Book of the Week: How to Win Friends…

Ed Anderson Book of the Week

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Early in my career, a manager of mine suggested that I take the Dale Carnegie course. The course provided me an opportunity to develop my public speaking and presentation skills as well as learn how to deal more effectively with people. We were given Carnegie’s book “How to Win Friends & Influence People” to read as part of the course. The book, originally published in 1936, remains one of the go-to books in learning how to build strong and healthy relationships.

It starts with taking a genuine and sincere interest in people and making them feel important. Carnegie talks about approaching people with a smile and with friendly intent. Sometimes, people become too concerned with what others can do for them. He discusses the importance of listening to others to learn more about people and understand what makes them tick.

People come from different backgrounds and experiences, which shape their views. Carnegie cautions readers from criticizing and condemning others, but using other strategies to influence others. This includes making the effort to understand others’ points of view and being respectful of their opinions. These days, people are quick to criticize or condemn others who may not share the same opinions. Doing this improves the chances of get others to come to your way of thinking.

Much of what Carnegie writes about will help you to be someone others will want to be around and will help you to find ways to make your relationships mutually beneficial.

“How to Win Friends & Influence People” has been revised since it was originally published. A few years ago, “How to Win Friends and Influence People in the Digital Age” was release, which is an adaptation of the book for the new millennium, taking into account changes in technology and in our culture. Whichever version you read, much of Carnegie’s advice is still very relevant today and will help you to build and maintain positive relationships in both your personal and professional life.

App of the Week: Hoopla

Ed Anderson App of the Week

Hoopla CaptureAs part of my professional and personal development, I have been a big fan of audiobooks.  I’ve used them when I travel, go for a walk, or just relaxing at home. It has helped me to get through more books than I normally would. I found an application that allows me to borrow audiobooks, as well as eBooks, videos, and music.

The app is called Hoopla, which uses a free service allowing me to join using my library card. It is available through a standard web browser as well as on iPhones, iPads, and Android devices. To sign-up, you will need to have an account with a local library. You can look up on the site to determine if your local library participates. When signing up, you will need to identify your library, enter your library card number, and your on-line PIN for the library.

Once you are in, you can search the Hoopla database and borrow up to 10 titles in a calendar month. The content can be downloaded to your device or streamed. Titles can be borrowed for 3 weeks and will be removed when the 3-week period ends. You can also mark certain titles as favorites if you want to borrow them in the future.

In the past few years, I have found several great books and documentaries for my professional and personal development as well as some albums and movies for entertainment. Being able to load them on my iPhone and iPad allows me to take these books, videos, and music with me.

Hoopla is a great tool to leverage the benefits of your local library without having to go there in person or having to remember to return the materials that you borrowed. You can access Hoopla at http://www.hoopladigital.com.

The Importance of the Project Sponsor Relationship

Ed Anderson Blog

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In the past, I have been asked what I felt was the biggest key is to the success of a project. There are many possible answers: delivering the project on time, staying within the budget, meeting the customer needs, amongst others. While all of these are important, none of this is possible without support of the people around you.

In looking at the people side of project management, I have found 4 key constituents to consider when managing a project:

  1. Project Sponsor
  2. Project Team
  3. Other Stakeholders
  4. You – The Project Manager (YES, You)

This week we will look at the relationship of project manager and the sponsor, the key stakeholder for the project providing executive support. Typically, the sponsor provides the funding for the project and has the greatest stake in the project’s success. They will also be the main champion of the project.

Projects with a sponsor at the highest levels of the organization tend to be most successful. As projects are usually cross-organizational, a high-level sponsor will have more influence across the organization and will garner more support. Sponsors in mid-level management will find it more difficult to get support from other groups which may have other conflicting priorities.

The sponsor can also serve as an escalation point when there are issues that require a higher level resolution especially across different departments. A high-level sponsor will be better able to consider cross-organizational issues and identify a resolution in the best interest of the organization.

It is also important for the project manager to have direct contact with the Sponsor. This will help the project manager to better understand the objectives and concerns of the sponsor and for the sponsor to get information on the project directly from the project manager, who is ultimately responsible for the day-to-day activities of the project. In larger organizations, the project manager may be several levels removed from the sponsor. This can lead to additional layers of communications between the sponsor and the project manager, which can water down the communications between the two. In these organizations, strong communications can be even more important.

The project manager should schedule regular meetings with the sponsor to provide updates and to address questions and concerns that the sponsor may have as well as identify any changes that may impact the project. Depending on the project, these meetings can be monthly, semi-monthly, or quarterly. In some instances, more frequent meetings may be necessary.

In these meetings, it is important to be forthcoming and honest with updates to the sponsor. Provide the sponsor with the information they need to know, not just what they want to hear. If there is a risk or issue that may adversely impact the project, the sooner it is addressed with the sponsor, the sooner it can be resolved.

In establishing a strong working relationship with the sponsor, the project manager will be in a better position to manage the project and gain support in working with the project team and other stakeholders.

Next week, we will look at project teams and the unique challenges that they present to the project manager.

Book of the Week: Living Forward

Ed Anderson Book of the Week

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On Thursdays, I will review a book I have read and found helpful in my life. In most cases, it will not be a project management book, but a book that you may find useful for your professional and/or personal life. It is important for us to learn new perspectives or even reinforce what we already know and may have lost sight of. Books can help us grow professionally and personally.

This week, I read the new book Living Forward (A Proven Plan to Stop Drifting and Get the Life You Want), by Michael Hyatt and Daniel Harkavy. I have been a fan of Michael’s blog and podcast. He has a really nice way about him and provides great advice and insight. It is presented in a way that can be easily digested and implemented.

Along with co-author and coach Daniel Harkavy, they provide a guide to creating a life plan. Many of us go through our lives reacting to what comes our way in our personal and professional lives. Before we know it, we can get off-course and heading in a direction that we do not desire. Living Forward has us take a step back and assess what we want out of our lives and then chart a course towards those goals. By seeing our destination, it becomes easier to prioritize the important things in our lives and plan our lives accordingly. It can become too easy to try and do everything and please everyone, but it can come at a great cost.

The book comes in 3 parts: Understand Your Need, Create Your Plan, and Make it Happen. Throughout the book, Hyatt and Harkavy share their own stories as well as those of other people in going through the process of creating a life plan. They also provide tools and examples to make the task easier. The book is just under 200 pages, making it a pretty easy read.

As I’ve been going through a career transition, it has been a good time to review my life plan and where I want to go moving forward. If you think you can benefit from either creating or revising your life plan, this book can be a good start.

For more information on the book, you can visit http://livingforwardbook.com/. If you do read the book, I’d love to hear what you think. Also, if there is a great book you are reading now, let me know about it.

App of the Week: Evernote

Ed Anderson App of the Week

Evernote Screen CaptureA while back, I started using Evernote, an app that can be used to create, store, and organize your notes. There are similar applications out there, but Evernote is one of the more popular and widely used apps. It is available for Windows, Macs, and most mobile devices. I had found myself with many notes sprawled all over my desk, in notebooks, and in digital documents. It was challenging at times to find information when I needed it, which became time consuming. I wanted to be better organized.

In Evernote, I set up a number of “notebooks”, which provided me places to store similar types of notes for easy retrieval. I’ve taken notes that have accumulated on the desk, in notebooks and note pads, and on sticky notes and entered them into Evernote. I’ve also tagged my notes with custom tags which make it even easier to organize my notes. As I have thought of new ideas for future blogs, I create a note in my Blog Ideas notebook with my initial thoughts for the blog and what I want to include in the blog. This has given me a starting point for creating my blogs.

Evernote will also allow you to add screenshots, audio notes, photos, reminders, and lists. A feature that I really enjoy is the Web Clipper, which allows me to save web pages to Evernote. This is an add-on you can install on your web browser.  If you have the mobile app installed, you can access the Web Clipper through the use of the Share feature. I tend to find articles, web pages, and other information on-line that I want to reference later. In the past, I would either print out the document and put it on a stack on my desk or save it as a PDF to file it in a folder. Now, when I am on a web page that I want to save, I can click on an icon in Google Chrome which will bring up a pop-up box which allows me to save it. I can select the format (article, simplified article, full web page, bookmark, or screenshot), choose which notebook I want to save it in, and add any tags that I want to associate with the article or web page. There are also special formats available if you are saving an Amazon page or a YouTube page. This makes finding the information easier.

Evernote Web Clipper Capture

The data is stored in the cloud, allowing you to access the information from multiple devices. I can access and work on my information whether I use my laptop PC, iPhone, or iPad.

Evernote comes at different levels: Basic (a free version), Plus ($2.99/month), and Premium ($5.99/month). I started with the Basic version, which allows 60MB of uploaded data. As I started to capture more information (especially saving articles), I upgraded to the Plus version, which allows me 1GB of new uploads a month, offline access to my notes, and saving e-mails into Evernote. The Premium version allows 10GB of new uploads a month and other advanced features for the power user. Evernote also supports integration with certain other applications.

Whatever your needs are, Evernote can help you to better organize your information. If you do currently use Evernote, please share your experience with it or if you use another similar app, let us know about it.

Welcome to The Personal PM

Ed Anderson Blog

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Welcome to The Personal Project Manager, a coaching and development site for the people side of project management.

My name is Ed Anderson. I have over 20 years experience managing large-scale IT projects for several companies. I have managed project teams which have been cross-organizational, cross-functional, and global.

In my experience, I have found one of the keys to delivering a successful project is effectively managing the people side of the project. This includes engaging the sponsor, the stakeholders, and the project team. Projects include many different stakeholders, who have different and sometime conflicting objectives and priorities. Project teams are often brought together for the short term and include people from different areas within and outside of the organization. This can lead to many challenges for a project manager.

The Personal Project Manager will guide project managers, other project management professionals, as well as project management organizations to build strong business relationships and leverage the talent of your project team to deliver projects which will satisfy and delight your sponsors and stakeholders.

In addition, The Personal Project Manager will help you in your personal development to become more productive and more effective in your job. Maintaining a balance in your professional and personal life will enable you to perform at your best.

Each Tuesday, I will post a new blog on topics relating to relationship management, team building, or personal development. Each week, I will provide a summary of a book that I have found helpful, which you may find beneficial for your job and career, as well as other tools and tips to help you in your personal and professional life.

I encourage you to take an active role on this site, commenting on my blogs, sharing them with your colleagues, and letting me know of some of the challenges that you face. As a community, we can help each other to be the best project managers that we can be.

Cheers,

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