Over the past six weeks, we have talked about the style, setup and formation of your Value Added PMO. During this time, we have discussed many of the principles that will be established and guide you along the way in setting the proper tone; selecting your team that will facilitate and deliver the ‘value’ that your PMO has chosen and the service oriented approach that should be taken. This weeks discussion will center upon how to best manage that team, identify problem areas, and really bring the PMO into ‘Effective Execution’. When discussing the day to day management of the team, it does not mean simply managing your direct reports, it also means that you need to manage the entire team, from top to bottom.
As the PMO Manager – you must deliver the leadership and management to the entire extended team.
The team that you will be charged to manage and lead includes Executive Management, Peers, Program Managers, PM’s, BA’s, technical and individual contributors along with anyone else that benefits from the PMO functionality. It is not simply the management of your direct reports and the people directly assigned to the PMO. Far too many people get the call to lead/manage a Project Management Office, and mistakenly think that it only involves the team members that directly report to the PMO manager. This concept, should be thoroughly understood and accepted by the person charged with managing the PMO, or the Value Added PMO that is put into place will quickly become just another ‘cookie cutter’ implementation of a group that sits apart from the performing organization and is not providing the value that was desired.
This will be somewhat of a struggle, because many times you are being asked to help manage and lead Sr. Personnel towards decisions and processes, that they may well be either uncomfortable with or simply do not agree with at all. So let’s take a look at some of the different levels of ‘Team Members’, and some of the traits and ‘management’ that will be required.
Senior Management – While many might think that this is the toughest area to manage and influence, it generally is not. Much of the time, the thing that you will ‘manage’ here – is expectations. For the most part, the PMO is tasked with assisting the Performing Organization to perform at a high level, and provide the necessary information to the Executive Staff so that key decisions can be made. Your chief job from a Sr. Management standpoint is to provide the following:
Senior Management needs timely and credible information to make decisions.
The time where most of your ‘management’ of this part of the team will be spent, is during the early stages of the PMO where you are setting up your standards, practices and reporting. The most effective thing that you can do here is be a good sounding board and offer different suggestions and alternatives on how to get the information or results that management is looking for. Some of that can be accomplished in the beginning, but most of this will be accomplished after you have proven results and your leadership and effectiveness is understood and accepted.
On a recent assignment that I was on several years ago, the first 2-3 months were spent with little ability on my part to influence both what and how we were doing our jobs. When ‘crunch time’ arrived far earlier than anyone expected, I found myself with two alternatives. The first was to continue on as the organization and team had been going which meant continued poor results. The second, was to step up and make definitive suggestions on how to tackle and correct the problems that we were encountering. After choosing to step up and bring some much needed order to a chaotic organization, I was then in a place whereby I could make suggestions on improvements that was generally considered and implemented – based largely in part on the success we enjoyed in moving from chaos to effective execution. Management will recognize, acknowledge and embrace solid leadership and management skills once positive results are the norm.
Program Managers, PM’s and your Peers – This is the group that is needed the most, for if you do not gain acceptance from this group that you are leading and managing the PMO effort, you will not be successful. This is the part of the team that absolutely wants to know the answer to one simple question:
What are you doing that will benefit me and make my job easier to accomplish?
If you are not able to put together an organization that can do this, then you might as well have an estate sale and move on. Any top performing Program/Project Manager will have definite desires on how the day to day tools, processes and techniques that are used should be defined and managed. If there are six (6) PM’s or Program Managers that report into the PMO, there will be at least 6 different ways they all want to operate. You must ensure that this area is the primary area where you deliver ‘Value Added Service’. If you are able to help provide solutions to everyday problems that will in turn make the PM’s task(s) easier to perform, you will be well on your way to success. A key point to make here, and one that should be part of the overall plan, is that your organization must be much more of a Quality Assurance Team, rather than a Quality Control Organization. Here are the basics.
Quality Control exists for one and only one result: To make certain that no defects get out the door. It’s either re-make/re-work to acceptable standards or reject it completely.
Quality Assurance exists to help ensure that a quality product is produced ‘along the way’ so that the resulting product or service is acceptable when it get’s to the Quality Control step.
If you put the plans into place, that assists the PM’s and Program Managers with ‘building a quality product or service’, you will be adding value added service to what they do, and answer that age old question of ‘What’s in it for me?’. This is the group of people, that you deliver to the most. Setup and execute well to this group, and you will find the day to day management of your PMO, running much more on track with fewer disruptions and ‘derailments’.
PMO Team Members – This is the group that you will lead and manage on a day to day basis, and will hopefully support and deliver the Quality Service that is needed by all. While we talked about the key traits and skills that are needed by these team members, the trait that is needed the most, and will substantially either foster the success or failure of the PMO is this:
Your Primary PMO team must have a ’service oriented and mentoring mindset’ – to be effective.
Once your team has been selected and on board for a time, you will be in a much better position to judge whether or not you have chosen well. While you may even personally know the work habits and capabilities of some (or all) of your team from previous projects and programs, if this is their first time to work in a PMO Environment – it may well turn out not to suit them. This is the area where guidance, mentoring and leadership will benefit you and your team. It also may be the area whereby duties and responsibilities are realigned so that they best match the skills and abilities of your primary team. Cross training is critically important, for many, many reasons. You are certainly going to have times whereby key members are out for personal reasons or simply taking that long awaited three week vacation with their family to Europe. During that time, the balance of the team will have to pick up the slack. While it would be great to have everyone on the team completely familiar with all of the processes and tasks that your team performs, practically speaking that is not generally achievable. It is much more practical that everyone on the Primary Team should have both a primary and a secondary set of duties that they are responsible for.
You must have the ability to identify and facilitate when change is needed in your team. Personally, I have found it most effective when faced with tough decisions of this type to tackle it head on. When you start getting questions from Sr. Management, your direct management and certainly from the PM’s that your are assisting about the quality of service being delivered by one or more of your primary team members, you need to act. The single easiest way to accomplish this is to meet privately with the team member to review overall duties and responsibilities; effectiveness and concerns that they might have. In short, a chance to let the team member and the PMO Manager/leader bring items to the table. While everyone has their own style, I generally like to ask a question along these lines:
‘Tell me how you think you are integrating into the PMO team, and are we best utilizing your background and experience?’
A question (or series of questions) that is oriented towards the Team Member assessing their own performance, will open many doors for you. If you are truly interested in improving their performance, this type of dialogue will provide the opportunity to agree and encourage the successful areas of performance; and to also give you the opportunity to present a ‘different picture’ when performance is sub-standard and needs to improve. Most of all, it is imperative that you come to a combined agreement on steps that need to be taken, so that they can elevate their ‘game’ and be successful. If they are neither willing to admit nor willing to take the steps necessary to improve – the next steps should be obvious. A change will need to be made. While not everyone on your Primary Team will be an ‘A’ player, no one on your team should be a ‘D’ player. The phrase – ‘One bad apple will spoil the barrel’ can and will affect your overall team.
Next week, we will wind up this series with a short review and also will address how you can identify whether or not you are truly, providing ‘Value Added Service’ from your PMO.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
but you are assuming US centric – 3 weeks hols is a norm in europe!
What about diversty and understanding folk and their needs?
I’m not at all sure what exactly your point is, however I have found working with a variety of team members and groups within Europe, that there is obviously a different mindset and ‘rules’ over there. That is a given. As far as trying to ‘understand their needs’, I have the following mindset and background. You have a job, and are responsible for performing that job. While personally I certainly have a desire to understand your needs and desires, it doesn’t mean that the needs of the position are adjustable to fit individual needs.