So says the Wall Street Journal in a recent article about the success and the future of women CEOs here in the US. That’s great news for women in leadership roles today or young women aspiring to lead a company of any size on the road to success. Women in leadership and executive positions are on the rise like never before. I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if my granddaughter decides that her career goal is to be CEO of a Fortune 100 company. The great news is that goal is achievable, whether she wants to start her own company or rise to a senior leadership role in a larger, established business.

I remember when I got my first “real job” as a software engineer during my senior year of college. About 30 or so years ago, I was an intern in the software engineering department of a major defense contracting firm. I learned to write microcode for chips that controlled signal processing in a seriously complicated radar system. Back then, both the technical and business aspects of the company were very much a man’s world. That is not the case anymore.

There are a number of role models out there for women who want to reach their full potential as a leader in today’s business environment. The article points out that nearly 73% of Fortune 500 companies now have at least one female executive officer and the pipeline of female candidates for executive officer roles is promising. The knowledge, experience and strategies of these successful women executives are something every woman needs to take a look at and consider integrating into her own leadership skills.

As Ellen Kullman, CEO of DuPont Co. points out, “The next wave of women who will command major U.S. corporations likely are senior managers today.” She goes on to point out that “some phenomenally well-qualified women” hold top operational jobs. Perhaps one of them is or will be you or your daughter. Let’s make sure that the current and future generations of women business leaders have the tools and techniques to get the job done.

Consider signing up for Learning Tree’s new course, Transformational Leadership for Women. This roundtable-style event empowers women to contribute their unique qualities to meet the challenges in today’s evolving work environment. The course targets experienced women managers who have been or expect to be promoted to the executive level. I think this course is a great jump-start to help you acquire the characteristics of exceptional women leaders and tap into your full potential as a leader in your workplace.

Many years ago, Barbara Bush, our former First Lady, made an interesting statement in her speech to the graduating class at Wellesley College. “Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the President’s spouse. I wish him well!” For today’s women leaders, anything is possible!

Susan Weese

Over the years, I’ve seen many project leaders hired. They are expected to be a bright shining star from Day One. Guess what? It doesn’t happen!

The hiring people have forgotten the idea that you have to invest a lot of time and energy to develop project leaders who “fit in.” You’ve seen it before–the new project leader possesses all the basics: an MSTM degree, right personality for the company, proven work ethic, and appropriate years of experience in the field.  Here comes the big problem:  you have to train and mentor them with the specific skills required for your company’s and project’s unique and special needs.

During the Global Economic Crisis of 2008-2010, training budgets were either significantly reduced, or done away with altogether. Every organization tightened their belts; staff positions were reduced and the team members who were left behind had to do the work of what previously required two or more team members (doing more with less). Project leaders learned by doing because they had to.

It is time to stop the madness. You are not going to find the perfect project leader from outside your company. It is a falsehood to believe that companies don’t have time to train new project leaders from within. In fact, I believe you don’t have time not to. Time has come today; we can’t put it off any other way.

The quest for the perfect project leader from outside is like battling windmills.  Workloads keep piling up, existing project teams approach burnout, due dates are not met, and customers give up and go elsewhere. Why not pick the best project team member you have and spend the training dollars to get them to be the bight, shining star? If they are at the 85% level now, then why not train them to gain the remaining 15% of the job, while they are contributing NOW, on the job?

Stop looking outside. Companies are being negatively impacted every week that ticks by and that perfect project leader has not been hired.  Bypassing excellent project team members, who have the ability to contribute now, just doesn’t make good economic sense.  Here is the answer:  training.

It is time to bring training back. Send the best and brightest team members to project leadership/project management training–in a classroom, away from work–for at least a week. Successful project leaders are not born–they are made… one training class at a time.

Stop looking for perfection from “without” and find the find the brightest from “within”–and then train them!

James L. Haner

Learning Tree offers a range of project management and leadership courses. Consider starting with Project Management: Skills for Success or Project Team Leadership for a solid foundation in project management.

MSP is based upon a set of common-sense principles guiding the program manager and the business as they define and implement their programs to effect business change and realize business benefits from that change.  The 7 principles guiding the use of MSP are:

1. Remaining aligned with corporate strategy
2. Learning from experience
3. Designing and delivering a coherent capability
4. Adding value
5. Focusing on benefits and threats to them
6. Envisioning and communicating a better future
7. Leading change

MSP uses nine governance themes to describe critical aspects of program management that must be addressed continuously and in parallel during your program. They address how programs are defined, measured and controlled in your organization.  Each theme focuses on a key part of the program management discipline.  Defining and managing all seven themes across the program life cycle is critical to achieving a successful outcome that delivers benefits and changes to the business.   The governance themes of MSP are:

1. Vision
2. Organization
3. Quality Management
4. Business Case
5. Risks and Issue Management
6. Planning and Control
7. Blueprint Design and Delivery
8. Benefits Realization Management
9. Leadership and Stakeholder Engagement

MSP uses its transformational flow to define the generic program lifecycle in an organization.  This flow provides the program manager with a step-wise progression through the program life cycle from a controlled start through a controlled middle and on to a controlled end.   Each step in this flow comes complete with recommended activities, products and the related responsibilities for “who does what when”. The 5 processes found in this flow are:

1. Identifying a Program
2. Defining a Program
3. Delivering the Capability
4. Realizing the Benefits
5. Closing a Program

A copy of the MSP method is required reference material in any program manager’s bookshelf!  The method is documented in the publication “Managing Successful Programmes” which is officially published by The Stationary Office, or TSO.

Serious program managers seeking to enhance their knowledge, skills and professional credibility target should consider MSP certification.  Learning Tree offers two excellent certification courses for folks interested in becoming a certified practitioner of MSP . I am preparing to sit this certification myself in the very near future and enjoying my climb on the learning curve.  I think this will be an excellent complement to my PgMP certification from PMI.

Stay tuned as we take a more detailed look at the “nuts and bolts” of MSP in subsequent posts!

Susan Weese

*MSP® is a registered trade mark of the Cabinet Office.

#1. Make the decision-making process more transparent. Have a weekly meeting with the project team where all of the issues of the project are discussed.  Have an open staff meeting once a month where stakeholders worldwide can listen in and share information.

The idea is to share with the project management team as much information as you can, reducing the level of secrecy within the project team and thereby reducing the degree to which secrecy could breed politics.

On project teams it works like this: “What I know and you don’t know makes me more powerful than you.” Project politics comes from secrecy. The project leader, who has all the information, has the power to change that. It’s the project leader who can tell all the team members everything, and by so doing, take the secrecy away–and take away the politics.

#2. It all comes down to trust. “The trust you give is the trust you get.”  Yes, I can admit that sometimes you will be stabbed in the back or shot down. The value gained of trusting first is greater than the cost of being betrayed sometimes.

#3. At the root of effective project leadership is the ability to create a project team culture that enables the team members to excel. Culture allows to attract the best and the brightest staff and create an project environment where they can use their intelligence and judgment to act autonomously.

So how does a project leader go about cultivating a winning project culture? You need management skills, authenticity, self-awareness and listening skills–really listen to what others have to say. Your values must be expressed every day in the way you make decisions.

#4. Be authentic, real, and genuine. Make authenticity the heart of the project’s culture. You must say what you mean and mean what you say–and believe it. Be real when you build a culture of collaboration based on the belief that all team members have a voice.  Be genuine when you embrace curiosity. Spend a lot of time in front of a whiteboard.

#5. Create a hiring system that weeds out people who don’t want to be team players and who don’t treat fellow team members with respect.  When you have hired really bright project members, you need to get out of their way and let them knock your socks off. Hire attitude, breed commitment, and reward achievement.

Part of the work of project leadership is sitting quietly and thinking critically about the things talked about in this blog. Becoming an effective, successful, wise project leader is a journey of discovery. Let the discovery begin.

James L. Haner

Every project leader has had a certain amount of experience with both good and bad project members. For this reason every project leader has a pretty good idea of what he or she wants more of. Here are the big seven:

1. The first quality that project leaders look for is intelligence. In every study, it has been found that fully 76 percent of the productivity and contribution of a project member will be determined by his or her level of intelligence. Intelligence in this sense means the ability to plan, to organize, to set priorities, to solve problems, and to get the job done. Intelligence refers to your level of common sense and your practical ability to deal with the day-to-day challenges of the job. The key to demonstrating your intelligence is for you to ask intelligent questions. One of the hallmarks of intelligence that is immediately evident is curiosity. The more you ask good questions and listen to the answers, the smarter you appear.

2. The second quality sought by project leaders is leadership ability. Leadership is the willingness and the desire to accept responsibility for results. It’s the ability to take charge, to volunteer for assignments, and to accept accountability for achieving the required results of those assignments.

The mark of the leader is that he or she does not make excuses. You demonstrate your willingness to be a leader in the organization by offering to take charge of achieving company goals and then committing yourself to performing at high levels.

3. Integrity is the third quality sought by project leaders. It’s probably the most important single quality for success on a project team. Integrity begins by being true to yourself. This means that you are perfectly honest with yourself and in your relationships with others. You are willing to admit your strengths and limitations. You are willing to admit where you have made mistakes in the past. Especially, you demonstrate loyalty. You never say anything negative about a previous employer or a person whom you have worked with or for.

4. The fourth quality that project leaders look for is likability. Project leaders like team members who are warm, friendly, easygoing, and cooperative with others. Project leaders are looking for team members who can join the team and be part of the project family.

Teamwork is the key to project success. Your experience in working as part of a team in the past and your willingness to work as part of a team in the future can be among the most attractive things about you in becoming a successful project team member.

5. Competence is the fifth quality sought by project leaders. Competence is terribly important to your success. It is really the foundation of everything that happens to you on your project and in your career.

In its simplest terms, competence is the ability to get the job done. It is the ability to set priorities, to separate the relevant from the irrelevant tasks, and then to concentrate single-mindedly until the job is complete.

6. Courage is the sixth quality that project leaders look for. This is the willingness to take risks. Courage also means the willingness to accept challenges, the willingness to take on big jobs or even new jobs where there is a high degree of uncertainty and the possibility of failure.

Courage also means the willingness to speak up and say exactly what you think and feel in a difficult situation. Project leaders admire team mates who are not afraid to speak their minds. And you demonstrate this in project meetings when you ask frank and direct questions about the project, your role, and the future that you might have with the project team.

7. The final quality project leaders look for is inner strength. Inner strength means that you have the determination and the ability to persevere in the face of adversity. Inner strength means that you have the quality of persistence when the going gets rough. You demonstrate inner strength when you remain calm, cool, and relaxed during system testing time.

Above all, it is your character, which is the sum total of all your positive qualities, that will have the greatest impact on whether you are successful on the project team. You can continue working on your character by practicing the behaviors of top project leaders.

This blog is adapted from an excerpt from the book Earn What You’re Really Worth: Maximize Your Income at Any Time in Any Market by Brian Tracy.

James L. Haner

Mental toughness is what I am talking about this week. Mental toughness is tuning out the noise or pressure and performing to your maximum potential in an otherwise difficult situation. Mental toughness is what makes project members respect and admire the most successful project leader.

It’s not that the project leader was able to bring the project in on target, on time and on budget, it’s the fact that he or she was able to do so under the challenging and uncomfortable circumstances of the project life cycle.

Project leaders are facing the complexity of an uncertain project environment and need to have the same mental toughness as a trained athlete or an airman, soldier, sailor, or marine. It’s not just a matter of project leaders’ responsibilities, competencies, and behaviors that sets them up for success; it is also an ability to deal with the pressure and stress of changing project requirements, slashed project budgets, and too much work.

Christine M. Riordan, dean of the Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver, described “Six Elements of Mental Toughness” in a 2010 Forbes article.

Riordan’s six elements of mental toughness, adapted here for project leaders, are:

1. Flexibility. “Just like a quarterback faced with a broken play, a project leader must [be able] to decide quickly on a different way to get the ball down the field.”
2. Responsiveness. “Game-ready project leaders are able to remain engaged, alive and connected with a situation when under pressure. They are constantly identifying the opportunities, challenges and threats in the project environment.”
3. Strength. Mentally tough project leaders “find the strength to dig deep and garner the resolve to keep going, even when in a seemingly losing game.”
4. Courage and ethics. Project leaders have to have the ability “to make hard but right decisions for the project team.”
5. Resiliency. Project leaders need to be able to rebound from disappointments.
6. Sportsmanship. Have a “Bring it on!” mentality.

Project leaders seeking to acquire mental toughness can start by finding a mentor or coach who is willing to help guide them. One-on-one mentoring is best to provide for each project leader’s situation and learning needs.

Once a coach or mentor is in place, project leaders should then find a role model—someone who exhibits good mental toughness who they can reach out to.

Having a role model who expresses mental toughness, someone who can be personally connected to the project leader, can give project leaders a more engaging, real-life learning experience.

This article is adapted from Chief Learning Officer magazine.

James L. Haner

People make assumptions about things that they believe to be true every day. When was the last time that you left the house headed out to do your errands and calculated the time it would take to get those errands done based upon your assumptions for what you needed to do, where you were stopping and what traffic would be like along the way? Of course, there was always the risk that you would get those errands done in more time than you planned if the order of stops, what you did at each stop and the traffic did not behave as you assumed it would behave.

In comparison, constraints are fixed boundary conditions or limits on what you can do.  Going back to the morning errands example, you may find yourself constrained by the speed limits on the road you are traveling, the hours that the stores are open and the particular products that you can find in any given store.  In this example, constraints are the things you cannot change but that you need to be aware of and manage to.

Experienced project managers look for three elements as they and the team define, analyze, and document the assumptions and constraints on their project: assumptions, business constraints and technical constraints.  Let’s have a closer look at each of these elements.

Assumptions.  Assumptions are factors that we believe to be true, although these factors are not confirmed to be true. Assumptions add risk to a project since it is possible that they will turn out to be false. Assumptions can impact any part of your project life cycle and resulting solution implementation, so it is important to document and analyze them.

Business constraints. Business constraints limit the solution based upon the current organizational state. They usually focus on the available time, money and resources for a project. Common business constraints include budget and time restrictions, resource limitations, and resource skill limitations. For example, your project’s business case may contain assumptions about realizing the business benefits for your project. Any assumptions about a specific business benefit should be documented and linked to the requirements that will deliver those benefits. This may introduce additional risk into the premises contained in the business case, since it is possible that the assumptions you are assuming to be true may not be true in the end.

Technical constraints. Technical constraints often focus on architecture decisions that limit your solution design. They tend to be inflexible and unchanging, and can have an impact on your solution implementation. They include areas such as development languages, hardware, other infrastructure, and software that must be used for your project.

The assumptions and constraints are an important aspect of your project requirements.  You need to make sure that you analyze and document them appropriately on your projects. Although they are not requirements, I often recommend documenting them along with the requirements that they impact. It is a simple step to manage and communicate the requirements assumptions and constraints once you have them identified and documented.  You may also identify new project risks related to your project’s assumptions and constraints that need to be added to your risk register.

Remember, any project stakeholder may be involved with identifying and defining the assumptions and constraints for your project, so keep your ears open!  The project team should use these assumptions and constraints to identify potential risks that may impact project implementation and delivery or have a negative impact on end-user expectations of the resulting solution.  It is essential to keep a handle on the assumptions and constraints that are part of your project.

Susan Weese

Learning Tree is currently offering complimentary online courses on Project Management. Sign up to attend the next session for April 16th.

1. Don’t be political. Know what your team members care about. Like the presidential candidates, project leaders need to know the hot-button issues/trigger words that people care the most about. What are the members on your project team most anxious about, and what do they need to be successful? Provide the coordination, get the newest and best resources, and absolutely, positively no manipulation—it causes conflict and erodes your trust. You have to have politics, and, as I say in the courses I teach, “Politics is neither good nor bad, politics just is.” The key is to be politically sensible, not politically correct.  Find out what game is being played, and play the game better than anyone else.

2. Don’t pander. Be real and authentic. Project leaders don’t have to kiss babies and eat rubber chicken to show that they can connect with the “regular folks” in the company.  The challenge to know, show, and remain true to one’s real self has never been greater. Facing such pressures, many project teams are looking for authentic project leaders who are genuine, transparent, and trustworthy–project leaders who are “real” and can be counted on to keep their word. Project leaders need humor, emotional intelligence, resiliency, and moral and spiritual factors to foster authentic project leader-team member relationships. Sure, it’s important to be liked, just not as important as being respected. It’s not enough to act like you care. As the saying goes, “They’ll never care how much you know, until they know how much you care.” That’s how wise project leaders gain the support of loyal team mates.

3. Don’t peddle your power, but align your interests. Politics is often about doing business based on quid pro quo relationships (remember the first George Bush?) and using one’s “influential power” to get votes. In projects, leaders must “lead with influence,” which Webster defines not as “the ability to generate results collaboratively, in a variety of contexts, without direct or positional authority.” Project leaders must understand the importance of authentic leadership (building real, genuine relationships) and actively seek to align interests with all members of the project management team around shared goals.

These three “political” points are critical to achieving successful IT project leadership. Examine your most difficult situations and you’ll find problems in one or more of these areas.

For related courses, check out Developing Your Leadership Voice and a new course, Preparing for Executive Leadership, from Learning Tree.

James L. Haner

Since January 2009, PMI has conducted a global economic pulse survey to see what’s happening in project management around the world and what future trends are right around the corner.

Learning Tree International is a Registered Education Provider (REP) at PMI.

Pulse of the Profession

Pulse of the Profession is the industry’s annual global outlook for project, program, and portfolio management. Leading with the 2012 Pulse of the Profession report, PMI examines key industry trends and the implications for organizational success. They look at the state of project management this year and examine the major business drivers forcing organizations to take a more critical look at their practices. PMI closely studies these trends and drivers over the course of the year through their own market research and other data–as well as what they learn from organizations and governments worldwide.

Key Findings of the 2012 Pulse

The 2012 Pulse of the Profession is the newest edition of their global survey, featuring feedback and insights from over 1,000 project management leaders and practitioners.

Slow economic growth, shifting global market priorities, and a push for innovation all contribute to today’s complex business environment. Management strategy continues to focus on doing more with less, and many executives are still in search of “the one big thing” that will drive results and get them back on track.

The 2012 Pulse suggests that rather than relying on an elusive magic bullet, organizations can improve performance, reduce risk, save money, and earn a greater return on investments through excellence in basic project management execution.

Trending data in the Pulse identifies five areas where successful organizations most commonly focus to maintain their competitive edge:

1. Tight economic conditions will continue to force the issue of strong project management.

2. The desire for organizational agility will also lead to increased use of iterative and/or incremental project management methods such as agile and extreme.

3. As organizations continue to strive for agility, change management, and project risk management will become even more important.

4. Organizations will renew their focus on talent development as they look to grow and gain competitive advantage in new markets.

5. Despite tight economic conditions, organizations have been and will continue to increase their focus on benefits realization success metrics.

These trends highlight the fundamentals that organizations often overlook in lean times or when distracted by the latest fad.

Benjamin Franklin may have said it best:  “If a man empties his purse into his head no one can take it away from him.”

James L. Haner

To learn more about how to improve your project management skills, Learning Tree offers the following related courses (to name a few):

• Agile Programming: Principles and Practices
• Agile Project Management with Scrum
• Change Management Practitioner Certification
• Preparing for the PMI-RMP Exam (This course is great for those looking to improve their program management skills as well as those looking to learn more about change management.)
  
• Influence Skills: Getting Results Without Direct Authority (Ideal for those looking to improve their team leadership skills.)

Today in project leadership, we are in a place of peace and social consciousness where innovation, trust, and accountability are rewarded and championed. We can all thank Steve Jobs for the change in our project leadership approach.

According to Mark Leslie, chairman and CEO of Veritas Software, great leadership “is not about command and control. You attract the best and the brightest people and create an environment where they can use their intelligence and judgment to act autonomously.”  Allow innovation and trust people to make mistakes–with no penalty for the mistakes–just a part of learning the job and earning trust.

Are you holding yourself accountable as a leader (with a title or not)?

As project leaders, we enjoy the responsibility of helping project team members develop in a way that encourages them to hold themselves accountable for their attitudes, their work, and their results.

We need to be as disciplined, resourceful, and resilient in our efforts as we ask our team mates to be in theirs.

Relentless project leadership is embracing the fact that the need for reinforcement never ends and uncomfortable conversations are a necessity at times. This is how we create something special on project teams (and that’s what we want) . . . right?

Great project leaders know that their success belongs to the collective project team:  the audience, participants, and owners. Delivering products, services, and results is the “outside” of what we do. Creating memorable experiences and memorable moments is something great project teams do  on the “inside.”

Here are two books on leadership worth reading:

1. The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management, Peter F. Drucker

Father of modern management, social commentator, and preeminent business philosopher, Peter F. Drucker analyzed economics and society for more than sixty years. Now for readers everywhere who are concerned with the ways that management practices and principles affect the performance of organizations, individuals, and society, there is The Essential Drucker—an invaluable compilation of essential materials from the works of a management legend.

Containing twenty-six core selections, The Essential Drucker covers the basic principles and concerns of management and its problems, challenges, and opportunities, giving managers, executives, and professionals the tools to perform the tasks that the economy and society of tomorrow will demand of them.

2. Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty: The Only Networking Book You’ll Ever Need, Harvey Mackay

Mackay teaches how to network strategically without being disingenuous. He delivers a solid mix of advice and action to help build an effective network that returns on your time investment. The tone gets a little “rah-rah” at times, but this is a master networking class that goes far beyond business cards and LinkedIn invitations. And the list of 16 contacts everyone should know is just plain smart.

James L. Haner