Characteristics Of Successful Leaders

The five types of power: coercive, reward, legitimate, expert, and referent.* Coercive power, as its name implies, involves forcing others to comply, normally by threatening punishment or penalties. Reward is the opposite side of coercive, in that it promises something positive if the individual complies. Legitimate power is based on the authority managers have through their position within the organization, while expert power resides in the manager’s personal experience or expertise. Referent power is the result of a person’s charisma. 

Risk Management Basic Steps

Risk management should be repeated at various stages of the project. Although the scope under consideration will vary with each iteration, the process remains constant. The four basic steps are:

1. Identify the risk.
2. Evaluate the potential effects and severity of the risk. 

3. Prioritize the risks.
4. Develop a mitigation plan. 

Tools For Determining Customer Requirements

Tool	Advantages	Disadvantages
Surveys	Relatively inexpensive to administer; require minimal effort from team	Unless carefully constructed, may not elicit important information
Focus groups	Provide opportunity to digress from agenda and discover underlying problem; group setting may encourage participation and “building on” another’s response	Require more time to conduct than surveys; group setting may intimidate some participants
Individual interviews	Excellent way to discuss sensitive topics and to obtain specialized information that might be boring to others in a group setting; ideal for people who are uncomfortable in groups	Most time-intensive method
Site visits	Excellent way to see the effect of problems and to meet customers who would otherwise be inaccessible	Can be expensive; customers may be unwilling to host site visits
Customer complaints	Lowest cost	Provides only one perspective; does not address problems that other customers have not expressed; unbalanced, since it does not include positive comments

Types of Customers

◾ External Customers. These are normally easily identified. In the case of GWC and IW, these were the companies who purchased their widgets. They were not, however, always the ultimate customers.

− Ultimate Customers. These external customers can also be classified as end users or consumers. If Great Auto, one of GWC’s external customers, incorporates GWC’s widgets on the cars it manufactures, the person who buys one of Great Auto’s cars is GWC’s ultimate customer.

◾ Internal Customers. These are the company’s departments and individual employees who use a product or service. In the relocation project, they are primary customers, since the majority of the work that is being done is for their benefit. Internal customers come in two varieties: immediate and intermediate.

− Immediate Internal Customers. These are the departments that are directly impacted by the project. For the relocation project, that includes all employees. If the project addressed the manufacturing process, with the end product being a finished widget, the immediate internal customer would be the Packaging Department, since it is the first department to use the widget.

− Intermediate Internal Customers. Intermediate customers stand between an immediate internal customer and an external customer. For the relo- cation project, there are no intermediate internal customers. However, using the example of the widget manufacturing process, the Shipping Department would be an intermediate customer. Shipping receives a product or service (a widget) from the immediate customer (Packaging). 

SMART: Criteria For Defining A Problem

• ◾  Specific—The problem must be quantified. Rather than attempting to cure world hunger, which—besides being unlikely to be attainable—is a vague problem, the goal could be defined as “Increase the annual food supply in Country X by 50 percent for each person.”

• ◾  Measurable—The results must be able to be measured. Using the previous example, unless the current per capita food supply has been quantified, it is impossible to measure the increase.

• ◾  Attainable—The goal must be realistic.It may not be possible to increase the food supply by 50 percent, particularly not within a short time frame.

   ◾ Relevant—The change being made must satisfy an important customer requirement. In this example, the goal is relevant if the citizens of Country X suffer from malnutrition but not if they have an obesity epidemic.

  ◾ Time-bound—The expectation must be that the change will be achieved within a specified time frame rather than being open-ended. In an ideal situation, the time frame is measured in months rather than years. To make it time-bound, the world hunger statement could be expanded to read, “Increase the annual food supply in Country X by 10 percent for each person by the end of the current calendar year and by 15 percent for each successive twelve- month period.” 

Pitfalls In Staffing A Project

Though few companies would deny the importance of the project team, there are a number of possible pitfalls in staffing a project. The most common are:

◾ No champion—Unfortunately, some projects are begun without a champion. This may not create major problems on a small, short-term project, but for anything of strategic importance to the company, it is essential that there be high-level sponsorship. Without it, the project’s chance of success is diminished. The champion, after all, is the one who breaks down barriers and obtains additional funding, if needed.

◾ An ineffective project manager—Champions should be vigilant when selecting project managers and should ensure that they possess the needed skills. Managers are sometimes chosen for political reasons, to give them experience needed for a promotion, or—worst of all—because they have more free time than anyone else. Although none of those precludes success, those should be only secondary considerations. What is critical is that whoever is chosen has the characteristics of a successful project manager discussed above.

◾ The wrong team members— The project manager may be the head of the team, but the individual members are its arms and legs. Selecting people who lack the needed skills and personal characteristics decreases the probability of success.

◾ Absence of the right people— This is acorollary to the previous point. Although the team might be staffed competently, if key individuals with unique knowledge and skills are not included, the project will suffer.

It bears repeating: projects do not happen without people, and — if the project is to be successful —it is essential that the right people be involved. 

Characteristics Of Effective Team Members

Commitment - The individual must believe in the project and be willing to do “whatever it takes” to make it successful. 

Bias for Action - The team member must have a sense of urgency and feel compelled to finish the project successfully.

Flexibility - Since the team’s charter is to recommend change, each team member must not only be able to adapt to change but must also embrace it.

Innovation - Successful team members are able not only to embrace change but also to initiate it by finding new ways to accomplish the goal.

Personal Influence - Since the team will become agents of change, it is highly desirable for all members to be well respected within their own communities. This is similar to the “personal clout” requirement for project champions and leaders.

Available Time - Individuals who are close to burnout because of a too-heavy workload should not be chosen for the team. Not only will they not be effective, but they may also create dissension within the team by missing meetings or failing to deliver on commitments.

Teamwork - No matter how creative and committed individuals may be, unless they can work successfully as part of a team, they should not be part of the core team. Key “individual contributors” who lack cooperative and collaborative skills may be called on to provide expertise at various stages of the project.