Leading with Limited or No Direct Authority

How do we lead with limited or no direct authority? Ferraro (p. 6) states the "personal effectiveness" (emotional intelligence), project management skills, and intuition are major factors that help people lead.

Ferraro (p. 8) tells us one way a project manager can overcome a lack of direct authority is to create a favorable environment for "customers and team members." He states a way to create a positive environment is to ask "How can I help?" Helping everyone involved on a project does not require direct authority. Ferraro states people want help. I suggest by helping others you build what Stephen Covey calls an emotional bank account. You build an "I owe you" feeling towards the project manage. This account can be used later one when the PM needs assistance because of their lack of the direct authority.

Ferraro (p. 9) states that a project manager cannot wait for clear authority, and must change the corporate culture to support project managers. I try to change the culture of those involved in my project first, and then lobby my sponsors for direct authority.

A project leader must use developed soft skills, and values to "effectively unit a lead a group of people over whom they have minimal authority ( (Ferraro, p 101). A project manager must not only use their skills with their project team but customers as well.

Morgan and Youngdahl, (p. 5) support the need for project managers to leader using soft skills by saying projects must be lead by leaders who have "an ability to influence and motivate without formal authority." Youngdahl and Moran's model of leading global projects (p. 6) list three elements a project manager must be able to bring to their projects for their project to be successful.

• "The ability to influence without authority across cultures and functions."

• "The ability to create project value and strategic alignment."

• "The ability to develop and share the project vision."

A project leader must serve the wants, and needs of others (Ferraro, p. 114). Ferraro (p. 112) state's project managers must not think of themselves as managers, which implies direct authority, but must think of themselves as leaders, and embrace the fact they will have limited or no direct authority. So step back, observe your environment, and find a way to get the job done.

Ferraro, J. (2008). The Strategic Project Leader. Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership. Boca Raton: FL. Taylor & Francis Group.

Team Burnout

Project can be very long, and deeply draining. In fact, some projects never end. Teams can become stressed, fatigued, and burned out very quickly if a project manager does not recognize and take actions to help eliminate these issues as they are arising.

In an article written by an author only known at Tom at Project Management Knowledge, he lists some things a person can do when fatigue or burnout is observed. I rather enjoyed this article, and wanted to share it with you because these are techniques I would use to take action.

Tom makes the following suggestions:

• Make a list of things that are going well but still have room for improvement. Clearly identify the areas that need improving then work in those areas. This provides some variety.

• Determine what is making people feel lethargic, stressed, paralyzed, fatigued, or burned out. Tom states that sometimes just identifying these areas is enough to improve people's attitudes.

• If the previous two steps do not do the trick Tom suggests changing people's duties, or giving time off.

• Get a team member transferred.

I believe Toms last suggestion is an extreme solution because it could get someone fired. This suggestion does make sense if a person is at the end of their rope because a change in scenery or culture could bring new life to someone who in burned out.

At techreplublic.com there is an article by Debbie Young who suggests other strategies for avoiding, or mitigating burnout. These are other techniques I would use to recover from burnout.

• "Leveling overwhelming workloads." The idea is to look at the responsibilities of team members, determine if there is an unbalance in the work loads of members, and make adjustments accordingly.

• "Improve communication." When I first read this title I could not imagine how communication played a role in burnout. Young quotes Dr. Jo Ellen Moore of the Department of Computer Management and Information Systems at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville Illinois as saying, "That’s because exhausted, burned-out IT workers, according to Moore, tend to connect their exhaustion to what they perceive as poor management decisions."

This makes a lot of sense to me. Young is speaking about project managers and a technique that could be used to help them with burnout. I would add this could be applied to team members as well. By communicating with and including project team members in the decision-making process, communicating project issues, project managers and add team members, may change their attitudes towards their work environments.

Tom. (2009, January 4). Project Management Knowledge: Identifying and Dealing with Project Management Burnout. Retrieved March 3, 2010 from http://www.project-management-knowledge.com/identifying-and-dealing-with-project-management-burnout/

Young, D. (2002, November 11). Communication, workload balance keys to averting staff burnout. Retrieved March 3, 2010 from http://articles.techrepublic.com.com/5100-10878_11-1057738.html

Roberts Six Simple Rules for Good Estimating

Many projects run over budget, and behind schedule. In order for organizations to insure their estimates are sound and to prevent costs overruns they must follow some basic rules. The following is "Roberts Six Simple Rules for Good Estimating."

1. Stay within the scope. Sometimes I think the scope would change as much as the weather does if you let it. Take control of your projects, and remember you are the subject matter expert. No one has the pulse of what is going on as much as you do. You might not be the last say or have direct authority over every final decision but stick with your plan. You might not even be the smartest person in the team but remember you are responsible.

2. Create a realistic schedule, and cost analysis. Do not be pressured into making changes to time and cost every time a stakeholder wants you to lower expenses, or speed things up. Granted, you do not want to be inflexible but negotiate. Turn on the charm, be political, do whatever it takes to find a balance between what was planned, and what stakeholder wants.

3. Create, study, examine, and adjust the critical path. The goal of project managers is to bring their project in on time, under budget, within the scope, and meet established quality goals. The critical path is the spine of a project. Once something goes wrong with it the project can have a hard time walking. Project managers need to focus on their project goals, and not be concerned among other things happening within the organization (Barkley, D., 2006, p. 62).

4. When estimating costs find similar organizational projects to draw data from. If this is impossible to ask people, you think might have examples or will be able to point you in the right direction. Always remember Google is your friend. Kim Heldman (2009, p. 60) put it this way " you might find it helpful to review the activity estimates and budgets on past projects of similar size and scope before estimating the costs for the activities on the new project."

5. Estimated cost, and time requirements should be researched so that the estimates provide proper value when the project starts (Heldman, p. 102). Do not rush or use ballpark numbers just to satisfy your requirement to gather the data.

6. Remember that everything you do during your project while working on a project takes resources. This might seem obvious, but the small things can add up depending upon the size of your project. For example, sick or vacation days, team lunches, stakeholder visits, conflict resolution, or snow days can all have cost and schedule impacts.

Barkley, B. (2006). Integrated Project Management. p. 62. The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. New York: New York.

Heldman, K. (2009). Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide. 5th ed. p. 69 & p. 102. Wiley Publishing, Inc. Indianapolis: IN.