Wide project management maturity: Tip 5 - Identify key constituents.

There are many constituents for a PMO to potentially serve. Prior to establishing any kind of PMO plan, services, or activities it is imperative to identify, understand, and serve your constituents. This is especially important in organizational wide project management where workplace professionals in every corner of the organization have some kind of informal, yet important to them, project to manage. Identify the key constituents, management, that represent the vast majority of these workplace professionals.

Wide project management maturity: Tip 4 - Determine ownership.

Determine who in the organization is the owner of wide project management maturity. This person is responsible for developing and executing an appropriate strategy for the improvement of project management results throughout the organizational lines of business and departments. Ideally, if the organization has a formal PMO, then the PMO manager is an appropriate owner for wide maturity.

Wide project management maturity: Tip 3 - Keep it simple.

Often times, when PMOs or other such groups in an organization or enterprise seek to provide project management assistance to the lines of business and departments, they focus too much on technical project management. In many cases, the needs of these projects can be met with much simpler approaches. And conversely, techniques appropriate for large complex projects, such as earned value management, are simply not required or in many cases possible to do. When introducing project management to the lines of businesses and departments, keep the terminology and techniques as simple as possible.

Wide project management maturity: Tip 2 - Recognize that project management is a means to an end.

Project management in its many forms is merely a means to an end. As such, the value of project management throughout a business or organization, wide maturity, should be viewed in terms of end results achieved through its practical application relative to the needs of the project, not just adoption of popular or recognized standards.

Wide project management maturity: Tip 1 - Recognize the ubiquitous nature of project management.

The thinking that project management is a professional and limited in application to just formal projects that are managed by formal project managers is old school. At best this thinking is narrow in focus. At worst, it is intellectually dimwitted. Don't think this way or have this kind of mindset. Instead, recognize that project management is ubiquitous and the value of project management spans a wide distance. As such, it is well worth developing and maturing.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 20 - Agile is a means to an end, not the end itself.

Some agile coaches and teams get so obsessed with all things agile, that they forget it is merely a means to an end, not the end itself. Few people have the luxury to come to work each day to an environment that is absent of business pressures, constraints, and significant day to day execution issues that must be dealt with. All the more reasons for agile. But in such environments, an initiative to introduce, adopt, and embrace agile must be considered and made with tempered and reasoned judgment. Otherwise, despite good intentions, the initiative will likely fail.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 19 - Don't forgot your executives.

Many agile teams get so absorbed with agile that they forget about all others not on the team and invited to the two-pizza box meeting. They especially forget about the executives. And when executives ask for information such as how long will this project take and how much will it cost, agile teams can be too quick to temper. Rather than going into a diatribe about "Tayorism" and the evils of scientific management, plan-driven project management, and the like, seek to be more responsive to your executives. A good start is to not forget about them altogether.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 18 - Let the team work it out.

Sometimes as coach you want to just jump right in and fix things or to at least get the team back on track. Sometimes this is needed and the right thing to do. However, at other times it is not needed and only prevents the team for reaching their own answers and developing their own self-directed abilities. Allow the team to work it out for themselves. This will make them wiser, stronger, and more apt to deal with the business as usual difficulties.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 17 - Be courageous.

It is natural for people to resist change. And when embracing change, some change is easier to make than others. For most teams, the full benefit of change will not be realized by only making the easy changes. As your team's agile coach, recognize that your suggestions may fall on deaf ears, especially when the team is under a lot of pressure. Don't take it personally and don't give up. Be courageous.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 16 - Be business driven.

Most agile coaches work in organizations that are driven by the pressing realities of business. Almost always, management requires information to make decisions and run the business. Seek to understand what management needs and to give it to them. Learn to speak the language of the executive team and learn to behave, when needed, as an executive. Agile is a means to a business-driven end, not the end itself. Make sure your team understands this.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 15 - Demonstrate Respect.

As an agile coach, you already have experiences as both a practitioner and a coach in implementing and adhering to agile best practices. Seek to be mindful that being an expert in agile does not translate into being an expert in everything. People on the team know things that you don't. Management and other people not on the team also know things that you don't. Respect the work that others have done and the knowledge that they have.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 14 - Agile is NOT a religion.

As an agile coach, you are naturally passionate about the benefits that agile approaches offer. And this passion quickly passes to members of the team. Be mindful that while passion is always a good thing, it can sometimes lead to a mindset that is intolerant and disrespectful of other ways of doing work, often viewed as bureacratric, legacy, and outdated approaches. Seek to keep all things in a proper business perspective and not to build a cult-like team.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 13 - Remember that it is your journey.

Recognize that your agile journey is a unique one. What might have been a wonderful journey for someone else might not be a good journey for you. The trick is to be patient and to seek to take baby steps, not gigantic leaps. And when you think you have figured it all out, don't be surprised to have come full circle and recognize that you don't know so much after all.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 12 - Recognize your failure and success modes.

Failure modes are always easy to spot. You can just see in your team how non-agile your behavior is such as being the expert, or the nag, or the super admin. Success modes are more subtle. Does your natural success mode come from asking great questions, or listening quietly, or heckling the team through difficult times through effective use of fun and flair. Take note of both your failure and your success modes.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 11 - Measure yourself as a coach, not a manager.

It is all but impossible to shed or avoid the controlling instinct that comes with management. And it is equally impossible for those you coach to recognize that which you do and do not do as an agile coach and the very things that contributed to their success. Since it is not visible, you must continually think about your own abilities and impact that you have as an agile coach. Seek to first measure yourself and then deliver your own performance review.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 10 - Coach as a collaboration conductor.

Recognize the difference between cooperation and collaboration. When cooperating, teams move toward a shared commitment. When collaborating, teams build upon that common shared commitment and seek ways to do something even better than that which was originally envisioned. Some problems will be best served through cooperation and others through collaboration; know and make use of the differences.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 9 - Coach as a conflict navigator.

Like change, conflict is ever present. The first step in successfully navigating conflict is to recognize that conflict is not bad. Though we have been taught to view conflict as unhealthy and something to be avoided, it is only our reaction to conflict that is bad or something to be avoided. Conflict can and should be a force for good; a natural response and feedback mechanism that tends to immediately bring to attention differences that exist.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 8 - Coach as a problem solver.

In any team environment, what is perceived to be a problem and a solution from the perspective of an individual may not be how the team views things. As a coach, seek to involve the team in problem solving. You may take individual effort and care to clearly understand the problem, but rather than solving the problem on your own, take it to the team. After all, it is there problem and the resolution to it must be there commitment.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 7 - Coach as a teacher.

Throughout the life of the team, the agile coach must be an effective teacher. The opportunity to teach presents itself continually from the start up of the team to learning about the processes, to learning about why things went wrong.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 6 - Coach as a facilitator.

The basic intention of facilitation is to support the team's self-organization and their ability to deliver business value all the time. Facilitation is often the most effective approach to take, but not necessarily the most efficient. Resist the temptation to direct and organize the team.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 5 - Coach at two levels.

Coaching a team of any kind involves coaching at two levels. One level of coaching is the individual level and the other is the team level. Recognize that there is a place and time for each of these. Be mindful that coaching is not a replacement for the playbook or framework, rather it is an integral layer to it.

Coaching agile teams: Tip 4 - Let your style change.

Experts in agile coaching recommend three styles for the agile coach; teaching, coaching, and advising. Seek to learn, develop, and employ these styles using a coaching approach - save time and attention for modeling and reaching.

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 an 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 telltale 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. After all, 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 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.