When engaging in conversation, many of us want to share our knowledge and experiences with others. This may be inform or educate others and at times just to impress people. While there is value to us sharing our knowledge, it is also very important to engage in active listening and learning from others.

Listening provides many benefits:

It engages other people: Have you been in a conversation where someone just talks about themselves and takes no interest in you? You probably weren’t as engaged in the conversation and may have been looking for a way out. Imagine how someone else may feel if they are not given an opportunity to speak and share their thoughts and ideas. Providing people with a platform to speak engages them more in the conversation and they are going to be more likely to listen intently when you speak. It can help to develop a relationship of trust and respect.

You learn more about the other person: Letting others speak provides an opportunity to learn more about the person. This can give you a better understanding of what make them tick, what challenges they are facing, and other things they are working on. This can help when planning a project where this person will be a key resource.

It’s an opportunity to learn something new: We cannot learn anything new by just talking ourselves. Every person has unique experiences which offer unique skills and knowledge that can provide value. Considering ideas from a fresh perspective can help to create new ways of thinking and generate new solutions to old problems. You may also learn about something that you may enjoy, be it a movie, restaurant, or place to visit.

When engaging in conversation with someone, take time to ask the other person some questions to get them talking. It can be to ask their opinion on something or to share an experience they have had. Give the person time to speak and engage in active listening. Try to avoid the urge to interject and take in the information. Many of us are guilty of getting ready to reply rather than just listening to the other person.

Listening is a skill which will help us in building stronger relationships.

In the last several years, we have seen an increasing growth in project teams which are dispersed across locations.  With improved technology, we can communicate more easily with our teams through phone conversations, conference calls, video conferences, e-mail, texts, instant messaging, among others. While being able to easily communicate with others remotely provides many benefits, there is still great value to face-to-face communications.

There is a value to the physical contact of a handshake and eye-to-eye contact which can solidify a personal relationship that cannot be replicated by remote communications. It helps to establish a stronger personal connection. Even one face-to-face encounter can strengthen subsequent remote communications.

Face-to-face meetings are not always possible or the best use of our time, but finding times to engage with your team in person can contribute to improved team engagement and performance. Here are some examples of times to have face-to-face meetings:

Kick-off Meetings: Gathering the project team for the first time can set the tone for the team moving forward through the project. Strongly encourage your team to attend the project kick-off meeting in person. People who join the meeting remotely via conference call will not be fully engaged and will miss an opportunity to create bonds with other team members. I have seen instances where team members in the same building elect to dial into these meetings. To minimize this, I do not publish dial-in information and will only provide the information upon request. This provides me with an opportunity to discuss the request with the person and only provide the dial-in information if there is no way for them to attend in person.

There may be other key meetings where in-person attendance is desired. Stress the importance of this to your team.

Periodic Visit: As a project manager, find time to have some one-on-one visits with project team members. It can even be for an informal chat over coffee. It can provide an opportunity to understand your team members better, what their interests are, what else they are working on, as well as build trust. Building trust and rapport with team members will improve their engagement with the project and lead to better performance.

Remote Visits: Depending on your budget, engaging face-to-face with team members in certain remote locations can be a challenge. Some remote team members are located within close proximity to accommodate an on-site visit, but other team members may be located in offices which require significant travel to visit.

If your budget allows, schedule trips to visit key project team members, especially during key times of the project. A few years ago, I was managing a systems implementation project where the system was being installed at an out-of-state location. I scheduled a visit for a few days to meet with the technical team installing the system along with the vendor. The time spent on-site was very valuable as we worked through key decisions and solidified our relationships. After that visit, our ongoing communications were virtual and we were able to work better together.

When budgets are tighter, you can still find ways to meet with remote team members. In one project that I managed, we had project team members located across the US and I did not have the opportunity to visit with most of them. I did have the opportunity to visit one of our remote sites for a training class, which allowed me to meet with a few project team members. There are times when people may be visiting your office from a remote location. I’ve had the opportunity to meet team members and other key stakeholders visiting from overseas and it was helpful to meet with them face-to-face.

Though our work and interactions have become more virtual, don’t underestimate the value of face time with your team. The return on this investment can prove most valuable.

Spring has sprung. The weather is becoming milder and people are ready for a fresh start.

For many, spring cleaning is a ritual they take on each year to clean their homes to start anew. Though it does not currently feel like spring in the Northeast United States, it is still a good time to look at cleaning through some different things:

Your Desk: Over time, our desks become cluttered with paper and other items. Many times, we can’t actually see our desktops. This can make it difficult to find the information we need or to feel in control.

Take a look at your desk. Go through the papers on your desk and organize them, by project or other category. For papers from old projects, either file them away if you still need to reference them in the future or throw them out if they no longer have any value to you. For current projects, look through the papers that are currently needed and put them into appropriate folders that can be easily accessed. Papers that are not currently needed, but need to be available for reference should be filed in a place that you can access them when needed. The same can be done for other information that you need to reference.

Another idea is to scan documents and create digital files of documents that you do not need to have a physical copy of. This can help to reduce the amount of paper you keep.

A cleaner desk will make it easier and faster to access the information you need and will keep you from being distracted by information that does not serve any value right now.

Your E-Mail: Most of us received more e-mails each day than we can reasonably process during the day. This leads to an ever-increasing inbox that becomes harder to manage. The large number of unopened e-mail messages continues to eat at us as unfinished work. Large inboxes also makes in more likely to have an important e-mail message slip through the cracks and not responded to.

To start cleaning your e-mail inbox, identify e-mails you receive from distribution lists that are not of value to you. Most automated e-mail distributions allow you to “unsubscribe” from the list. Unsubscribe from any distribution lists that you no longer want to receive e-mails from. For e-mails you want to continue receiving but don’t need to read or respond to immediately, set up filters to move those e-mails to a folder for future reference. Filters can be configured to identify an e-mail sender or keyword and automatically move the e-mail to a designated folder. Most e-mail client software supports the use of filters. You can set up different folders for different types of e-mails. By setting up filters, certain e-mails will not appear in your inbox and will make your inbox easier to go through and allow you to address the most important e-mails. You can then designate times to review the other folders when it is convenient for you. I recently went through this exercise and found that it has saved me much time and aggravation.

Your Calendar: Our calendars get quickly filled with meetings, presentations, and other commitments. This leads to less time allocated to the work that is most important for our jobs and our personal lives.

Take a look at your calendar. Are there meeting that you do not need to attend? If so, politely decline the meeting. Are there meetings that are scheduled for longer than is necessary? See if those one-hour meetings can be cut down to a half-hour or even 15 minutes. Identify any other meetings that can be cancelled or reschedule if they are not going to produce the necessary value.

Then, look over your calendar and set up time blocks to perform certain work, such as creating reports or for planning. Blocking this time will make it easier to actually get this work done, especially for time sensitive work you need to finish.

These simple steps will help you become more efficient and productive with your time. Share any other tips for your spring cleaning.