Juanita Woods, PMP, MBA

“How do you win? By getting average players to play good and good players to play great. That’s how you win.” – Coach O. Andrew “Bum” Phillips, former NFL Coach

When you think of coaching, what comes to mind? Some burly guy (or girl) standing on the sidelines yelling plays to the team? It seems as if I grew up with coaches, in my family, at my school, more focused on winning than on playing well.

Well, today, in my professional life, coaching is taking on a different meaning.  No longer do I consider a coach just as someone telling me to do better or to win one for the team. Now, I see a coach as someone who encourages me to do my best while providing me the tools to succeed. I have had several great coaches in my career, and I give them much credit for being where I am today. I appreciate those coaches so much that I want to be a coach for others to help them to reach their potential.

This desire led me to research what it means to be a good coach, and I came across several great sources of information. Here I will share with you a few tidbits from one source, “Coaching Successfully,” by John Eaton and Roy Johnson.

Coaching, by definition, is the “art of improving the performance of others.”[1] Coaches focus on developing individuals and teams to perform at the best level possible. This means that all team leaders, supervisors, and managers have an opportunity to coach others. Good coaching leaders take time to coach, and make this one of their most important priorities.

In addition, good coaching leaders encourage their team to use existing skills and abilities as well as develop new skills and abilities. The more effective a leader is at coaching, the more they can delegate tasks and spend time on developing their team, which makes the team, and the entire department, more effective.

What can you take away from this? If you are responsible for supervising others, either formally or informally, remember that you are a coach, and you have the responsibility of not only making sure that others are doing their jobs, but that they are doing their jobs well. And, the more effective your team is at doing their job, the more effective you can be at leading your team!

Click link for book information at Amazon.com: Coaching Successfully (DK Essential Managers) [1] John Eaton & Roy Johnson, Coaching Successfully, Dorling Kindersley Publishing, Inc., New York, 2001, p. 6

Well, I am wrapping up an eight-week course on financial theories, and am using this as an excuse for my lack of blogging. But, my last assignment was just submitted, so I feel that I have a little breather to share with you my opinion on financial theories and how they relate to project management.

During this course, I found a great book, Finance and Accounting for Nonfinancial Managers. This book took the complex concepts of financial analysis (understanding balance sheets, ratios, etc.) and explained them in a way that I could understand. I used this book in conjunction with my assigned text books, and have come away from this class with a much better understanding of the underlying reasons for financial decisions made by companies.

So, exactly what did I learn? Well, as a project manager, I had a good idea of predicting and managing the budget at a project level, and even some understanding of the impact of projects at a program, or department, level, but never really thought about the financial impact at the organizational level. This understanding is crucial in the realm of portfolio project management and helps a program leader align project decisions with organizational strategy and decision-making. In fact, my final assignment for the financial theories class was to develop a research proposal, and my topic for this proposal was focused on how one theory, economic value-add, or EVA, can be used to improve the success rate in portfolio project management decision making. The hypothesis I am carrying forward assumes that applying EVA will have a positive impact on portfolio analysis, especially if a firm were to align project success using an EVA financial management system. It would be an interesting comparison to using traditional methods of portfolio analysis, which is based on priority and alignment with strategic goals. So, now to the literature search and collection of supporting information. I probably won’t turn this into a full dissertation, but if anyone does, please share your results with me (and pass a little credit for the hypothesis, please). Happy projects, everyone!

	Click Link for book information at Amazon.com: Finance & Accounting for Non-Financial Managers
	Click link for book information at Amazon.com: The New Corporate Finance

As long as there have been leaders, people have wondered what makes a great leader.  From Plato’s “great man” to Machiavelli’s prince to modern charismatic and transformational leaders, defining the characteristics of a great leader has been difficult, at best (Clawson, 2006, p. 379).  The characteristics of one great leader may not match the characteristics of another. 

Modern theory has moved away from the inborn traits of leaders to the interaction of leaders with followers as a way of defining exceptional leadership. The transition has focused less on the leader and more on the leadership demonstrated. This transition allows scholars and practitioners to define qualities of leadership that are less biased and more quantifiable. Transformational leadership is one such theory that is based on the relationship between leaders and followers and how one influences the other to improvement (Clawson, 2006, p.390). “Today’s business imperatives of speed and quality mean that executives must try harder and work longer hours to achieve results not merely intended to keep up with their competitors, but to blast them out of the water” (Sarros & Santora, 2001, p. 383). Transformational leadership enables today’s business leader to this level of improvement in that it leverages the intellect and motivation of followers to achieve the goals given to leaders (Sarros & Santora, 2001, p. 392).

References:

Clawson, J. G. (2006). Level three leadership: getting below the surface, third edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Level Three Leadership: Getting Below the Surface Value Package (includes Nightly Business Report Presents Lasting Leadership: What You Can Learn from the Top 25 Business People of our Times)

Sarros, J. C., & Santora, J. C. (2001). The transformational-transactional leadership model in practice. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 22(8), 383-393.

After finishing up the first week (of about 150 weeks to come) in my doctoral program, I am realizing just what a big undertaking I have started. Balancing family, work and the doctoral program is going to take some planning and lots of organization. Several of my classmates have discussed the importance of balancing our lives while in this program. I can see how important this is going to be over the next few years. With small children, a family business to support, and the various volunteer activities in which I am engaged, it may seem as if I am “biting off more than I can chew,” but in reality, I feel comfortable with the added challenge. I have always pushed myself to do more than seems comfortable, and have been somewhat successful so far. Maybe this is why I am working toward a doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership, as leaders take on challenge and strive to achieve seemingly impossible goals. I have noticed that great leaders are characterized by the desire to move beyond comfort zones and stretch politically, professionally and personally.

William J. Rothwell states in his book, Effective Succession Planning, that leaders are developed through extenuating circumstances, by inheriting problems that must be solved, experiencing job overload, or engaging in opportunities that stretches one’s ability to perform. In this case, Rothwell suggests that leaders are made, not born, and it is the responsibility of the organization to develop the next leaders of the organization. Therefore, as I advance in this program, I hope to find ways to help organizations identify, develop and retain quality leaders (hmmm… dissertation topic, maybe?).

Effective Succession Planning: Ensuring Leadership Continuity And Building Talent From Within (Click link to view book details on Amazon)

Contrary to popular belief, implementation planning is not merely installing a system one day and letting end users at the new system the next. Rather, implementation planning starts as soon as the project starts and actual implementation activities begin well before the system is ready to deploy. Too often, managers overlook the need to plan for the day the new systems or processes are ready to hand over to production. End user training, support planning, data migration planning, and fallback planning are just a few of the key areas that project managers must document to ensure a successful deployment.

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I recently finished a book by Curtis R. Cook, Just Enough Project Management, that suggests that not all projects have to apply the same level of project management in order to be successful. This small book is chock full of sample templates and checklists that can be applied to projects large and small.  Mr. Cook’s suggests in his book that the value of project management is in how it effectively translates business objectives into business results, and not in the size or comprehensiveness of the project management methodology being followed.

After reading this book, I believe this is a great complement to the PMI Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK®), but should not be considered a replacement.  Keep copies of both books at your desk, and you will have at your fingertips much of the process-related information for project management. 

A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: (Pmbok Guide)

Just Enough Project Management: The Indispensable Four-step Process for Managing Any Project, Better, Faster, Cheaper

Another important contribution to organizational success that project management can make is through improved communication. If the project manager conducts proper communications planning occurs and follows the plan, all aspects of the organization can see how a project is progressing along.

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…why PM, what do you say? 

I was asked this question not too long ago, and came up with the following justifications for implementing a project management practice in my organization.

The goal of business is to create successful outcomes. Successful outcomes can include increased profitability, improved market share, or whatever the business has as its strategic goals. Certain initiatives to achieve these types of goals require focused effort through planning and execution to reach success. That focused effort is project management.

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Gantthead.com is focused this month on social media and how this can help/hinder the project manager’s job of managing projects.

So, I joined the crowd and set up a twitter account of my own.  We will see how it goes.  The twitter account is the latest in a list of attempts by me to communicate and connect via the world wide web.  I am connecting with old friends, family, and professional associates. 

Let’s see, I have:

• LinkedIn Profile
• Google Groups – PMI® related groups: EdSIG and Proposed SW MO Chapter
• Two or three WordPress blogs, including this one.
• Facebook – reserved for family and friend connections … nothing professional here!
• MySpace – I only added this one at the urging of a cousin and the reality TV show, “Farmer Wants a Wife.”
• Twitter

I also believe I have set up accounts in various other places, but don’t keep track.  There is good and bad in having such easy access to others.  On the one hand, it can be overwhelming trying to keep up with all the communication points that are possible.  On the other hand, I can send a receive information that is relevant to me and my project management career.

Information overload can lead to less productivity, increased stress, and poor performance.  So, I am going to mitigate those risks, and limit my social media blitz to the really important topics and sites!

It’s a great day for chocolate!

juanita

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