Harder than it seems

I want to lead a team on a successful business venture. That is my long term professional goal. Loosely defined like that it seems so easy, but I am quickly finding out that it is much harder than it seems. I have been working in my new role, with much more responsibility, for about a month now and I have come to realize how hard this is. Leadership has many dimensions, such as strategy, future planning and motivation. The dimension I have been worrying about recently is management: people and project management.

Although people and project management go together - because people are the ones who work on projects- I will focus on project management on this post. One of the things that I have struggled with the most in recent weeks is setting appropriate timelines for a project. It is not hard for me to set timelines when I am the main performer, because I know my strenths and limitations, and if necessary will stretch myself to meet my self-imposed deadline. Setting timelines for a project where the performers are others is a totally different story. Eacy performer will have his own goals and motivation (or lack there of), skill sets and experience. Furthermore, if I have never performed the task that I am creating the schedule for, I don't know how long it would take me to do it, and I can't ground my estimates.

I have found a few things very helpful when setting expectations for a project, and they mostly center around communication. They range from attitudes (such as putting your self in the shoes of both the performers and the stakeholders) to pieces of software (such as MS Project).

The first thing I learned, and have been trying to do, is to get the assessment of an expert. IF your project is to develop a piece of software, then look for someone who has coded and tested software in the particular language you will be using. If at all possible you want someone who is an outsider to your project to ensure an unbiased opinion. I find that people are usually very willing to help, especially if you are in the same department or company.

Another important step in the process is to clarify expectations with all the stakeholders involved and make sure they agree. Maybe a "successful" project does not require you to deliver all items from A-to-Z, so you want to know exactly what is expected. Furthermore, if you are in charge of the project you want to drive a hard bargain between what is really important and what is just icing on the cake. Making the 80-20 calls explicit to everyone (higher-ups and performers) is very important for a successful project. I have been pushing the team very hard to meet a deadline and also pushing back on the expectations of higher ups in one of my current projects, until I realized (just yesterday) that their definition of "complete" was different that mine and that we were much closer than I thought. This was a terrible flaw in communication, but I'm glad we all re-aligned our expectations.

Lastly, you need to be explicit about the work that each individual needs to accomplish. Everyone has to know exactly what they are responsible for and when the due date is. Some people require more detail around expectations that others, and this can be hard to provide when you are unfamiliar with the details of the work, wich you should be. Creating a project plan with specific tasks and deadlines is a tough job, and sticking to it is even tougher, but at the end each week/day you can look back and know exactly where you stand agains your project plan. This way you will quickly realize when you are slipping and do something about it.

It is important to note that these timelines should not be created in a vacuum. You have an assessment from the expert on how long it should take, know exactly what the deliverables are, but should always consult with the performers themselves whether or not the expectations are realistic. It is not fulfilling to have someone impose timelines on you, and it is also not satisfying to have people underdeliver and then tell you "You never asked me if I could deliver X in two days".

For this particular project we are supposed to be using the Agile methodology, so there is not an explicit progression of tasks, and things kind of just get done and then we assess the accomplishments and iterate. It is a very popular methodology in software development and my guess is that it works well there because of the young and creative types doing the works. Personally, I like to work with a very explicit set of goals and timelines (which I am admittedly not so good at creating) against which to measure progress. Maybe I just haven't spent enough time trying to study and understand the Agile method, but so far it hasn't worked for me.
In essence, good communication is the key to setting timelines, and plays an important role in delivering them.

Next time I want to talk about developing team members to reach their full potential and managing extremely smart/talented people (Which I am trilled to be doing now).
R

Learning to lead

I have been hearing a lot about leadership lately. The latest edition of the HBR talks about reinventing leadership, I downloaded a few podcasts on leadership, and of course the nation is changing “leaders”. If that were not enough, I seem to have become a leader myself.

After working on the same team (my first job out of college) for a few years and steadily gaining recognition, experience and influence, I have reached a position where I am responsible for the performance of two great analysts. One of them has been working with me for a few months and I have acted as a mentor for him as he navigates the fresh waters of a new job. The other analyst has some great experience on areas very different than my own and the only business interaction I have had with him has been very positive.

While I’m trilled about this challenge, I have been somewhat slow to fully embrace my new role. It is easy to do analysis and produce great results when all you have to do is stimulate yourself, but now I need to figure out ways to motivate OTHERS to perform, and do my own work at the same time. I am looking forward to learning about how to accomplish tasks successfully by means of other people (or insert your own definition of leadership here).

I’ll keep you posted on my progress, but in the meantime I would like to hear your thought on the subject. Tell me some anecdotes about your first people management experience. What do you think about ‘friending’ your directs on Facebook? What works for you to keep your team energized and engaged? I respect the available literature on the subject, but I know you have a lot of knowledge to share and to complement the established schools of thought. Don’t be shy.

Hope to hear from you soon.

R

Some Recent Pictures

This post doesn't have anything to do with writing. Just some random pictures I took recently. Soon, I will blog about why I have started to like photograph so much more.

Jason's Airlines

Today I was told that several South American countries, in particular Ecuador, have tighter restrictions on baggage weight around the holidays. I don't know how much truth there is to this claim, but it seems like passengers are only allowed 23Kg per bag and can't pay for overweight baggage. I learned about this law the hard way when I was checking in for my flight at 3:30 am this morning and found out that one of my bags weighed 25Kg and the other weighed an embarrassing 29Kg. The airline clerk not-so-politely informed me that there is an "embargo" type law that that would not allow me to check my bags. I was not happy with the way she handled the situation and my overall experience with COPA Airlines today has not been very good.

Since this morning I have been paying close attention to the COPA staff and one thing I have noticed is that they don't seem to be very enthusiastic about the company they work for. In at least three separate occasions today I heard the classical "well it's not my fault" response to a customer's complaint. I'm not suggesting that employees should take personal blame for all things that annoy customers, but for a company to really have an effective customer service every single employee has to be committed to providing an exceptional customer service and truly believe that is their job, not just push around a beverage cart and harass customers to put their seat in the upright position. The airline business is a very tough one and the last thing any airline needs is a reputation for bad customer service.

To be fair, the airline attendants are not entirely at fault at COPA. It is mostly the fault of senior management not having the right priorities and reading through the editorial of the airline magazine I now have a clear picture of what their priorities are. The president of the company emphasizes new destinations, environmental friendliness and pilot training programs as the most important achievements of 2008 but never talks about customer service. Technology and a green image can be paid for and are easy to improve on, but it seems to me that there has been little to no investment in the aspects of the business that interact with the client.

Several technological tools, such as better seat assignment software or a more modern feel with more comfortable seats, can positively impact the customer experience and make it easier for the employees to focus on providing outstanding service. However, if customer services is not ingrained in the company culture and senior management rewards that behavior as a core value, spending money on new technology will not fundamentally transform a company in and of itself.

I think I have been hung up on customer service for the past few days because I recently had a great customer service experience. I went to a Jason's Deli in Richmond, VA, and ordered a half muffaletta but when the order came out I was presented with only a quarter. I made a comment about it and the waiter (probably one of the managers, now that I think about it) immediately shot back "sorry about that, let me get you another quarter then". He didn't say "sorry, pay more attention next time" or "well what did you pay for?" or didn't even try to blame it on the guy at the register who was not paying attention when he took my order. Even though I told him I didn't need the full half because I only paid for a quarter, he brought it anyway and said something along the lines of "I know what you really wanted was a half and you weren't getting what you wanted. Here's another quarter for you". Now THAT is awesome customer service. The incremental cost of that quarter muffaleta is insignificant compared to the good will the business is building with it's customers.

I am probably biased against COPA right now because of the incident with my baggage checking in, and getting stuck on the very last row of the plane - the one that doesn't recline - for a 6 hour flight, but my opinion stands regarding their customer service: It is not good and it has to improve if COPA wants to compete with LAN and the other Latin American carriers. I wish I had flown Jason's Airlines instead. I'm also certain the food would have been better.

In case you were still wandering how the baggage problem got sorted out, you may want to know that I am now carrying more than a dozen books in a plastic bag as part of my carry on luggage. It's not that bad if you don't count people looking at me like a cheapskate who couldn't afford another carry-on and the hassle of finding enough overhead space. By the way, I should probably explain that even though I'm only going on vacation for tree weeks, the majority of things filling my luggage where entrusted to me in some way, including a box of books form my dear sister.

R

Disclaimer: Having grown up in a small town I don't consider myself a huge complainer, but I thought I would share this experience with you and start implementing the feedback I have received regarding the other two posts (and not doing a very good job at it, might I add). Also, I'm still doing my research to find more info on this crazy baggage-natzi law and share it with you if I do.

Your left hand (Or your right one if you are a lefty)

I was talking to a friend who had recently hurt his arm. He had his left arm in a sling, and although he didn't have a cast, he was unable to use his arm at all. After discussing how he got hurt doing Jujitsu rolls without the proper warm-up, he said something along the lines of "Well at least now I use my right hand more often (he is a lefty) and this is supposed to make me more creative". I was skeptical that using his non-dominant hand for a few weeks would have any effect on his creativity, but being as curious as I am I decided to go about my day consciously using my left hand instead of my right whenever possible to see what happened.

Although I didn't feel like Gaudi for using my left hand, I have to admit that I see my friend's point. It struck me when I was trying to wash my hands in the bathroom, reaching over myself to get soap from the dispenser, that there has to be a better way to do the most routine things. The dispenser I was reaching for with my left hand was the one I would have used had I decided to get soap with my right hand. However, there was a dispenser on the left that would have been much more easy to get to with my left hand. That is when I started to hypothesize that even if I am used to doing things one way, constraints - such as not being able to use your dominant hand - don't have to make it harder for me to perform the same task. There is usually another way that may be different but not necessarily harder. He call's it creativity, I would call it resourcefulness. Regardless of what you call it, I like my friend's attitude and agree that constraints force you to think differently. I would add that they only make life harder when you insist on doing things the un-constrained way and don’t adapt to the new circumstances.