Bookends - March 06

Posted on March 31, 2006
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Bookends is an collection of some interesting web sightings for each month. Here is March Updates.

• My company has finally entered the blogosphere, with a blog called Openlogue. Even though our chairman was already blogging at a personal level, openlogue is our corporate initiative.
• Try ‘failure’ on google search. See what shows up on top of everything. Amazing? Well, thanks for voting for failure - not once, but twice.
• I have seen blogs being used as pseudo websites, like this one. But this is an unique way to use a blog - selling homes. (ps. the site you see is actually powered by a blog tool, is what I mean)
• I use writely as my blogging tool. I just find it very slick, which is why I also use it for writing other articles (not blog entries). Writely used to be a free service, up until google bought them. Now registrations are closed, and new registrations are by invitation only. Not suprising I found this on eBay. And Yes, there was a winner. Go figure!!

Hot Jobs - Project Managers

Posted on March 29, 2006
Filed Under Project Management | 1 Comment

One of my friends sent me this link, notifying that the job market was souring for people like me. According to this report by HotGigs, 15% of the 1.2 million searches were for project managers. While this study is encouraging, it may lead to the phenomenon of everyone jumping onto this bandwagon. Let me temper the enthusiasm with some reminders:

• By intrinsic nature, project managers are required to coordinate the efforts of the staff. This means that they must posses great interpersonal skills, enough to direct and motivate people to stay on track.
• An absolute critical requirement of a project manager, is that they keep the project on schedule and budget. This necessitates superior organizational skills to smoothly navigate the tricky politics between and across cross-functional teams. The ability to assign resources, prioritize tasks, and keep tabs on the budget will ensure quality and impact the project’s success.
• Anything and everything that a project manager does, has to do with communication. Being able to clearly articulate the project objectives, the challenges and risks, and to be able to maintain a link between the business users and technical staff is highly essential. This is even more critical in this day and age, where teams are spread globally and the world is flat .
• Project management(process) skills alone are not sufficient, although these are most important. A project manager is required to possess business skills and analytical skills to resolve the maze. Keeping the client engaged and following up with value add services can be strong differentiators.

It may be a recipe for failure just having one of the above skills, although some  project managers have showed positive results, inspite of having one of the above skills. These are just exceptions to the case. Imagine these four scenarios:

1. Good PM Skills and weak business/technical skills: In this case the project manager can rely on the rest of the team for the technical direction, and himself leading the process. But not knowing enough technically, may impact the ability to validate the quality. A good process can provide good management, bot not enough. Lack of business skills imply no follow-up sales or exhausting the budget to the last penny, both leading to reduced revenues and margins. This model often works, but fails often too.
2. Good PM Skills and weak people/organizational skills: In this scenario, the project manager is unable to have the right impact on the team. It hurts the project manager if he is caught in the web of office politics, and not knowing how to get out of it. It also could affect the team members, who feel unrecognized or burned out. Again, this model may work if the project manager has extremely good process skills and the project being relative simple.
3. Good People Skills and weak process skills: This is some nice guy who has just become a project manager, but has no experience in dealing with project issues. Everyone may like them, but they are never successful.
4. Good business skills and weak process skills: At times people get promoted to the role of a project manager, because they may be good with some technology or some system. It is extremely tough for such people to manage projects, if they are unaware of people skills or process skills. They may be able to communicate the value clearly, but unable to execute on the promise.

In a nutshell no matter how hot the market maybe (or how cold it is)- increasingly technically complex projects, ever-shortening time-to-market windows, and the need for cross-functional expertise have mandated that just having process skills is no longer enough. To be indispensable and powerful, project managers should look beyond process skills and into other knowledge areas.

Technorati Tags: project management, project managers, interpersonal skills, organization skills, communication skills, process skills

Workplace Issues #2: Job Boredom

Posted on March 28, 2006
Filed Under Careers, Workplace Issues | Leave a Comment

In my last entry I talked about what one could do, when his/her job becomes overwhelming. The different solutions suggested were based on the assumption that a person likes his job. But what should one do if the job has become mundane, routine and flat out boring.

Before we start let us take a look at the chart here. It charts the creativity (along Y-axis) versus Years at work (along X). During the first year, employees are more focused on the learning the system; creativity is low. Creativity bursts are then observed for the next few years, as seen in years 1-4. Then employees usually hit a plateau, where creativity is at a standstill. This is the phase where employees are skilled at what they are doing, and most can perform without much thinking. If left as is, creativity is bound to take a downfall as seen in the tail of the chart. The plateau is also the start of boredom/burnout at work.

There may be several symptoms for the above disease. So the first thing to do is to take some action to improve things at work.

• In my prior entry I talked about being overwhelmed at the job. Practice some of the suggestions or ask for coaching.
• If there is a loss of motivation, take on a project you can feel enthusiastic about. Set a goal for yourself, and reward yourself for a job well done. Motivation without nourishment has a marked negative impact on our performance.
• If the job is boring or lacks recognition or you have to deal with critical people, then understand what is expected of you. Seek out answers about what your scope of work is, how your function fits with the overall strategy etc.
• Take on a challenge, even if it is outside your line of work. For example, go ask the sales people how the sales process works in your company. Check if there are ways you can contribute. But don’t ignore your primary responsibilities.
• Try out some voluntary work while on the job.
• If the job is boring, ask your manager for more challenging work. Also, look down the road to assess whether in several months time you could ask for an internal transfer. Does the organization have a policy of promoting from within? Do new jobs come up very often or has everyone been in their jobs for years?
• If you have indeed reached the tail of your current role, then start looking for a new job. But be prepared to explain your decision to change jobs, during your next job interview

Job boredom usually leads to low self-esteem. Cynical managers will shrug their shoulders and insist that employees’ feelings are not their problem, especially in such a cruddy economy. So taking some sort of action, yourself, will make life more enjoyable as well. Take your time to ensure the next move is the right one. A good result is better than an instant result.

Technorati Tags: Workplace Issues, Job Boredom, Creativity, Motivation, Self Esteem, Challenges