Author: Linky

Linky

Acquired Needs Theory of Motivation – Leaders that are good Change Agents

What Is Acquired Needs Theory of Motivation? Acquired needs theory of motivation - Leaders that are good change agents

By Stephen Warrilow

Today Stephen provides us with an interesting perspective on how aquired needs theory of motivation shows which leaders make good change agents in a change management initiative.

Acquired Needs Theory describes three types of motivational needs: Achievement, Authority and Affiliation.

These were first identified and described and by David McClelland in “The Achieving Society” [1961]. David McClelland was a pioneer in the field of workplace motivational thinking, and was a proponent of competency-based assessments in favour of IQ and personality based tests.

In summary, the acquired needs theory states that needs are formulated over time by our experiences. We will tend to have one of these needs that affects us more powerfully than others and thus affects our behaviours, and they fall into three general categories of needs:

(1) Achievement

Achievers seek to excel and appreciate frequent recognition of how well they are doing. They will avoid low risk activities that have no chance of gain. They also will avoid high risks where there is a significant chance of failure.

(2) Affiliation

Affiliation seekers look for harmonious relationships with other people. They will thus tend to conform and shy away from standing out. The seek approval rather than recognition.

(3) Power

Power seekers want power either to control other people (for their own goals) or to achieve higher goals (for the greater good). They seek neither recognition nor approval from others -only agreement and compliance.

Acquired needs theory focuses on those with an achievement motivation, and David Mclelland stated as a result of his experiments and research that:

(1) Most people do not possess a strong achievement-based motivation

(2) Those people who do, display a consistent behaviour in setting goals.

Acquired needs theory indicates the following characteristics and attitudes of achievement-motivated people:

  • Achievement of objectives matters more than material or financial reward
  • Greater personal satisfaction is felt by achieving the goal than from receiving praise or recognition
  • Money is regarded as a measure of success, but not the end in itself
  • Neither status nor security are prime motivations
  • Accurate quantitative feedback is essential, because it enables measurement of success
  • Achievement-motivated people constantly looking for ways of doing things better
  • Achievement-motivated people will gravitate towards jobs and responsibilities that challenge them and satisfy their needs – for example sales and business leadership and management
  • Achievement-motivated people have the capacity to set high personal goals that they believe to be attainable

Applying Acquired Needs Theory to Change Management

Acquired needs theory indicates that people with a strong need for achievement, make the best leaders – provided they develop the people skills necessary to get the best results from their people.

So find the people who are achievement oriented and who have the necessary people skills and encourage them into a small team to help lead and manage your change initiative.

Not to miss any of these Change Management and how it relates to Project Management articles, please subscribe to Virtual Project Consulting’s RSS feed.

If you want to work with Stephen Warrilow, take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully.  Change Management Expert

About the author:

Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, England, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments.

 
Linky

What Is Change Management And How To Approach It?

What does change management mean to project managers and why do they need it?  Leading change management

By Stephen Warrilow

Change management is often at the heart of project delivery in that many business projects bring about change in organisations which usually affects people or processes or both. For this reason it is of utmost importance that project managers should understand the business of change management. You will feel less like a “tree with a tie” if you understand change management and know how to lead a change initiative.

There are 2 quite different streams of thought that have shaped the practice of change management.

(1) The engineer’s approach to business improvement with the focus on business process.

(2) The psychologist’s approach to understanding human responses to change with the focus on people.

As Michael Hammer, co-author of “Re-engineering the Corporation”, has said about the people issues: “the human side is much harder than the technology side and harder than the process side. It’s the overwhelming issue.”

The single biggest reason for the astonishingly high 70% failure rate of ALL business change initiatives has been the over-emphasis on process rather than people – the failure to take full account of the impact of change on those people who are most impacted by it.

Closely allied to that reason is the lack of process to directly address the human aspects of change.

A program management based approach to change

The traditional project approach to change management – sees it as a set of tasks which if executed successfully get a result. In other words the typical process led approach which has failed so consistently and so spectacularly over the last 20 years.

In contrast, I advocate a program based approach to change management because, based on my experience, I have found that:

  • It is holistic and takes a wider perspective
  • It focuses you on addressing issues and aspects that otherwise get overlooked
  • It addresses the people impacts and issues arising as a direct and indirect result of your change initiative
  • It addresses the fundamental questions that people ask: “What is changing, when and why?” and “How is going to affect me?” and “How are you going to manage this?”

Universal change management principles

The broad principles of how you approach any business initiative or any activity that may require or instigate change are universal:

(1)  Clarity in all areas – especially of the business need for the change, of the specifics of the change, the benefits of the change, and the impacts of the change.

(2)  Communication – constant communication – two-way communication – communication that explains clearly what is change management and what is happening or not happening and why. Communication that listens actively and demonstrates to people that you have thought through the impacts of the change on them, and that you are prepared to work with them to achieve their buy-in and commitment to the change.

(3)  Consistency – in all aspects of the way in which you lead the change – manage the delivery – handle the communication – and ensure the realization of the benefits.

(4)  Capability – constant attention to the management of the tasks, activities, projects and initiatives that are delivering the capabilities into your organization that will deliver the benefits that you are seeking. Ensuring that your people have the full resources and capabilities they need to support them through the change.

Key success factors in change management

For change management to work, it requires careful focus on these key factors that will determine the success of your change initiative:

(1) Determining that you are embarking on a change that sits outside of business as usual and needs to be handled as a specific initiative

(2) The quality of leadership that you provide

(3) Using a program management based approach to your change initiative and how you define change management for your organization

(4) The thoroughness of your pre-program review and planning process

(5) The extent to which you identify and address the cultural change in your organization that is required to deliver the change and the desired business benefit.

So this is how I define change management:

“It’s all about people – and processes that work for people.”

Not to miss any of these Change Management and how it relates to Project Management articles, please subscribe to my RSS feed.

If you want to work with Stephen Warrilow, take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully.  Change Management Expert

About the author:

Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, England, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments.

Linky

Maslow Theory of Motivation as the basis for Change Management

By Stephen Warrilow Maslow theory of motivation

The Maslow Theory of Motivation also known as “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs” model was developed in 1954. Starting from the premise that each human being is motivated by needs that are inborn, presumably as a result of evolution, here is the hierarchy in ascending order:

(1) Physiological needs

These are the very basic needs such as air, water, food, sleep, sex, etc. When these are not satisfied we may feel sickness, irritation, pain, discomfort, etc. These feelings motivate us to alleviate them as soon as possible to establish homeostasis. Once they are alleviated, we may think about other things.

(2) Safety needs

These have to do with establishing stability and consistency in a chaotic world. These needs are mostly psychological in nature. We need the security of a home and family.

(3) Love and needs of belonging

Humans have (in varying degrees of intensity) a strong desire to affiliate by joining groups such as societies, clubs, professional associations, churches and religious groups etc. There is a universal need to feel love and acceptance by others.

(4) Self-Esteem needs

There are essentially two types of esteem needs: self-esteem resulting from competence or mastery of a task; and the esteem and good opinion of other people.

(5) The need for self-actualisation

Maslow theory of motivation proposes that people who have all their “lower order” needs met progress towards the fulfilment their potential. Typically this can include the pursuit of knowledge, peace, aesthetic experiences, self-fulfilment, oneness with God, etc. So ultimately this is all to do with the desire for self transcendence.

A paradigm shift that forms the basis for good leadership and successful change management

The Maslow theory of motivation brought a new face to the study of human behaviour. Maslow was inspired by greatness in the minds of others, and his own special contribution to the field of motivational psychology led to the creation of the concept of Humanistic Psychology. This is based on belief that humans are not simply blindly reacting to situations, but trying to accomplish something greater.

It also forms the basis of much current understanding of what constitutes good leadership and forms a major foundation of prevailing models and theories of successful change management. Maslow theory of motivation emphasise and remind those of us involved in leading and managing change of the complexity and multi-faceted nature of human needs and motivational drives. Aligned with that is people’s transcendent needs and aspirations as well as the more prosaic needs of survival and love.

About the author:

Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, England, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments. Take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully.

NOTE: I was fortunate to discover the work and writings of Stephen Warrilow at end of 2009. It was apparent that his extensive Change Management knowledge and experience would add value to my project management blog. It will equip readers with knowledge and skills to manage change successfully.

Enjoy the Change Management articles that Stephen Warrilow has given permission to share with you. I trust that you will find great value and I encourage you to download Stephen’s free material to implement in your own change projects.
Linky

How to achieve Customer Satisfaction with Project Communications Management

Project Communications Management Case Study

While I was an IT project manager at a corporate insurance company, we were approached for a printing solution that would provide:   Project Communications best practices for Project Delivery

  • improved network printing performance,
  • 100% uptime and
  • failover (setup of 2 servers, if one server fails, the other server takes over) in order for the printing service to be always available.

The solution that we proposed was too expensive. It would involve procurement of expensive hardware and software and the customer didn’t have enough budget provision.

Accepted printing solution

We then proposed a scaled down customized solution, using existing hardware and software with some upgrade to RAM and disc space and a different architecture design. This proposal was accepted by the customer and the project could start.

Initially it was estimated to be a 3-month project, but it took 5 months to complete due to many unforeseen problems. Even though this was one of my troubled projects, I managed to have a satisfied customer who was happy with the end result.

How did we achieve stakeholder satisfaction?

In all honesty, I would attribute the success of the project to following project communications management best practices. We had a communications plan which attributed to building a very committed project team, as well as a supportive customer.

The team met for progress meetings weekly and minutes and progress reports were distributed afterwards.  The customer was well informed throughout the project and we had 2-weekly feedback sessions with the customer as planned in the communications plan. Consistency with information distribution and performance reporting was key.

Through my regular verbal and written communications, I built trust with the customer who accepted the problems (risks that became issues) and delays that we experienced as we kept it totally transparent. Change requests were submitted to obtain approval for changes and the consequent impact on the timeline. The engineers who were part of the project team persevered and kept going while having to resolve many issues, as they were clear about the end goal of the project. The project team members acquired good skills while working on the project, which they, as well as the project manager, could reference in their future careers.

Project communications management as a best practice

As you can see from this case study example, it is sticking to simple best practices in project communications management that will enhance your chances for successful projects significantly. In this instance we delivered the project to budget and with quality, but in spite of being ‘late’, we managed the stakeholder’s expectations and achieved customer satisfaction at the end. This is why I think this case study is a good example of the difference that project communications management best practices can make.

Please join my virtual project management community

You are welcome to share examples from your own experience so that we can all learn from one another. For more BEST PRACTICES project management articles, please subscribe to my RSS feed.

NEW to project management? Have little project management experience and want to know more?  Build or sharpen your skills to manage your own business projects or to deliver specific services to your customers more efficiently through projects!

Have a look at my Solid-as-a-Rock Project Management toolkit with a practical process, templates and tools that will show you how best to employ project management techniques to improve project delivery.

Make Projects Work For You

Linky

Project Communications Management Best Practices

Project Communications Management – Main Piece of the Puzzle?

Project Communications Management Best Practice audio

project communications management

As part of the project management best practices posts, project communications management is a topic that is close to my heart. Project communications management is probably the main piece of the puzzle when it comes to best practices for running successful projects. I know that it has been one of the best reasons for my track record of successful projects.

It is an accepted fact that communications will take up about 90% of a project manager’s time. This is the reason why I start with project communications management as a best practice and excellent communication skills are at the top of the list for a skilled project manager.

What is project communications management?

In theory project communications management is about appropriate generation, collection, storage and distribution of project information. During the project planning it requires determining the information and communications needs of stakeholders, during execution it is about distributing the information in a timely manner, doing status reporting and progress measurement, during closure it is about gathering information to formalize project completion.  How is all of this applied in practice?

This is where you must pay special attention…

When is project communications management a best practice? project communications management

For project communications management to be used as a best practice, it needs to be applied in a regular, consistent manner throughout the life cycle of a project, from initiation, to planning, during execution, controlling and closing. Project communications management must be done to the point where it becomes a routine task on the project. It keeps all stakeholders well informed and gives them the re-assurance that the project is in good hands. (That is what project managers are paid for, not true?)

Project communications management in 4 simple steps

1. Project communications management needs to be planned for:

  • Who needs what project information?
  • When do they need it?
  • How will the information be given?
  • By whom?

Document in your communications management plan which information will be written, which will be oral (progress meetings, presentations), whether it is formal or informal. How will information be stored and distributed. The communications management plan is part of the overall project plan and can be as simple as a one-page communications matrix to a detailed communications plan depending on the size and complexity of the project.

2. How will information be distributed?

Information distribution is about making information available to project stakeholders in a timely manner. It deals with how the information will be stored, shared and exchanged (written, oral, internal, external, formal and informal, etc)

3. Report on performance

Performance reporting is to provide stakeholders with information about project status, progress and forecasting. It generally provides information on scope, schedule, cost and quality, as well as on risk and procurement where applicable.

4. Project is done and how do you communicate that?

Project administrative closure is a neglected aspect of Project communications management, but this is where project results are reviewed and documented. This is where project success is analyzed, lessons learned are discussed and archived. communications management skills

Make project communications management your strong point

Following this project communications management best practice, will lead to a well structured project and a consistent performance by the project manager. If you practice your project communications management skills, you will be well on your way to be an efficient project management professional.

In my next post I will share a case study to illustrate that applying project communications management as a best practice, will inevitably lead to a successful project.  Please subscribe to my RSS if you don’t want to miss the project management best practices future blog posts.
Please click HERE to listen to a recording of this article. If you wish to download a free copy of this audio file, please right click on the link and select “save link as” to save to your desired location.

Make Projects Work for You

Linky

Leadership Characteristics as Key Success Factor For Change

Leadership Characteristics – The 5 Practices of Excellent Leadership

By Stephen Warrilow Change Management

Leadership characteristics are extremely relevant as a key success factor in change management. They have been extensively researched by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner. Their groundbreaking studies, commenced in 1983 with the driver to identify the characteristics of good leadership.

They devised a leadership characteristics survey consisting of thirty-eight open-ended questions designed to capture “Personal Best” stories of peak leadership experience.

The leadership characteristics research was conducted over 15 years with 75,000 people, on a worldwide basis and included middle and senior level managers in private and public sector organisations, community leaders, student leaders, church leaders, government leaders, and hundreds of others in non-managerial positions.

The last study was conducted in 2002 and the prioritized list of leadership characteristics is as follows:

1. Honest 88% Ghandi
2. Forward-Looking 71%
3. Competent 65%
4. Inspiring 66%
5. Intelligent 35%
6. Fair-minded 47%
7. Broad-minded 40%
8. Supportive 42%
9. Straightforward 34%
10. Dependable 33%
11. Co-operative 24%
12. Determined 20%
13. Imaginative 23%
14. Ambitious 17%
15. Courageous 28%
16. Caring 21%
17. Mature 20%
18. Loyalty 14%
19. Self-Controlled 8%
20. Independent 6%

It is interesting to note that these figures have remained largely consistent over the full 15 years of research. The results of this research and subsequent analysis of leadership characteristics has led them to the defining of the 5 practices of excellent leadership and which are crucial in change management.

In summary they found that despite differences in the circumstances and details of people’s individual stories, their “personal-best” leadership experiences revealed recurring and similar patterns of behaviour in their descriptions of the characteristics of good leadership. Leadership showing the way

1.        Showing the Way

Leaders define and establish principles about the way people should be treated and the way goals should be pursued. Leaders set the benchmark by creating standards of excellence and then demonstrate these standards in their own behaviour and thus establishing an example for others to follow.  They create the environment in which people can succeed.

2.        Creating a Shared Vision

Leaders have a clear and passionately held vision of what the changed organisation can become. They have the skills and energy to enthuse and inspire people to share that vision, and get excited about the future possibilities. Challenging the way things are

3.        Challenging the Way Things Are

Leaders are challenging and seek out opportunities to challenge and change the status quo. They seek innovation and improvement in the organisation, are prepared to experiment, to take risks and to accept the inevitable failures as part of the learning experience.

4.        Empowering and Encouraging People to Act

Leaders are enablers and empower people by involving them and believing in them. They engender mutual respect and trust and in so doing motivate their people to extraordinary effort and achievement.

5.        Addressing the Emotional Dimension

Leaders know that extraordinary achievement in an organisation is very hard work. They also know that emotional dimension is extremely important. So they regularly acknowledge their people’s achievements and celebrate team and individual accomplishments, and is so doing they make their people feel good about themselves. Leaders empower and encourage toward achievement

All of these are qualities and practises that make up the leadership characteristics for successful change management initiatives.

About the author:Stephen Warrilow, based in Bristol, England, works with companies across the UK providing specialist support to directors delivery significant change initiatives. Stephen has 25 years cross sector experience with 100+ companies in mid range corporate, larger SME and corporate environments. Take advantage of his 7 FREE “How to Do It” downloads that will take you through all of the key stages of “How to manage change” – and show you how to manage change successfully.

NOTE: I was fortunate to discover the work and writings of Stephen Warrilow at end of 2009. It was apparent that his extensive Change Management knowledge and experience would add value to my project management blog. It will equip readers with knowledge and skills to manage change successfully.

Enjoy the Change Management articles from Stephen Warrilow.

I trust that you will find great value and I encourage you to download Stephen’s free material to implement in your own change projects.
Linky

What is Project Management Best Practices?

Are you following project management best practices?

Project Management Best Practice audio

Best Practice

When I started out as a project manager, I always tried to apply project management methodologies and practices in a technically correct way. In that sense, I had a natural tendency to find and use best practices in project management before I even knew that such a term existed or what the proper meaning of project management best practices is.

According to Wikipedia, a best practice is a technique, method, process, activity, incentive, or reward tWikipediahat is believed to be more effective at delivering a particular outcome than any other technique, method, process, etc. when applied to a particular condition or circumstance.

Best practice can also be defined as the most efficient (least amount of effort) and effective (best results) way of accomplishing a task, based on repeatable procedures that have proven themselves over time for large numbers of people.

Project management best practices can and should evolve to become better as improvements are discovered. It is about developing and following a standard way of doing things!

I would summarize it to say that project management best practice is a standard approach to follow that has been proven to work within a business industry or environment and then gets adopted by most people within that specific context.

Some consulting firms specialize in the area of project management best practices. A key strategic talent is required to provide good “best practice” consulting to organizations: the ability to balance the uniqueness of an organization with practices it has in common with other organizations.

Make-Up of a Project Manager

The make-up of a typical project manager consists of a person’s natural abilities or talents, learned skills and project management knowledge.

In the Project Management Paper: ‘Still more Art than Science’ by Kate Belzer, it has been stated that project management is both an art and a science. Understanding processes, tools, and techniques are the hard skills, also referred to as the science of project management.

For successful project delivery, project managers also need soft skills, referred to as the art of project management. Soft skills help to define the business value, clarify the vision, determine requirements, provide direction, build teams, resolve issues, and mitigate risk. Communication is quite simply the most important soft skill. The ability to apply soft skills effectively throughout the life cycle of a project will enhance the success of a project exponentially! Often projects fail because of a project manager’s inability to communicate effectively, work within the organization’s culture, motivate the project team, manage stakeholder expectations, understand the business objectives, solve problems effectively, and make clear and knowledgeable decisions. These are the skills that take time to acquire through experience, coaching, and mentoring.

To me the art and science of project management requires the intuitive application of your talents, your hard and soft skills, your knowledge and experience in the right combination that is applicable to a specific project situation. To find that kind of balance is a project management best practice in itself.

Does project management best practices work? does project management best practice work

My work experienced has exposed me to working in organizations with too few specialist resources, lack of sufficient time for projects and inadequate project budget planning or allocation. I have also worked in highly controlled, standardized approach organizations with expert resources where everything in a project is set up to succeed. This means that planning is based on previous similar projects and expert judgement estimates, resources are dedicated to the project for periods when needed, adequate budget is allocated, proper scope and quality management is applied. Of course, all of this was based on project management best practice.

Even though normal risks and issues were experienced in both type of organization’s projects, the organisations where project management best practices were applied consistently, have shown more successful projects and satisfied customers, meaning that these projects always had a better chance of being on time, to budget and with the desired quality.

If you liked this article, please subscribe to my blog (to the right) and receive more project management tips and articles.

Please click HERE to listen to a recording of this article. If you wish to download a free copy of this audio file, please right click on the link and select “save link as” to save to your desired location.

About the author: Linky van der Merwe is an IT Project Manager with 15 years IT industry experience and 12 years Project Management experience. She is currently at Microsoft Consulting Services, South Africa.

She consults with small-medium business owners and service professionals about project management and project processes, best practices and successful delivery through projects. She is most experienced in corporate infrastructure projects (upgrades, migration, deployment etc) and process optimisation. She can be reached at linky@virtualprojectconsulting.com

Virtual Project Consulting slogan

Linky

Reflections On Project Management Success In 2009

Project Management Success in 2009?

Reflections
Reflections (Photo credit: South Africa Travel Online)

Being in the middle of summer, I took my kids to a lovely beach, called Clifton(see picture on the right), in Cape Town. While spending the day overlooking the beautiful ocean, I had time to reflect on the past year and specifically what project success I have accomplished in 2009.

There is no denying that it was a most difficult year.  Yet, we all aim to be successful in what we do. Looking back at 2009, you can evaluate if you were successful, personally, professionally and with business projects delivered. There are a few simple questions you can answer:

 

  • What were your achievements on a personal level? 
  • What did you accomplish in your business? 
  • Did you have specific triumphs or project successes in 2009? 
  • What highlights did you experience and why were they highlights? 
  • What is it that you are doing well? 
  • What can you improve and do differently in 2010? 
  • Is your business profitable?What did you enjoy most/least in your business? 

Write Your Own Report Card for 2009

By doing this you can write your own Report Card to assess your accomplishments. It will help you stay focused on the positive things that you have achieved in 2009 and that you can be grateful for.

To give you a glimpse of my Report Card for Virtual Project Consulting, I wrote down my reflections on the past year.

  1. I established my own company, Virtual Project Consulting – providing project management consulting and social media solution services– for doing business online and locally.
  2. I created and customized my own website that is also a blog in March 2009.
  3. I did 40 blog postings on several topics and I am positioned to publish frequently and more consistently in 2010.
  4. I created a Project Management Toolkit, Solid-as-a-Rock to empower business owners and service professionals with little or no project management experience to manage their own business projects and services to customers.
  5. I created a Social Media Starter Project Kit to enable business owners and service professionals to become active in using social media tools to grow their business.
  6. I became social media active by implementing a social media strategy with many free tactics for traffic generation, lead generation, business networking and growing my brand online. I also use Virtualpm as my social networking persona as it compliments the virtual project management services that I offer.
  7. I learned constantly about Internet Marketing, running your own business and how to focus despite all the distractions you are bombarded with while being online.
  8. I connected with numerous other project management experts, with social media teachers and many business and marketing gurus from whom I keep learning.
  9. I am a guest writer on two websites/blogs, one about project management and one about Web 2 and social networking.
  10. I started to make money, but most importantly, I created and established a business brand that I am passionate about, where I truly want to make a difference and hope to contribute authentically and add value to my client’s lives to help them grow their business in 2010.

Looking back on 2009, I realized how much I have to be grateful for. I did more research in the past year on internet marketing, social media and other topics that interest me than in the 5 years before that. Being an optimistic, but impatient person, I learned the virtue of patience and of having faith to keep doing what you believe in with diligence and skill.  It really takes perseverance to become successful, but it takes a positive attitude to be happy in any circumstances.

Strategy for 2010

Do you have your business strategy for 2010 in place?

Do you have a Social Media strategy that gives you a plan, a strategic approach for social networking and many tactics to use to grow your business online, establish your brand and make more money?

Look at the Social Media Starter Project Kit!  social_media_family_smalls

I’m giving away the Social Media Strategy template for a limited time until 15 January 2010. Use the opportunity to create a social media strategy for your business as part of your overall marketing plan for 2010.

Thanks for the opportunity to share. Please feel free to share one or two of your own accomplishments and even 2010 resolutions…..

Linky

Leadership – 8 Best Practices For Communication

Listening is the key to understanding in communication

By Phoenix R. Cavalier listening

Being very good at speaking to a person requires the ability to listen for understanding, to ensure what you said, is what someone else has heard. The number one reason for poor communication may be time management. Due to the fact many leaders are highly scheduled, it becomes easier to deliver a message and keep moving than to stop and take the time to communicate in a useful and clear manner. By applying some or all the best practices shared here, the communication skills you have may be sharpened, and the results you see will likely improve.

Leadership and Communication

Consider how you would apply these simple ideas adapted from You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader: How Anyone, Anytime Can Make a Positive Difference.

1. Start with a question

Be clear on what you want. If there was ever a time to “begin with the end in mind,” it is when you communicate.

2. Focus on quality, not quantity

Good communication is about quality, not quantity.

3. Speak with truth and compassion

In leadership communication don’t tell people what they want to hear. Tell them what they need to hear. Just make sure you tell them in such a way that they’ll listen. There is your view and their view, and often the best point of view lies somewhere in-between.  listening2people

4. Focus on the listener, not yourself

There are three modes of communicating. They are being:

  • Self-centered,
  • Message-centered,
  • Listener-centered.

Leadership communication requires you to be listener-centered and that you put personal needs aside and become so familiar with the message you are trying to communicate that you can focus on and respond emphatically to the listener.

5.   Simplify the message

The only thing people have less of today than disposable income or time is attention. With excessive demands on limited attention, effective leadership communicators harness the power of the sound bite. They make concepts easy to understand and repeat.

6.   Entertain to engage

For a leader to be heard and understood, he or she must break preoccupation and grab attention, in other words, entertain. That means a leader captures and holds the attention of those being addressed. You can’t bore people into positive action.

7.   Feedback and feed forward

The best way to make sure another person has heard and understood what you said is to ask them to repeat it back to you in their own words. You could say, “I want to make sure I explained that clearly. Would you please tell me how you understand what I’ve said?”

8.   Tell a better story

Telling a story is good, but being the story is better. The congruency between who you are and the stories you tell as a leader create credibility. The purpose, however, isn’t to be speaker-focused, but to use personal experience and story as a bridge to build connection.

Take the Next Step: Put This List in Your Pocket!  list

Make this list part of your day – an easy and simple way to power-up your communication competence in leadership. Get started now!

Write the eight best practices on a piece of paper small enough to carry with you for one week.

Glance at your leadership communication best practices list before a meeting, gathering, or brief conversation to keep them top-of-mind.

After one week, reflect on how your interaction with others has changed; you may be pleasantly surprised! You will see how does effective communication play a part in leadership.

As a leader it is your responsibility to create opportunities for understanding, and to invite creative dialogue. Lead people together and the whole team will succeed, including you.

Source: www.lqsolutionsvault.com with ideas adapted from “You Don’t Need a Title to be a Leader: How Anyone, Anytime Can Make a Positive Difference.”

If you are a leader and you have a story to share, please leave a comment.

Another leadership article: Vision Requires Logic And Emotion


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Make projects work for your business!

Where the business owner and service professional learn more about project management skills, project management tools and templates and project management methodologies for managing business projects.

 

An effective way to speed up results with business projects is to apply a simple Project Management framework to deliver your projects on time, to budget and with desired quality.

For solutions to:

  • WHAT project management is,
  • WHY your business needs projects,
  • HOW to do project management,
  • WHEN to start a project and
  • WHO must do the work

Discover a basic tool to successful project management, download the Project Management Toolkit for all your business project management needs.

Take Action today and start making a positive difference to your business.

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What Is Project Success?

Why excellence in project management is not enough

By Robert Buttrick Projects must create value

The only reason for undertaking a project is to add value to an organisation in pursuit of strategic objectives. A project, which does not do this is useless or a  sink for scarce resources.

Projects, however, do not directly create value. Projects deliver new capability to an organisation, but it is the organisation itself, which creates value by using those capabilities. Value creation (benefits realisation) usually happens after a project has been completed.

If a project is truly a vehicle of change which will add value, it must have:

  • Alignment: It is aligned to the company strategy
  • Priority: It has high priority relative to other change initiatives which may use the same resources
  • Positive impact: It impacts somebody’s budget, somewhere in the organisation either by decreased costs or increased revenues. Meaning of success

Define project success in project managment

When talking about successful projects we must understand what the word “successful” means. Success is too often interpreted through the differing eyes of stakeholders.

Successful project management ensures the delivery of a specified scope, on time and to budget. It is related to how efficiently a project is managed. This should be assessed during the project closure review, documented in a project closure report and measured by timeliness of delivery milestones, adherence to budgets and quality. This is associated with the role of the project manager.

A successful project realises the business objectives it was set up to achieve as stated in a business casea. It is related to the effectiveness of the project in meeting the objectives set. The post implementation review (post-project review) assesses this. Measures of success here must be indicative of the business objectives being achieved. This review therefore has to happen some time after the output of the project has been put into use. It is associated with the role of the project sponsorb. Financial success

A successful company drives towards its strategic objectives whilst fulfilling expectations of shareholders, managers, employees and other stakeholdersc. Measures for this are at a corporate level and should be financial and non-financial (e.g. balanced score card). This is associated with the role of the Chief Executive.

What actually counts is whether the organisation, as a whole, is successful or not. The likelihood of business success is increased if the projects undertaken align with the organisation’s strategy. Success can be enhanced if best practice project management is undertaken. The aim is to ensure the linkage from successful project management to successful projects to a successful company remains effective.

How to measure and realise benefits

For benefits realisation and measurement to be effective therefore, an organisation must have:

  1. A business strategy and goals communicated in sufficient detail to be useful to decision makers: this will facilitate strategic alignment
  2. A business plan, which explicitly demonstrates how the company’s resources are to be used in operating the organisation in its current state and investing in future capabilities in order to achieve future benefits;
  3. Measures by which the whole organisation can monitor its progress towards strategic objectives and may be used to aid prioritisation decisions.

Without these three fundamentals, business-led, or benefits-driven project management has little to tie into, regardless of how well each individual project is managed or directed.

GLOSSARY EXPLAINING TERMS USED:

  1. BUSINESS CASE: A document outlining the justification for the initiation of a project. It includes a description of the business problem (or opportunity), a list of the available solution options, their associated costs and benefits and a preferred option for approval
  2. PROJECT SPONSOR: Individual or group within organization that provides the financial resources for the project.
  3. STAKEHOLDERS: Individual and organizations that are actively involved in the project or whose interests may b positively or negatively affected as a result of project execution or completion; also some-one who exert influence over the project and its results.

References

This article is adapted from Part 2 of The Project Workout, 4th edition, Robert Buttrick, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2009.

Do you think your business projects are creating value?  Please share your thoughts……

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5 Steps To Leadership Success

Keys to successWhat is your Leadership Style?

By Deanne Earle

Have you ever been asked to take on a poorly performing team, department, or project in chaos? Do you leap in like the caped crusader to save the world or  are you overly consultative in an attempt to make friends and influence people? We know how challenging these situations are and we also know they can be exceptionally rewarding.

Follow our 5 steps to set the scene, quickly establish credibility, build trust and maximise the chances of success with your leadership skills.

1. Get Clear

If you’re not clear on what it is you’re being asked to do how will you be able to do it? Forget about the rumours and put aside your own thoughts and opinions for the moment because Step 1 is to have absolute clarity of your role by asking the following:

What is it exactly that you’re being asked to do? Do not presume to understand from the first explanation.

What role are you being asked to play? Tough guy, motivator, sort-out, clean-up, deliver, or all of these and more.

Why are they asking you? What is it you do that makes you the choice for this role?

What’s the timeframe? Constraints? Dependencies?

What is the line of accountability, level of authority, and scope of responsibilities?

Important Note – if the person asking you to take this role cannot answer these questions find someone who can. Get clear on your reporting path and purpose. Without this success will be severely limited from the start.

2. Agenda(s)

Find out who has what agenda and why. What are the motivations behind this need and how do they relate to the scope of the challenge at hand? Having this information will help you identify and fill any gaps in the brief and round-off Step 1.

3. Initial Thoughts

Based on Steps 1 and 2 you can now start adding the gossip, grapevine hearsay and corridor conversations you’ve picked up to begin forming your own initial opinions, ideas and thoughts. Many of these will be questions, which you’ll work to answer in Steps 4 and 5. It’s important to reserve judgement and for any opinions to remain fluid until you’ve got all the input because at this stage you’ve only been spoken to by a higher authority and you haven’t yet spoken with your new team.

4. Active Listening

Critical to a successful outcome is consulting with those you’ll be working with. The best way to do this is with 1-on-1’s. Preparation is imperative for effective leadership:

Clear your diary and make 1-on-1 times with everyone. Set expectations via communication:

  • Why you are the chosen one.
  • Set the scene about your role. Stick to the facts
  • Purpose of the 1-on-1
  • Input you expect from each person. Make it clear this is a collaborative session and their opportunity to contribute. You need their input on:
    • what works well now
    • what doesn’t
    • what they see as issues and risks
    • which things they believe can be improved, why and how
    • what level of involvement or contribution they’re prepared to have / give
    • what expectations they have of you
  • Conduct each session from a base of integrity. Approach each on as a blank canvas and with an open mind. Be firm yet fair. Create a collaborative atmosphere. One where trust can be built through honesty and transparency. Let each person know this is a level playing field and that they have as much, or more, to contribute as you do.
  • Let them talk getting their frustrations out while making sure to bring the session back on track if necessary. It’s their opportunity to be constructive and proactively contribute, not just a moaning session.
  • Make lots of notes. Paraphrase back what they say to ensure you have understood their meaning correctly. Where you know something is not possible or never going to happen, tell them. There are things you can and cannot influence so don’t lead them up the garden path.
  • Keep asking ‘what else?’ until you can see in their body language and hear in their words that all is out and on the table.
  • Wrap up the session with a definitive statement about what will happen next.

5. Plan for Action

Now it’s time to consolidate what is actually going to happen, who will do what, the milestones that need to be achieved and their timeline, and what approach you’re going to take to deliver it all. It’s important to invest time and effort here as:

  • you don’t want to destroy the momentum and trust created in Step 4 by paying lip-service to your new team
  • everything you plan needs to remain aligned with the original brief you’ve been given.

Taking all the gathered inputs you can now add your own ideas and opinions to develop a truly collaborative plan. Your delivery style is also critical. Always start how you mean to continue while also being prepared to adapt as situations change. Don’t forget to share the plan! Maintain the momentum you’ve created and maximise the opportunity for success by communicating what is to be done and the part everyone has to play in it. This clarity of purpose ensures buy-in because everyone in your team needs you to specify their Step 1.

These 5 Steps are repeatable and work every time. Use them with each new leadership role or situation and we know you’ll maximise both your and others success.

If you have questions or need further assistance to create this type of change in your business, contact info@unlikebefore.com

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