More than 10 years ago - time goes so fast - I heard about Peter Drucker talking about focussing on our and other people strengths instead of weaknesses - nowadays called “areas to improve”. One of his quote, among many, says:

“It takes far less energy to move from first-rate performance to excellence than it does to move from incompetence to mediocrity.”   Business guru Peter Drucker (1909-2005)

At that time, I thought: “Wow, I like that!”  I felt so relieved to be allowed to forget about all these areas I was not good at. Instead, I should focus on developing my strengths.  It gave me a sense of peace - I was ok as I was.  I could continue to work hard but on things which were easy and fun for me.   At that time, I was running my own business. I was lucky I could create a team who could compensate where I was not good at, while I would run at full speed where I could make a real difference.

Then I moved back as an employee in a corporate environment.   Without noticing it, I slowly started again to worry about my “areas to improve” - I did not feel so secure any more.  Moreover, I realised that people around me were doing the same.  Everybody knows about performance evaluation forms used on average once a year.   Most of them cover a full range of competencies.

Think about it for a moment. How are you reacting when your manager rates you with a few “achieved over expectations”, some “achieved as expected” and a few “achieved, but under expectations”?  On which ones should you focus your efforts?  Do you ask your manager how you can do even better where you over-achieve or do you argue on the “as expected” and “under expectations”?  What are YOU expecting?  Being an over-achiever on all criteria? Is that realistic?  Does it make sense?

Most of us have this tendency to try to have a balanced evaluation.   But, would that make anything good for us and/or the company we are working for?  Read again the quote at the beginning.  What is more efficient?

Now I am back on my own - it is even more important that I work on my strengths to be successful - no one can build a successful business relying on average strengths.    As a coach, I wish to spread this concept - I wish I can help my coachees to recognise and develop their strengths - I’d love see them reaching success in their “area of competence”.   As a coach for project managers, I wish my coachees can recognise the strengths of their team members and I wish they know which type of projects will allow them to show their full potential.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes, when you something interests you, you find a lot about it even without looking?  This happened to me with this “focus on strengths” concept:

1. I met a woman in a leadership training and we happen to talk about the concept - I remembered about Peter Drucker
2. I took a class as part of my coaching training where I heard about a book called “Strengths finder 2.0″
3. I went  to a PMI conference in Basel “Wanted: leaders” where the presenter most important point was “From hard work to heart work”, where he explains that a leader is anyone who know who he is and where he wants to go.

I will come back to leadership in an upcoming post  - especially leadership skills for project managers.  But, the starting point is:  “do you know what are your strengths?  Think about what you do easily and naturally, things you see other struggling with without understanding why they have so much problems.   Think about what you do with pleasure, what puts a smile on your face, what gives you a lot of energy.  There is a good chance that these activities are linked to your strengths.

What are the benefits of knowing and using our strengths?  Enjoying what we do, feeling we are at the right place, being complete both at work and at home, getting satisfaction from our work, higher self-confidence - the list is long.

I will conclude with a last quote:

“Know your strengths. Apply them to areas in your organisation where you can make a contribution. Make sure your values and the values of the organisation are compatible.”  Business guru Peter Drucker (1909-2005)

The following is also from the April 15-16  “Congrès du management de projet” organised by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Société Suisse de management de projet (SMP) in Lausanne. I would like to share with you my discovery of a very interesting tool to help people learn and improve their project management skills.

The tool is called “SIMULTRAIN” and is produced by STS.  You can see a demo on their site but unfortunately, it does not really reflect the entire potential of the tool since it is not self-guided.

In any case, if you are thinking of providing project management training classes, you should think of incorporating this tool in your programme.  Here is what the participants using this tool will be able to experiment with:

• Prepare a project plan taking into consideration resource capacity and availability
• Monitor the project costs, schedule and quality as well as their team motivation
• These indicators will be influenced by the decisions and actions taken during the project
• Each time the project manager makes a decision, a coach will provide his advice on it - was it a good, medium or bad decision? and why?

The scenarios are extremely realistic and you really get the feeling that you are managing a real project.  Coupled with traditional project management training, this tool will bring much higher retention of concepts presented to the participants.

Coaching as something that is done off the sports field is something that we have known for about 15 years.  As with any new discipline, the boundaries are not yet fully standardised and their application might vary dramatically from one coach to another.

At Marakoudja, we follow the guidance laid down by the International Coaching Federation which is, as far as we know, the most widely recognised accreditation body in terms of  professional coaching.

“Founded in 1995, the International Coach Federation (ICF) is the leading global organization dedicated to advancing the coaching profession by setting high standards, providing independent certification, and building a worldwide network of credentialed coaches.

With more than 17,000 professional personal and business coaches representing over 95 countries, the ICF is the voice of the global coaching profession.

International Coach Federation Core Purpose: To advance the art, science and practice of professional coaching. “

About ICF

Business coaching is often confused with consulting, training or mentoring.   Here are the differences:

• Consulting is about coming with deep expertise in an area and providing it to the customer:  as consultants, we bring answers and solutions
• Training is about providing a way to go and ensure that the students understand and are able to apply the concept in their work: as trainers, we light the path
• Mentoring is about giving advice, acting as a wise person towards a less experienced one: as mentors, we show how to go on

Coaching is none of this.  Coaching is about partnering with the client and bringing what it takes to allow him to move forwards in achieving his targets - using his own personal path.  A coach is an advocate, a sounding board, a cheerleader, an accountability partner, a truth teller and a supporter.  When you provide coaching, you are agreeing with the maxim that “you can bring a horse to water but you cannot make him drink”. The coach does not have the answers and does not claim to have them; the coach has the questions that allow the client to find their own answers.

The benefits of coaching are less tangible than consulting, training and mentoring. You always think that you can make it without coaching. You are already good in your field but you can still ask yourself could I be even better?  Only you know the answer. But if you think yes, maybe a coach could get you there.

Would Federer have been beaten so often by Nadal earlier, if he had a coach?

Between April 15-16, I attended the “Congrès du management de projet” organised by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and the Société Suisse de management de projet (SMP) in Lausanne.  It was a very interesting seminar and I would like to share with you a few things that I learned.  I will do this in a few posts over the coming days.

The first workshop I attended was called “what music does your project play?”  Interesting title, isn’t it?  The speaker, Jean-Pierre Levrat, from Manproject Associés, obviously a fan of music, made the connection between the project atmosphere and spirit with the harmony we can find in music. A project manager should learn to “listen” to how his project sounds.  I felt that this was a nice way of thinking about the people in the project and their mood, etc.

He also put forward the idea of the relationship between a good musical score and the structure of the various project meetings. If the meetings are not used appropriately, the results will not be harmonious.  He proposed the following meeting structure for a project:

Meeting classification, from Jean-Pierre Levrat, Manproject Associés

The daily meetings follow the RAD methods (Rapid Application Development) concept which can be used even in projects where there is no development to be done.

The “annual” meeting is in fact a “get together” event which could be organised depending on the project timeline and needs.

An example of non-harmonious meetings would be a discussion about general project status during a daily meeting - these meetings are not held for that purpose. Discussing other issues changes the purpose of the meeting and would be like playing the wrong note in a piece of music.

Project management effort should not be over 15% of overall project effort … is that true?

Whenever you provide project estimates, you often face the apparently sacrosanct rule of 15% for project management effort. Even if it is not clear where this figure comes from, it is around and is often presented as a fact, no matter how big or complex the project is, or the environment it takes place in.

I’m not saying that this average is wrong but I see two problems with its interpretation:

1. One cannot automatically take an average number and assume that it will be valid for every project -  in an average value, some values are lower and others are higher - common sense, right?
2. Unfortunately, definition of project management tasks can vary drastically from one company to another, even between project managers in a same company - what does the 15% refer to?

What can we do about it then?

Well, first accept the fact that people allocating and approving project budget will most likely know this average rule.  And, it’s almost guaranteed that,  if your estimate is above the 15% range, they’ll question it.  You’d better be ready to explain your calculation.  Explaining does not mean reducing your estimates if you are not comfortable to do so.  It means detailing your numbers and telling them what you are doing for that budget. In fact, using the 15% as a KPI to challenge your estimates is not a bad idea at all - it should be done if you are above AND if you are under!

There can be many factors that can explain why you are higher than 15%. Knowing them will help you either to reduce their impact or explain to your stakeholders the reason behind your project estimates.

Case one: your project is not an average project at all

• you might be running a project where there is not much  to be done from technical teams, but a lot of coordination required with many people; taking a percentage as a base to evaluate the project management effort would not make any sense;
• your project might be very sensitive within the organisation and you might end up putting a lot of effort in stakeholder and change management;
• you might have very short project in time - the “room” to absord the setup and closing of the project and still be in the 15% range might simply not be there
• …

If you regularly run these type of projects in your organisation, it might be a good idea to start collecting information and build you own average for project management activities. It might help to have an explanation ready for the new stakeholders coming in.  If this project is an exception, then you need simply to explain your estimates.

Case two: you might be including different project management activities than those used in the 15% calculation

You might find out that what you have put in project management activities, should or could in fact be accounted for in other activities, like requirement analysis, user testing, etc. In many organisations, the project managers take over more than the typical project management tasks.  In that case, it’s important to break down the activities taken over by the project manager.  By doing so:

• you might be back within the 15% target for the real project management tasks
• you - as well as your stakeholder - will have a better understanding on your effort estimation regardless of whether or not you are back in the 15% average
• you might realise that you have indeed overestimated some tasks

In conclusion, the 15% dogma can be a point of reference for discussion but it should not be accepted as a given rule, neither by the project manager nor by the budget owner.  Project management tasks included in your estimate need to be detailed and discussed. 

What’s your reaction on this? Do you have other, similar experiences? Post a comment, I’d love to hear from you.

As most of you already know, I have formed a partnership with 3PMExperts (Alexander Matthey) to offer you excellent PMP Exam Preparation Classes.   Since many people might not be aware of what is needed to become a certified PMP, I have started free webinar information sessions on that topic.   If you are interested, please have a look at the session calendar and register for one of them.

During one of these sessions, a participant asked Alexander: “what can one expect from becoming a PMP? Is it worth the investment in time and training? ” His answer was that most people who became a PMP see improvements in their career in the following 6-12 months.  Not necessarly through a direct salary increase but their managers started to appreciate their work in a different way.  Why? Because after studying around 200-400 hours of project management and gaining a deeper understanding of the PMI Project Management Processes, you act in a different way: you become more professional in your work and that is immediately perceived and appreciated by people around you.

Another advantage is the incentive and motivation to study and understand the PMI mindset and processes when there is an exam ahead.  Who would invest between 200-400 hours in a 3-4 month period without any direct objective?  This heavy and intensive workload results in a shift in the way one works compared to normal project management training.  When you have completed the training, you’ll be eager to apply this know-how in your day-to-day work. If you chose to do it in a PMP Preparation Class, you will also enjoy the benefit of other students’ experience and feedback.

I personally decided to go for the PMP after more than 20 years of practice.  Of course, I have been able to earn a living without it so far.  Still, I felt it was time to do it and now I am very happy that I took this decision.  Having gone through the studies, passing the exam and now being a PMP, I can say that I have:

• a solid body of knowledge reference to look at when I am managing projects
• a network of colleagues who speak the same language; who have built tools, methods, techniques on top of PMI processes
• an incentive to keep up to date, to participate in conferences and training in project management
• pride to be recognised in the market as a Project Management Professional

Now, I honestly feel that I should have done it 15 years ago, when I first heard about PMI.  Ever since then, I have been working with the PMI processes in mind, so why didn’t I just go and get the title for it? Laziness probably. Or getting wrapped up in business.  Or thinking it would not change much for my employer.  That might have been true but it could have changed something for me!  I might have got this different feeling from others around me that Alex was talking about. Who knows?  If I were to give advice to any experienced project manager today, it would be to go for it.

Now, you might not be ready (that’s a very personal decision to take) or not have yet enough experience to qualify as a PMP.  In any case, I strongly recommend you to get prepared for it - you never know when you’ll feel it’s time to go for it.  Here are a few easy steps you can take to prepare yourself and then speed up the PMP certification process when you are ready for it:

1.  Keep a record of all your projects you are working on (objectives, steps, plans,  results, closing reports, time sheets, people involved so you can name them as  reference when you apply to the programme, etc).   This will simplify your life when you come to filling in the information in the PMP - you’ll be glad to have  them at hand.   And if you never apply for PMP, this information will be useful anyway for future job applications, to write your CV, etc.

2. It  might not be a bad idea to become a member of PMI Org and the local Chapter in your area.   This will cost about 140 SFr / year.  If you are serious about progressing as a project manager, then this is not a huge expense.  With membership of the Switzerland Chapter, you receive 2  vouchers (30 SFr each) which give you the possibility to attend to 2 events for  free.    Being in this organisation and participating at a few  events a year will keep you aware of what is happening in Project Management.  With your membership of the PMI Org, you have the possibility of downloading the latest version (4th) of the PMBOK, the PMI Project Management Body of Knowledge and start getting familiar with it.

3.  Buy a reference book on Project Management.  I  recommend:

“Project Management,   a  systems approach to planning, scheduling and controlling” by Harold Kerzner, Ph.  D. It is a reference work in project management and it is in line  with the PMI approach.   It is used in Universities to teach Project Management.  You can find it on Amazon.  Do not buy the case studies which are proposed with it: these are useful for teachers only.

If you do all this, then you’ll most likely decide to eventually go for the PMP certification when you are ready for it.

In conclusion, I would say, YES it worth the effort and the investment.  When you become a PMP, people know that you have proven experience and that you have solid know-how in project management.  They also know that you are keeping your knowledge up-to-date since a PMP has to get continous training to retain their title. When you are a PMP, then you will keep yourself in line with new findings and developments in project management. You are certified as a professional and it shows. Give yourself a gift: go for PMP Certification or get ready for it!

A few weeks ago, I participated to a conference titled “Innovate in change management” given by Pascal Buyck from PMC. I discovered an approach founded in 1980 by David L. Cooperrider called “Appreciative Inquiry”.

The general idea is to build on things an organisation is doing good to improve and achieve better results.   If you inquire for problems, you will find other problems . if you inquire for your strengths, what you are good at, you will find more strengths and habilities.  With these discoveries, you will be able to design a new future for your organisation or your team.  This approach existing since 1980, a lot of writing has been done about it. This article gives a very good summary on what is Appreciate Inquiry.  It explains different models to use it, like the 4D approach: Discover, Dream, Design, Deliver or the 4I: Initiate, Inquire, Imagine, Innovate and a sample of a questionnaire used in the discover / initiate part.

With my mind focussed at project management, I immediately made a link with project teams and project organisations.   I believe appreciative inquiry would be a very good approach to be used:

• during the kick-off phase of a project to define WITH the team the project success path;
• when working on a difficult offer for a customer to find the best innovative and promising approach to come up with a win-win deal,
• within a project manager group to increase the project management strengths in the organisation
• ….

What I like about this approach is the fact that it is simple to apply, it can be scaled to the size of the team involved and it can be done quickly - as less as 2 days for a small team!

I also like the idea to think about good things we are doing.  Building on our strengths.   Especially in these diffcult times, puting some positive thinking in our life will certainly do no harm.  I will continue to investigate this approach and will put it in practice as soon as I see an opportunity for it.

You heard about this approach before. Share your experience with us. You see a potential in your project(s) or organisation. You are curious to learn more about it. Share your thoughts and ideas about it. Leave a comment.

I made it - I passed the PMP exam!  It took me 3 hours - on 200 questions, I had at least 75 marked for review or not answered when I finished the first pass .. but finally I could answer all of them with more or less confidence.  Before pressing the button “finish the exam” and then “yes” to “are you sure?” .. I was so nervous, you cannot imagine … and then when I was just looking to get my result, I had to answer around 15 questions about the computer exam process !  I thought I would die of impatience!

And then, I got the nice screen “congratulations …. ” - I was so relieved.

I am very happy about my study program and thanks Bruce Turner for the training class and Rita Mulcahey for her excellent book on PMP Exam.

Now, I have completed my study plan in terms of going through each chapter and redo the Practice Exam from Rita’s book each time.  My total score went from 63% (without study) to 79%.  I feel more confident for the exam but not yet ready.   I am concerned about formulas and  terms that I should have memorised. Even if I have practice with  the Rita’s chart exercise, I sometime get confused with the order of activities.

I am passing the exam in 2 days - my plan to secure myself is the following:

1. Read my take away notes again
2. Memorise the list of formulas given in Rita’s book appendix
3. Answer the test questions provided on the Demo CD which comes with Rita’s book
4. Redo the Practice Exam for each chapter starting with those with a a score below 80% on 2nd round (if I have time I will do the others)
5. Review all the answers of the exam passed, even the one which I got right - I feel this is a good way to review the concepts

Estimated time: 4-6 hours

This chapter is about Professional and Social Responsibility and is an add-on on Rita’s book, it is not covered in the PMBOK.  Acting according to the PMI’s PMP® Code of Professional Conduct is a serious topic - one can violate it without noticing it.   Topic is not difficult, one just need to agree to the principles.

Chapter 13 - Professional and Social Responsibility - take away notes

• A PMP must be professional and honest in every situation, there is no excuse
• A PMP must put the project success above his own personal goal or career
• Following the PMI’s PMP® Code of Professional Conduct means that the PMP must follow the PMP processes, for example refuse to start a project without a charter, always make a network diagram, etc.
• A PMP cannot remain silent when he witness an action which is not approved by the PMI’s PMP® Code of Professional Conduct, he must do his best to have the appropriate correction in place

Time invested: 2 hours