, especially if it will impact them in any way.
Organizational change is ultimately implemented to make things easier, more efficient, and to improve financial results to enhance the company’s future. Organisations implement changes for a number of reasons. This could include topics like cultural awareness and acceptance, where many companies are taking large-scale initiatives to make workplaces more inclusive. Other reasons for change would be a desire to break into a new field, an overall change in a company’s mission, or implementation of new technology with the goal of streamlining communication.
Many large-scale changes often mean many labour hours being spent on training and changing, rather than work and generating revenue. This could lead to differing opinions from members of the C-suite on why, how, and even if these changes should be occurring. With that in mind, the responsibility falls on the shoulders of project managers to determine what the actual final verdict was regarding the organizational change, and incorporate the same techniques utilized in workflow management into the organizational change management.
Just as some C-suite executives will scoff at certain organizational change requests, many employees will do the same, unfortunately making the organizational change management that much more difficult for project managers. Taking of the gloves might be needed, especially if the organizational change management has been clearly put on the Project/Program Management team (including a Change Manager). If you find yourself in a position of having to lead change, taking a look at this comprehensive guide on Organizational Change Management can prepare you for success in your difficult-but-achievable situation.
The Organisational Change Management Guide cover important aspects; like what Change Management is, why it is important, planning strategies for Change, who needs change and examples of successful and failed transformation cases. This Guide is an excellent read and reference.
During 2020 many people started working from home, remotely, as a result of Covid-19. It happened fairly quickly and quite seamlessly, thanks to the technology we have at our disposal.
Now, in 2021 when most people are returning to work after a Christmas holiday break, the remote working arrangement is continuing due to the fact that the Pandemic is far from over.
It will be interesting to see if the remote work arrangement will continue when things do return to normal one day, or whether it may become a permanent arrangement, perhaps following a hybrid approach where employees may continue working from home 2 or 3 days a week.
With this trend, it is very beneficial for employers and managers to ensure teams have home offices that enables high productivity.
Find below an Infographic covering the rise of remote work, the challenges people experience with that and details of office accessories to help with success.
When you come from a traditional project management background to Agile, there are a few guidelines for becoming a successful Agile Project Leader. Enjoy the tips in the video below.
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