Good PM 10 – Keep Focus

Posted: September 15th, 2009 | Tags: Autism spectrum, Project Management Institute, Project Manager skills, Winston Churchill | No Comments »

“The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” – Stephen Covey

and

“If you’re going through hell, keep going.” – Winston Churchill

The last in my series will focus on the item that brings it all together.  Being able to do all the other nine and still be able to focus. How to keep your eye on the ball. This is where some of the bad aspects of Autistic Spectrum disorders could be a benefit.

It is well known that the “rain makers” have the ability to focus like none of us can. People on the autism spectrum normally has a topic that they focus on and go into way too deep! The drawback of this is that they normally end up sacrificing other skills in order to do this. In most cases it is their outward focus that they loose.  Ability to read emotions, communicate with people etc..

When the project is really in a tough spot, the only way to get out is normally to cut out the noise, get to the root cause and then focus on the remedy for this root cause.  To many inexperienced project managers get distracted by the noise and/or emotions. They try to please everybody and in a lot of cases “over communicate”.  It sometimes takes a project manager a couple of tries to develop this skill.  Most “seasoned” project managers have developed this skills without even noticing it.Just like we are taught concentration skills at a young age, so project managers can be taught focus.  Small steps.

However, to much focus is not long term sustainable.  You have to come up for breath every now and again.  Touching base with all your stakeholders and re-checking that we are all still aligned. If you focus for too long you could miss key signs that the world around you has started to change.