Gray Areas are Wonderful Places

As people rise up the ranks in management, there comes a time that they learn a very important lesson - management exists to live in the gray and to provide direction for the rest of the team to follow.

Managing gray is really a very dangerous activity -> if you lean toward one end more often than is perceived as required will bring you negative reviews. An example of a gray area is "the desire to service your customers" vs "the capacity to realistically deliver everything they ask for" or the gray area on " I believe in this employee and will give him a second chance" vs "I am sacrificing my company's interest by keeping him" or a simpler gray area that matches speed vs thoroughness. Work too fast on a project and you can be called reckless, work too thorough and you can be labeled as slow.

The key to successfully managing the gray is developing the ability to develop the sense to know, case by case, where you would lean into - to truly understand where the benefit will really lie and be wise in deciding and communicating the basis for the decision and what it means tactically to your team. There is no "one size fits all" nor a "silver bullet"

Few people understand the gray areas and fewer still write about it but there is a book that writes about it that I found enlightening in this discussion - >Managing the Gray Areas.

The thing is - we also quickly realize that the higher we go up the ranks, the bigger the gray areas become - eg "should I keep the model of this company being its new CEO and be reviewed as risk-averse" or "I should change the model of this company as its new CEO so I will be reviewed as revolutionary and out-of-the-box" thinker.

Bottom line - if you can't swim in the gray area and if you can't grow it - it will quickly show - not only through your output but also in the belief your team has for you...manage it will and it will be the only place you want to be.

The Power of Belief

Whether you believe you would succeed or not in your endeavors and projects - you are right. Similar to the saying "what you eat is what you are" - what you truly believe will be will be.

I have read and heard so many stories that centers on the power of belief - the miner that never stopped believing he will one day find gold and after 17 years - he did and for each day of that 17 years he never stopped believing - or the story of the lottery winner who said that 2 months before she one it - she believed 100% that she will win and the belief was so strong that she actually won the amount she believed she would win - 100,000. Just read around - the stories are all over if you open your eyes to them. So many of them that it can't be just a matter of luck or due to chance encounters. It can only be because of one thing - a strong belief - faith.

The same goes with those projects that seem to be way over what you are capable of or too career risking or too complex or too difficult. They are what they are because you already convinced yourself early on that they carry those characteristics. If you believe though that whatever gets thrown at you - you would make yourself succeed then congratulation - you are already on your way.

A lot of people want to believe and a lot more would claim they tried it and it never happened. Doubt is the enemy because doubt paralyzes potential and prevents success.

Don't be a victim of doubt - believe - have faith - and it will be.

How to Reach Your Career Destination - the GPS Way

A lot of us wonder why we seem to be stuck in our careers or why we have not yet reached our goal but at the same time though we have no problem using our GPS to get to our destinations so let's see how we can use the same GPS methodology to get to where we want to be.

1. Know exactly where you are going. Don't just think to yourself - I want to be a CEO or a VP or the best entrepreneur there is - really plan out the details - as if you are already living it. Write down your age, what your position is,what you are earning, where you a living - with as much detail as possible. Even GPS units need the whole address to get to its destination.

2. Know exactly where you are now. If you are not entirely sure by just thinking about it yourself because you are too "in to it" - do what GPS units do - find satellites. Industries typically call these reviews a 360 degree review but be brave and ask the questions that need to be ask from your peers, direct reports, managers - anyone who can give you their perspective of where you are right now.

3. Know how to get from here to there. Determine the best route possible based on your risk-tolerance or desire. Do you want a faster route - which may mean higher levels of stress(GPS analogy - tolls)? Do you want the scenic route? Do you want to avoid side streets or what we may call horizontal learning?

4. Check regularly if you are still on track and if not, recalculate. Putting down the end point, knowing your start point and drawing a line between the two points is just the start but a big start. You must also be prepared for unexpected turn of events or change in plans. The "street" you were planning to traverse might be under constructin or closed and thus you must regularly check your progress and make changes when necessary. You might even decide along the route that your end point has changed but the same steps apply - just follow your own internal GPS.

Career Advice for Project Managers

I have a team of people right now that all have sparks in them and on one-on-one discussions with them - most of them want to be project managers. I just know that all of them will become great project managers someday and I see myself as one of the few people who can help them get there faster...by telling them what mistakes I had and how I learned from them and hopefully they learn the lessons faster than I ever did...I figured that my own success is driven by them becoming great project managers in their own right so I always see this as a win-win move.

My team gets juicier projects and our sponsors know that even amidst of several high profile, complex projects - my team delivers.

One of the basic discussion points though that I think most people miss that is critical to their careers is knowing what they want to be when they grow up and I am not talking about people wanting to be VPs or even CEOs at some point in their lives but truly describing in detail how they see themselves becoming that person and what exactly are they doing by then and most importantly knowing what would it take for them to get from where they are now to where they truly truly want to be.

I always tell them that it is like using a GPS - their own career GPS so to speak.

1. Know in detail where you want to be (eg you typing the exact address in your GPS and not just the city)
2. Know exactly where you are right now (even the GPS does this first time you turn it on)
3. Know the milestones or critical turns that you need to remember along the way
4. Check every now and then if you are still on the right path
5. Expect surprises along the way and when they happen, be ready to take action and change direction if need be

The Project Management Circus: Act 3 - The Juggler

The juggler is one of the most common acts in the circus as it is in project management.

How many times has a project manager been thrown into a situation that he only does not need to balance between scope, cost and schedule but balance as well his emotions vs leadership, balance between his team's productivity vs team morale  - even balance between himself vs his project? Somehow the idea of juggling a chainsaw, a bowling ball, a torch, a 60 lb jug and an axe while blindfolded and riding a unicycle - on a tightrope seems simpler to do right?

The key to success in this act is to always know what are the things up in the air (the tasks), what is the first thing you need to catch(what is the priority), when do you need to catch it (the schedule), how will you catch each one without hurting yourself(the process) and should you be the one to catch it in the first place (the skill of working the matris).Most importantly - always trust that your knowledge will carry you through and this is where experience comes in. The more experience you have in balancing all the aspects of a project - the more the act becomes second nature to you - so much so that you can manage to wow the crowd even when you are blindfolded.

Lesson learned - don't shy away from project tasks that seem bigger than you think you can do now - always believe in your ability to stretch your comfort zone and you will soon find yourself juggling not only tasks - but juggling several million dollar projects all at the same time.

And the Sponsors Said "Let There Be...A Project". And There Was.

Everusince I was a young boy, around age 7, I have always been drawn to the power of the engineer to create something...a bridge, a house, a new material..even the next type of fuel. My favorite toy was even the LEGO.

I was so attracted to the idea of creation that I eventually graduated from the university with a Mechanical Engineering degree, finished 4th on the National Board Examination and I was so excited when I created my first professional design in Autocad and I saw it constructed and working - it is like fatherhood in a way when you see your creations at work.

I eventually entered the field of Information Technology due to its promised career acceleration and for awhile I missed the adrenaline rush of creation ..until my career eventually took a turn and I started managing projects.

Project creation and management brings back the thrill of creation for me. You start out with an idea - a thought. You then proceed with defining the framework on how to realize the project benefits..create your team..draw up the project plan and execute it to completion.

I am so addicted to the thought of project success that I envision it fully from the start and I guess that is one of the things that I learned from being an engineer - you have to see your final product in your mind even before you begin lifting your pencil to draw.

I have always lived by three words since I was an engineer and these words still carry me to success today - Conceive...Believe...Achieve.

KNOW your team

As a project manager, I would argue that KNOWing your team is one of the most important thing you should do, especially if you are a program or portfolio manager who will have several projects running at the same time with different stakeholders and the only consistent, binding link you have with all these projects is your team.

How do you know your team and how do you use the knowledge? I typically ensure that I have or can get the following for each of my team members:

1) Basic Information - name, experience, expertise, skills, education - all your general resume-level information. This is his "what was and what is" information.
2) Career Goals - and based not just on "where do you think you are in 5 years" type of questions. A person may be an expert today at a certain skill but is dying to get out it and hates doing the same thing again. This is his "what is the future he wants to see" and can it be in your team.
3) Work Preferences - is he the type of person who prefers to work alone or in a team setting. I have seen individuals who excel when doing some tasks all by themselves. Don't discount them immediately out of your team if you know he has a fit in your team.
4) Culture Fit - will he fit with the "culture" of the overall team, including yours
5) Leadership Potential  - regardless of what role he might play in your team, although this comes more in handy when you are a program or portfolio manager obviously. This also is an important input in your "9-box" analysis of your team which is anothe topic in itself
6) Current Rate and perceived self-value growth rate
7) Unique traits and situations - for example - does he have any pet peeves that may affect his work?

Knowing the above for each of your team members and knowing your project - you can now do your "mission impossible" team selection and formation ensuring that each role is critical and that each player playing the role will complement the rest of the team.