Coaching agile teams: Tip 3 - Seek to be the master of yourself.

Before you can master anything else, you need to master yourself. Before you can be a servant-leader to anyone else, you need to be a servant-leader to yourself. Start by understanding your native conflict response mode. How do you respond to conflict? Do you compete, collaborate, compromise, accommodate, avoid? Understand your natural tendency so that you can begin the process of becoming the master of yourself.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 2 - Change the hamster wheel.

It is easy to get the basics of agile. After all, agile is designed to be simple. However, the rituals of agile can leave even the best of teams feeling like they are on a big hamster wheel, always moving, and spinning from one sprint to the next. Making product progress is fulfilling to an extent, but there needs to be a deeper connection to agile. This deeper connection is all about an agile way of life and striving to be the best one can be. Change the hamster wheel into a high performance machine that seeks to find ways to improve and produce something truly worthwhile.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 1 - Have a mentor.

Whether you are a new agile coach or an experienced agile coach, have a mentor. An agile coach mentor can offer you a penalty-free, in-the-moment, coaching to help you see how agile works. And most importantly, your agile mentor can help you see, even when you can't, where you are inadvertently falling back to your old traditional project management, plan-driven, mindsets.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 10 - Hold management to a higher standard.

Years back, first line managers, second line managers, and third line managers typically received more than sufficient management training. Nowadays, with the unrelenting competitive pressures and focus on short term, quarter by quarter, results fewer and fewer managers are given any kind of training in management until they get to a director or junior executive level position. The results are often catastrophic. Poor management can and often does immediately squash any kind of culture of excellence and project management is no exception. Management must be held to a higher standard by both the leadership team and those doing the work.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 9 - Hold SMEs to a higher standard.

Subject matter experts (SMEs) can be a great source of knowledge and floor leadership. Hold SMEs to a higher standard of teamwork, mentoring, and end results achieved. Demand that SMEs share, not hoard, information and their experiences, wisdom, tips and techniques. And, find ways to compensate them according to their value.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 8 - Effective Performance Planning.

Performance planning is essential to employee growth and development. Some organizations simply don't take the time to effectively plan for employee performance, others do it poorly. One common mistake in performance planning is to have individual incentives that conflict with team work and a culture of excellence. For example, encouraging a employee to find ways to stand out and distinguish themselves individually, might easily result in a lack of team work. Be sure to balance individual performance and development with team performance, development, and contribution to an organizational culture of excellence.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 7 - Give it to the team.

When teams bring a problem to management, often management will go off and try to solve the problem. They then come back to the team with a solution to the original problem that in many cases does not fix the problem and in some cases the problem is only made worse. In establishing a culture of PM excellence, give it to the team. Let them solve as much of the problem as they can. You might be surprised to find that the team both solves the problem and develops a problem-solving mindset that seeks to solve problems on their own before coming to management in the first place.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 6 - Privately reward project rescue.

Most organizations have an experienced, subject matter expert, certified project management professional. And this person is often called in to save the day for such things as project rescue, project coaching and mentoring, and providing floor leadership to the team. As appropriate recognize the above and beyond the call of duty efforts of such a person, but do it privately. Otherwise, you might end up perpetuating a culture of "Hero Worship" which is a tell tale sign of poor processes and a lack of PM excellence.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 5 - Publicly reward process adoption.

Seek opportunities to publicly reward process adoption. This includes both adherence to the process and contribution to the improvement of the process. This will result in process buy-in and a mindset for improving the process rather than merely complaining about it.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 4 - Forgive human errors.

To err is human, so expect it. Encourage process adherence and don't be overly critical when it comes to human errors. Afterall, most human errors are on account of process errors that enabled, or failed to prevent, the human error.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 3 - Create a process friendly environment.

Many people have an adverse reaction to the word process. This is unnecessary and unhelpful. Processes always exist. They may be undefined in which case people exhibit ad hoc, best effort behaviors, but even in this case processes do exist. Processes are not inherently bad. Creating a process friendly environment is critical to establishing a culture of any kind of excellence.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 2 - Working with low levels of maturity.

After recognizing low levels of maturity, the next step is to develop an approach for working with low levels of maturity. There are several reasons and contributing factors to low levels of individual and organization maturity, so a one shoe fits all all sizes approach will not work. As low levels of maturity, especially individual, are rooted in willingness and ability, the Situation Leadership Model offers an excellent leadership framework and approach for working with low levels of maturity.

Establishing a culture of PM excellence: Tip 1 - Recognizing low levels of maturity.

When establishing a culture of project management excellence, recognize people and areas of the organization with low levels of maturity and the attitudes and obstacles that come with them. Typically, those that reject or are resistant to improvement do so out of ignorance, defensiveness, and a sense of being threatened. It is easy for these folks to get left behind in terms of both knowledge and practical experience.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 10 - Building Community.

Leaders recognize that a sense of community and belonging is important to workers. It is impossible for workers to be committed to their workplace environment and jobs without it. Servant leaders recognize that much has been lost in terms of community and belonging. The servant leader seeks to build community and show the way amongst those in the workplace.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 9 - People Growth.

Leaders recognize that people are the greatest asset of the organization. Servant-leadership involves a commitment to the growth and satisfaction of workers and acknowledges that people have an intrinsic value beyond the measurable end results they achieve as workers. In practice, this can include formal employee development planning as well as informal mentoring and professional development.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 8 - Stewardship.

Servant-leaders have stewardship and hold in trust their institutions and their people. Servant-leaders recognize stewardship and are committed to serving the needs of others, not exploiting or taking advantage of them for personal gain.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 7 - Foresight.

Closely related to conceptualization, servant leaders have the ability to foresee the likely outcome of a situation. Foresight enables the servant leader to understand the lessons learned from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely outcome of a decision for the future.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 6 - Conceptualization.

In order to conceptualize, leaders must think outside the box and beyond the day to day constraints of the organization. Many of today’s leaders are focused on short term operational goals. Servant Leadership requires leaders to have the ability to take a broader view, at times, in order to see the full range of possibilities.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 5 - Persuasion.

Leaders have authority and can use it. Servant-leaders rely upon persuasion, not positional authority, in getting decisions made within the organization.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 4 - Awareness.

All leaders need to have good awareness skills. Awareness is the key to understanding issues involving ethics and values and in solving problems. Awareness is not gentle solace, rather it is a disturbance and an awakener. Those who truly seek awareness and the truth of a situation are not seeking serenity.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 3 - Healing.

Learning to heal one's self and others is one of the great strengths of servant-leadership. It is natural for humans to become hurt. Overcoming hurt is a powerful force for transformation and integration.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 2 - Empathy.

Leaders empathize with their followers. The empathy must be sincere and far reaching. People need to be accepted, recognized, and valued for their special and unique gifts. Workers must be accepted, not rejected, even when refusing to accept the end results achieved of the worker.

Project Management Servant Leadership: Tip 1 - Listen.

Leaders are known for communication and decision-making skills. These skills can and need to be reinforced by listening intently to others and being very receptive to what others say and do not say. When managing a project of any size or type, project manager listening is key to both understanding the project dynamics and effectively managing the project environment.

Performance Appraisals: Tip 10 - Don't treat all employees the same.

Do all employees need to be treated the same? Of course not. By way of policy, treat different employees differently. For example, if you have a rating scale of 1 through 4 where 1 is outstanding performance and 4 is marginal performance, you might consider having an interim review policy that provides more rigor for marginal employees and less for outstanding employees. Marginal performers need and should receive a quarterly interim assessment. Outstanding employees may only need a mid-year assessment. Ensure common sense, fair, and practical treatment of all those being appraised. Don't just go through the motions; appraisals are and need to be an effective tool for building high performance employees.

Performance Appraisals: Tip 9 - No surprises, never.

The performance appraisal should never be a surprise. By discussing performance throughout the year, both parties should be well aware of the end results achieved and how those end results will be appraised. Talk to staff continuously. When end results are exceptional, take time to formally acknowledge that. When they are poor, do the same. Generally speaking, managers should provide a regular, once a quarter, interim assessment of performance. These interim assessments help to ensure an effective manager/employee discourse, an accurate final appraisal, and a no surprises along the way.

Performance Appraisals: Tip 8 - If necessary, appraise the trivial.

Many human resource experts advocate measuring only the big things, not the trivial. Others suggest that often times measuring a few of the trivial aspects to one's performance is just a critical as the key goals and objectives. Behaviors such as being late for key meetings, letting the phone always go to voicemail, not replying to emails, dress, manner of speech, attitude, and many others are expected areas of performance whether they are in the performance plan or not.

Performance Appraisals: Tip 7 - Don't postpone appraisal meetings.

Many managers delay or even cancel appraisal meetings. Sometimes this is because the manage is not ready to give the appraisal. Other times it is because something came up and the manager is all too eager to avoid or delay an activity that they are not that keen to do. Postponing appraisals is disrespectful. If managers are not willing to commit to the process and do a good job, then they shouldn't be managers.

Performance Appraisals: Tip 6 - Accurately assessing staff.

Sometimes managers are over confident in their belief that they can accurately assess their staff, even when they hardly ever work with or even see their direct employees. Most managers are not in a position to consistently monitor or oversee performance. Hence, the appraisal process needs to be a two way working relationship and partnership between manager and employee.

Performance Appraisals: Tip 5 - Appraisals are for performance improvement not salary administration.

Many people use the appraisal process to administer salaries. This is incorrect. The appraisal process is for performance improvement, not salary administration. Of course, appraisals are a key input into salary administration, but if an employee is at the maximum salary for a position you should not stop conducting performance appraisals for that employee.

Performance Appraisals: Tip 4 - Don't forget that ratings are subjective.

It is common to use a rating system such as 1-5 when appraising employees. Ratings are an effective way to apply a subjective assessment based upon a wide variety of criteria. However, ratings are not real in the sense that if two or more people rate the same employee, the likelihood of everyone agreeing is very small. Seek to fairly apply the rating system, but don't let the final, subjective, grade personify or label the employee being rated.

Performance Appraisals: Tip 3 - Don't forget that appraisal is about assessment.

The purpose of an appraisal is to provide an accurate assessment of performance, not to place blame. By assessing performance accurately, both parties, manager and employee, can work in an environment of trust and confidence. This is critical to merit based pay and employee driven development and improvement.