The Softer Side of Project Management

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The Softer Side ofProject Management

• Making It CLICK
• October 8, 2003

Brent Carter, PMP Fifth Third Bank
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What You Should Expect
What Why How
Soft Skills
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Objectives

• Gain a better appreciation of soft skills in
  project management
• Understand how you can apply soft skills to make
  you and your team(s) more effective
• Walk away with specific ideas of what youre
  going to do differently

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The Hard and Soft of PM
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The Softer Side - Why Important?
Project Failure The Usual Suspects

• Lack of customer involvement
• Long or unrealistic time frames
• No clear assignment of authority/responsibility
• Lack of senior management support
• PM methodology not applied
• Poor or no requirements
• No control over changes

PEOPLE
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Whats So Hard About Soft Skills?
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Soft Skills in Project Management

• C
• L
• I
• C
• K

• ommunication
• eadership
• nfluence
• oaching
• eeping Commitments

Making It
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Soft Skills in Project Management

• Communication
• Leadership
• Influence
• Coaching
• Keeping Commitments

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Communication

• The biggest problem
• Most popular Lessons Learned issue
• Most difficult to solve
• The biggest solution
• Panacea for most problems
• Usually too broad
• Narrow it down

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Communication Dos and Donts

• Do tell people what you know and what you dont
  know
• Do consider audience and objective
• Do communicate both need-to-know and nice-to-know
  information

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Communication Dos and Donts

• Do tell people what you know and what you dont
  know
• Do consider audience and objective
• Do communicate both need-to-know and nice-to-know
  information

• Dont assume people know what you know
• Dont assume that people dont need to know
• Dont communicate so people will understand
  communicate so they cant not understand.

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Communication Planning

• Objective
• Audience
• Message, content
• Time frame, frequency
• Medium (How)

• Why
• Who
• What
• When
• Where

Communication Plan Template
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Soft Skills in Project Management

• Communication
• Leadership
• Influence
• Coaching
• Keeping Commitments

Leadership
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Leadership is NOT About
Being The Boss
Having All The Answers
Power And Control
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Leadership
The Leadership Challenge? The Five Practices
of Exemplary Leaders

• Challenge the Process
• Inspire a Shared Vision
• Enable Others to Act
• Model the Way
• Encourage the Heart

The Leadership Challenge Jim Kouzes, Barry
Posner, 2002
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Leadership

• The Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders
• Challenge the Process
• Champion change
• Resist weve always done it that way

• Inspire a Shared Vision
• Big picture why are we doing this project?
• Translate objective into specific roles,
  assignments where do I fit?

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Leadership
The Five Practices of Exemplary Leaders

• Enable Others to Act
• Provide people with the tools and information
  they need
• Give accountability AND authority
• Model the Way
• Lead by example
• Encourage the Heart
• Recognize accomplishments
• - individual and team

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Soft Skills in Project Management

• Communication
• Leadership
• Influence
• Coaching
• Keeping Commitments

Influence
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Influence
Influence Any attempt by a person to change
anothers behavior.
Sphere Of Influence
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Influence
Sphere of Influence
No Control
Influence
Control
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Influence
How can we influence others?

• Step in their shoes . .

• Manage their expectations
• Seek common ground
• Must be credible to persuade are you
  believable?
• Build relationships .

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Soft Skills in Project Management

• Communication
• Leadership
• Influence
• Coaching
• Keeping Commitments

Coaching
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Coaching
The process of equipping people with the tools,
knowledge, and opportunities they need to develop
their skills and become more effective. Leader
As Coach David D Peterson, Mary Dee Hicks
Coaching is not an event. Its a continuous
process.
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Coaching
Why is coaching important?

• Builds trust
• Develops team
  members skills
• Accelerates learning
• Increases self-sufficiency, confidence
• Improves team productivity, efficiency
• Frees up the leader

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Coaching

• P.O.D.
• Plan designate times to meet
• Observe look for and note specific behaviors
  and outcomes
• Discuss talk about observations and agree on
  improvements

• Look for The Coaching Moment

• Listen more than you talk

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Soft Skills in Project Management

• Communication
• Leadership
• Influence
• Coaching
• Keeping Commitments

Keeping Commitments
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Keeping Commitments

• Under-promise, over-deliver
• DWYSYWD
• Follow up, follow through

Bad news does NOT improve with time.
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Soft Skills in Project Management

• C
• L
• I
• C
• K

• ommunication
• eadership
• nfluence
• oaching
• eeping Commitments

Making It