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Communicating with the C-Suite

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One of the biggest challenges in moving from an Individual Contributor to a Project Manager is learning how to successfully communicate with both the team and the executive levels of the organization. 

When you are in charge of a project, suddenly you find yourself in that dreaded “middle manager” position. A Project Manager typically doesn’t have the formal authority that comes with having direct reports.  At the same time, you feel beholden to the demands of your Executive or Steering Committee.

Woman in black jacket sitting on chair working on a computer. Picture by Christina Morillo from Pexels

Communicating Up

In this post, we’ll talk about communicating “up”, because this is typically one of the biggest gaps in a new PM’s experience.

It can be intimidating to report to the executives of your organization for the first time.  It’s easy to get caught up and start to overthink things. What do they want to see? What’s the right level of detail? Will they be angry if I tell them bad news? What if I mess up?

Communication is as much art as science and it takes some practice, as well as paying attention to how your stakeholders react and to the questions they ask.

Years ago, I heard an explanation of corporate levels that really stuck with me. Essentially, the higher up you are in an organization, the farther ahead you need to look.  Individual Contributors focus on today or perhaps to the end of the week. Their managers are responsible to plan out to the end of the month, Directors the quarter, Vice Presidents the year and the President or CEO several years into the future.

The higher up in the organization the more one needs to look at trends rather than details. Executives focus on the impact of decisions and actions, not the particulars of the work being done. It’s fewer details and more vision. It’s knowing what’s coming up, being mindful of the past, and figuring out how all the pieces fit together.

So what do they need from you?

You can help both of you be more successful by understanding how your project fits into the company as a whole and by paying attention to the type of information that will either reduce risk or increase benefit in their area of responsibility.

Specifically, let’s talk about status reports, as these are one of the most common ways we are asked to communicate with our executives. At first glance, a status report seems so high level that it doesn’t really explain what’s going on in the project. Maybe it’s just a monthly traffic light system and if you’re “green” in budget, scope, and resources, they won’t pay much attention to these areas. They will only focus on items that are at risk or anything coming up which requires their time or participation.

Your Steering Committee isn’t supposed to focus on the underlying details – they trust you and your team to get it done. And that is also why you should never “water down” these reports.  Executives don’t need to know the everything about the project – that’s why they hired you! But they do need to understand when a deliverable is at risk so they can take action to help you and your team.

A Different Point of View

They also may need to shift other elements in the organization based on your information. Just like you don’t give them the details on the project, they don’t tell you everything going on outside your project. Remember, the higher the title, the longer the view.

Approach each communication with your executives from their point of view, whether it’s in a status report, monthly meeting, or even answering an email. Ask yourself: what information can help them be confident the project is on track, understand the areas of risk, or know where the project needs their help?

Also, keep in mind that no one starts out as a VP. Everyone on your leadership team, at some point in their career, has been an individual contributor. Maybe they started in accounting or worked on the shop floor. Perhaps they were a Business Analyst. Even if their current position doesn’t warrant project details, they know how important those details are to get the job done.

A Two-Way Street

Finally, communication is a two-way street. You need data and feedback from management, too. If you have questions or need guidance, be willing to ask.  Your Steering Committee wants the project to succeed and they’re trusting you to give them enough notice so they can help.

What Happens To Your Team When You Do It All?

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(Part 3 in a 3-Part Series on PM Overwhelm)

This is the third post in a series about Overwhelm.

As ideas tend to develop, it started when I was feeling quite a bit overwhelmed and didn’t feel like writing my weekly Leadership Blog. But I didn’t want to let my readers down. I had to “show up”.

So that’s what I wrote about.

In that post, I talked about how the first step to overcoming overwhelm is to remember why we’re a Project Manager in the first place.

We really do enjoy what we do for a living – and wouldn’t actually give it all up to paint fences (and if you would, what are you waiting for? Follow your bliss!).

Last week I continued with one of the chief causes of overwhelm in project management: delegation…or lack thereof.

Sometimes it’s so hard to “let go and let someone else on the team.” Whether we feel we can do it better ourselves or we don’t want to put more on someone else’s plate, it leaves too much on our plate!

The focus of that post was about how we can learn where we should be delegating and how to ease into proper delegation.

Now it’s time to turn our attention to our team and how our overwhelm – and lack of delegation – affects them.

Because if we hold onto tasks that our team should be responsible for, then we cause more harm than just to ourselves!

Here are a few ways our teams can suffer when we don’t delegate properly:

  • They don’t learn as much about the project or their part of the solution being implemented
  • They can feel undervalued, unimportant, or not trusted
  • They don’t grow as a team
  • They don’t have a Project Manager with enough mental capacity for guidance or help

I’m a mom, so I have an analogy with parenting. As our children grow, we teach them skills appropriate to their age and ability. My kids started doing their own laundry when they could work the washer & drier. Then they learned how to cook a meal on the stove. Then came driving lessons.

These life skills (my kids call it “Adulting 101”) will help them be successful and more confident when they live on their own.

Will I still be available to answer questions? Yes. Is there always more to learn? Of course. But they won’t grow if I don’t teach them, let them try, ruin a few dinners, and figure out how to do better the next time.

Bringing it back to project management, part of our job as a leader is to develop our team.

The goal is not to train them on their vocation (engineering, programming, marketing, etc.). These are the skills that brought them onto the project in the first place. The goal is to help them be successful and more confident as individual players and as a working group.

Many team members are hyper-focused on their job in their discipline. They’re comfortable & successful in their lane. But the project works better when there’s more cross-pollination.

When we help our people pick their head up and look around, they grow.

For example, if there’s a roadblock in the manufacturing piece of the project, maybe we help determine the right people to be in the meeting…and let our manufacturing lead handle the call. Just be there to guide and make sure decisions are made and action items assigned.

If it takes more than one meeting, consider letting go of the reins even more. Take a step back. Do we really need to be there? Will our lead be able to bring the issue to resolution?

Easing the team into running their own small group issue meetings counters the problems we mentioned above. With proper delegation:

  • The team is learning about the project and their part in it’s success
  • They feel valued and important – trusted by their PM to work through an issue broader than their one area
  • Because there’s a cross-functional team involved, the whole team grows as a unit

But what about the struggle the team has with us? What about the issue that says “They don’t have a Project Manager with enough mental capacity for guidance and help”?

That’s where our team’s growth helps us with our overwhelm!

Back to parenting, every time I teach my kids a new skill, it helps ease a bit out of my own schedule. I no longer do their laundry. Knowing how to cook plus a driver’s license means they can successfully go to the store to buy groceries for the family…and help with dinner!

Yes, they’re not ready to run their own household – I still need to guide, handle the bigger responsibilities, keep them “on task”.

Same thing for project management: we’re still in charge and ultimately responsible. But we will spend more time guiding and less time “taking over”. Properly delegating to our team members means we have more time and mental energy for our team’s questions.

In the end, it takes all 3 components to drain our overflowing cup:

  • Remembering why we signed up for this job in the first place
  • Acknowledging what is truly our role as a PM…and what really belongs to someone else
  • Intentionally looking for ways to help the team grow – and then doing it

Honestly, when we start from a place of overwhelm, even steps to help ourselves can feel like too much. So break it down into the tiniest pieces possible. Doing just a little bit every day adds up to big changes before long.

When you’re feeling overwhelmed, remember: you’re a Project Manager. You organize, you problem solve, you move tough projects forward…you got this!

Stay safe, stay healthy – and lead on!

To Delegate or Not To Delegate…

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…That’s Not Even a Question!

(Part 2 in a 3-part series on PM Overwhelm)

In Part 1 I wrote about feeling so overwhelmed you don’t have the energy or mindset to do even the things that you enjoy (you know, like I didn’t want to write that blog post!). The focus was on how to keep ourselves moving forward in spite of the overwhelm.

This time let’s talk about why.

Why do we feel overwhelmed? And what can we do about it?

One of the reasons we can feel crushed by tasks and responsibilities may have to do with our ability (or reluctance) to delegate.

Here are a few common culprits:

“I’m a perfectionist.”

“I feel bad pushing more work on my team.”

“it’s just faster for me to do it myself.”

Sound familiar?

So okay, maybe we can all take a deep breath and just push the work out…? In reality, making a change by sheer force of will is tough – especially when you’re already feeling stressed out.

I’d love to tell you there’s an “Easy” button, but just like any other habit, it does take time and effort to change.

Here is one way to start the ball rolling:

Take an assessment of your time during the day – pay close attention to what you plan vs. what you’re actually working on. And track it.

This will help you understand how much time you focus on things that aren’t really your responsibility. That 15 minute task may really take an hour and you’ll have no idea…unless you pay attention to it.

I like to use my Outlook calendar for this exercise…and some color coding. Here’s how I do it:

  1. I plan out my day, hour by hour…or half hour by half hour, if necessary. (This is a great thing to do anyway – helps prioritize the most important items into my schedule!)
  2. As each next task block arrives, I go back into my calendar and take a minute to assess: was I really working on the testing metrics…or did I slip into solving a testing issue for a team member?

The result?

Sometimes I’ll discover I took the first ½ hour of a 60 minute block gathering metrics, the next ½ hour troubleshooting the issue, and then I need an additional ½ hour to finish up the metrics. (Which, of course, requires shifting around the rest of the day’s work!)

Whatever time you spent on work that belongs to someone else, color code it orange in your calendar. At the end of the day, it will be very easy to see how much time you’ve spent on work that should have been delegated.

Now that you can see what you’re not delegating appropriately, it’s time to fix it.

Unfortunately, that’s the hard part!

My advice here is to start small: take something you know you should delegate and work on that first.

For example, if you tend to start solving an issue rather than delegating the fix, have a plan the next time you gather those testing metrics. Perhaps schedule your metrics time when you know your business analyst is available so you can connect with him real-time.

Eat that elephant 1 bite at a time. But keep chomping away. It’ will be worth the effort!

In the final part of this series on Overwhelm, we’ll talk about how lack of delegation impacts your team and your project…so stay tuned!

Stay safe, stay healthy – and lead on!

I Just Didn’t Feel Like Posting Today!

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(This is Part 1 of a 3-Part Series on PM Overwhelm)

I seriously didn’t feel like writing a blog post today. Honestly! I’ve got a thousand things going on and all of them scream “I need to be done NOW!”

But isn’t that the life of a Project Manager?

We need to focus on one item but are pulled in a hundred different directions. We’re constantly evaluating: what do I work on first? Which fire do I put out next? What can be pushed off a bit?

Sometimes it feels like the real question is: “Who am I going to disappoint today?”

I bet most of you are nodding your head and saying, “Yup, I hear you!” in complete empathy.

But I guess the times we’re overwhelmed are exactly the times we do need to “show up.”

Several reasons come to mind:

  • People are counting on us – our teams need decisions and direction…and support
  • It’s always worse if you put something off – a small flame today is a big fire tomorrow
  • There will be other fires tomorrow – easier to face them without today’s still raging in the background

But amidst this crazy and sometimes exhausting life we’ve chosen, we have to ask ourselves: would we really want someone else’s job?

Let’s face it, we were drawn to this profession for a reason. Can you see yourself as an accountant or a fireman or a teacher (even if you came from those professions – you wound up here, right?)

There is something that pulled us to Project Management.

  • We love the challenge of a new project – learning, figuring it all out, getting everything working together
  • We enjoy (or can’t help) organizing and scheduling
  • We are drawn towards process, metrics, leading teams, seeing something through to the end

And when we’re done with the old…there’s always a new project just around the bend!

So even if you’re tired and feeling overwhelmed by your responsibilities, count your blessings – remember why you showed up in the first place.

Stay safe, stay healthy – and lead on!

Can I Get A Word In Edgewise?

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Remember the days of being in the same room as your team?

Most of the world has been remote for a long time. But I’ve heard rumblings that some people are heading back to the office…and some aren’t.

While I don’t bring this up to comment on the state of the world in the coming months, I do want to talk about the difficulties managing a team that’s only partially remote.

One particular time sticks in my head. I was on a conference call with my Core Team. Usually, I was in the room and could keep the meeting on track. But this time I was one of the team members who dialed in, while others were in the office.

WOW. That was one tough meeting.

I felt like I was “on mute” the whole time – I couldn’t get a word in without someone talking over me! It was as if the people in the room felt like they were the only people involved in the project – those on the phone were on the outside looking in.

As the leader, I struggled to communicate with the folks in the room. It was a really big reminder of how my remote team members feel whenever I held a meeting from the main office.

The reality moving forward may be a partially remote team. That’s so much more difficult than everyone remote!

So what’s the solution? How can we make sure everyone feels involved?

One way is what I call “All On or All In”.

That means, if everyone isn’t in the room, everyone dials in from their desk. I realize that “all on” can be challenging, as some people work next door to each other in the office.

But there are ways to handle that. The most obvious is to use headphones so you don’t hear audio from the cubicle next door.

What it does not mean is “cheating” and having 3 people in a conference room looking at 1 person’s projection on the wall.

Make it a level playing ground. If no one can have a sidebar conversation, the whole team feels included. And that makes team bonding a whole lot easier.

Stay safe, stay healthy – and lead on!

My office is a mess…

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My office is a total mess. Papers on the floor…and the chair…and the counter tops. Stickies with reminders…and notebooks, regular books, pens & pencils. It’s driving me crazy!

It’s not always a mess. In fact, I’m generally a very neat person. But I’m at a point in my project that demands so much time and attention that filing and straightening up are just not a priority right now.

Can you relate?

Project Managers are used to the swells and troughs of workload on a project. I know that soon I’ll be able to take a step back and literally clean house before the next surge of work hits.

We need to remember that not all our team members understand this. And they may go a little extra crazy when the wall of work hits. When their stress level soars, they don’t have the comfort of knowing that there really is an end to it…at least until the next milestone.

It’s our job as leaders to teach our team the realities of project work. We warn them when a surge is coming, support them when it’s busy, and make sure things really do calm down when the storm is over.

How do we do this? I have a few approaches to share with you:

  • Periodically, review the high level project plan with them. Explain the milestones. Let them know when to expect surges so they’re not surprised
  • As a heavy workload time approaches, don’t just remind them about it. Start strategizing on how to cope with the impact before it hits
  • During intense times, keep them focused on what’s real. Help them to prioritize their workload. Make sure they know they’re not alone
  • Know what you will be able to cut out if you need to. Understand when to be flexible and when you need to draw the line on workarounds that are inevitably suggested
  • Once you achieve the milestone, make sure they take some time off, or at least work more relaxed hours. A burned-out team member isn’t good for anyone

Most importantly, show your appreciation for their efforts before, during, and after the intense times. It may not be possible to do something extravagant, but I’ve found that the best received form of a thank you is an honest one.