Lonnie Pacelli's Blog, page 77

Mastering Credibility Part II: It's The Relationships You Build

This part two of a three-part series on Mastering Credibility.  Part one is It's What You Know and part three is It's How You Deliver Results.  
Ever since childhood, Mark had been known as an in-your-face competitor...

Whether it be in sports, in the classroom, or in relationships, he wasn't happy unless he beat someone else at whatever he was doing.  Being in competition to Mark meant that he was going to do whatever he could to ensure he won and that his competitor lost.  Those on his team loved his competitive spirit and encouraged it; those not on his team feared him.  His behavior was validated through the number of trophies and medals he received while growing up.

As an adult his competitive spirit didn't wane.  He became a feared negotiator in his company's purchasing organization and became known as a pompous ass who would stop at nothing to ensure that his suppliers were giving up as much as possible so his company could get a better deal.  Suppliers hated to deal with him, but his company was too big to ignore so they put up with him.
Jennifer was a new vice president with one of Mark's suppliers.  She was asked to come in and talk with Mark about one of the contracts that was being negotiated and to try to get more of a win-win on the contract.  Mark would have nothing to do with it.  For him, win-win meant that he was leaving something on the table which simply wasn't acceptable.  In their first meeting Jennifer was very cordial and professional and proposed an idea as to how Mark's company could get value while Jennifer's company could also realize a reasonable profit.  Mark immediately went on the attack and questioned Jennifer's motives, insulted her intelligence, and publicly embarrassed her as being incompetent.  Jennifer stood her ground, developed a relationship with Mark's boss, Alex, and ultimately sold her win-win proposal.  Mark was incensed with anger and vowed to make life as difficult for Jennifer as possible.
Amazon.com Widgets Several months later, Alex decided to take a job with another company.  Mark felt he was a shoe-in for Alex's job.  Mark interviewed for the job with his vice president, Christie, and came in second.  Someone else got the job.  Angered beyond belief, Mark stormed up to Christie's office to find out why he didn't get the job.  Just as Mark approached Christie's office, he saw Christie in the doorway.  "Mark, I'd like you to meet your new group manager".  Mark came in the office and saw Jennifer sitting there.  "Jennifer is our new group manager?" Mark asked incredulously.  "Yes, she has really impressed us with her ability to relate to people and to work with partners to help us meet our objectives.  We're thrilled she's on board.  I'm sure you'll learn a lot from her". 

Mark felt as if he had been hit in the gut with a battering ram.  The person that he publicly embarrassed as incompetent was the same person who had control over his career and was now the new favorite child of the organization.  Mark couldn't cope with the situation and ultimately took a lower-level job in another company since his toxic nature would not permit him to get a comparable job in his industry.

Mark's ultra-competitive nature ultimately caught up with him.  His incensed desire to equate success with him winning and someone else losing put him in the loser's corner.  He saw building relationships as something only the weak did.  He had a wonderful opportunity to build a business relationship with Jennifer and figure out how he and Jennifer could get something done that was good for both companies.  This story could have ended up very differently had Mark kept focus on the relationship with Jennifer and not viewed her as a chess pawn. 

For you, how important are the professional relationships you build?  I'm not talking about the surfacey "hi, how are you" cordialities; I'm talking about sincere relationships where you truly understand what matters to your colleagues, how you can help them, and how they can help you.  When you take time to understand what matters to your colleagues you go a long way towards building your own credibility.   I want to be very clear about what I am saying; I am not advocating that you simply do or align to whatever your colleagues want.  Take that stance and you'll be viewed as a sailboat adrift in the ocean without a sail.  What I am advocating is that you understand where you and your colleague have similar and differing goals, leverage the similarities, and work to win-win on the differences. 

My one nugget for you is thus:  Mastering credibility is also about who you know, how you build relationships with those you know, and how you and your colleagues learn to help each other be more successful.  Don't put relationships on a back burner.  Keep it in the forefront of whatever you do. 

Mastering Credibility Part I: It's What You Know

This is part one of a three-part series on Mastering Credibility.  Part two is  It's The Relationships You Build  and part three is  It's How You Deliver Results .
Jeff was the quintessential schmoozer.
He was one of those guys who was the life of the party.  He could walk into any room and instantly be the one that everyone else focused on.  His charm, wit, and charisma was the envy of his friends and colleagues.  Being in his senior year of college, Jeff saw huge dollar signs in his future as a salesperson. Though he was an average student with average grades, Jeff felt that his ability to wine and dine customers was going to be his ticket to being a big-money salesperson. With his wit and charm, how could customers resist?

After graduation Jeff immediately got a job with a small parts manufacturer.  He was excited beyond belief about the job and, though he didn't see long-term career potential with the company, thought it would be a great stepping stone.  He showed up for work the first day eager and willing to make his first sale.  After meeting with his HR representative and getting all of the job administrivia out of the way, Jeff met up with his boss, Rob.  Rob gave Jeff the usual "welcome aboard" speech then gave him a binder of technical specifications on each of the products Jeff would be representing.  Jeff was a bit taken aback at the tech specs sitting in front of him and felt as if he was back in college.  "Take two weeks to go through all the tech specs, shadow me on a few sales calls, then you go out on your first sales call," Rob told Jeff.  Jeff's confidence kicked into gear and just knew in his heart he was going to wow his boss's socks off.
During his two week binder indoctrination, Jeff would lightly skim the material, familiarizing himself with the product categories and descriptions of each part.  "If the customer has questions I can't answer I'll just call one of the engineers and he'll help me for sure"  Jeff shadowed Rob on some sales calls and was chomping at the bit to get out there on his own. 

Rob was concerned, but also didn't want to squash the enthusiasm of his young protege.  "OK, how about you visit Angelo at ABC Manufacturing and see what he needs?"  Jeff was flying out of the office after Rob barely finished his last sentence.  Rob and Angelo have been good friends for years and Rob knew that if Jeff really blew it he wouldn't lose a customer. 
Amazon.com Widgets Jeff showed up at Angelo's office and started into his pitch.  He was engaging, funny, and personable.  Jeff and Angelo had a great time chatting as if they had been friends for years.  Then Angelo got down to business.  "Jeff, what is the temperature tolerance on the watchamacallit?"  Jeff not only didn't know the answer, he didn't have his tech specs with him. 

"I'll have to get back to you on that Angelo"

"Also, on the whozewhatsit does it come in 8, 10 and 12 centimeter dimensions?"

"I'm not sure, Angelo, I'll need to look it up."

"And on the whatsamajigger, does it come in black with red stripes?"

"That's a great question Angelo, let me check it out and get you an email."

Jeff was feeling a bit uncomfortable, but was confident he could get Angelo everything he needed and lock down the sale.  Jeff left Angelo's office and came back to his office to look up the information and get it back to Angelo.  Rob was waiting there for him.  "Jeff, come into my office for a bit."  Jeff followed Rob into the office and sat down.  Rob closed the door, sat in his chair and looked at Jeff.  "How did the call go Jeff?"

"Pretty good, Angelo is a great guy and I think we'll be able to close a great sale."

Rob's took a more serious tone. "Angelo called me and said he doesn't want you back.  He said you were a great guy and a lot of fun but you just didn't know your product line. Didn't you study the tech specs I gave you?"  Jeff felt as if someone had just put a blowtorch to his derriere.  "He asked some tough questions and I told him I would get back to him on stuff!  I was just going to send him the information now.  He's not being fair!"  Rob took a more parental tone with Jeff. "Jeff, he's the customer and he's expecting you to know what you are selling.  You clearly didn't have subject matter expertise needed to secure his business.  Kim will take point on the sale and you'll need to shadow her on this sale and all other calls she makes for three months until you learn what you are selling."  Feeling defeated and embarrassed, Jeff left the office. 

While this is a fictional story, many of us know a Jeff.  The colleague who uses charm and charisma but is relatively content-free of subject matter.  Don't get me wrong; being able to relate to people is a very powerful attribute.  However, after the back slapping and joking is over and done command of the subject matter you are expected to know will carry the day. 

Here's my question to you (I may make you a bit uncomfortable, but that's what I do):  Does your command of the subject matter for your job meet, exceed, or fall short of what your boss, employees, or customers expect your expertise level to be?  At first blush it is easy to say "meets" or "exceeds" because that is the safe answer to give.  Don't be too quick to answer; really give this some thought, look at trends in performance evaluations (where you've heard the same thing over and over), look at your job description, and ask a few folks for their input.  It is vitally important that you understand expectations placed on you and assess your command of subject matter relative to those expectations.  In today's job environment it could unfortunately mean the difference between who stays....and who goes.  Don't wait; do it now.

Mastering Credibility Part III: It's How You Deliver Results

This part three of a three-part series on Mastering Credibility.  Part one is It's What You Know and part two is It's The Relationships You Build.
Bert was an associate at a premier management consulting firm.
Over the years he specialized in providing advice to senior management in information technology organizations.  Generally he had some pretty insightful ideas that many of the rank and file in the client organization viewed as a bit theoretical.  His advice was typically accompanied by general implementation timelines which client organizations rarely took verbatim.  Bert's advice usually culminated in some type of a Powerpoint presentation to the senior client management; then it was off to the next assignment.


For years Bert had been trying to get a foot into the door of Laner Robotics. 
Laner had a huge IT organization and represented potentially millions of dollars in fees for Bert's firm.  Laner just hired a new CIO, Kara Boston.  Kara was new to the area and in a swing of fortune for Bert, moved into Bert's neighborhood.  Bert got to know Kara and was able to get a meeting with her to discuss Laner's IT organization.  Bert was elated at the opportunity. 

At Bert's meeting with Kara, Kara talked about some of the difficulty she was having with how her project managers were managing project portfolios and how they were determining which projects were accepted and which were rejected.  Bert set out to talk with a number of Kara's managers to understand the current situation and propose ideas on how to resolve the portfolio issue.
Amazon.com Widgets After a few weeks, Bert formulated his findings and prepared his Powerpoint deck for Kara.  At his presentation, Bert outlined some recommendations which Kara's managers didn't think would work.  Nonetheless, Bert proceeded forward with his recommendations.  Kara had previously talked with her managers and knew they didn't support Bert's findings.  Bert was persistent with Kara.  Kara was skeptical; "Bert, I'm just not sure that this is the right answer, but perhaps you could take some of your ideas and implement them in one of my PM organizations.  Would you be willing to work with Allison to implement your recommendations?"  Allison was one of Kara's top managers and knew that if Bert's ideas would work anywhere it would be in Allison's organization.  Bert had never been in a situation where he had to implement his recommendations but thought it would be easy to do.  "Sure, I'll implement them and report back to you in two weeks."  Kara was skeptical but agreed, "OK Bert, go for it."

 The next two weeks were a nightmare for Allison.  Bert had no idea how to implement his own ideas and completely frustrated Allison and her team.  He was disorganized, lacked focus, and was unclear about assignments. Bert continued forging ahead with his original ideas even though it was clear he was failing.  After a while Allison and her team simply started ignoring Bert because he was wasting their time. 

At his follow-up meeting with Kara, Bert had to break that bad news that his recommendations were a flop.  "If I could only have a few more weeks I'm sure we can get these recommendations working", Bert pleaded to Kara.  Kara had already talked with Allison and knew that Bert simply couldn't deliver on his recommendations.  "I'm sorry, Bert, but I just don't think you're going to be able to deliver results.  Allison and her team don't see you as credible, and if Allison doesn't see you as credible I have difficulty accepting your recommendations.

Bert left Kara's office knowing full well that his hopeful future as an advisor to Kara and Laner Robotics had just been snuffed out. 

Bert's credibility with Kara was irreparably torched.  He committed to deliver results but failed miserably without having a good reason for non-delivery.  Bert ignored the warning signs and forged ahead with his failed implementation. 

Mastering credibility is not just about having great ideas, it's also about how you follow through on those ideas to deliver results.  A word of caution; mastering credibility doesn't mean that you always have to be right; if that were the case then no one would take risks out of fear of being wrong.  What it does mean, though, is that if you are wrong about something that you own up to it and figure out what you need to do to right the ship. 

My one nugget for you is thus:  mastering credibility means you have to leverage what you know and the relationships you build to deliver results.  Fail to complete the circle by delivering results and you'll establish a reputation for yourself as a "those who can't do teach" theoretician.

Impress First, Then Talk Compensation

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth 
As a manager I’ve been amused by the different approaches some interviewees have taken over the years. There are a couple of interviews that stand out as Academy Award contenders for Best Arrogant Performance.


Performance number one features an inexperienced, newly degreed interviewee who I’ll call “Pug.” Pug showed up for the interview on time, was well dressed, and looked well-prepared for the interview.
I opened the interview with a simple greeting, offered Pug something to drink, and let him know what was going to happen in the interview. Before I could get my first question out, Pug informed me of his salary expectations and told me that there were other companies willing to meet his expectations. I can tell you his expectations were about two times what we typically paid newly degreed candidates and I knew we would never be able to pay Pug what he was looking for. I decided to acknowledge that Pug had a salary expectation and quite frankly went through the motions on the rest of the interview. I had already made my “decline” decision within the first few minutes of the interview.
Performance number two features a heavily experienced and qualified candidate I’ll call “Kip.” Kip had an extensive resume with experience that would be valuable to me and showed a lot of promise. I wasn’t completely sold on Kip so was looking forward to our interview. Throughout the interview, his tone was one of “you have to sell me on why I should come and work for you” and let me know that it would take “a lot of money” to lure him away from his current job. I was very disappointed because someone I initially felt had promise turned into an arrogant mercenary looking to put his services to the highest bidder. Kip ended up staying at his current employer and not coming to work with me.
Amazon.com Widgets Both performances had a common thread running through them. They both introduced compensation into the discussion before I had a chance to decide if I wanted them as employees. Now don’t get me wrong; compensation is a big component of why we work; the mortgage needs to be paid, the kids need braces, and the government wants their cut. You need to ensure you are compensated fairly for the work you do. However, there is an appropriate time to discuss compensation, and that is after the employer has already decided they want you and you’ve decided you want to be an employee. Before we get too deep in this, I’m going to make an assumption that you’ve done some basic homework on the job and that you’re not expecting to make $100k per year for a job that will pay $30k. If there’s that large of a gap, then either re-align your expectations or don’t go forward with the interviewing process.

Assuming there is a match in compensation expectations, your priorities in the interviewing process need to start with nailing the qualifications. Most successful advertising campaigns don’t show you the price of the product first then explain the value they provide. They get you to see how the product will meet some need that you have then they tell you how much it will cost you (and what a good deal it is for you!) Your interviewing strategy is no different; you want to show how you meet a need and how you can solve a prospective employer’s problem before discussing compensation. Once an employer understands your qualification and envisions your value to the company they are better able to focus on compensation.

Want some ideas on how to nail the qualifications first? Check these out:
Show them you want the job – Follow the preparation advice outlined in You Can't Over-Prepare for an Interview . Ask good questions which demonstrate your interest in the job. Be interested and let the interviewer see it. Don’t worry that you’re losing negotiating leverage because you’re showing interest. You want him or her to get excited about the prospects of you doing the job.
Don’t play hard to get – Showing disinterest or indifference about the job to get the prospective employer to woo you away from your current job is just bad form. More often than not, the prospective employer will walk away rather than play your game. Come off like a prima donna and it may backfire on you and you’ll miss out on a job you really wanted.
Find a problem and offer to help solve it – If during your interview you draw out a real-life problem the prospective employer is experiencing, offer to do a bit of research and do a write-up on some things that could be done to solve the problem, you will make a great impression. If your offer is accepted, burn the midnight oil if necessary to get your thoughts down and send it to them within 24 hours of your interview. The couple of times interviewees have done that with me I was impressed not only by the content they provided but also by their initiative and responsiveness. Both the interviewees ultimately ended up as employees.
Talk as if you already have the job – I like when interviewees use “we” language during an interview. I didn’t view it as presumptuous; I viewed it as the interviewee wanting to be part of a team and dig in and get things done. Don’t be afraid to talk as if you were a company person; your interviewer is trying to assess your fit within the company so show him or her. Establish yourself as a viable and qualified candidate prior to negotiating compensation. Your best opportunity to ensure a fair compensation package is to first get the interviewer to truly want you through showcasing your skills, showing initiative, and demonstrating your desire to be an employee. Get him or her to love you first then talk compensation.

One Less Meeting Gets You Home In Time For Dinner

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth
A client of mine absolutely loved to have meetings.  Regardless of the topic, if there was some reason for at least two people to have any kind of interaction a meeting got called.  Not only were there a lot of meetings but there would almost always be superfluous bodies taking up space in the meeting that had no real reason to be there other than to be “informed.”  Now, if decisions got made and things got done I would have had more tolerance for the meeting mania.  But more often than not little got done at these meetings other than to schedule more meetings.  It was madness, I say!

As a senior manager, I could have spent every working hour of every day in meetings.
Me needing to meet with other managers or my staff.  Vendors wanting to meet with me.  Meeting with customers.  Meeting with other organizations.  Meetings to decide what meetings to have or not have.  It was meeting after meeting after meeting.  I had to actively control my calendar to say no to meetings that didn’t make sense, push back on meetings where I didn’t need to be there or where we could get work done through other means. 
As much as I may grouse about meetings, some of them were necessary, beneficial and effective.  Then again, there were those that were a total waste of time and could have been accomplished by some other means.  The million dollar question then becomes, “How do you keep the beneficial meetings and eliminate the wastes of time?”

In my experience, there are several situations where meetings are generally more appropriate than doing through other means, as follows:
Amazon.com Widgets Getting buy-in or consensus on a strategy, direction, or decision – Meet if you’ve got something that requires people being 100% bought in to the solution.  For people to be truly bought in, they need to have an opportunity to influence direction, express concerns, or provide alternatives. Team building – If you want your team to work better together then they need meeting time to get to know each other, to understand relative strengths and weaknesses, and to want to help each other. Celebrating a success or milestone – Having an e-party just doesn’t work.  Let your folks get together for a milkshake and celebrate a successful completion of a project, meeting a critical milestone, or celebrating a holiday.  Delivering bad news where people will likely have questions – No one likes to find out bad news by reading a memo.  If you’ve got bad news that will affect people directly, get them in a room if logistically possible and deliver the message.  It gives people an opportunity to interact as well as it being a more humane and sensitive way of delivering bad news. 

What are some effective alternatives to people getting in a room together to meet?   Try these on for size:
E-mail – Great for dissemination of information and for some decision making that may not be contentious or controversial.  Just watch for when a topic does turn contentious or controversial; you’re best to take the discussion offline and get a meeting together for the relevant parties to discuss.
Web sites – Also great for dissemination of information or for getting input
Audio/video conferencing – Effective when logistics prevent people from physically meeting or when a person only wants to listen in on a meeting
One-on-one discussions – Effective when a decision or direction can be made by just a couple of people and then others can be informed through e-mail or web sites

We need to interact, we need to exchange information, and we need to work together to get things done.  Avoid falling into meeting trap and consciously ask yourself if there are other ways to communicate and get your point across. 

Shiny Objects And Other Distractions

It’s Monday morning and Joe gets up at 6:00. He showers, eats breakfast and 
makes his way to the train station to catch the 7:20 into Chicago.  During the 40-minute train ride, Joe takes out his planner and lists out all of the things that he wants to get done for the week.  He writes down all of the people that he needs to call, meetings that he needs to schedule, and reports that he needs to write. By the time the train pulls into Union Station, he has his entire week planned out and is feeling very good about his plan.  His 20-minute walk from the train station to his office is pleasant and energizing, and Joe arrives at his office ready to get going on his plan.
Ten minutes after sitting at his desk, he gets an email from a local electronics store with the “must-have” specials of the week.  Joe can’t resist and goes to the website and spends 30 minutes drooling over the latest electronic gadgetry.  Throughout the week, Joe has numerous events which take his attention off his work; checking sports scores, looking at stock prices, impromptu drop-ins from co-workers.  Joe leaves work each night tired from the day’s busy and hectic activities.
On Friday evening, Joe pulls out his planner and looks at the list of all the things he wanted to complete during the week.  As he looks at the list, he grows more and more discouraged at the number of things that didn’t get done.  He can’t understand it.  Why didn’t he get more done?  He was always so busy, yet so little got accomplished.  How could this have happened?

You may know a Joe, live with a Joe, or be Joe yourself.  The Joes of the world have a difficult time focusing and are easily distracted by “shiny objects”,  or things that take attention off of the
Amazon.com Widgets task at hand because of their allure, appeal, or perceived call to urgency.  Sure, at times we’ve all succumbed to non-value-added distractions and have wasted time being unproductive or working on something that didn’t need to be done right then.  It’s when a person’s modus operandi is to allow themselves to be distracted that problems occur. 

Let me put shiny objects in context; to me a shiny object isn’t important to the task at hand and isn’t time-sensitive.  If something comes across your desk that can be done later without impact to your work yet interrupts what you’re doing then this in my view constitutes a shiny object.  It’s also important to distinguish between shiny objects and the garden-variety fire-drill.  The primary difference to me is a fire drill is something that needs to be done immediately otherwise there is some material and tangible business consequence; whereas with a shiny object there is no material and tangible business consequence if it doesn’t get done.  This is an important distinguishing factor because many shiny object violators that I know view their shiny objects as fire drills and take comfort in responding to fire drills because of the sense of accomplishment they feel in putting out the fire. 

In conquering shiny-object-itis, I’ve adopted a few basic shiny object principles into my workday, as follows:
Schedule some brief “shiny object” time during the day to do some of the shiny object activities; preferably the same time each day.  The time of day doesn’t matter, just schedule it and keep to it.  If a shiny object comes your way and it’s not during your shiny object time, PUT IT ASIDE immediately.  Just as a dieter needs to resist the temptation of their favorite junk food, you need to resist the draw and allure of the shiny object.  If you’re prone to disruption due to your view of fire-drills, ask yourself two questions: Is there a tangible and material consequence to me working on this? and Is the consequence important enough that I need to interrupt my current project to work on it? If the answers are yes, then by all means pull out the hose; otherwise refer back to principle 2.

In following these principles, your ability to get things will increase because you will have fewer interruptions, be able to better discern whether an interruption is warranted, and allow yourself some dedicated shiny-object time to read the latest headlines or catch up with a co-worker.

Great Communicators Can Be Made

Excerpted from The Truth about Getting Your Point Across…and Nothing But the Truth 
Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, was known as “the great communicator.”
One of his most famous statements was made while making a speech at the Brandenburg Gate in West Berlin, Germany on June 12, 1987.  During this speech, President Reagan threw down this challenge:

General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
Interestingly enough, the “tear down this wall” statement was vehemently opposed by foreign policy experts in Washington and had heavily lobbied the President to not make the “tear down this wall” statement.  Ultimately, the lobbying was ignored and Reagan included the challenge in the speech.  That was in 1987.  On November 9th, 1989, the border separating East Germany from West Germany was open and the wall came tumbling down. The Fall of The Wall will forever be used as a symbol for the end of the cold war; which arguably was Reagan’s greatest achievement as President.
Think back to some great communicators like Reagan, Martin Luther King Jr., or John F. Kennedy.  What made them great communicators?  It wasn’t that they were great orators, had flashy teeth, sported perfect hair, or demonstrated a flawless writing style.  They had the following:

Courage  – they weren’t afraid to speak out against the status quo and challenge conventional wisdom.
Conviction  – they felt strongly about their ideas and wanted others to know their viewpoint. Amazon.com Widgets Wisdom  – they knew their subject matter cold and could defend their ideas effectively.

Clarity  – their message was simple, concise, and easily understood.

Credibility  – they were trusted by others and walked the talk.
Courage.  Conviction.  Wisdom.  Clarity.  Credibility.  Five attributes that are essential, regardless of whether you are speaking in front of hundreds of people, writing a report to your boss, or running a PTA board meeting.  Five attributes that build the foundation of someone who gets his or her point across effectively.  

That someone can be you. 

The remaining chapters of  The Truth About Getting Your Point Across... and Nothing But the Truth  will help you to better get your point across in a number of professional settings, including running meetings, delivering presentations, conducting interviews, and giving feedback.  You’ll get some very practical advice and helpful tips to being a more effective communicator.  These tips combined with your courage, conviction, wisdom, clarity and credibility can make you a great communicator who communicates great things and knows how to get your point across in most any setting. 

Are you up for it?

In Search of the Good Enough Leader

On a recent project my company was working with a frozen seafood manufacturer to help them bring a specialty frozen seafood product to market.

A huge component of getting this project done was the packaging; it had to be eye-popping and appealing while protecting the frozen seafood pieces inside.  After a number of design sessions with the packaging manufacturer, we received the finished packaging.  What was initially exuberance during the design session turned into disappointment when we saw the finished product.  Some of the graphics were a bit blurry, a re-sealable zipper wasn't included, and a clear window to view the contents inside was missing.  Our emotions went from disappointment to anger as the manufacturer told us it would be a number of weeks before a new delivery of the packaging could be done.  If we took this route, a key delivery to a very important customer of ours wouldn't be met.  What a pickle.
As we thought through our dilemma, we started thinking about what was "good-enough."  While some of the problems with the packaging were irritating, they were largely cosmetic and didn't impact the quality or taste of the product.  We ultimately decided that we could still use the packaging by making one change which we were able to implement in-house.  Through this process, we found that we had to mentally adjust our expectations from "perfection" to "good-enough" in order to meet our commitments to our customers and get the product out in time.  Not the optimal choice, but certainly a workable one.
Amazon.com Widgets As leaders, we are constantly faced with deciding which tasks to do and how to apply resources to those tasks.  There are rare occasions where stars align and we are able to get everything done exactly the way we want it with the resources given to us.  Most of the time, though, we have to decide not only what to do but what not to do.  This is where the good-enough leader comes in.  Good-enough leaders are able to get more done with the resources given to them because they know that there comes a point where the incremental effort (or what I like to refer to as "polishing the apple") just isn't worth the expense required to achieve the effort.  Good-enough leaders are able to define clearly what good-enough means for any task being worked on and are able to get the team to self-check on achieving good-enough.  Simply put, good-enough leaders get more done because they know not only when to start, but when to stop.

So let’s talk about why the concept of good-enough is important to leaders.  There’s some very basic reasons as to why good-enough matters to you:
There are typically more things to do than hours in a day – Take a look at your to-do list.  Are you going to be able to get everything done today that you hope to get done?  If you’re like most leaders today, you’ll probably go home wishing you would have gotten three more things done than you had hoped. More is expected out of today’s leaders - More today than in the past leaders are being asked to get more done with less and are expected to do things that prior generations of leaders weren’t expected to do.  What would have been considered exceptional performance a generation ago is today considered “running with pack” performance. Many leaders don’t know when to say when – Whether it be due to misunderstood expectations, an overzealousness to please the customer, or a passion for perfection run amok, many leaders will continue to work on something beyond a degree which matters to a customer, colleague, or team.  Over-delivering may compensate for inexperience – Particularly with new leaders, going beyond good-enough can be due to inexperience of the leader or due to an overzealous new leader wanting to wow the socks off of his or her customer. Some of this is simply unavoidable growing pains, but some of it can be mitigated.
Being good enough isn't all that difficult and can be applied to virtually any job.  Look to be a good-enough leader by thinking about some of these tips:
Establish good-enough guidelines up-front - When taking on a project or task, take time to discuss with the team where the good-enough line lives.  As example, if the goal is to prepare a presentation for management, it may be acceptable to have different fonts on different slides but it is not acceptable for data to be incorrect or for the presentation to have spelling errors.  Establishing clear guidelines with the team (and yourself) helps to reduce rework and reduces the likelihood of misunderstandings on what good-enough means as it relates to your specific project or task.

Separate the "must-haves" from the "nice-to-haves" - For good-enough to work it's super important to get a clear understanding of what needs are absolutely necessary to deliver your end product and to separate the "must-haves" from the "nice-to-haves."  As you are assessing each need, ask, "What is the absolute worst thing that will happen if we don't meet this need?"   Then, decide if you can live with the worst case. 

Align expectations with your customers or stakeholders - As you are defining your must -haves, include your customer or stakeholders in the process to ensure you aren't missing a must-have need or mis-categorizing a nice-to-have as a must-have.  Key to this is allowing the customer to see the benefit of being good-enough.   The benefit could be a reduced cost on a contract, taking on an extra project, or potentially implementing a couple of the highest priority nice-to-have needs.  

Adopt a "good-enough" mantra - Working to good-enough doesn't stop at needs definition.  In our day-to-day work we all, as leaders, are faced with decisions on where to apply resources, what things to do, and what things to not do.  When you adopt and maintain a good-enough mantra with your team, the team will start thinking in good-enough terms and learn how to draw the good-enough line without your coaching and prodding. 

Encourage others to cry foul when a team member starts polishing the apple - Adopting a good-enough mantra is a great first step; using the mantra day-in and day-out is the next step.  It is easy for a team member to become obsessed with a project or task and to want to spend a lot of time making something perfect.  When you spot someone spending time on a task which appears to be beyond good-enough, ask "is this good-enough?"  Also, be open to a team member challenging you with the good-enough question.  What's good for the goose is good for the gander. 

Don't accept "good-enough" as an excuse for substandard quality - being good-enough means you understand what must be done and you work to the good-enough line.  It isn't an up-front excuse for shoddy workmanship or unacceptable quality.  As example, a developer cannot use a "good-enough" mantra as an excuse for not testing a program he or she has written.  Work should still be performed to whatever professional specifications are applicable to your organization.

Use a coach to help you draw a “good-enough" line – This is particularly helpful with new leaders. Find a coach, colleague, or friend to help you identify when you’re working harder and longer on something than necessary.  You’ll not only get a tap on the shoulder when you’re working too hard, you’ll also begin to get a feel as to what good-enough means as it relates to your job.
Be a good-enough leader.  You'll get more done because your team will make better choices on where to spend time and will consciously avoid polishing the apple.  Think good-enough; it works. 

Managing Project Risks and Issues

"This project is too risky!"

"We've got big issues on this project!"

"We'll never finish this on time if these issues don't get resolved!"

Statements like these are commonly heard from many project managers.  Sure, risks and issues are a mainstay of projects.  I would love to buy the PM dinner who has run a project to successful completion and never had one risk to manage or one issue to resolve. 

Several years back I gave a presentation on effective management of project risks and issues. Now I have written a book that addresses this problem in depth.  Buy it now!

Replacing a Project Manager Mid-Flight

One of my column readers recently sent in this question: One of our senior project managers left abruptly in the middle of a 3 year million $ contract. What experience and education would you consider in promoting a replacement? 

Ooh, good meaty problem.  Not so simple a solution.
There's simply never a good time for a project manager to leave a project, particularly when the flight takes everyone by surprise.  Management scrambles to find a replacement, the project team may be in a state of shock because their leader is now flying the coop, and the potential successor needs to double-time-it to figure out how to take the reins quickly. The key here is to minimize the impact of flight such that the project is not significantly impacted.  There are two facets that I think are important to minimizing the impact:  preparedness in case of flight and deliberate action if a flight occurs.  Following are a series of considerations for each. 
Amazon.com Widgets First facet, preparedness in case of flight:
Have a project succession plan in place for key project team members.  This includes not only the project manager but key analysts, developers, and other hard-to-replace team members. Assess whether the project manager is already a flight risk because of prior circumstances.  For whatever reason, the project manager may be at flash point and ready to leave or already looking to leave. Document if there are there specific skills required of the position.  Some project management positions can be filled by a good generic project manager, while others may require a specific functional, technical, or industry skills. 
Next facet is actions if a flight occurs: Execute the succession plan if the planned successor is ready to assume control.  Sometimes the successor will be able to easily slip into the shoes of the prior project manager.  At other times the successor may have to share workload with his or her manager or other project team members to lighten the load and better minimize project impact.
Don't expect much out of the fleeing project manager.  He or she may be physically be around for another week or two but mentally the transition to the new job has already begun. 
Stay close to the situation.  Don't just assume that because there is a new name in the project manager box on the org chart that all is going to go well.  Keep close watch over the new project manager and be ready to assist if you see problems starting to crop up.
Keep the team calm.  When a leader flees the situation is ripe for confusion, dissention, and infighting which can lead to budget and schedule problems.  Keep the team focused and motivated through the transition.  Most importantly, keep them informed on what is going on.
Position the next successor.  This is good for two reasons:  it helps mitigate the risk of another PM flight and is a natural learning opportunity to build up new project managers.