Lonnie Pacelli's Blog, page 84

How to Become a Great Manager

Forbes Magazine recently published an article about how to become a great manager.  Interestingly, each of the six tips had a common focus:  people.  What I also found interesting was that Forbes titled the article becoming a great manager; I would have substituted the word leader.  Give the quick-read article a look and see what you think. 

Small Business and Cloud Storage Trends

Over the past several years cloud computing has transfigured from something that was applicable to large enterprises to something that is practical and available to consumers and the smallest of businesses.  With apps such as Google Apps and Office 365 gaining in prominence and cloud data storage prices dropping like a rock, cloud computing is now within reach of anyone wanting to reduce risk and costs in their operations.  Check out these trends by Small Business Computing.  

Ten Minutes to a Better Work-Life Balance?

A recent article in The Guardian focuses specifically on work-life balance and is targeted for women (though the take-aways apply to men too).  The points the author makes are good points; however the title I felt was very misleading.  Ten minutes to work-life balance?  Really?  Work-life balance is like a good marriage; the day you stop working at it is the day that death (or divorce unfortunately) do you part.  Read the take-aways but don't think about them as a quick solution; think about them as habits that need to be built and cultivated like a well-tended garden.  

FitBit for Building Better Exercise Habits

My wife got me a Fitbit Force for Christmas.  I love it!  It's a great instant feedback tool and reminder that I need to think about exercise in what I do during the day versus compartmentalizing exercise in something I do at the gym.  Since I started wearing it, I park in the lowest level at my client's parking garage and take the steps up to my office; I walk to a more distant cafeteria at lunch, and revel in delight when my wrist-strap starts buzzing after hitting ten thousand steps in a day. 

I highly recommend the Fitbit as a constant feedback tool to help you build fitness into your daily routine.

Work-Life Balance Tips from Six Experts

OK so it's the beginning of the year and time for those New Years Resolutions that never make it past January.  One of the favorites that gets talked about is achieving more work-life balance.  The bottom line is that work-life balance is something that has to come from the heart and must be something someone must truly want.  If it's a cerebral exercise then it's only a matter of time before you slip into old habits and grow disgruntled with your out-of-kilter work-life balance.  Check out this Work-Life Balance Article where six experts give their perspective on how to make work-life balance a habit and have greater success at achieving it in your life.

Coming Soon - Six-Word Lessons for Autism Friendly Workplaces

My wife Patty has been diligently working on her next book entitled Six-Word Lessons for Autism Friendly Workplaces.  In this book she provides insight for employers on how to create an autism friendly workplace as well as advice to prospective employees with Autism on how to prepare and thrive in the workplace.  Patty interviewed both industry experts and adults with Autism to get a balanced view of how employees with Autism can thrive in the workplace and deliver results to their employer.  We're targeting release in time for Autism Awareness month (April).  Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to get updates. 

HP Shares Four Emerging Cloud Trends

Hewlett Packard has put out an interesting piece on four Cloud Computing trends they see occurring.  Having done IT implementation work for over half of my life, there are two trends that strike a particular chord with me; those being Governance and Security.  With the flexibility and power that cloud computing gives to IT shops and their end users, CIOs will be faced with enabling faster delivery of solutions while at the same times ensuring those solutions are maintainable and secure.  What do you think?

Using Big Data to help Feed the World

Big Data isn't just about analyzing purchasing habits so advertisers can better target prospective customers.  The uses of Big Data are as broad as the most creative of minds.  Check out this article on how Hadoop and Big Data are being used to help make the world a better place.

Be a PM Closer

I love baseball.  I love watching the strategies, the big plays, the colossal errors (anyone remember poor Bill Buckner?) and the dramatic finishes.  The Tampa Bay Rays, who in nine of their first ten years of existence finished dead last in their division (In 2004 they managed to beat out one team and finished fourth in their division), surprised everyone in 2008 by beating out such teams as the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees and made it to the World Series only to lose to the Philadelphia Phillies.  Even though they lost the World Series, they were heroes in the eyes of millions who rooted for them and their storybook season. 

One strategy that I particularly enjoy is the use of specialty players, of which the most prevalent is the "closer".  The closer is a pitcher who is brought in for just a very short period of the game (typically the last inning of a game) to shut down opponent hitters and either secure a win for their team or allow a team who is behind to catch up in their last at-bat.
I can remember as a kid watching Sparky Lyle of the New York Yankees and Tug McGraw of the New York Mets craft the role of the closer to an art form and save game after game through their ability to perform under pressure.

They're most always used in high-pressure situations where the fate of the game rests in large part on their shoulders.   Baseball teams pay big bucks for top-notch closers not because they can play in a lot of innings, but because they can seal the deal and handle the pressure when the game is on the line.
Amazon.com Widgets Throughout my years I've come to appreciate the importance of the closer in baseball, but have also drawn an important parallel between a closer and what we do as project managers.  Time after time many project managers will start out of the blocks full of excitement and passion about their project.  Then along the way things start going wrong, whether it be unanticipated schedule or budget issues, an unforeseen risk spinning out of control, or an ugly issue rearing its head.  Rather than act deliberately, many PM's will sweep the problem under the rug, start screaming "fire", panic, or politically disengage themselves from the problem by blaming someone else.  In any event, rather than act to address the problem the PM does nothing to help the situation and most likely does things to further exacerbate the problem.  If management is attentive to the problem then a likely outcome is to replace the project manager with a "closer"; a more experienced and seasoned PM who can stare down a problem and get things under control. Closers are worth their weight in gold to an at-risk project.

Earlier in my career I wasn't a closer.  I was the arrogant one who started out of the blocks thinking I was all that and a bag of chips, then would get replaced when I bungled things up.  I had to learn to be a closer, and after doing this stuff for 25 years I am still a student of the craft.   What I've learned about being a closer is that a closer has to be able to do the following:
Know the rules and rudiments of project management cold Know how the rules can be bent or broken when necessary to keep a project on track Have a natural curiosity to understand why something works, or doesn't work Be realistic in what can and can't be done Listen to a wide variety of perspectives and be able to draw concise and coherent conclusions from those perspectives Clearly articulate root-cause problems and lay out a path for getting the project out of trouble Understand how to communicate concisely and ensure his or her message gets across to recipients clearly Be politically aware of what's going on in the project and the stakeholder organizations, but not be driven by the politics Be calm and focused when everyone else is panicking
I am a firm believer that being a closer requires experience; it is very unlikely (though not impossible) that a novice PM can be a closer.  At the same time, having years of experience doesn't automatically anoint you as a closer.  I've seen many PM's with years of experience crash and burn when a project started going sideways. 

My one nugget to you is this:  know what it means to be a closer and fill the skill gaps necessary to serve in the role effectively.  Use your manager, your peers and your team members to help articulate what a prototypical closer looks like in your organization then lay out a clear path to nailing those skills down.

Challenge Minus Inspiration Equals Mediocrity

This is an article related to a chapter in the book, "Why Don't They Follow Me? 12 Easy Lessons to Boost Your Leadership Skills" Recently I made a very interesting observation of one of the leaders at a non-profit organization I work with. This leader is relatively new to the organization and is very passionate about his area of responsibility.  He is very focused on increasing the number of members within his organization and wants each of the existing members to actively invite people to meetings.  "Get out there and bring your friends and colleagues!  The room needs to be standing room only!" he would bark to the members.  Yet week after week the numbers were flat.  He had a small number of faithful attenders, but the group wasn't growing like he wanted it to grow.

As I thought about this dilemma, one thing clearly occurred to me.  The leader clearly laid out a challenge to the existing members, but missed one crucial component:  he didn't  inspire  them to want to invite other people.  Because he didn't inspire them, they blew him off.
As a leader, you simply can't  assume  your team is inspired, you need to  foster  inspiration amongst the team.  Fostering inspiration means you need to do the following:
Clearly articulate the goal in quantifiable terms Ensure the goal is realistic and not something akin to solving world hunger Crisply explain  why  the goal is important in terms of benefits of performance or consequences of non-performance Amazon.com Widgets Allow the team to grasp the "why" behind the goal and to ask questions about the rationale Allow the team to weigh in on  how  the goal is to be achieved and empower them to drive the activities Help them achieve the goal by removing barriers, ensuring they are appropriately equipped, and keeping the goal front and center through regular communications on the goal and progress toward achieving Be the example; if you are expecting the team to be passionate about a goal then be passionate yourself.  Delegating passion simply doesn't cut it and is a sure-fire recipe for failure.