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Attitude

January Holiday Card Review is More Than Tradition

January 22, 2023 by abuttiglieri

Every January I take time to re-read the Christmas cards I received from friends and family. It’s so busy in December that it can feel like opening cards is just another to-do on my already long list. But once the holidays are over and winter settles in, I make a cup of tea, curl up on my sofa, and go through the cards at a more leisurely pace.

What I love most about my January tradition is noticing the little details in each card; more than how old the kids are or if someone changed addresses, but “I wonder what they loved most about their time in San Diego?” and “wow, he looks more and more like his dad every year!”

Some of my favorite cards are the ones with personal notes and family letters. We have one friend who sends a picture of himself and his wife…and their latest bunny. I always look forward to seeing that one!

Each holiday card is unique and reflects the personality of the sender.

Each card is special because it shows the sender’s unique personality and how they approach the holidays.

Have you noticed how wide the variety is in the cards? Sparkles, stickers, photos, drawings, and cartoons. Card stock, photo paper, flat, folded…it’s incredible. I always wonder: why did they select this particular card? What did they like so much about it? “Because they were on sale” doesn’t tell the whole story – there was more than one design in the sale rack. They chose that card.

Even doing the same task, individuality comes through. Each person approaches buying, preparing, and sending holiday cards from a completely different angle.

So—how about your team, your executives, and your end users?

You’ve heard that when you gather ten people in a room they come out with eleven different opinions. This shouldn’t be a surprise. But have you ever thought about why?

Everyone at work is influenced by their position and department, the corporate culture, how their week is going, and their enjoyment of the task at hand. They’re also impacted daily by how they slept the night before, the weather, the traffic, the day of the week, their personal relationships, and past experience.

I could go on, but the point is this: it’s nearly impossible for two people on the same team to have identical views on anything.

How do you get anything done without resorting to draconian tactics?

Project management fundamentals will bring you a long way: a clear goal, scope, timeline, RACI, etc. Your colleagues will follow clear guidance because they want to succeed at this project!

No PM loves running a project where their people follow orders with no enthusiasm. It doesn’t just feel flat but in fact limits your project’s ability to succeed. Why is this? Because enthusiasm means there is hope and confidence. These, in turn, mean your team will bring their best game to the project, including out-of-the-box problem solving.

As the Project Manager, you can foster enthusiasm by paying attention to the people on your team (core, executive, extended) by meeting them where they actually are, not where you’d like them to be.

You’re probably not be able to curl up on the couch and spend an afternoon think about each person’s motivation. But you can pay attention to how they talk about a task in your next meeting and their approach to a particular issue. You can notice their relationships with other team members and whether they’re perpetually late (or early).

Even if you’re not in the same room, how does your team member (let’s call him John) seem today on Zoom? Is John quieter than usual or is his camera off? Does he seem particularly frustrated with a topic or does his comments have more of a bite to them this week?

Consider what might be going on in John’s head. He may have pressure from other projects (or perhaps it’s year-end close…or annual budget time and he’s under the gun). Maybe he has an issue that he hasn’t figured out how to handle yet and it’s putting him off his game. Take a closer look at John’s calendar the next time you schedule a meeting. Is his calendar a sea of blue?

Knowledge is power. If we understand, we can help.

One final thought. No matter what we’ve learned about John’s unique attitude and motivation, we have to remember that every person’s opinion and approach is valid. Our role is to pay attention and remove barriers so the whole team can move forward, not just John.

It’s not always easy to keep a group of people moving forward in synch, but a little extra effort to understand each team member will give you the insight you need to keep your team members motivated, and that makes success a whole lot easier to achieve.

Filed Under: Attitude, Communication, Effective Leadership, Leadership Skills, Project Management, Team Leadership Tagged With: leadership skills, project leadership, project management, team communication, team leadership

PM Consulting – Mastering the Interview

November 24, 2021 by abuttiglieri

How do you leave an interview demonstrating you’re the perfect fit?

Consultants are constantly looking ahead to the next assignment. Since the nature of consulting is temporary, we can’t afford to shut down our networking efforts and let them fade while we work on our current project. Logically, if we wait until we’ve rolled off from the existing client, it will take a lot more effort to ramp up again, reconnect with our network, and then start looking for a new opportunity.

So while we are focused on our current client, project, and team, we are also working on relationships, looking ahead to trends in the market and industry, and leveling up our skills so we can transition smoothly and quickly from one job to another.

When the next great opportunity comes along, all that long-term preparation helps us be ready for the next step: the interview.

The most fundamental advice I can offer is this: you will never be an exact match for a job posting. There will always be some software, product, or project nuance that you don’t know. But if the company has requested an interview, chances are you have at least the minimum skillset they require. So don’t let the fear of “I’m not a perfect fit” hold you back.

Showing positivity and confidence in your abilities are the obvious ways to combat that fear, but it’s easier said than done. Let’s talk a bit about what’s behind that confidence and what brings that genuine positivity to the conversation.

Keys to demonstrating your fit

  • Focus on the client. Are you there to help the company and the project? Do you really believe you can make a difference…or are you just hoping to get someone to hire you? No company hires a consultant for his or her benefit and growth. They have a need, and they’re doing their best to bring on the right person for the job. And since you’re, by definition, not a permanent employee, you have even more reason to focus on the benefits they will receive when you come on board.  

  • Understand your experience. Have you been in situations before where you had to learn something new and succeeded? Have you done something similar in the past that is close enough that you could ramp up quickly with this new tool/methodology/product? A little research can help here. If you understand something about the company’s product or industry, you can use that to draw parallels to your own experience.

  • Bring the energy. This doesn’t mean all you introverts should suddenly love the spotlight. If your energy is calm confidence, you need to show it. Don’t sit back and make the interviewer pull information out of you. Lean into what the interviewer is saying. Ask basic but thoughtful questions and listen actively to the answers. This isn’t a tennis match. Working together for a good interview helps you both picture working together on the project.

  • Enjoy discovery. This is one of the keys to my own success. Every new contract brings with it a ton of opportunity for discovery. Not just the bits on the job posting, but a whole new group of people, a different corporate culture, and new challenges and methodologies on the project itself. You will likely learn a new set of tools, too. All this brings the need for you to stretch and grow.

Don’t just “look” interested

When you’re truly interested in this opportunity for discovery, it shows. Of course, this doesn’t imply you should bounce up and down in your seat like a toddler. But if you have energy behind your words, you’re genuinely looking forward to all you’ll be involved with, it will come through loud and clear.

Interviewing for a permanent position takes a similar attitude to consulting. But the overall mindset when going for a temporary position is just that: a knowledge and understanding that your job is to get in, hit the ground running, and take as much project management burden from the permanent employees as possible. If you decide the company is not the right fit during the project, you can always leave when your contract is up.

When you have the right focus during the interview, they will get a much better sense of who you are, what you can do, and how you will fit in.

And that will naturally give you more confidence in return.

Filed Under: Attitude, Career Tagged With: Interviewing, PM Consulting

Your Car is on Empty and the Gas Station is Closed

September 7, 2021 by abuttiglieri

Pushing your luck doesn’t always end up well!

I know I need gas in my car. The fuel light has been on for a while and the gauge is pointing to E. I have a discount card at a local station, so I’ll head there.

But the grocery store is on the way and I’d really like steak for dinner. Should I push my luck? Yeah…no problem…I think.

That task done, it’s time to fill up my car—it will be fine; it’s only 1 minute away.

….And it’s closed with “Out of Order” signs on all the pumps!

Okay, now what?

Nerves a bit higher, I pull away to drive to the next closest station, for which I do not have a discount card.

I make it, but man, gasoline is expensive!

On the positive side, I took the risk of running out of gas and it didn’t materialize. I also picked up my grocery items and made my dinner plans a bit easier. But I paid a higher price for the gasoline and my brain was distracted and worried about ending up stranded on the side of the road.

How many risks do we take at work each week?

Yes, the big ones will be in our Risk Register (or they should be). And I’m certainly not advocating for putting every risk in your head down on paper. But it’s important to recognize that we take many small risks throughout the week that never make it into a spreadsheet.

When we are aware of the trade-offs, we’ll make better decisions.

For example, does Joshua need his data analysis by the original date even though its review is pushed out by two weeks? Do you schedule a meeting to start Go Live planning even though the team’s plate is full during the busy testing period? Is it better to focus this afternoon on stakeholder communication or upcoming budget discussions?

These small choices don’t make an obvious impact on the project. But they can set off a chain of events that play a bigger role—just like a snowball rolling downhill. So when you pay attention to the potential impact, you make a more informed decision to benefit the long run.

Bringing it back to my empty gas tank, if I had thought through my situation, I wouldn’t have wanted to take the risk of running out of fuel or not being able to go my preferred gas station. 

I would have gone to fill up without stopping at the store, thus reducing the risk of running out of gas. And if there was an issue, I wouldn’t have been pressed to find the absolute next closest gasoline, regardless of price.

Filed Under: Attitude, Mindfulness, Project Management

Do You Know How To Use Your “Puppy License”?

August 29, 2021 by abuttiglieri

Puppies can get away with a lot more than older dogs!

When our dog, Lumos, was young, we took him to puppy training. It started with Good Dog 101 and he loved it so much we went onto 201 and then Basic Agility!

One of the things the trainer said in that very first class was this: your new dog has a Puppy License. When older dogs are around him, they will put up with his antics—jumping and nipping and playing. But as he gets older, he loses his Puppy License, and you’ll notice the other dogs will quickly put him in his place if he gets a bit too rambunctious or playful.

I always think of this when we’re on a walk and meet a puppy along the way. Lumos will let the puppy, well, be a puppy. But at a certain age, he’ll only put up with it for so long before a short but definitive bark will settle the other dog down. “That’s enough! Time to act your age,” he seems to be saying.

When you start a new job, position, or project, you have your own Puppy License. Only we call it a Ramp Up Period.

During this period you are allowed to introduce yourself and ask lots of basic questions. You’re expected to, in fact. And your job is to gather a lot of information about your new world because before you know it, the time for ramping up is gone and you lose your Puppy License. You’re expected to have analyzed the information and come up with solutions, not ask more basic questions.

Here’s how to get the most out of your Puppy License:

  • When introducing yourself, let people know who you are, how long you’ve been there, and what your role is. You are definitely not at the top of everyone’s mind. Don’t feel bad if they forget exactly why you called a meeting!
  • Let them know you’re gathering information and may ask a few very basic questions. This way they won’t worry you don’t really understand what you’re doing.
  • Ask them if there is anyone else you should be talking to, or any information that you need but haven’t asked for. People want their new colleagues to succeed. They also remember what it was like to be “the new guy.” And they enjoy sharing their knowledge.

Every once in a while you’ll run into someone who couldn’t be bothered with someone new. In this case, I save them for last. I gather as much information as possible so when I talk to this person, my questions aren’t so basic.

The next trick is moving from Puppy to Adult without spending too much time in Adolescence! But that’s a topic for another day.

Filed Under: Attitude, Career, Communication Tagged With: career

When Everything Goes (Just A Little Bit) Wrong

July 19, 2021 by abuttiglieri

Merely annoying…unless it happens all day long!

Have you ever wanted to just give up? Throw in the towel, say, “I’m done,” and go get a job flipping burgers somewhere?

That was me last Friday.

I had a busy day with lots of appointments, errands, and, oh yeah, client work!

The day actually started out just fine—exercised first thing in the morning, and my job went well. But by dinner I was a mess: overwhelmed, drained, and with a very dim outlook of my future.

It didn’t occur to me until this morning what happened.

It was small annoyances throughout the day that kept piling up until I felt like nothing would ever go right again.

The first one happened at the AAA office, where I’d gone to renew my license. I arrived a few minutes before my appointment with all my paperwork at the ready. Then I sat…and waited…and everyone ahead of me had some sort of problem or complicated transaction that took twice as long as it should. 45 minutes later it was my turn. “No big deal,” I thought. “It just happens. Glad I got to cross this off the list.”

Then…I drove a family member to an appointment for a blood test. We showed up and they told us, “Oh, we can’t do this type on a Friday.” Okaaay…we’ll just reschedule.

Then…I had an important Zoom meeting and I forgot to plug in my webcam, which meant my audio was not the greatest, either.

These are only some of the items, but you get the picture!

Taken by themselves, everything that went “wrong” was small and easily dealt with: patience (and an Internet connection) at the AAA office, rescheduling blood work, apologizing to my colleague and making sure I connect my webcam in the future.

Each is a pain in the neck, but nothing that should have thrown me off my orbit.

There are a ton of analogies I could use: a frog in boiling water, death by a thousand cuts, the straw that broke the camel’s back, etc.

But what caused the overwhelm? How do I get over it quickly? And how do I stop it from happening in the future?

The root cause is this: I wasn’t paying attention.

I was busy, only thinking about the next item on my to-do list. I wasn’t mindful. I wasn’t guarding my own mindset.

I let each of these annoyances chip away at my attitude until there I was at dinnertime, feeling like a failure, wishing I could drown my sorrows in a gallon of ice cream.

Unfortunately for me, I didn’t realize what happened until the morning.

When I woke up I took some time to reflect on the previous day. What did I do yesterday? When did I start to feel overwhelmed? Did anything actually devastating occur?

Putting all these pieces together, it started to make sense. Everything that happened was an outside influence—a bit of a Murphy’s Law day. And once I figured that out, my attitude started to change.

It’s easy to get caught up in our day and not pay attention to the input that could be chipping away at our attitude. And a poor attitude can bring our self-confidence down.

Meeting re-scheduled at the last minute? Not a big deal—just reschedule. Someone misunderstands your email? Give them a call to talk about it. Vendor price higher then expected? More required training show up in your inbox? It all adds up!

And none of it is a reflection of your value.

We may not be able to prevent what happens or how we initially feel about it, but we can understand that every encounter we have during the day influences us to some degree.

Being mindful of each event’s place in the longer story of the day goes a long way to controlling our reaction and attitude. Enjoy those “that went better than expected” moments. Acknowledge the ones that aren’t so wonderful.

And take a few minutes mid-day to reflect and do a re-set, if necessary. This will give you the chance to take on the rest of the day with a better outlook…and avoid eating a bucket of ice cream at the end of it.

Filed Under: Attitude, Career, Mindfulness, Project Management Tagged With: attitude, mindfulness, murphyslaw

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