Project Management (Creating new Products or Services) 4 страница

Exercise: Now its time to honestly asses your leadership qualities. 93

Leading and Preparing to Lead Others

To be an effective leader you must be able to facilitate, inspire and implement rather than control. You should know the people who work for you, establish a framework in which everyone can operate comfortably and set challenging achievable goals that motivate and inspire the workforce.

To achieve the above you need first to ask yourself the following questions

1 What are we or the organisation striving to achieve?

2 In what way are we or the organisation striving to achieve its goals?

3 What major issues do we or does the organisation face?

4 What do other people think of the organisation, good or bad?

5 Are we or the organisation properly structured to achieve what we want in the way we want?

Tips for you

1 Take time to get your ideas correct but do not take too long. (Time waits for nobody).

2 Actively seek the views of your staff or team members about what the organisation’s goals.

3 Talk to colleagues personally to discover their views and ask for feedback on your goals.

4 You must always know about the ultimate goals of the organisation.

The Dos and Don’t of Establishing a Framework

Use all the means of communicating with your staff	Don’t ask staff to do something that you wouldn’t do yourself
Strive to regard your associates as competent people	Don’t forget that TRUST is a two way process that takes time and effort to establish.
Strive to create to create a positive atmosphere which is free from rigidity	Do not takesides or show favouritism
Always show loyalty and support to your staff	Don’t discourage staff from speaking out
Always set challenging ambitious goals all round	Don’t be vague about staff roles. 95

Forming a Team

1 When recruiting for new team members look for their growth potential

2Avoid appointing candidates just because you are short staffed

3 Take into account the feelings of staff when promoting within the organisation

4 When a reference has reservations always ask for further explanations.

5 During recruiting interviews ask candidates what they really did in their previous job.

6 Ensure there are no interruptions during interviews.

7 See that the recruits are welcomed and fully supported on arrival.

8 See that the new recruit is properly inducted into the new job.

Exercising Authority

It is a leaders’ role to issue clear instructions and to ensure that everyone understands them.

1 Encourage staff to approach you if something is not working according to plans and act quickly

2 Insist that staff inform you of good and bad news; use crises as opportunities to develop staff.

Delegating Tasks and Skills.

Delegation is a time management skill that allows you to exercise control and at the same time meet your own responsibilities more effectively while developing the skills of your staff.

Tips for managers

1 Delegating is skill that boosts morale and builds staff confidence, called (Job enrichment).

2 Never keep work simply because you think you can do it better. (Don’t do everything yourself).

3You should always set high achievable delegated targets that extend and challenge your staff.

4 Delegate with responsibility, clear objectives developed and with enough resources.

5 Make sure the delegatee fully understands the task by asking questions you face to face.

6 Develop a reporting system to allow the delegate to work independently of you.

Points to member about delegation

1 You must always seek new opportunities to delegate.

2 Interference with the work of the delegates should be avoided unless absolutely necessary.

3Staff training should be given priority to ensure effective future skilled delegation opportunities

4 Possessive feelings about work are negative and are unproductive in any workplace.

5 Delegation involves loss of direct control but retention of overall responsibility by the manager.

6 Responsibility for entire tasks should be given to single delegates whenever that is possible.

Communicating Completely Clearly and Effectively

Communicating is a process that involves the whole being of an individual in a variety of ways in all life situations. Without the process of communication there would no exchange of ideas and opinions which is the basis of influencing and being influenced by any social phenomena.

In the business world, communication is the sine qua non of relationships between systems and individuals who are part of the social phenomenon.

To ensure that messages are transmitted (sent) up and down the hierarchy, received, understood, acted upon and fed back; and the purpose of communication completed, you need to have common clear open channels, symbols that are understood by relevant parties to the communication process.

Effective communication is the OXYGEN of business relationships.

The prevalent business management structure in the world and still there today, is the Top Down structure, a pyramid hierarchy, with top managers sending instructions down to lower levels of the organisation. Yet, they cannot be sure that the message has got through clearly. A flat management structure with few management rungs and a short span of control is an alternative to the pyramid.

However, even with the short management span, the efficiency of communication still needs to be checked to ensure success. Feed back is an effective way of ascertaining communication success.

Inverting the Pyramid

Today’s managers mentally balance the pyramid upside down on it’s point to reverse the direction of flow of information. Customers and their needs are put on top followed by employees then finally managers at the bottom. This helps them to appreciate if the communication process works in their organisations. This is called Inverting the Pyramid of Communication.

Tips for you.

1 Flatten the hierarchy by reducing the number of management levels in your organisation.

2 Mentally invert the Pyramid of communication to have a feel of what it is to be at the bottom and then make necessary adjustments to have an effective flow of information from the extreme ends of your organisation

3 Talk honestly with your staff and you will get honest answers

4 Remember, if reports are always good, you could have not been given the whole truth.

5 Be prepared for misunderstandings of what you are striving to communicate.

6 Encourage your staff to be honest with all the times even if they have made mistakes.

7 Make it clear that even negative feedback is a positive opportunity for making improvement.

8 You must ensure that your staff are not intimidated by fear of punishment for mistakes.

10 Do not always wait for staff for feedback, go out and ask for feedback and their comments.

11 Dynamise staff with anticipation, strong leadership, company purpose, support and loyalty.

12 Hold regular meetings, inform everyone of what has been achieved and has to be achieved.

Form Hot Groups along the following lines:

a) Introduce new ideas, c) announce the objectives, d) express confidence in your staffs’ ability,

e) Emphasise group or team spirit, f) look forwards and backwards of the projects, g) put across your own authority, h) banish doubts and doubters, and emphasise that efforts will be fully supported and rewarded.

Setting up Goals

Goals are the essence of planning and goals should be (SMART) ambitious, achievable, stretching, hard-headed, feasible and with sub-goals to help you and your team to attain them.

When setting up goals you should always ask yourself:

i) Are they clear, strong and measurable goals?

ii) Are they understood and approved by implementers?

iii) Can they be realistically achieved by my staff?

iv) Do they have a clear sensible time-frame for completion?

v) Have they been translated into full plans?

vi) Will they be revised as dictated by events?

vii) Can we reach them in advance of our strategy time limit?

viii) Will they generate rewards for employees?

ix) Do they translate into individual goals as well?

Tips for setting up Goals

1 Remember that people respond to prospects of achieving high achievements.

2 Therefore, always seek to develop ambitious targets that can be achieved.

3 Expect setbacks and always have contingency plans (Murphy’s Law).

4 Cut your losses fast if failure is truly inevitable (Cut and run).

5 Think big as a leader in order to achieve bigger goals.

6 Set goals that will inspire your staff with pride and sense of achievement after completion.

7 Achieving goals despite difficulties and setbacks is a crucial test of true leadership.

8 Remember, a positive state of mind (Can do) is crucial to achieving your goals.

Set objectives along the frame below:

OBJECTIVES TRAGETS ULTIMATE GOAL

Reduce the price Lower the cost of Production

Offer customers better

Value for money Improve the Product Increase Market

Change methods to

Meet objectives Set targets and time-limits for

Teams and individuals

By selecting your objectives, individuals and team members can be given targets and time limits that slot together at the end to reach the ultimate goal.

Tips for Developing Teams

Your role is to develop a team that thinks and acts together with individual as well as aligned with team interests. To have an effective team you must:

1 Ensure that everyone on the team is working towards agreed shared goals.

2 Criticise constructively and make sure that you praise good work and censure poor work.

3 Monitor team members’ activities by continuously obtaining feedback.

4 Constantly encourage generation of new ideas from within the team.

5 Always insist on the highest standards of work from team members.

6 Develop the individual and collective skills of the team and seek new blood by recruitment.

Key leadership Roles are:

1 Analytic guardian and effective coordinator, pulling together the work of the team as a whole.

2 Encourage innovations ensuring smooth implementation of the teams’ activities.

3 Team building, team support and nurturing to grow and develop within the organisation.

4 Provide internal and external training opportunities for staff.

5 Encourage the team to share the same goals, critical solidarity and healthy competition.

6 Match roles personalities, double and trebled roles to meet the teams’ needs.

7 Concentrate on the teams’ contributive, collective performance and achievement.

8 Empower team members by allowing them to decide how best to perform their tasks.

9 The more you allow your staff to do some of your tasks the stronger your leadership becomes.

Openly reward real merit for good performance but never appear to have favourites. Rewards can take several forms, such as pay rises, bonuses, profit sharing schemmes, share ownerships, holidays and prizes.

Choosing a Rewarding System Along the Following Framework

Type of Reward Implementation Advantages fo the Reward

Basic salary increases not directly related to performance	Decided by management dependent on overall salary scales	Individuals know exactly what to expect; and can reduce element of competition within teams
Bonuses: One-off payments linked to performance or financial targets	Can take several forms such sharing financial savings based on meaningful measures	Increases motivation and job satisfaction, gives incentive for cost cutting and quality drives
Allocated share of profits is split between employees	Fair methods for profit distribution on corporate or divisional basis	An excellent staff motivator of individuals giving teams purpose
Share ownership: giving shares to staff or chances to buy shares on preferential terms	Rewards linked to corporate success moving from top levels in many corporations	Encourages long term loyalty and sense of involvement and helps identification with group results
Recognition rewards, gifts, prizes, holidays, parties, praise and acknowledgement of good performance	Care takento avoid implying that performance is the exception rather than the rule	Can reward teams or individuals, highly motivating staff by recognition even if reward is only verbal e. g. praise
Composite rewards allocated for individual, team, and company results	Management can combine individual with company-wide rewards tied to teamwork	Varying reward packages keeps staff interest fresh and boosts team work

Leading Discussions

You have to lead team discussions formally or informally with staff and leading discussions is one of the tasks and another essential form of communication. By skillfully playing a leading role in discussions you can keep your staff productive and purposeful.

Questions you need to ask yourself before holding discussions with your staff.

1 Am I seeking to give staff information or instructions or just making an announcement?

2 Am I holding a discussion with the aim of making a decision or decisions?

3 Is the purpose of the discussion to give or obtain feedback on company progress?

4 Is the meeting a negotiation or a disciplinary meeting or to find out certain facts?

5 Do I want to discuss long term or short term issues, crisis in the company or not.

Tips for leading discussions.

1 Give staff time for any meetings and always keep your appointments.

2 Keep discussions informal unless it is absolutely necessary to be formal.

3 Never hide behind closed doors of private office if that is possible.

4 An open door office fosters better and open communication process.

5 Invite only relevant people to attend meetings.

6 Allow staff to stay away if they feel they have nothing to contribute to a meeting.

7 Do not use meetings to dictate, but keep meetings as short as possible.

8 End meetings with a summary of what has been accomplished.

9 Whenever you call a meeting, make sure it can answer the following three questions:

i) Has the meeting a clearly defined purpose?

ii) Does the meeting have measurable outcomes?

iii) Does the meeting have a functional membership?

iv) Can individuals, instead of a meeting achieve the same purpose?

Go to every meeting with a carefully prepared plan for what you want to accomplish.

Analysing Problems and Problem- Solving. (Finding solutions.)

The word problem means “ something that is difficult to solve ” “a puzzle”. By being positive and analysing issues you can overcome any obstacles and replace them with solutions. In fact the word " problem ” should be avoided by progressive managers because it has “ defeatist ” “ negative ” connotations. Replace it with word “ challenge ” or “ opportunities ” which cause adrenalin to flow, getting you ready for action to find solutions (Can do) attitude.

Tips for managers

1 Recognising the emotional blockage to a solution helps the “problem” to disappear.

2 Regard “ problems ” as opportunities and consider them from every possible angle.

3 Always look at the positive side of any negative situation and consider all the facts.

For example, if you want to find the correct price of a new product you can follow this procedure and ask the following questions to get to the right price:

What is the projected price? How much will it cost? Who will fix the price? How will it be devised, who will devise it? What is the competitors’ price? Should we really go for price increase? etc

If you diligently and honestly answer all these questions positively, you will come to the correct pricing.

In problem solving (finding solutions) you need first to analyse the situation, then plan a course of action and then act according to your plan. All the three steps are essential and a good solution cannot be found without implementing them one after the other, because, problem solving is a management skill of “ knowing what to do, how to do it, and doing it. ” Peter Drucker.

Giving Support to your Staff

As a leader you need to work hard to first foster trust in order to earn trust by showing loyalty and support for your team. Build trust by proving that you are trustworthy by word and deed again and again and all the time.

Tips for you

1 Find ways of showing your staff you trust them to act effectively all the time.

2 If you have to criticise someone do so privately and not publicly.

3 Staff must be fully informed of anything that might directly affect them.

4 If promises are made they should be kept; and never refuse a request without careful thought.

5 Give a prompt and sympathetic response to your staff’s personal problems.

6 Instill faith in your staff by being fair and honest with all of them even in difficult situations.

Exercise: Leadership skills Self assessment Task. 128.

Inspiring your staff to excel

Inspired staff are able to achieve remarkable success if they are given the right motivational leadership to mobilse their inner drive and strengths, enthusiasm, vigor and expectations. To be able to inspire staff you need to be a credible leader who leads by example.

Test yourself with the following questions to find out if you are credible leader who can inspire others. If your answers are yes, you are credible leader.

1 Do I perform to the highest level of competence? Do I take initiatives and risks? Am I a good team member?

2 Am I open with information and knowledge and respect others as I respect myself?

3 Do I trust others and am I trustworthy? Do I accept responsibility for my actions?

4 Do I judge and reward others with praise on the basis of their performance?

Tips for Inspiring Your Staff

1 Never seek results by bullying your staff, but use discipline swiftly, effectively but sparingly.

2 Always keep the “ carrot ” visible but the stick hidden and share responsibility for failure, mistakes and analyse errors to prevent them next time.

Establishing Vision

To establish a vision is to see with the eyes of the mind where you want to be long term. Your ability to visualize the future will inspire your staff to look to the future as well.

To develop a vision you should be able to define what you are aiming to achieve in future and compare that vision with where you are now.

Your vision needs to be expressed as statements to communicate a clear understanding of the long term aim. In business communication, the vision statement requires a tripartite focus on customers, on the staff and on improved performance to ensure excellence.

Tips for Creating a Vision Statement

1Write down your ambitions and revise them periodically. If they seem unattainable, simply intensify your efforts and give your schemme to others to check before you finalise it and then map out what you will need to do to bridge gaps

2 You will need visionary staff, pragmatists and conservatives to devise an effective vision statement.

i) Visionary staff can see the benefits of change and they have the courage to carry out change despites obstacles.

ii) Pragmatists are staff who can accept innovation only after innovations have been proved to work by somebody else.

iii) Conservative staff resist innovation and change, and are creative in inventing excuses for rejecting anything new. Nevertheless, you need to involve everyone in order to create successful team spirit

3) All staff need to be animated by visionary strong leadership to work together successfully.

4 Ensure that you apply the focus of the vision statement in ways that are different and better than your competitors.

Strengthening Your Vision Statement

Weak Vision Statements	Questions Raised	Strong Vision Statements
We have a strong people orientation and we demonstrate care for every employee in the company	What does the word “ people ” in practice; and what kind of care does the company mean in this statement?	“ We will ” lead local suppliers in share, product/service quality, value, customer satisfaction and good conduct by being different and better than competitors
We sustain strong results orientation coupled with a prudent approach to business.	What does the word “ results ” orientation mean in practice and what is “prudence” about?	“Strategies, policies, and implementation are designed for and by people who work with suppliers to achieve high customer satisfaction
Our aim is to be the biggestand the best in our market”	What do the words “ biggest and the best ” actually mean? On what criteria are they applied?	“ We invest and innovate ” to double real revenues every three years while raising operating profits, cash flow, and sharing the rewards.

Generating Big Ideas

As a leader you do not have be the most inventive person in the company but, you need to release the potential for generating ideas that exist in all your employees because, that will help the company to achieve both your VISION to generate new ideas and innovation. Lower any creativity barriers by tolerating failure and eccentricity, by flattening organisational structures, refusing to accept the (NIH) “ Not Invented Here ” syndrome or (IWNW) “ That will never Work ” syndrome and their equivalents.

Tips For Generating Ideas

1 Make staff see that, it is everyone’s job to generate ideas and you should never shoot down an idea before it is fully examined.

2 Explore and analyse ideas, dream and conceptualise ideas, challenge and visualise ideas.

3 The purpose of ideas must be defined, their criteria set and ranked in order of importance.

4 Innovation is a process that starts with concepts, followed by assessment, evaluation and a decision.

5 Implementation starts with drawing up a plan and following the plan stage by stage to the end.

Sharing Information

It has been generally accepted in business circles that as a manager or leader, “ It does not matter how much you communicate, it is never enough ” because information is the blood of any organisation and communication its main artery.

Therefore, you must make sure that your communication channels are always open in all directions to keep staff up to date with the latest developments which generate goodwill towards your company. By trusting your staff with information and by being open and honest with them, you will inspire them to perform better to achieve excellence.

Channels of communication are unlimited such as, email, meetings, journals etc that carry messages throughout the company.

Tips for Communicating Fully

1 Unnecessary secrecy demoralises staff and diminishes the potential for communication.

2 Ensure that your messages reach all members of staff and encourage them to do the same.

Boosting Staff Achievements

As an effective leader, you must insist on positive outcomes for both short and long term visions by making sure that team members know what your desired results are, monitor staff out put and performance as individuals as well as teams

Choosing Monitoring Systems.

Type of Monitoring System	Effect of system on Staff
Written summary reports provide staff with results of their actions and figures.	This system encourages staff to organise their thoughts and review their activities.
Personal reports and regular meetings held with each team member to assess progress.	This allows for informal updates and facilitates early warnings of potential difficulties.
Open-door policy with individuals encouraging day to day discussions at any time.	These demonstrate strong support and enthusiasm among your staff.
Staff appraisals and formal staff interviews to assess performance and set new targets.	These produce improved results if applied continuously and sometimes informally.

Tips for managers on monitoring

1 Encourage your staff to seek clarification if they are unsure about any of set objectives.

2 Keep your mind firmly on outcomes you are seeking and let staff know about them.

3 Help your staff to improve output by asking the following questions:

a) Is there anything you think could be done better?

b) What am I doing that is stopping you from performing your job better?

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