Fear No Project Blog – Focusing on the Management Side of Projects

If you are like me (and millions of others) you have been watching the SOCHI Winter Olympics.  It is exhilarating to watch women and men, who have trained for years, put their skills to the test in order to win a medal.  It makes me think about our staff and how they work every day to improve their skills so that they can help us win new projects or successfully deliver a project on time or meet client requirements.
Do you think about your staff and how they compete to win in their jobs?  Ok.. so you’re saying, the Olympics and our projects aren’t the same thing  Bruce! Well hold on and let me show you some similarities and how we can take some lessons from the Olympians.  We find the following in both the Olympics and in projects:

1. People have differing skills and specialties. Do you recognize your staff’s talents and give them tasks suited to their discipline and skills? Or do you think everyone can do each others job?  Take some time to evaluate each person and see where their strengths and weaknesses are.
2. There are specialized tools and equipment.  Are you providing excellent tools for your project team? Project managers need schedule tools, risk tools, resource tools, and tools to help them manage and track projects.  Software staff need editors, debuggers, configuration tools and documentation tools.  Graphics artists need graphic tools, color tools, paint tools, and pressure sensitive tablets.  You  need to assess each specialized area and make sure you are providing the right tools for gold level performance.
3. Coaches and trainers can help shape people into winning performers.   Do you provide opportunities for people to learn and grow? Have you hired a special coach when needed? Training can greatly improve even a great performer so are you using this as a way to improve staff skills?  You can always get them a tablet reader and some good eBooks!  Try some brown bag lunch training.  Be the Coach for your team – this means being a good leader!
4. It takes Practice Practice Practice.  Are you letting your team try to improve by practicing?  If you have a proposal team – let them do some practice drafts and try to communicate better.  If you have a software team let them practice reviewing each other’s code.  If you have a scrum team let them practice estimating.  there is always something that can be practiced in down times of the week or month.
5. There is the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat. Do you celebrate successes with your team? And do you pick them up when they fail or make mistake? There are always highs and lows – be there with your team.
6. While there is only one gold medal, everyone tries to give their best performance. You will always have a team of performers at varying levels. And on any given day some people will excel and others will have an “off day.”  As long as your team members are giving their best, you can always reach for the Gold knowing you are doing the best your team is capable of.  And if you provide the other ingredients needed (Items 1-5)  you have a great chance of winning a medal and being on the platform!

Have you done the best you can to give your team a chance to win Gold?  You should try to develop Olympic management skills!