Leadership: Shape your mind

Your state of mind is key to your leadership

Leadership is not always constructive and can unfortunately be very destructive. We all agree that there are A1's leaders and unfortunately really bad leaders in this world. What do you think differentiates them?

Leadership has always been an area that I tried to understand better when I was at University. At the time some individuals would stand out naturally from a group just by the way they were. Some of them became president of student associations, others would excel in organizing student activities while others seemed to lead gangs and appeared to not do much. Already at the time, I could differentiate different types of leadership.

But what is the secret ingredient of successful "native" leaders?

Leadership is not a concrete notion and it is certainly not something I could learn in a chapter of a book like accounting or economy or stats. So, You'll agree that leadership is not a knowledge that we can infuse in ourselves after a session at school--- it has to do with the way we actually see the world, see the challenges, see others, with our level of energy and with the way that we actually prevent or react to situations. Leadership is a STATE OF MIND.

How could we describe a true leader? 

My own definition of a true leader is someone that has the inner POWER to attract and influence others,  the power to stimulate and motivate others, someone with a very high level of energy, someone that has the power to move mountains when needed without much apparent effort and the power to drive and direct a team a company in the right direction. They are like our super hero's, a super power that they mastered to use accordingly.

What are the characteristics of a true leader?

One characteristics that seems to come back in all literature is the capacity of the leader to build a clear and consistent VISION and to COMMUNICATE his/her vision at all levels (top-bottom)

Most of the time, true leaders are very PRAGMATIC and have a SIMPLE THINKING. They encourage KISS principle and tend to articulate problems and solutions in a simple manner. 

The third element is key, I believe that they have a sense of GRATITUDE and COMPASSION very developed. They are HUMBLE and recognize that PEOPLE (their team) is the key ingredient of their own success. They have RESPECT for others. Actually, it is know that all leaders that influences the world as we know it all had one thing in common: they were all thankful! Einstein used to say thank you hundreds of times to his collaborators! Other known leaders that were thankful; Martin Luther King, Lincoln, Jung and many others.

The fourth one is EMPOWERMENT, they understand that staff need to be empowered. They trust the judgement of their team members and encourage decision making from them. They know how to delegate and are not getting into micro details. Employees feel in control of their work, feel an important contributor and feel valued and important.

Leadership is very POWERFUL if used accordingly.

Some impacts of destructive leadership

STAFF ROTATION: You see a lot of rotation and resignation in key positions around you? 99% chance that the cause is not linked to the individuals leaving. Look upwards, look at the leaders managing those individuals --- What is the leadership style of the manager or director and exec? Are employees valued? Are employees empowered by the leader?

EMPOWERMENT and MICRO-MANAGEMENT Few years ago, I was a consultant for a 60M SAP delivery program? The execs in charge of the project were all over the place and did not empower their teams to make decisions. even the sponsor was challenging his own program director in front of everyone and did not show respect to anyone. Are you surprise if I tell you that the motivation of the all team was lower than ever? We actually had a serious talk with the execs and made them understand how their current attitude was impacting the program and the productivity of the all team, it had to change and it did. I spare you the details here but thank god that we did speak up! As a consultant, I learned to be straight forward even if it is not what the execs want to hear. It did pay off to all of us, including execs.

CONFUSION ON ACCOUNTABILITY; So now that you see how bad lack of empowerment and micro-management impact the dynamic of your team. Imagine if the same execs make you accountable with those conditions. IMPOSSIBLE! How can you actually put someone accountable for the results if in first place they are not empowered and second if you always put your nose (as an exec) in the decision making process? Who can be hold accountable if they have no control?

Imagine a pilot driving an airplane, first he is sitting at the back (not even in the cockpit) while executives are in the cockpit starting the engine and doing everything they need to do (without a proper knowledge) to start the plane. They call the pilot at the last minute and ask him to kick-off the plane without understanding fully what was done previously. The pilot had a hard time to complete the start up routine but did it. Now that the plane is almost at the right altitude, one executive decides to ask the pilot to step back and decides to sit on the pilot chair... This goes on and on and on throughout the flight until someone decides that it's time to get down - oops, there's no more fuel... they are kind of on the middle of the Atlantic! IF YOU HIRE A PILOT, LET HIM FLY ALL THE WAY, GIVE HIM ALL THE INFO HE NEEDS TO FLY AND TRUST HIM!! Do not interfere! As a true leader, don't you want your pilot to get you anywhere you need to with all his heart, judgment and deep motivation?

DISRESPECT; Recently, one of my Ex-director was telling me that his new exec participated in a call with him and a client. The call was disastrous in his perspective and he got out of the call demotivated, discouraged, frustrated, demobilised and angry. WHY? While he had followed every step and recommendations that the new exec gave him to resolve a problem, the same exec got in the call and questioned in front of his client the solution (that he had prescribed) and opened the door to other negotiations. The message that the new exec conveyed to my ex-director unconsciously (or not) is 1) I am better than you are 2) You are not important 3) I am the king and you are my submissive, you better listen to me. Anyway, this was the perception. Imagine the client that was on the line, what did they perceive?

I have so many examples I could share of destructive leadership and feel very sad when I hear or share those types of stories.

At the end of the day? How can we be the best leader we can be?

I truly believe that our employees ARE more important than we are, they are the ones that will MAKE US FAIL OR SUCCEED. They are our biggest assets!!!

We need to be thankful to have them everyday! Appreciate their qualities and straights. Trust their judgement. Put appropriate decision points in their hands!!! They will surprise you! Don't micro-manage! Learn to oversee their work! CHANGE YOUR MINDSET. True leadership is largely associated to a state of Mind.

So rather than thinking that you are the KING on top of your ivory tower, think of yourself as an active, friendly, opened, MENTOR. We are not superior than anyone, we just have a different role to play.

LOVE your team unconditionally, they will love you back!

Be THANKFUL everyday to them, they will be thankful and will give you the moon

You will attract the POWER of true LEADERSHIP

What do you think? Do you think that true leadership is a state of mind?

10 simple tips for effective meetings

Did you ever came out of a meeting and thinking?

'Why was I invited again?',
'What was said again?',
'What did we talk about?',
'What are my to do's again?' or simply
'What the heck was that meeting about?'

Believe me it happened to me more than once on my side! I do not know about you, but my working type is the one that comes in the office like a tornado, is anxious to make things happen and wants to bring as much as possible value in the day so that I came come out 8h to 9 hours later (MAX!!!!!!). So I'm really not the type of girl you can hang around next to the coffee machine for 15 minutes... I like to have fun but do not appreciate when I feel that I am wasting precious time. So he's some really quick tips I use to make it short and sweet. Main thing is to be ready and have fun.

1) Prepare the agenda 

be clear on the objective of the meeting. Take time to prepare your thinking process and ensure that supporting document is distributed for more complex topics. Ask in advance to someone to take minutes (taking decision points and actions are what you really want to have) - limit participants to the only ones that should be there....

2) Send your agenda and supporting material at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. 

If people have preparation to make prior to the meeting, let them know a HEAD in advance.

3) Respect people's time

Start at the latest 5 minutes after your meeting starting time. I see too often the chairman of the meeting be late! 

4) TAKE TIME TO EXPLAIN THE OBJECTIVE OF THE MEETING - - -

Do not expect that everyone is clear on what you are trying to achieve. Repeat - be concise!

5) When capturing the actions and decisions, be sure that the minute taker captures, the name of the action, the responsible, the target completed date... 

Do it electronically! This is you will be able to send out the minutes within the following 24 hours

6) For disruptive talkers during the meeting, park non related topic (MANAGE YOUR MEETING SCOPE)

7) At the end of the meeting, ALWAYS have room for conclusion and recap!!!!!! Always review the main actions so that everyone is clear,

8) Do not let anybody go out of the meeting until you agree on the next step!

9) Be THANKFUL for the time your participants took to come to your meeting

10) Assess your lessons learned to be better the next time.

Hope this helps!

Program Organization in FEW easy steps

Start your program on the right foot!

WAIT that your Program Director is assigned to the program and ensure that he/she takes over from this point on. Too often, execs make decisions on the program strategy, budget, ressources... and expect the new upcoming Program Director to be accountable to deliver objectives and targets they did not define.

This happens all the time and really puts your program at risk to start with - companies are so in fire when the charter gets signed that they rush into taking many organizational decisions without having the Program Director involved.

This typically leads to a lack of engagement and commitment from the Program Director and from the delivery team. Instead of going too far to launch the program without a Program Director, put all your energy, as an executive, on hiring THE CREAM OF THE CREAM PROGRAM DIRECTOR!!!!!

For large programs (50M+), the program organization activities will not be less than 3 to 6 months in timeframe. Do not underestimate the time it takes to structure accordingly a program or a project. The organization and planning activities are precious and do have a high ROI. On the other hand, do not overspend money in this phase to try to make it perfect. Ensure that the organization is robust without expecting that it will be perfect to the teeth. Incorporate a process to leave room to continuous improvement. Just make sure that your level of investment is just for this phase. The key activities will include usually the following subset of activities after you appoint your program director.

• Organizing the Governance, build the committees
• Develop the Program Organizational structure 
• Define your Program Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)
• Organize the finance
• Clarify and define Roles and Responsibilities (RACI + Job roles)
• Develop the Program Management Framework (Processes, procedures and tools)

Program Governance 

You need to define early how the program will be governed to ensure the program success. the different governance entities will be identified:

• THE project sponsor,
• THE steering committee members (formed of senior executives such as division VPs+ sponsor+Program mgt group) at a minimum
• THE working committee members (formed of business directors and managers+program mgt leadership) and
• THE program committee (formed of the program management leadership group)

The creation of the governance structure needs to be worked out closely with the project sponsor as he/she will need to approve the governance entity. You will also need to identify the members of the committees / sponsor should confirm with peers in the business the appointments of committee members.

Program Work Breakdown Structure (WBS)

WBS is defined in the parallel planning activities that are going on while you start to organize your project. The WBS needs to be thought through early in the process as it is an important input in the organization phase. It helps structuring your project and helps you to build the RACI that we will talk later on (to clarify the roles and responsibilities). The way you structure your WBS is therefore critical - it has to be easy to understand and has to be logical. Just think of it like a bill of material; think of how you would decompose a desk, you decompose it with key component types right?. WBS should not be complicated it should be simple. Do not forget that the WBS will be mapped into your project plan in your planning activities.

Program Organizational structure development
Once your governance entities are defined and you understand your WBS, you can confirm the teams you will need to have in your organization.

Always have the Program Director as the only one reporting to Steering and Sponsor. I found Strong matrix organizations most appropriate for large programs. Ensure in this case that all team members have a hard line to your program director. I am a hold fashion type of manager when it comes time to manage resources. I rarely seem resources extremely happy in a weak matrix organization - it often creates ambiguity. Do not let stakeholders keep a hard line with program resources in the Program Organisational Chart. This brings too much confusion and distraction for nothing. You can Structure your teams by competency or by Work packages what ever makes the most sense. In large programs you could have co-leadership: assign a business leader and an IT leader. do not let IT drive the show alone!

Roles and Responsibilities (RACI + Job roles)

Your RACI is a matrix that will provide an overview of who is Responsible Accountable Consulted and Informed for each of the First/Second levels of your WBS. Typically the first column is the WBS and there is one column by job roles to build the matrix. You need to validate the RACI with the directors and the business so that everyone has a clear understanding and agreement on the roles to be. GET YOUR RACI approved.

Once your RACI is approved, you can build your job roles! It is important to have a Job Description for each of the roles to be filled in the project. Along the way, you might have some replacements or new players and it will be easy for HR to help you out if you already have every roles clearly documented. Also, you will be using the job role summary the project kick-off and to assign resources to the project.

Program Management Framework (Processes, procedures and tools)
This is the part that I love the most! Providing a framework! Standards key framework components for an IT project can be;

• Risk Management
• Issue Management
• Time & Expense Management
• Logistics
• Document Management
• Program and Project Reporting
• Resource Management
• Purchasing Management
• Cost Management
• Benefit Management

If your PMO does not already have a framework, you can either ask a consulting firm to get a framework implemented or you can build one from scratch. My thought is that any good consulting firm can provide such a framework with fresh ideas and tools attached to the framework. It is very time consuming to construct from scratch... If you have time and tight budget; go a head and build it internally - - - If you do not have time and have a budget, use a consulting firm.

I like to have a folder by framework component and a separate folder for the project management standard TEMPLATES. I am from KISS school, do not build a 200 page document for your framework - people will just get so lost! Just be to the point! Say what you have to say about the process and that's it! Show few slides on the process in Powerpoint including your flowcharts and have a separate document for specific procedures. If appropriate save your visio file in a third file for people to view when needed.

You might want to look at tools that can facilitate your life and lower your project costs down the road! Assess your needs meticulously, spend money wisely on tools! Don't get Primavera or MsServer if you have few projects. Investiguate your tools - Excel is OK but I am personally not a big fan of it now that we have so many fresh affordable collaborative tools. Look at all the tools offered in the market it changes fast. CONFLUENCE did impress me lately.

Let me know if you have other thoughts or wish you comment, hope this was helpful