Gaining Support for Your Projects

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Working EffectivelyHow You Can Make a
Difference in Your OrganizationLeslie Martinich
Mundo PM 06 July, 2007
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Overview

• To be effective
• Understand yourself
• Understand your relationships
• Understand your organization

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1. Understanding Yourself

1. What are your strengths?
2. What are you supposed to contribute?
3. How do you best perform?
4. How do you learn?
5. How do you best communicate?
6. How do you solve problems?
7. How do you plan?

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A.StrengthsTalent Passion Skills

• Talents are part of the picture
• Passions are another part of the picture
• Skills are another part

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What Do You Enjoy Doing?
Dance
Solve Problems
Manage Teams
Cook
Complete Projects
Swim
Presentations
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What Are Your Skills?
Drive
Software Development
Manage Teams
Speak Multiple Languages
Manage Projects
PowerPoint
Presentations
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Talents Passions Skills

• Combine talents, passions and skills to find
  strengths

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What do YOU Enjoy?

• Take 5 minutes to write down 10 things that you
  enjoy
• They do not have to be work related
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________

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What SKILLS do YOU have?

• Take 5 minutes to write down 10 skills that you
  have.
• They do not have to be work related.
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ______

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Intersection
PASSIONS
SKILLS
Your Strengths
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B. What Do You Contribute?

• Who are your customers?
• What do they need?
• What can you provide within the next 9 12
  months?

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Your Customers

• The person in the next cubicle or office?
• Another department?
• Your manager?
• The end users of your products or services?

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What Do They Need?

• Schedule?
• Quality?
• Features?
• Cost reduction?

?
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Your Contribution

• Take 5 minutes to write down
• Who is your customer?
• What does your customer want?
• What results have to be achieved in order to make
  a difference?
• With your strengths, what can you do to
  contribute?

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C. Peak Performance

• Different people perform better under different
  circumstances
• Some people prefer to work
• alone
• in groups
• in large organizations
• in small organizations

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YOUR Peak Performance (1)

• Consider a time when you were very effective.
• Were you
• Alone or in a group?
• In a big organization or a small one?
• Solving problems methodically or trying out quick
  ideas?
• How did you learn what you needed in order to be
  effective?

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YOUR Peak Performance (2)

• I performed very well when _______________________
  __________________________________________________
  _________________________________________________
• The conditions for my peak performance
  include___________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  _________________________________
• Figure out where you can be the best at what you
  do!
• How can you differentiate yourself?

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D. Learning Approaches

• People learn through different approaches
• Some people learn by
• Reading the manual
• Watching others
• Trying things out
• Thinking the problem through
• Attending training
• Asking questions

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Learn to Learn

• Lifetime learning expertise
• What to learn
• Significant patterns
• Principles
• Fundamental concepts
• Then build on those

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Where to Focus YOUR Learning

• What are the fundamental concepts that apply to
  your industry?
• _________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  _____________________
• How can you build on those?
• _________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  _______________________

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E. Communication

• Some people communicate directly
• Some people communicate indirectly
• Some people communicate verbally
• Some people communicate in writing
• Some people communicate using body language

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My Preferred Communication Style
Oral
Email
Telephone
Written
Details
Big Picture
Indirect
Direct
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Communication Styles

• Fill in the boxes with your preferred style and
  the preferred styles of others
• What is a good way for you to communicate with
• others?

You Your Manager Your Co-worker Your Customer

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F. Problem Solving

• People have different approaches to problem
  solving

Quickly try many ideas
Methodically analyze problem
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Both Problem Solving Approaches are Needed

• Methodical approach is good for solving problems
  that require deep understanding
• Rapid trial approach is useful for new,
  previously unseen problems that require quick
  action
• You need both types of problem-solvers on your
  team!!
• Are you a careful planner or a quick
  responder ?

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G. Different Planning Approaches

• Careful, structured planning approach
• Useful for well-known problems and projects
• Flexible, adaptable approach
• Useful for unforeseen problems and novel
  situations
• BOTH occur in many workplaces!

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What is YOUR Planning Approach?

• Take 5 minutes to consider the approach you are
  most comfortable with.
• In what situations is this approach useful?
• When might you want someone with the other
  approach?
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  _________________________________

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Understanding Yourself

• In order to be effective, you need to understand
• Your strengths
• Your contribution
• The conditions for your best performance
• Your learning approach
• Your preferred communication approach
• Your problem-solving approach
• Your planning approach

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2. Understand Your Relationships

• They can be
• Collaborative
• Contentious
• Cooperative
• Competitive
• Close
• Distant
• Good
• Bad

• With
• Co-workers
• Customers
• Managers
• Employees
• Other Departments

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Relationships

• They can be
• Trusting
• Mistrusting

• Types
• Peer
• Mentor
• One-way
• Two-way
• Multi-dimensional

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Trust

• Are you able to hand off tasks that you once did,
  in order to take on new projects?
• An effective project manager cannot DO the entire
  project alone. He or she must be willing to trust
  others to do tasks.

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Maintaining Relationships

• Understand others
• Needs
• Goals
• Fears
• Communication preferences
• Know where they are now
• Anticipate where they will be

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Working Relationships

• Consider your managers (or co-workers)
• Interests
• Needs
• Strengths

• Consider your own
• Strengths
• Contribution

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Write Down What You Might Say

• I recognize that you need these particular
  results from me. This is what I am good at.
  This is how I can best contribute. These are the
  results I expect to deliver.

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Example

• I know that you need accurate project schedules.
  I have shown that I am good at estimating
  schedules and work breakdown. I can best
  contribute by developing the project plan and
  managing the details, rather than managing the
  people. I can manage the schedule and provide
  you ACCURATE weekly project status.

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Working Relationships

• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ______
• Write down Your managers needs, your strength,
  your contribution, your expected results

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3. Understand Your Organization

• What are your organizations goals?
• How does your organization work?

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What are your organizations goals?

• Be the best in its market?
• Succeed through innovation?
• Succeed through efficiency?
• Succeed through customer service?

These are different strategies. Do you know what
yours is?
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How Does Your Organization Work?

• Which parts of the organization are responsible
  for revenues?
• Which parts are responsible for quality?
• Which parts are responsible for innovation?

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Organizational Balance

• Rely too much on control
• Loss of creativity!

• Rely too much on empowerment
• Anarchy!

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Balance Requires Both

• For
• Future growth
• Innovation
• New Products
• You need
• Flexibility
• Empowerment
• Risk taking

• For
• Current revenues
• Efficient product or service delivery
• You need
• Schedules
• Predictability
• Control

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Innovation S-Curve
Need control and process
Need flexibility
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Where are YOU?

• Is your part of the organization focused on
  delivering current products more efficiently?
• OR
• Is your part of the organization focused on
  developing innovative products for the future?
• Do you need to focus on process improvement or on
  flexibility?

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Alignment

• Understand your organizations goals.
• Align your goals with your organizations goals.
• Organizations goals _____________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ___________________________________________
• Your goals
• _____________________________________________
  ________________

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The Marketplace

• What skills, products or services are currently
  in high demand?
• Within your organization
• In the world in general
• This is the expertise for which you will be
  rewarded

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The Golden Triangle
Skills
Passions
Marketplace
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Watch for Changes in the Marketplace
Skills
Passions
Marketplace
When the Marketplace changes, you need to adapt
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Where SHOULD YOU Be?

• Given your strengths (talents passions
  skills)
• AND
• your contribution
• AND
• your peak performance environment
• AND
• your organization
• Where do you best fit?
• __________________________________________________
  __________________________________________________
  ____________________

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Working Effectively!

• We need all types for effective problem solving,
  planning and product or service delivery!
• Challenge figure out how to integrate all the
  pieces

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Questions?

• Leslie Martinich
• lmartinich_at_ieee.org or
• leslie_at_competitivefocus.com
• THANK YOU!!