From the category archives:

Leadership

How do you treat the waiters on your project team?

by Alec Satin

Last week Lori and I took a working vacation on Cape Cod. Have you ever taken one of these? Meetings are by conference call. Your laptop comes with you. You find yourself in a beautiful locale, preferably with someone you love. While perhaps not exactly restful, such times can be incredibly refreshing and stimulating. On the way to the Cape we had a fantastic meal in Mystic, CT at the Captain Daniel Packer Inne, which is recommended if ever you find yourself in that part of the world. While waiting I read a column in a local paper which talked [...]

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Mentoring how to: Mentor and be mentored!

by Alec Satin

This month I had my first meeting with a new mentor. We met after work at the Radiance tea house in Manhattan. The location was convenient. The atmosphere was soothing, quiet and conducive to the kind of focused and relaxed conversation which marks good mentoring. I left feeling hopeful, inspired and ready to act.

Have you ever thought of working with a mentor? Here are some guidelines.

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Judgment – How Leaders Make Decisions

by Alec Satin

Your performance as a project manager is directly tied to your ability to make good decisions consistently. This past week I was scrounging around my someday-maybe books to read pile when I came across Noel Tichy’s and Warren Bennis’s Judgment: How winning leaders make great calls. A few wonderful hours browsing this 370-odd page tome yielded the following basic concepts. They may be helpful to you as you think about your own decision making. Leadership Judgment Process Great decisions are more ongoing process than single action. Tichy and Bennis divide decision making into a three stage process: (a) Preparation, [...]

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Pleasing Stakeholders Linkfest: Everything You Ever Wanted To Know But Were Afraid To Ask.

by Alec Satin

(Okay, perhaps not everything. And perhaps you didn’t want to know. But please keep reading – this may be of interest to you.) Why a Stakeholder Linkfest This past week I took part in three different conversations in which the success (and in one case failure) of a project could be related back to the relationship the project manager had with the stakeholders. Key to your success as a project manager is your ability to understand the opportunities, desires and needs of your stakeholders. You may know this intellectually, but is it part of your day to day practice? How [...]

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10 Ways to Destroy the Effectiveness of Your Project Management Office (PMO)

by Alec Satin

For every PMO that delivers on its initial promise, there are two that hobble along, never really achieving much in terms of bottom-line benefit to customers, project managers, stakeholders or the business itself. It’s pretty easy to eliminate most if not all benefits of a Project Management Office. Which of the following hold true for your PMO? Make sure to set up a climate of fear. Emphasize the penalties of non-compliance. Use the stick and not the carrot. Make sure to locate the program office as far away from the project managers as possible. Extra points if you make communication [...]

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