Onboarding

I started 3 initiatives in last 2 months, but nobody is cares.

I had setup process to update the project documentation where every team member needs to update it on a regular basis, but no one is doing it.

Oh, we have started with this campaign of blah-blah-blah for last 2 months, but hardly any one contributes.

Sounds very common, isn't it? Ask a simple question to yourself, did you onboard the stakeholders? Did you take their buy-in?

Did you explain the reasoning and logic behind your expectation to them? If not, then don't expect them to contribute. If you do not take effort to "onboard" each and every stakeholder with your initiative, you set it up for failure. 

And yes, same is true in your personal life too. Thinking of cleaning up the entire house this weekend? Ensure that you have onboarded your spouse, children and other family members. Else be ready for no-contribution or half-hearted contributions. 

Five Pronged Management

This is something that I learnt from one of the management training that I attended. When put in practice, I could see that it really works!!

When you are at your job, be it a managerial role or not, you need to keep on attending in many different directions. Typically we end up paying attention to our management, customers and the team and forget the rest two. Let’s go over these different areas one by one.

1. Upwards

This is a no-brainer. You need to meet the expectations that your managers have set for you. If you cannot help them succeed, there are rare chances that you can grow in your career. You immediate manager would have some set of expectations whereas your super manager would be expecting something additional. You organization management has some goals which you are expected to contribute in some or the other way. This calls for a lot of balancing act, but it’s only part of a big picture.

2. Outwards

This includes managing expectations with your customers. Your customers could be internal, external, organizations, or individual end users. As a solutions provider, service provider, you always need to keep in mind their expectations from your product/service. If your product/service is not going to solve their problem at hand, why would they embrace you?

3. Downwards

You would need a team to execute your ideas, to put up a quick prototype, to create a sales pitch or to create a kick ass demo. You surely can do it all yourself, but, if you collaborate with it’s going to make it time efficient and you can concentrate on something far more important.

4. Sideways

You work in an environment where collaboration can help you immensely. And to achieve that, it is really important to manage your communication, interaction with your Peers. When it comes to recognition, nothing helps like peer acceptance. If you are eying for that specific post and the corresponding manager/head gets to know about your demonstrated capabilities through your peers, it will give you an edge over others. Work with your peers and work on your peers. Both things are important.

5. Inwards

This is the most important direction which is usually overlooked by almost each one of us. However, the truth is, if we can’t manage ourselves, how good we be at managing something external? Inner discipline leads to external success. Take out time for your own sake, however busy your external schedule is. Decide your priorities in your personal life and give equal, if not more, importance to them as your external commitments.

Take care of your team

Needless to say, that’s the most important thing any project manager needs to do. Your team is your asset. Each one of you brings in different set of qualities, experience, expertise. Each project manager needs to know about that.

Here are few things a project manager could/should do for his/her team:

1. Identify your key members
   • You need to know each of your key members to the maximum extent.
   • Do the SWOT analysis for them and use it during your conversations with them.
   
   
2. Regular meetings with your key members
   • Make sure you talk to those individuals on a regular basis in a structured meeting where you discuss the strengths, weaknesses, achievements, goals, alignment with project goals etc.
   • Also talk to them about their key members. This will give you a deeper view into their teams.
   • Seek feedback for yourself and for projects. Make sure you take appropriate action on that feedback and it gets communicated to those individuals.
   
   
3. Informal meetings with a diverse group within your team
   • These meetings have good potential to bring out if something is going wrong within the team.
   • Arrange some team events where people open up, talk about their personal likes/dislikes. Grab an opportunity to know them more.
   
   
4. Do little things that make your team happy
   • You announced a very good release – get some goodies for the team. Have a quick meeting, praise them openly and let everyone know that you appreciate their effort.
   • Remember important days in their lives – birthdays, anniversaries, kid’s birthdays etc.

Bottom line – it is a recurring investment, more you pay [attention], more you reap the benefits.