PLAN. COMMUNICATE. LEAD.
Why To Write Meeting Minutes [With Lesson Learned]?
How often do you document your meeting minutes? Do you pay enough attention to writing down all important information which is being shared with or among stakeholders? About decisions made? Do you follow up on each topic? Do you hold people accountable for what has been discussed and agreed?
I have a firm believe that this is one of the very essential tools for effective management, which project managers have to use, especially because of the amount of meetings they take part in and great amount of communication channels within projects. Let me explain why.
1. What are the meeting minutes?
Meeting minutes, so called MoMs (minutes of the meetings) or MMs (meeting minutes) are written notes/bullet points, which are made in written form to document the meeting (face-to-face or virtual/teleconference), which was held for specific purpose and which usually includes 2 or more participants.
The MoMs include documentation of discussed topics, decisions, important questions/issues, required actions and next steps. In my practice I use my project book where I document, monitor and control decisions, issues and actions on regular basis.
I use MoMs mainly as important source of input, which I later transform into actions, issues, decisions or changes. In my practice, I write minutes myself if the topic is related to my scope, dependencies, team and project(s) as a whole. You might call me old fashioned, but I mainly write MoMs by hand – later I transform them into digital format. For me it is a matter of personal preference. I think on paper and for me picture is better than thousand words, my notes are very detailed.
Perhaps, this is why I am very well informed about all what is going on in projects, what has been discussed, what pieces of information is needed from whom and for whom, by when and how they are tracked. It is especially helpful when you operate in multinational environment, involving more than hundred of different stakeholders, with multiple topics, issues and communication channels.
2. Who is responsible for writing MoMs?
In real life – who is primarily responsible for writing meeting minutes? Well, the answer is that it is a responsibility of the person, who is hosting the meeting. Often, though, project managers/managers involve the Project Management Office (PMO) specialists, who are doing this job while the meeting host is leading/participating in the discussion.
This depends upon the type of the meeting (with customer, with project team or with the upper management). But again, depends on the type of meeting. If you are leading – you decide, what is relevat and what is not. It is a combination of identifying important information, filtering the unimportant, writing that down in short and meaningful manner and also in such a way, that later it can be easily related to.
3. Why is it important to write MoMs?
There are at least few reasons why meeting minutes are important:
- You have a reference to what was discussed (you may remember the fact of having the discussion, but trust me – after a full week filled with meetings and different topics, you will forget all the details the very next day or even an hour after the meeting was held),
- It is a valid document in which specific decisions have been made and you are able to refer to it when needed,
- You have a reason to hold people accountable for commitment or promises they have made,
- You can use the MoMs to hand over your responsibilities while you are on vacation. Your stand-in can easily refer to them and be up to date with recent discussions held,
- You can introduce the new member of the team to the topic(s),
- It is your “evidence ticket” in case you need to provide any facts,
- You are able to use MoMs as an input for your issue/action/decision/changes tracker – follow up, monitor and control, manage those points.
Remember that meeting minutes shall serve you, they shall be your tool for effectiveness. And if you train this skill right, you will reap the benefits 🙂
4. What is the best way to write MoMs and what to do with them afterwards?
First, there is no such thing as best way, but I believe there is such thing as effective way. Don’t overcomplicate. Make them easy to read and use bullet points. Would be good if you could develop your own style of writing MoMs: you will enjoy doing it and stand out. I will mention some of the things I do:
- When I document discussions in some of my virtual project meetings, I share my screen via Cisco Webex, so that participants see what points are being discussed discuss and what I document,
- Benefit No.1 – People see what I document,
- Benefit No.2 – People are aware of what was agree to and what I am writing down,
- I distribute MoMs to the participants after the meeting,
- Benefit No.3 – People know where to find the MoMs and are able to review them when necessary,
- I store them in assigned and structued folder, which is accessible online. Don’t store them on your PC only. This is one of the ways to manage your communications in the projects,
- Benefit No.4 – It provides a clear structure and accessibility to the project stakeholders,
- I print most important of them to have a visual view (you can have it on your desk, if you have to follow up and want to review them at any moment),
- I track people on actions in the MoMs,
- Benefit No.5 – You can make use of the MoMs to manage your project effectively – you are the conductor of the orchestra. Remember – when you document the meeting and there are actions to be taken – assign them to respective owner (if nobody owns the task, it will be done by nobody),
- Use them as a baseline during the next meeting for follow up discussions,
- Write them short, clear and to the point. Nobody likes reading essays, this is why the MoMs are called MoMs – minutes – to get up to date within minutes.
Let me know if you would add more to the list 🙂
5. Lesson Learned: what happens if you don’t document the important meeting?
Here’s what happened:
In the regular project status call it was identified in the discussion with the project team that there might be a delay in the project. The additional equipment, which had to be ordered for the project purposes, had not been ordered on time and further progress in project implementation was seriously questioned.
One of the project team members had a chat with a project stakeholder and based on that discussion made an agreement over the phone to borrow from him the equipment temporarily. This was a good idea to mitigate the risk of project delay because of the equipment dependency, but it was not analysed in detail, there was no impact assessment and no communication to other stakeholders.
As the result:
- This was not documented in any e-mail, any minutes… anywhere. Let me put it this way – it was kept only in people’s heads,
- The stakeholder, who had to officially confirm it, refused to borrow the equipment at the end and no one sent official information to follow up and this all took all the project team by surprise – as whole project team was counting and preparing the project plan based on the initial assumption of borrowing the equipment,
- The risk materialised into an issue, it was too late to come up with any mitigation idea. Team had to identify the workaround.
The major program manager expressed his concern about the situation and really advised to keep a better track of what has been agreed and decided, as it might significantly impact the future project manager career development.
At the end, of course, the situation was resolved, but it has cost team the precious time and nerves.
6. Conclusion
If you want to be professional and keep the track of what is going in the project, use meeting minutes effectively and encourage your team members to use them as well. Remember, if it was not documented, it might as well never have happened.
Thank you for reading the article the and wish you good luck in keeping better records on your projects!
Do you find the meeting minutes useful or have you identified better alternatives?
IT Service Desk – Is It Just A Job Or A Possible Career Opportunity?
How many of you have heard this phrase when you called a helpdesk: “Hello! How can I help you?”? There are many companies that offer such customer support via phone in the catalogues of their services. IT industry is one of them too. I am not familiar with other branches, but I may assure you that IT offers one of the greatest variety of career options which actually can make a difference in your life. Let’s find out why.
1. 7 reasons to work at service desk
Is it worth starting with Service Desk jobs in IT if you have no profile IT education? I would give you a couple of reasons why YES:
- You will get familiar with the IT processes and terminology,
- You will have an opportunity to learn IT fundamentals and gain technical experience (which is very good for the beginner, in order to have at least some understanding about hardware and software, applications etc.),
- You will meet great people and if you are lucky enough – great team managers too,
- You will be given an opportunity to decide on your first IT certification. This is beneficial not only for service desk agents, but for many IT managers as well – for example, ITIL (foundation level or higher),
- You will see the structure of a usual IT company (its branches, departments and roles). This is important, because in case you would like to stay in IT, you need to understand what opportunities exist and what career paths can be chosen: develop deep technical skills or go into management, dive into projects or stay in operations,
- You will see how the IT services are provided at Service Desk level and in case you decide to work later in projects, you will not be afraid of being assigned to manage/implement the Service Desk set up for the customer, for example,
- You never know what knowledge you will need and when in your life. I vote for continuous learning at any stage in life.
2. Reason behind writing this article
I was recently browsing through content in the community Facebook group where I saw a post of a girl who was looking for a job. I rarely participate in discussions like that, but what drew my attention was the fact that the girl was with the same background as mine – a master degree holder, a teacher with 2 languages. She wanted to know what job could be available for her if she decided to undergo a career change.
I had the same story, with the only difference that job found me, not that I was looking for it. I also hold a master degree in 2 languages: German and English. I used to work as a teacher and I was pursuing a change. I advised her to look for jobs such as IT service desk advisor/agent, 1st line support engineer in various IT companies (I gave her a few names).
Interesting comment came afterwards from an IT guy to that post. He wrote, that it is impossible to work at such positions without any proper education and he pointed out that, probably, I didn’t know what I was talking about. He also assumed I had no idea about IT branch. Interesting… who else would be able to talk about such work if not the person who had the firsthand experience and started from zero in IT, without IT education and worked for a whole year as 1st line support engineer at service desk? 😉
3. My first steps in IT branch
I did not consider IT as a possible branch for employment for myself and had this narrow-minded outlook, that if you don’t have a profile education – you will not be able to get a job in that sector. Honestly spoken, I believe this is the greatest mistake to think this way in the first place.
I had no idea about IT and did not consider myself even close to that branch (philologist and job in IT – oh, please!). I could not even install a software driver on my own computer and my resume contained a one line description about my IT skills – “general PC knowledge and basic Microsoft Office”. It still makes me smile these days when I look back at it 🙂 . I believed IT education was mandatory if you wanted to work in that sphere. I think that this belief came from a lack of understanding of how work in IT actually looks like.
The recruiter found me on LinkedIn. I was provided with a general description of the job and asked if I wanted to participate in the recruitment process. And I decided to give it a try. Why not?
My major skills were languages (German and English) and believe me or not – this is the skills I was hired for. I had 3 interviews: the 1st one – to have a general introduction between me and recruiter, the 2nd – with a hiring staff member to check my language skills, and the 3rd – technical interview, which was specific, because I was asked basic computer related terminology in different languages.
They were looking for a specialist with German language and I was asked questions related to computer parts in German language (for example: what does a PC consists of? What does plug and play mean? What is USB? What devices can be connected via USB? What are the examples of software packages in Microsoft Office? What are the examples of internet browsers? etc.).
The recruiter provided me with some general hints what I could have expected during the technical interview. It was very useful, as I was able to prepare better for the interview. I made it simple – I asked a friend of mine to deconstruct a PC and show me its parts, what is consists of and how major components interact. I also refreshed my knowledge about the computer terms in respective languages. I was ready for the final technical interview and I did it! It went successful and I got the job offer.
I can’t even describe how happy I was to be given an opportunity to start something absolutely new, it meant a very great deal to me! I had no friends or acquaintances who worked in IT branch before and I was blind in understanding what is behind that job. So it was a risk, but you know how they say…
He who doesn’t risk never gets to drink champagne.
Russian proverb
Actually, I believe IT companies are giving people a great opportunity to learn and develop, they give people second chance to start again. This is cool!
4. What does it look like to start work in IT?
First of all – I think it was the greatest experience in my whole life, however difficult it could have been. And I am very thankful for that. I am specifically thankful to the company I worked for, as it gave such opportunity to me and actually made a great impact on my development.
My first day in IT was in a multinational corporation. My first day was even more special, as it was “many days in one”: first day in another country and city, first day in a new job, first day without friends and family, first day all by myself.
I was provided with a schedule from my employer: when and where we start, what to bring, how to get to the place. There were many people who started on the same day – around 10-15 people from different countries, backgrounds and knowledge. The first days in the company were strictly on-boarding. We were divided into groups and distributed in classrooms. We were given computers, instructions about company policies and regulations (security, health insurance etc). Trainings were scheduled for each group for the upcoming couple of weeks which we had to attend and make sure we completed all of them. This was a must. Nothing difficult, I would say rather interesting. As I learned later, after changing couple of jobs – this is a standard procedure in almost all corporations.
After the introduction sessions, the new hires were distributed to respective teams and projects, who raised the demand for new hires. I joined a German project. My new team was awesome, I mean it. All young girls and guys, they spoke perfect German and many of them used to be philologists in the past too. I was a little bit surprised by that, as I thought I would be the only one with such a background.
My team manager has assigned a mentor for me. I did not know the job specifics, so I needed someone to learn from about what I was supposed to do. No one pushed me to take calls from customers and solve their computer or application issues immediately after I was assigned to the project. First I had to get familiar with the rules, processes and tools, do job shadowing (when you sit next to the more experienced colleague and learn how to deal with things). Only after about a month I was ready to become a service desk agent who was ready to perform the actual job by myself.
It was not a rock science and I understand now why language skills were more important than technical skills. You can learn all those technical troubleshooting steps very quickly. There was absolutely nothing too complicated, that you cannot fix or figure out with teammates.
5. What to expect as a service desk agent?
The service desk agent job role, as I would describe it, would look like as following:
- know the processes,
- know the tools,
- use language skills to be clear with the users who call you to solve their issues,
- use interpersonal skills in communication with people,
- be able to get familiar with majority of most common problems from shadowing experience,
- resolve the user’s problem within given time (called SLA in IT – “service level agreement”),
- know the quality requirements,
- gather your knowledge and share it with your team members,
- use the knowledge base (if available) to be able to troubleshoot more complicated issues or ask colleagues,
- know what is your manager’s expectation from you as an employee to perform the job within the requirements.
Another thing you need to be aware of is that the job of the service agent can be performed in shifts. I had experience with various situations. For one customer I was doing the support in 3 shifts. That was the case when I accepted the job offer without deep back ground knowledge on the job. I had to work on some days from 6 am until 2 pm, on some – from 2 pm until 10 pm, on some (sometimes in a row) from 10 pm until 6 am.
I must admit it was very difficult for me, because there was no stable schedule and I could not get used to not sleeping at night. And you know, I also wanted to enjoy time after work, meet with new friends, study, go to exercise – and I was not able to make it regular due to regime change. I have never had experience to work nights before in my life. So this is a challenging part.
On another project where I was transferred to – there were no more shifts, but work time differed between 7 am – 10 am and 3 pm – 6 pm. I was already supporting in 4 languages (Russian, English, German and sometimes Polish). At that project there was much bigger workload. I basically had a scheduled time for lunch (you cannot go whenever you want) and I sat non stop on calls – picking up calls from customers and resolving their IT problems.
It was again a great but difficult experience, as the scope was bigger and issues for resolution became more complicated. You really need to train your soft-skills, as otherwise it might be challenging to handle all stress. For me personally it was difficult to get the technical things – I mean REALLY technical, as it was already going deeper in details. I used to ask my great colleagues for support, for guidance, so communication was doubled. Especially when guys had a lot of their own job to do.
You should know that service desk job is considered as one of the most difficult/stressful jobs along with couple of others: You can read about it HERE.
6. Conclusion
The things you will learn as a service desk agent are not a rocket science. Many of them you will never use in real life. For me, now as a project manager, I see that it was a very valuable experience, which actually formed my understanding of IT and gave me a push to want more. It also helped me to develop other skills like: communication, stress-resistance, soft-skills, managing a lot of tasks and many others. This was all interconnected and interdependent.
I hope my experience will help you to become more open to IT branch and its opportunities, will show you that there are no “closed doors” and anything can be learned and mastered. Do not be as doubtful as that guy from the Facebook group. Did you already start considering career options?
The PMP Exam – How To Get It Done
Each of you would like to find the fastest and easiest way to prepare and pass the PMP exam. We keep searching “uncle Google” in hope to find that ONE approach, which will show us single recipe for getting PMP certified. I don’t know if my way will make it easier or faster, but I definitely know it will get you where you need to be – becoming a PMP certified professional. So make yourself comfortable and let’s get started.
1. Background knowledge about my preparation
I applied for the PMP certification in the end of March 2018. A week after I sent my application I received a confirmation from PMI with approval of my qualification for the exam. The clock started ticking and I got time to approach the exam until March 2019. In April I started my journey with the PMP books.
I was not taking any official paid course, I was not preparing with a colleague or in a group (as often recommended by some internet sources). I did not search the internet to find out the best way to prepare for the exam. I had to figure out myself what works for me and what does not. I admit though, that it was very helpful to have some colleagues and friends, who approached the PMP or were in process of preparation and with whom I could discuss or consult some open questions. Additionally, there was a free voluntary internal initiative in my company – a 1 hour online meeting each week, where we discussed answers for tests, which we did at home. I cannot say it was a breakthrough in my knowledge and experience, but I think it did what it was supposed to do – it motivated me to sit down and read 1 chapter per week (for each meeting).
Recommendation No. 1
When you start preparing for the exam, use the method of “total dive into the study mode” – it helps a lot, as it allows you to dive with all your thoughts and mind into PMP. My preparation was interrupted by 3 weeks of holidays, which actually brought me back to the starting point once I was back. If you decided to prepare – make sure you are rested, with clear head and there are no long interruptions until actual date of the exam.
Some people believe that it is better to schedule the exam immediately after you get qualified, as it will serve you as a deadline. In my case, I had a plan to keep preparing until end of July, and I knew I had to take it in August, so I scheduled my exam just 2 weeks before the date and had no issues with booking the place in the test center.
Once I was back from my vacation, the first weekend became the last weekend of my free time and the first weekend of very intensive study period – literally, from 23d June until 20th August, with every single day of studying: waking up with the book, and falling asleep with the book.
What did I do first? I sat down and read the whole book again (I read Rita’s PMP preparation book latest edition) – chapter after chapter, used highlighter to mark the important, from my point of view, topics and used coloured stickers to mark the location of most required pages. It is easier later to do the review of the whole chapter and also makes it faster. Also, if you are a visual type of person, it will be easier to learn if you highlight. It will help to memorize. If you are audial person – maybe it will make sense for you to record your summary and listen to it from time to time.
Recommendation No.2
Read it 1 chapter at a time (ideally 1 Knowledge area during 1-2 days) slowly and with understanding, make notes, write down important things, highlight them, and review them. Don’t try reading too much at once.
I thought reading was enough…was it?
As soon as I finished reading Rita’s PMP preparation book, I thought I can consider myself ready and can go ahead with tests. After doing around 40-50 questions per day during 1 week I was still making a lot of mistakes and I arrived to the conclusion that reading a book was not enough at all. I had to develop a different strategy for exam preparation. Tests help a lot to understand what types of details, knowledge and understanding of the material is required. So I change the tactic – I began to do less tests during the preparation time, but I searched for explanation for each and single wrong or doubtful answer in the book, wrote it down and learned it. You can learn a lot from mistakes, especially if you re-read regularly chapters where you lack knowledge.
2. Is it necessary to learn all processes?
Another important thing I realized while doing practice tests, was that it is an absolute must to learn PMBOK processes in each knowledge area. You needed to know inputs and outputs, tools and techniques. As you might have noticed already – there are a lot of them. So what to do?
I thought if I learned them by heart – it will be easy during the exam. So every day I was covering and learning once again the processes in each Knowledge area – for instance, on day one I printed out the Quality Management Chapter, and started studying inputs, outputs and tools and techniques from Plan quality management, Manage quality and Control Quality. As you might have noticed many points like Document updates, Organizational process assets and Enterprise environmental factors, project management plan – they are met in almost every input and output section. Mainly, I focused only on those, which were atypical, then learned and memorized them. I focused my attention and dedicated separate full day study time for schedule, scope, quality and resource management. The rest I grouped and studied together.
Also, I had to have it all in front of me – so I printed each Knowledge with its processes, each on separate paper. Remember, it will not help you a lot to learn them by heart, you also have to understand what each of them means and what they are used for – search internet for better explanation and understanding how they interrelate. Especially what types of project plan is used as input and what project documents are to be updated at the end, as there are many of them.
Recommedation No.3
Really do study the inputs, outputs, tools and techniques. You need not only to memorize them (at least those which are typical for each knowledge area) but understand what each of them means. I had to go over and over to nominal group technique and fail some questions to be able to see difference between nominal group technique, brainstorming and Delphi technique.
So, Once I was past the theory and past the processes and their details, I once again started doing tests from internet available for free and also I bought a repository of tests to be able to practice as much as I could. I would describe this chapter of my preparation of test-intensive. As learning theory is one thing, but knowing how to apply what you have learned in test – that is something different.
I found a couple of tests on my own in the internet, and used recommended tests by my friends, who prepared for PMP as well. For those tests I provide links below:
- https://www.project-management-prepcast.com/pmp-practice-exam-questions-sample-test
- https://www.oliverlehmann.com/pmp-self-test/100-free-questions.htm
- http://www.pmstudy.com/PMP-Free-Resources.asp
They must be accomplished within limited time. It was definitely a good decision to sit down and sit for 4 hours uninterrupted doing tests. I hardly imagined myself sitting for 4 hours without break and doing just tests. I have noticed already at that time, that it was a challenge and I began to lose my focus after 100th question. This, of course, increases the probability of mistakes.
Recommendation No. 4
Do tests as much as you can, but do them wisely. First of all – do find time and do 2-3 full tests with not less than 100-120 questions with timer and see how you are doing. Maybe you decide, that after each 50 questions you will stretch your neck and legs. Or after each 25. Depends on how long you can keep your focus. It is important, as with time you start losing it and questions mess up in your head. Moreover, getting a feeling of real test exam, will give you understanding that you have to keep a closer eye on the timer.
3. Is doing tests enough?
So, I started to do the tests. My results were between 60-75%. After each test I made a break and then came back, sit down and reviewed each single mistake I made. I did not only review the mistakes, I referenced the book (PMBOK 6) and found the confirmation to each correct answer. I noted the mistakes and the explanation to correct answers in my notebook and the next day I reviewed them a few times.
Recommendation No.5
Bring sense to doing tests. Review your mistakes after each test, reference PMBOK for correct answers, note the material and review it every time you have a free minute or before doing any next tests.
Don’t do too many tests at ones. It makes sense to do up to 50 questions a day (maximum!) as you will spend a lot of time reading the corresponding chapter in the book.
4. Which book is the best to read for preparation?
As you have noticed I have been mainly reading and referencing 2 books: Rita Mulcachy’s PMP exam Prep and PMBOK 6th. When I only started with my preparation for PMP, I believed Rita’s book will be sufficient and barely checked PMBOK 6th. But when I started doing tests, I realized that the major source of all questions are from PMBOK6. Exam is not only checking your general understanding of the topic, it checks details, which are mainly available in PMBOK 6th. Rita was great to get a common understanding of the material, without which it would be challenging to read PMBOK, especially if you haven’t implemented some project management plan to full extent in your real life projects.
Recommendation No.6
Do read Rita for general understanding at least once– from very first to very last page and follow her advice to re-read integration management again. Then re-read your highlights. Read each chapter in PMBOK, especially pay attention to Risk Management, Procurement Management and Change management. There will be a lot of questions for those chapters!
As the exam date got closer, I got better and better understanding of the material. Not it was only about reading, getting a general concept, learning terms, inputs and outputs. It got deeper. By deeper I mean the fact that I started to look for better explanations of specific terms, which were not explicitly stated in the books. For example:
- difference between project calendars and resource calendars and how they interrelate,
- difference between nominal group technique, brain storming and Delphi technique (as mentioned before),
- difference between workaround and passive risk acceptance and which reserves are used in which case (management reserves or contingency reserves),
- who do you consult when you need to use different types of reserves?,
- difference between procurement closure and project or phase closure,
- connection between quality control and close project or phase,
- difference between fall back plan and contingency plan,
- difference between concepts of tools and techniques,
- when is the kick off meeting done as per PMP concept etc.?
5. Final recommendations (just before the Big Day)
Finally, check below the general recommendations before and during the actual exam day:
- You can keep being nervous, as it is quite normal, but be rested. If you are tired, how will you manage to keep siting for all 4 hours? Revise as much as you like on the day before exam, buy once you wake up on the exam day – don’t touch any book, any test, any notes. Let your mind rest.
- Avoid drinking too much water before the exam, as during the exam you are allowed to go out, but time is not stopped, and you will lose precious minutes on going in and out (including security checks) instead of double-checking your answers.
- Don’t contemplate too long on the exam questions. If you don’t know or doubt – mark question for review and go ahead. You will come back when you have answered all. But remember to make notes on your exam paper – which questions you doubted most, to address them first and then the rest.
- Questions for calculations have less points than others. If your formulas don’t work or calculations are wrong, save yourself time and simply leave it, for the sake of other questions!
- Many people recommend writing down formulas when you sit down to the exam. I saved myself time and effort as I did so many tests for formulas during preparation, that they were fixed in my memory. I did not have to spend 1-2 minutes to write them down during exam.
- During my exam, I managed to do all 200 questions for 3h 40 min, the rest of the 20 min I used to get back to questions, which I marked most doubtful (remember, I have put on paper the numbers of questions which were most weird or unclear). 20 minutes for review, helped me see some incorrectly chosen answers and gave me the chance to correct them, and also review questions I did not answer before. So I definitely recommend to do a review.
My friends, I believe I covered some of the major points for the PMP exam preparation and I hope they will be useful for you and will help you successfully pass the PMP exam. If you might have any additional questions, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment below – I will gladly answer you. Good luck!
4 Rules Of Feedback That You Probably Don’t Follow
How often do you receive feedback from your colleagues at work? Friends? Wives or husbands? Subordinates? Is this feedback usually positive or negative? Is it provided in detail? How do you react on feedback – do you usually get nervous and defensive? Do you get uncomfortable about the pure fact that someone dared to tell you what they really think? Do you take it personal? Do you even care? What do you do about it? … I have always wanted to find answers to all these questions to be able to understand how others deal with them. In my case, I found some answers with my own experience. And this is the reason why I decided to write this article and share with you, dear Reader.
Once, I was managing one of my IT projects. The team, which I was managing, drastically grew from 4 direct subordinates to 30 (project managers, as well as technical people). It was new experience for me. What was especially new, was the fact that I started to receive feedback to my management style, decisions, communication and I have learned how to deal with it. Secondly, I had to learn how to give feedback to others about the job I delegated to them and results I expected them to deliver.
I must admit that when you first read or hear about such type of challenges, it does not always seem complicated, but once you dig deeper and “go live” with such an experience – you might be surprised to discover that this is far from being an easy task and cooperation with people is one of the biggest challenges. People – are the most crucial and valuable “asset” in the company. Thanks to them you actually get things done and go ahead in whatever project or business you are doing. The ability to manage them wisely and effectively will actually determine the success of your project and business as a whole.
There are a couple of things which I experienced and would like to share here. Let’s start.
1. The First Rule of Feedback – learn how to give feedback
This is something I actually learned from theory. One of the best practices to give feedback to others is to base it on facts. Saying that you simply did not like something or that “it could have been done better/in different way” frustrates more than you can imagine. The best way to give someone feedback is to:
- Gather facts – what has been done well or not well. I will give you an actual example. My project manager neither delivered nor followed up on the task I assigned to him. We both agreed that he will complete it on time. But, when the time came, there was no expected result delivered, moreover, there was no information of delay in advance to mitigate the consequences. I approached the project manager personally and said that it was agreed that on that date he will deliver specific deliverable and that this did not happen. That is a simple fact.
- Tell how you personally feel about it. I told the project manager that because of that, I felt like I could not count on him and that this situation made me feel really sad and frustrated actually.
- Tell the person what the consequences of such actions in the future will be if this happens again. I told the project manager that I would be forced to track his activities closely and on more regular basis. Which means that I will need to set up frequent follow ups and track the progress on the activity assigned, to ensure that it is delivered on time.
As the result, the employee was really touched by this openness and promised to avoid situations like that and was sitting overnight to complete what was agreed and promised.
As practice showed, people are actually listening to such feedback and do their best to implement a solution to the situation. I personally even tend to believe that such “concrete feedback” actually is one of the most valuable feedback as it gives a person an example / examples of an actual situation and gives an opportunity to become better.
Bear in mind, that this was an example of a win-win situation resolution at the end. There are situations, when people need improvement in their work, need to be coached and you need to enforce the consequences which you promised.
We don’t need of course to talk only about negative feedback; the same approach can be used for positive feedback. If you tell the person what was done well – and give each time example for it – the person can enhance and embrace it in the future.
If you manage people, it is absolutely necessary to give your employees feedback. They shall know what they do well and where they have areas for improvement. By this approach – you grow your employees. Isn’t it one of the major objectives of any manager?
Additional tip – mentor your employees and colleagues
Is it enough to give feedback and only feedback? Are you sure your employees can figure out themselves how to improve or enhance the situation? I would not be so sure. I had a situation that I gave feedback to one of my team members and the person acknowledged that, but there was afterwards the repetitive situation similar to that which occurred, and I continued to discover gaps in understanding and communication. Honestly spoken, I take deep care of my team members and I can’t sleep at night if I know that I have an unresolved situation and my team needs help. So, I came up with an idea. Why not to mentor my subordinates? I do not only give feedback, but I also suggest what could be done about the situation. Imagine how awesome it could be once common ground is found and you actually see real improvements afterwards?
So, lessons learned for you – don’t just give feedback, mentor your team members as well. This is your investment into better future, better team work and trust!
2. The Second Rule of Feedback – learn how to receive feedback from others
If you are a boss, are you ever too prideful to even consider for a moment that there is something you can actually do better?
Never be too bossy to actually talk to your team members and ask them for their opinion, areas for improvement. I have noticed that many people are actually afraid to give feedback to their bosses or supervisors. Questions is – why not?
I had the same “default” attitude myself. I never gave feedback to my superior and considered it “inappropriate” or as a kind of “teaching approach”. But in one of my projects there was a very brave woman, who actually came to me and said: “please don’t take it personally, I do not mean to criticise you, but I have noticed a few things which you and the team could improve”. I must admit that when I heard those words, I had an itchy feeling in my stomach…seriously… The first reaction was defensive, because, unfortunately, it is an inborn human character feature. But then I stopped myself for a moment and change the direction of my thoughts. I thought that it is actually the best thing which can ever happen to me – to get a feedback from a knowledgeable person and actually consider it for improvement.
I, of course, understand that I (and you too, dear Reader) have to filter every feedback I get in accordance to its relevance, importance and actual relativity. You need analyse it first and then think objectively what to do about it: what to omit and what to enhance.
Feedback to yourself, especially negative, can be one of the most valuable things you can get from other people. Believe me, nobody likes to hear negative things. Everybody wants to hear compliments, receive great feedback and hear how nice they are. But think for a while – does it actually make you better? What actually makes the most valuable impact on your life is knowing your “weaknesses”, getting that feedback from others and thinking together how to improve it.
Remember I told you that my employee gave me feedback for areas of improvement? Thank to that, I actually grew a lot professionally and learned a lot of valuable new skills, situations and how to deal with them.
3. The Third Rule of Feedback – how often do you need to give/receive feedback?
If there is a positive feedback you want to give – do it immediately! There is no limit to how often you can say “thank you” or show your appreciation to people.
If there is a negative feedback – it depends. If situation is urgent – give feedback immediately or right the next day but remember to give an example on actual facts. If the situation is not urgent – give it time and observe. I always first act as an observer and do not jump to immediate conclusions. If I see a repetition – then of course, I talk things though.
Follow up regularly. People are people, not robot. Things get forgotten. So, if you want a stable final outcome, then follow up, get patient and don’t get too angry when you repeat yourself. Eventually, you will see the result and it will be awesome! Believe in people!
4. And finally, The Fourth Rule of Feedback – ask yourself if you choose your language wisely
If you work in multinational environment like I do (working with people from Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, India, Germany) you might find it useful to know how different cultures perceive positive or negative feedback. There are plenty of articles in the internet, like examples given HERE and HERE, where you can find interesting things about cultural differences. You will be astonished to realise that Germans are very direct in communication, use exclamation marks in e-mails (which can be often perceived as shouting) and do not try to say things in softer manner at all. British people on the other hand mean really negative when they say “you might have given more thought to this solution”. Therefore, be careful when you operate with different cultural environments, choose your words wisely and make sure you understood well what the other person was actually saying.
5. Final Thoughts
Let me share with you some final thoughts as a “take away” from this article:
- Be open to get feedback and look forward to negative feedback,
- Give feedback regularly and base it on facts,
- Never be too bossy to avoid negative feedback and listen to what people tell you,
- Remember there is never enough of you saying “thank you”,
- Be patient, believe in people and remember about cultural differences.
I hope this article was informative for you and I wish you all the best in improving your communication skills in providing and receiving feedback.
5 Reasons To Become A Project Manager
Have you ever felt overwhelmed and frustrated by the amount of work piled on your desk? Have you ever had a goal which you have never managed to accomplish and which has remained in your “to do list” for an indefinite time? Or maybe a habit, which has never been finally introduced into your daily life routine? Or wish, which has stayed a wish for the last couple of years and there is no date for it’s possible completion in the distant future? Have you ever had a feeling that 24 hours in a day is too little to get all thing done? Have you ever wanted to finally stop feeling overwhelmed with and worried about all those tasks you have on your head all the time?
If your answer is yes for at least 1 question above, I do believe you need to know my 5 reasons why you should become a project manager: by profession or “by default”.
1. You will become a real planner
“By planning you bring future into the present so that you can do something about that now”
Alan Lakein
You can not even imagine how many things in the world could be improved if everyone would start planning in advance: set a list of things which need to be done, set a date when this particular ‘to do” has to be completed and track the progress. There are so many books written nowadays for personal productivity – by Brian Tracy, David Allan, Stephen Covey, Charles Duhigg, Tony Schwatz, Michael Hyatt and many others, and in each of them there is a clear statement – know your goal, make a plan, and implement is step by step. And it does work!
In any filed you work already or daily routine, you already implement some part of project management, without even realizing it probably: to do lists, meeting agendas, tasks with several underlying tasks, plans for holidays, purchase or build of a house, organization of a bachelor party, renovation of the office, planning a trip, relocation to another country…should I continue listing? So, you already have a source to practice your planning skills. Add to this some worthy theoretical hints – and you are a step ahead. So, mastering a plan-skill, would bring a great deal of benefit to, literally, any sphere of your life.
2. Develop professionally
Whoever you want to be in life, if you want to be successful, you need to be effective. If you want to be effective, you need to be really good with planning your work and achieving results, because at the end of the day – that is all what actually matters. How many of us can answer without thinking the simple questions: “What have you achieved during this day and what have you managed to accomplish”? With project management you will be able to organize chaos and design a manageable plan, integrate people (if you manage people) to work as a team and head all together to achieve set goals. You will be also able to learn from failures and think ahead about “what can go wrong” before it actually happens. Which makes a big deal, especially nowadays – when time is a limit.
Have you met many people who actually plan their career? Their development? Look much ahead into the future and think about possibilities and opportunities? Think about how many possibilities open up when you actually can implement some project management hints into any sphere of your life!
3. Improve your communication skills
“Asking questions is cool. Asking the right people questions is smart. Asking the right people the right questions is professional”
You will have to believe me – but project management is 70% about communication. Good Project Managers never work alone: they create and agree plans with people involved, they schedule meetings and calls with teams to discuss problems, what could go wrong, possibilities, workarounds etc. If you develop your communications skills and learn how to get to the point during meetings, talk business and make sure, that what you have just said is understood by your audience (people, team members, friends) – you are on the right way to become a master in communication.
I remember the time when I only began on a regular basis to participate in daily calls, warm ups and discussions. And my first impression was – why do those guys spend so much time – and by so much I mean minimum 1 hour – on discussions and with no visible result. I was getting even nervous that instead of being productive, I am stuck in the calls. Unfortunately, many people, before they set up a meeting or a call, do not even know what they want to achieve during it, and as you can see – if you do not know what you want to do and how you want to do it, you just make a vision of doing something, and you waste your time and the time of others. So, such experience was also good – to know what you should not do during meetings and interactions with others. This is why when I now organize any meeting or any call, I make a plan and set a goal- what I want to achieve during it, and guide myself and others into the right direction. Practice, practice, practice.
So, trust me – communication skills, is definitely a skill – worth learning, both for private and business use!
4. Make things happen
I imagine a Project Manager as a sort of magician. In fact, if you think about that, managers do not produce any physical product, but good managers, and not a time wasters, are able to integrate people, manage quality, costs, knowledge and enforce and encourage teamwork in such a way, that at the end a real product will be produced. Their work consists of making things happen by using experience, energy and leadership, which leads, or at least should lead, to the result. And this is what really matters.
Just imagine, you want to set up own business, or implement an idea of your own. Knowing how things work, you will make it happen, because you will be able to initiate, plan, execute and control. Simple as it is.
Any “to do” on its own is just a ‘to do”. But if you know how to connect all your ‘to dos” to one main big TO DO – there is 90% chance you will do it! Add to it – energy and dedication – and here you are – result guaranteed!
5. Develop personally
Project management is very dependent on personal management and personal productivity. Once you dive into management, you will definitely want to know more and will start searching for answers– How to become more effective? How to become a leader? How to be become more successful? How to do more in a less amount of time? Of course you can invent your own answers for these questions, but why to invent a wheel if you can do a research in an enormous amount of available literature on the market. And not just literature – good literature, which actually once read and applied, can be used for real good. I do it myself. I love reading and try to read one book a week/two for professional development and constantly listen to audiobooks. Now. Before I started to look for answers myself, I had a constant “driver-question”: HOW?
Working as a project manager and applying project management in your life, by practicing it on a daily basis – you will develop, you will be result-driven, you will be accountable and you will become a master of your time, a leader who is able to drive himself and others.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article and that it will inspire you to choose at least one “why ” to introduce project management into your life.
