Straight Talk - For effective communication

Decide to be a straight shooter. Tackle and attack issues!

I was in a management meeting on Thursday that we call the Core Team. The Core Team is composed of the four Vice-Presidents involved in the Program, the integration manager, the program manager and myself.

As this is only my third Core meeting since my arrival, I started to dig in the issue log to see that most of the 15 issues remaining were opened last year! We spent the 60 minutes of the meeting basically not making any decisions and just NOT doing the right thing. I came out of the meeting so discouraged as I was trying to understand why decisions were not being taken in that group. The goal in this forum is supposed to be a decision making group! So - I got out of the meeting and asked myself what the 'ironic' smiles I observed in the room meant and why?

I never accepted to work in such an atmosphere so I decided that I should talk to the main VP about my perception. I had to tell the execs that they were to be in big trouble if they could not put an effective decision making process in place. For a large program of that sort, making quick and right decisions are critical!

My approach has always been to be honest with myself and with others, so I really thought that I had NOTHING to loose to talk to the senior VP on the situation. I understand that being transparent after not even 2 weeks can be really not well perceived - - -but I really did not care as I really thought that those meetings were not going anywhere anyway... We always have to pick the right battles and I thought that this one was very important.

So the next day, I asked the VP to organize a call with a director, him and myself to work on another issue. Lucky me!!! while we were waiting for the director to join us for the meeting, he asked me : ''So How do you like it so far?''

This was my lucky day! I did not have to break the ice, I responded spontaneously: ''EXCELLENT, I like the company size, I like working with a national team and really like the complexity that it brings... On that point, even thought I do not have all the understanding of the company's politics and complexity, I think that decision making will be one of our biggest challenge moving forward''

He looked at me for at least 2-3 seconds, he looked surprised but clearly got my point - it felt like finally someone was telling him what it is. He said ''Hmmm, interesting, you know what : I really want us to sit down together and talk about it, I want to hear your recommendations, it is true and we need help in that matter.''

Oh boy, let me tell you that it felt good to know that my message passed through - - - most important is that he acknowledged and wanted me to help him taking action! I was lucky but at the end of the day I gave my shot and tried to deliver a message.

After all, it is for their own good! WE NEED TO SPEAK OUR MINDS!!!

OPEN MIND TALKING SHOWS THAT YOU MIND ABOUT THEM!!!!!!!!

6 TIPS to capture actions and decisions from meetings

I know that the redaction of minutes is painful as it takes time and energy that often we do not have! So here are some quick tips of how I've been documenting them. 

There are no purpose to do a meeting if the action items and decisions are not captured & communicated! 

The tips below are mostly applicable for large scale programs/ but can be adapted to smaller project

1. Make sure that you write down the action items and decisions during the meeting/ type them directly into an issue log and a KDP (key decision point) log in excel or in your central log repository (Sharepoint or so)
• The issue log needs to contains all issues identified as well as the actions agreed to resolve the issue, it needs to include the level of critically of the issue, its impact, the description of the action, the responsible for the action item as well as the target date
• The KDP will contain decisions taken! You ensure that decisions taken are taken by people that are accountable for taking the decision, confirm the wording of the decision with decision maker and right it down!
2. Not more than 24 hours after the meeting, you send an e-mail summarising the new actions and the new decisions to everybody that was invited to the meeting (including the ones that were not there). Ideally you do a cut and paste of the new actions and new decisions from you excel file. When sending the note, you can add your administrative assistant or the individual responsible to update the central logs (if you did not do it during the meeting). Always use the same exact header to communicate the actions and decisions. I use : MEETING TYPE - DATE - Actions and decisions. For example: WORKING COMMITTEE - 02/18/2010 - Actions and decisions. 
3. Prior to the next meeting, make sure that you send a newer version of the issue log and decisions to participants - you can ask your PCO or administrative assistant to do so. Ask your team if they need to add new action items or decisions points to the meeting - - - you want to be aware before the meeting so that you can be more prepared. 
4. Start your meeting by following-up on the actions that are due for this meeting and shortly and those are are critical. Then discuss the new actions and new decisions points.
5. Always keep the same routine and structure, people will become more productive in your meeting and will less tend to jump in right and left.... 
6. CONTROL your agenda and use parking lot when necessary and not applicable to the objective of this meeting.

 Voilà, hope this helps!!!!!

Bye bye boss! How to handle a resignation

Oh no! This is one of the worst nightmare, someone is giving you his/her resignation.

Here's an experience I had with an employee a couple of years ago. At that time, I was directing a team of 30 professionals including project managers, functional leads, implementation consultant, trainers, technician and a PCO. The PCO was the latest addition to our team and was hired couple of months prior to this event.

Listen to this; I came in a Wednesday morning at work (around 8h20am), took off my jacket and hanged it - started my laptop, started to dial the voicemail number to get my messages and noticed that a folded paper has been placed under my empty glass of water!!!! What is this? I immediately took the paper and opened it. The paper was a printed letter and I immediately read the signature name and realized that because it came from that individual that this could be a resignation letter! Oh dear! Oh no!

Wow, I thought, this is the first time ever after 15 years of experience that this would or could happen to me- - - - hopefully, I thought, this is not what I am thinking about! I felt like I spent so much time training this individual and sharing with him my vision. I knew that he was facing personal challenges in his life and tried to provide him my support (as an employer) - But unfortunately, I realized that his personal challenges were affecting the quality of his interactions with the personal - 3 weeks prior to this event, he even got into verbal fights with a project manager, that fight went way out proportion (I addressed the behavior with both of them and have been very clear on my expectations - No one is allowed to adopt this type of negative and destructive attitude in my team - this is just not the way we communicate with each other, If they want to work with such an a negative attitude, I cannot accept them in my team - I am very strict on that).

So, to come back to that morning, before I got to read the letter that I was holding in my hand, the project manager that got in a fight 3 weeks prior to this event came in my office like a tornado. I could see that her face was all red and that she was very nervous and almost shaking. She sat down before I had the time to ask her and she placed her hands on her face to take a deep breath. OK - now I was sure that the two events were linked together - - - So I closed my door as I was still looking at her and waiting for her to calm down before I even said a word. My phone rang and I just decided to not answer and called my assistant so that she can take the calls for a bit. When I spoke to my assistant on the phone, she said, I need to talk to you it's about Carl and Anita. OK, we'll talk after Louisa, I am with Anita right now and have a note from Carl in my hand, I will come to see you right after.

''Anita, what happened?'' I said... She started to explain the fight they had yesterday before leaving the office and explained the fight they had again when they both came in first thing in the morning. The reason of the fight is irrelevant for the purpose of this blog but let me tell you that it could have been avoided for sure!

So I told her that I would speak with Carl and loop back with her before the end of the morning.

I read the letter right after she left and IT WAS A RESIGNATION LETTER EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY!!!! Wow, this is bad!!! Lots of DON'Ts in this this process to build a long lasting reputation for him that I will summarize later. So, I took the phone and called right away Carl to schedule a one on one meeting with him, I had to get to the bottom of this! One thing was however clear in my mind; I accepted his immediate resignation as the damage was already done. I could have forced him to stay for 2 weeks to close his projects and perform a proper knowledge transfer but I preferred to do it differently and wanted him to truly learn from this experience. I spoke with HR and wanted to validate my thoughts - HR agreed with my proceedings;

When I met with him the next day, believe it or not but he had regrets and wanted his job back. Let me tell you that I thought about this option but I could not see how it would work as he obviously broke the rule. He had all the technical skills to perform his job but he did not fit the people profile I needed in my team to create THE BEST TEAM TO WORK IN, IN THIS COMPANY!!!

Here is the messages I communicated with him during our one on one meeting - it was a very honest and transparent meeting, I really wanted to help this individual and the only way I could help him was to provide some recommendations him to move forward;

1. I confirmed to him that I truly appreciated his technical skills
2. I was very honest on the fact that I thought that he did not have the right profile for this job from a people skills perspective
3. I suggested that he never give a resignation without a 2 weeks notice, in this situation
4. I suggested that he always meet with his superior to discuss options
5. I suggested to always give a resignation one-by-one, never leave a resignation letter on a desk, at least talk on the phone before giving a resignation letter if you cannot meet with your superior.
6. I told him that given the circonstances that I did accept his resignation.

FOR EMPLOYEES

1. Make sure that you sit down with your boss before you make your decision, there might be some options that you are not even aware of
2. Give your resignation letter face to face / or call your boss and send it after to tell him it is coming up
3. Always leave at least 2 weeks, your boss might ask you for more than 2 weeks if needed (think of both parties, think of leaving with an intact reputation)
4. Be professional until the end, make sure that you do a good transition plan! That you execute it to the teeth!!! It's not time to get demotivated! It's time to leave your last tracks!
5. Always be positive about your company (don't let your colleagues down by telling them some aspects that you do not like about the company! They are staying and YOU are leaving)
6. Keep your smile until the end! Call your customers, your colleagues personally after you agree with your boss that you can communicate your departure. Explain why you leave from a new challenge perspective!
7. Be a good support to your team and boss! You leaving creates them head hicks!!!

FOR EMPLOYERS

1. Challenge your employee if you judge that the individual has lots of potential, never accept a resignation if you feel that this is a loss to the team and the company. The employee might not know that options are possible!!!
2. If you accept the resignation of your employee, ask to have a one-on-one meeting with the employee with the following objectives / it is not only up to HR to perform the closer interview, it is your responsibility to understand!
3. Understand your employees perspective; what worked for him, what did not work, what he wishes that you would have done different as a boss,
4. Express to your employee your gratitude towards his contribution! Tell him what you consider to be his best deliverable and skills. Tell him honestly what components you feel that your employee should work on to achieve his career objectives (as a manager you should have a clear understanding of your employee's goals)
5. Plan a transition with your employee / ensure that your employee is motivated to perform his last 2 weeks and that you appreciate his contribution until the end!
6. Communicate the departure of the employee and the transition plan as fast as possible to the team. This needs to be done at the latest 24 hours after you receive the resignation... You want to control the communication and ensure that your team does not hear the news from others.
7. Come-on!!! You need to celebrate the departure of the leaving employee (when the departure is done professionally by the employee)!!! Departures are as important as Welcoming!!! Departure celebration are allowing your employee to truly feel appreciated! The celebration should be in proportion to the employee contribution and years working for the company (not only for the time reporting to you!!!)

To you think of any other advises to provide? What is your point of view, please comment

Starting a new job? See here how to make a killing!

Congratulations on your new challenges!!!

You feel Excited? Energized? Motivated? Fired Up? Alive? Enthusiastic? and... a bit Nerve Racking! I so get you!

For how much painful it can be to get into a new role, I also really enjoy the discovery phase; getting to know the stakeholders, the team members, the decision makers, the business dynamic, the scope of work, the risks, the current issues...

The reality is that even if people know that you are an outsider in your role, they kind of forget that you are new and you have a learning curve to go through.

I just started a mandate in early 2010 in one of the largest company in Canada and my role was as I was working on the governance component related to their largest IT and Business Transformation Program. So here I am the first morning meeting with the Program manager that was responsible for my integration - Before noon I already got in my court 4 critical complex issues that needed to be addressed for Yesterday.

Here's the thing: no matter how ''rushy'' and critical the issues seems to be when ever you enter a new role, most of the time those issues have been ''haunting'' the house for a while.

So, with that being said; here is what I suggest you to make a big hit right from the start and to not let yourself dive without knowing where you are going too fast - this is what I am doing and what I started practicing a few years ago

1. Split your job in 2 streams of work;
• one is for the tactical activities: The mistake that people usually do is to get in a job and work in a short term perspective, they do not bloc anytime for a more strategic stream. Tactical activities would be for me to fix the governance issues in the roles and responsibilities for the next phase of the project versus the entire program - tactical tasks are looking for short term results. It is however important that you don't go the other way and only focus on the strategic stream as people will get frustrated quickly as they will have the feeling that you are not helping them at all since you arrived. Take control of the tactical activities that has to be performed and make sure that you prioritize them well to go get the biggest impact you can quickly. You have to demonstrate quickly your ability to make things happen fast especially when you are new to an organisation. Your team needs to know and see that you are taking control on the operational aspects.
• the other is the strategic stream: The strategic stream is the stream that will create long term value in the organisation. You will take your function and quickly make an assessment of the current situation; look at your organisational structure, understand current roles and responsibilities, understand business financial figures, your current team impact in the organization (from a budget and revenue perspective if applicable), your current business processes, the volume of transactions and department performance versus similar industry for example, your current people skills and performance. Involve your team when possible - Do not scare them right from the start by saying that you will put in place a transformation program 1 day after you are in place! On the other hand, management team is expecting you to think outside the box and help them create value!
2. Do a 30-60-90 day plan and submit it about 2 weeks after you came on board. You will build a plan that you will present to your boss early when you arrive. Ask your boss his input before you communicate the plan to your employees! The plan's objective is for you to get organised and ensure that all angles of your work (tactical and strategic) will be addressed within the first 90 days.
3. Go buy a notebook that you will use during the first 90 days of your assignment. This notebook is not meant to be used to take meeting notes - it is meant to be kept to put your thoughts, observations and questions on the current situation. You will write in there your ideas on potential improvement areas and potential solutions to be looked at later on. This book will be very useful and you will be able to go back to your notes months after! A president already told me that the first 90 days are the most productive as you are still objective and get to really understand the business... Try it, it really works!
4. Be professional and organized. It is simple but too many people don't do it. Do it even if the company you are working in is not organised! Only plan meeting when require. Send agenda a head and make sure that you have everyone you need. Take meeting minutes making sure that the actions are clear and that decisions taken are documented. Maintain an issue log. Have a plan. Pay attention to your verbal and written communications. Don't waste your time and respect the precious time of others! BE NICE all the time, try to find constructive ways of expressing your point of view. Be transparent while being constructive again.

Good luck!!!!

How to build a strong reputation

Your name, your reputation is a the most precious brand at work!

I realized today how important it is to always leave an impeccable track where ever we work! The truth is that most of the key jobs are filled in by someone that knew someone.

Two elements are crucial: First, build a strong and long lasting network and second ensure that you always excel in any mandates you are given or always leave in excellent terms with your clients, colleagues and partners.

As I just confirmed my commitment last week on a new engagement, I just received a call today from a Company that I worked for in 2001... The CIO happens to be someone that I met in 2001 in that company and whom was reporting at the time to the ex-CIO in a special project position. We quickly connected but left the company shortly after as we moved elsewhere with my husband. So 9 years later, I receive a phone call in regards to a position to be filled in his team as someone pointed out to him my resume.

Even thought I cannot break my new commitment I made last week, I will perform my mandate but will surely look forward to meet with the new CIO to identify potential opportunities for the future.

Take control of your reputation;

• Focus on adding value everyday single day, in each conversation, in each meeting, in each deliverables
• Be nice with EVERYBODY (from receptionist to board members), respect others;
• Always keep in touch with ex-colleagues even the ones your worked with 10 years ago;
• Be active in networking including social Internet networking like Linked In/ conferences;
• Finish what you started when leaving a job or project or perform a knowledge transfer;
• Know your stuff and use lots of MODESTY;

• Learn, learn, learn and apply your learnings to practice;
• Be a great leader, inspire your team / it's difficult to keep an great reputation if you really don't care about your people! Serve them, help them , coach team, guide them.

You never know!