When Motivational Factors Don't Exist

In most organizations there are traditional motivational factors that exist such as a monetary performance bonus, job title recognition, promotion into a different role, etc. When managing projects a key to success is having motivated project team members.

In my experience when the the standard motivational factors don't exist, you need to get personal with project team members.  You need to find out what motivates each individual on your team and then find how you can create the motivational situation.  Unfortunately, in some instances you just wont' be able to accommodate everyone and that's when other the other skills of a project manager will need to be engaged to ensure the success of your project. 

What do you do when the traditional motivation factors don’t exist on your project?

I have also started a discussion this topic on the Inside Consulting group on LinkedIn.
http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Project-Manager-Network-1-Group-37888?trk=myg_ugrp_ovr

Passion Is Everything

The Leadership of an organization can only do so much. We are all responsible to ourselves for invigorating passion into our line of work. How is passion defined? Passion is when people discover the work that motivates them to achieve their potential by seeking extreme performance improvement. Passion makes our job become more than a mode of income.

Why is passion so significant? Because it drives a questing character that is essential to employee performance as they react to the inevitable unexpected challenges/opportunities in today’s work environments. Passionate workers tend to participate more in the life and growth of an organization. If an organization can create an environment that encourages passionate workers, the organization will surely benefit.

Let's see some passion!

What Is The Million Dollar Question When Implementing Change?

Throughout my career I have been involved in projects that affect people and processes in many different ways. During project initiation the project requestor or manager would talk about all the great things that the project was going to do to benefit the organization. But often there was one thing that was lacking that should have been prior to initiating the project. In my mind that one thing is the million dollar question, “What is going to motivate people to get on board with this project?" If that question has not been answered, then without a doubt there will be an uphill challenge for the project to be successful.

So to sum it up before I start any project and preferably before the project request is submitted for approval from a sponsor or governance team, I always ask the million dollar question.

Learn where menu and toolbar commands are in Office 2010

Many of us have made the transition from Microsoft Office 2003 or 2007 to 2010 and are now spending a lot of time searching the ribbon for functions that we previously new the location.  Save yourself some time and check out this interactive link from Microsoft. 

Learn where menu and toolbar commands are in Office 2010 and related products

Should Hope Be Your Strategy For Success

On several occasions I have been in a meeting with clients and/or colleagues who defined their execution plan using the words hope or hopefully .  From my perspective hope really shouldn't be part of your strategy  for success.  Instead, I believe a person should be clearly articulating the objectives, deliverables, scope and change management plan that will be used to execute on the project.  Having an effectively planned strategy will allow a person to deliver a project without using words like hope or hopefully. 

What are your thoughts on hope as a strategy?

You Can't Make Everyone Happy

Several years ago I learned a valuable lesson which is that you can't make everybody happy. Now that doesn't mean that I go through my days looking to disappoint others, rather I know that at the end of the day someone will not be happy with the actions that I have taken or result that I provided them. Personally I have found that if you can go about your day without worrying about the little things you will be more successful in meeting expectations of the big picture.


What are your thoughts on this topic? Do you wake up in the morning knowing that you are going disappoint someone? How do you rest at the end of the day knowing that you may have failed to meet someones expectations?

Employees Are One of Our Top Priorities

Ask any executive of an company what their top priorities are and inevitably you will get a response of employees are top priority. If this is the case, how do we explain the enormous popularity of the comic strip Dilbert and television show The Office, which often tend to mock how companies don't create environments to build or develop employees. Companies will often focus on acquiring the best employees in the marketplace but once they have arrived don't spend much time to continue developing them. Furthermore when it comes to developing in house talent, companies will focus on developing training classes and programs for employees, while those are all fine I don't believe it is enough. From my perspective what companies should be doing is developing environments to enable development. Similarly to the theory of motivation, individuals are motivated by conditions of their environment not by words of encouragement. This motivational environment often leads to employees feeling fulfilled by what they do which drives better performance in the work place.

H-1B Visas Could Soon Cost Companies More

I recently ran across this article about a bill that is currently working its way through the legislature.  Could this mean then end to IT outsourcing as we know it?  What does it mean for all the companies that bring on non technology H-1B visa holders?  Once again I don't believe that our legislatures are looking at the big picture here.

What are your thoughts?

http://tinyurl.com/2bmz3q8

The Theory of Project Management Proactivity

The other day somebody said to me, "Life is 10% what happens and 90% about how you react."  Now most of us have heard this many times over, but I started asking myself, does this really apply to project management?  Project Managers spend a lot of time planning their project and performing risk mitigation. Thus, Project Managers are proactive and can often predict what is going to happen before the event actually occurs. Therefore I am making the statement that project management is 90% about being proactive and 10% reactive.  Now this theory may not be new to some, but it has yet to be documented on the web anywhere, at least according to Google and Bing

What are your thoughts?

Adjunct Faculty, A Professional Responsibility

A few years ago I was approached with an opportunity to join a local college as an adjunct faculty member.  At first I was somewhat hesitant because of the time commitment that would be required above and beyond my current professional and personal responsibilities.  However after a short conversation with a colleague I realized that educating others should not only be a part of my professional responsibilities but that I also have a social responsibility to be educating others about my profession.  Teaching gives you a new perspective on client communication.  Often the students that are in my classes have very little to no professional experience, while the clients that I work with often have multiple decades of professional experience. thus teaching has forced me to come up with creative ways to describe my professional experiences as it to relates to class topic in a way that my students will understand.  In turn my classroom communication experiences have now given me a different perspective when communicating with clients which ultimately leads to a better engagement with my clients. 

If you ever have the opportunity to educate and influence those who may eventually be a part of your project team, I would highly suggest jumping in feet first by becoming an Adjunct Faculty Member of a college or university.