Posted: January 7th, 2009 | Tags: Dealmaking, Negotiation, Project Management, Project Manager skills | No Comments »
If you come to a negotiation table saying you have the final truth, that you know nothing but the truth and that is final, you will get nothing. – Harri Holkeri (politician)
In my previous post I mentioned the ability that a project manager should have to say “no” when needed. Now the questions is “When is it needed?” Looking at it from a project management view the answer will always lead to the discussion regarding “Is scope creep a good thing?”. The most important factor here is control over the process! If the scope is managed then growth is not bad.
However, looking at this discussion from a “Customer Focus” or “Future Sales” perspective then the question should lead us down the conversation path of “the customer is always right!” and the “A good salesperson never says No” discussions. We all know that good scope management and customer focus are both critical success factors for value adding projects and in a professional service environment there is always the sales focus as well. How do I balance this?
This is where I believe the art of making a deal comes into play. This is a skill that a “good” project manager has to develop. How do I give my client what they want without putting myself into a worse position. Creative thinking, negotiation tactics and customer focus all need to be combined. I have personally attended a very good “deal making” training course and I must admit that it has made a big difference in the way I negotiate with customers. This becomes even more relevant if you need to act as an engagement manager as well.
The biggest skill here is on the creative thinking side. Can I come up with a proposal that will keep my client happy and also be to my benefit. This is where the “one must win” attitude needs to be changed to a “Win/Win” mindset. This is not a mindset that we are brought up with. It is a paradigm shift that we need to make. Unless we are aware of the limitations that our current paradigm offers we cannot make the shift. Do you know what your “one must win” attitude has cost you?
Posted: October 13th, 2008 | Tags: Project Management, Project Manager skills | 2 Comments »
Continuing from my previous discussion:
“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.”
- Josh Billings
I think the above quote summarizes it. A “good” project manager will know that responding and reacting are not the same. There needs to be a “thought” process in between. At the same time there should be a caution not to go into an analysis paralysis in coming up with the answer.
If the answer is “No” then the “good” project manager will know how to package this. The old cliche holds true here – “it is not what you say but how you say it” My personal experience is that the ability to convey a “No” answer is something that has to be taught in most cases and takes some time and experience to develop. (refer to discussion here at Crossderry)
Due to the fact that a lot of project managers never develop this ability we end up with a large amount of scope creep and gold plating on projects.
This point will later become more apparent when I get to the point about “making a deal”.
Posted: October 8th, 2008 | Tags: Project Management | 4 Comments »
Based on this article, I started to ask myself what makes a “good” project manager? What are the 10 things that a “good” project manager must be able to do?
I think it goes a lot further that pure technical capabilities of project management (Deliver as per PMBok). This makes you a project manager not a “good” project manager. I believe the person should a least be able to:
- Say “No” appropriately (when required)
- Be able to “make a deal” not simply negotiate
- Convey bad news effectively
- Be able to articulate the project’s current status well
- Articulate the project’s benefit in a very clear and concise way to business
- Relate to the current technical issues of the proposed solution
- Present – not simply read of a deck of slides
- Deal with conflict
- Work with people
- Focus (especially when things get rough!)
I will expand my thoughts on each of these in future posts.
Posted: August 5th, 2008 | Tags: Escalations, Project Management | No Comments »
To add to a discussion that is starting at Crossderry Blog on when to escalate a project, there are two sayings that come to mind. Both of these I heard while working in the trading rooms for major banks. These are guys that should know when to get in and out. Let’s share their wisdom here:
Rule 1: If you are going to panic, panic first!
What they mean by this is he who waits the longest looses most. Make a clear decision whether you should escalate or not. If the answer is yes, do it sooner later than later.
Rule 2: People always gamble on the downside, never on the upside.
This implies that when things go well, we have the tendency to lock in profit and get out. People always want to exit on a high note! However, when things go bad we are more than willing to take one more gamble! What if I wait for this, what happens if I try that, etc…
Now the big question, what checks and balances can we put in place to counter these human tendencies? In trading they call this the compliance officer. They also have strict rules on “stops” – when the system will force you to get out of a specific trade. Do we in project management need the same “hard stops”? What should these be and how do we measure them? It comes back to project Monitor & Control.
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