Business in a Knapsack...Can you run your projects when you’re on the run?

By Michelle LaBrosse

Business on the go is part of our daily lives. Whether you’re running a business or running a project on the go, don’t mistake mobility for absence. When you’re not there in person, you need to be more effective at being there virtually. That means you have to sharpen your communication skills like a pro.

Most of us think first about the technology tools in our knapsack and forget about the invisible tools – until there’s a problem. Communication is one of those invisible tools that every business needs to hone – especially in a virtual world.

Here are six keys to clear communication in a virtual world

1. Build trust in person and grow that trust with clear expectations.
   
   In order for people to work effectively virtually, there has to be trust. Trust doesn’t happen magically. It is built when you bring your team together for training or team building, and then continues to grow with clear expectations consistently set by leaders and met by the team. It’s important to bring people together at least once a year. You don’t have to have everyone fly into one location at once – meet with key people on one on one to get a handle on something that wasn’t obvious.
   
   
2. Manage Results, Not Activity.
   
   In the physical office environment, “busy work” often gets mistaken for real work. In the virtual environment, when you can’t see what people are doing, the key is to manage results. Set expectations and monitor the results, not the daily activities. This is empowering for people who are motivated and who take the initiative, and on the other hand it is a virtual microscope, which reveals people who don’t know how to get things done.
   
   
3. Schedule Regular Communication.
   
   Have a regular time for reporting both progress and potential pitfalls to the team. This keeps people on track and gives everyone the discipline of a team check-in. It’s amazing how much can be accomplished in a 30-minute conference call when you set expectations beforehand and tell everyone what you need to accomplish in that timeframe.
   
   
4. Create Communication that Saves Time – Not Kills It.
   
   Have you created an e-mail culture that wastes time with endless “daisy-chain” conversations that take several hours to read? Does your team spend hours trying to solve an issue with an e-mail conversation that could have been solved with a 30-minute conference call? With e-mail being a critical tool in our work environments, it’s important to create a new culture of effectiveness around it. Ask yourself: How you can make your team’s e-mail communication even more productive?
   
   
5. Create Standards that Build a Cohesive Culture.
   
   What are your standards of quality? How do you define excellence? What does your brand mean to each employee? Making sure everyone knows the answers to theose three questions is vital when people are scattered geographically. Virtually, you need to create cohesion with excellence and a sense of pride in what your company stands for. People want a reason to belong and a strong culture gives them a sense of belonging and also the confidence of knowing what the rules of the road are for them and your company.
   
   
6. Rules of Responsiveness.
   
   When people are working remotely, it’s important that you define what your rules of responsiveness are for your culture. How quickly are people expected to return an e-mail, an Instant Message or a phone call? What is your protocol when people are out of the office or on vacation? If you’re in a customer service environment, it’s important to have clear expectations regarding how to respond to all customer inquiries. No one likes to be kept waiting, and knowing what to expect immediately lowers the blood pressures on both sides of the customer/company relationship.

Once you have your communication keys in place, don’t forget to be a model of the behavior you want to cultivate. Set boundaries for yourself, and let your team know when you’re not available. If you’re on a family vacation, give people plenty of notice, and let them know when you're not available. Empower people when you are unavailable. You’ll be surprised how the world still turns while your Blackberry was off.

Michelle LaBrosse is the founder and Chief Cheetah of Cheetah Learning. An international expert on accelerated learning and Project Management, she has grown Cheetah Learning into the market leader for Project Management training and professional development. In 2006, The Project Management Institute, www.pmi.org, selected Michelle as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world, and only one of two women selected from the training and education industry. Michelle is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Owner & President Management program for entrepreneurs, and is the author of “Cheetah Project Management” and “Cheetah Negotiations."

Published in Networking Today October 2008

10 Ways to Inspire Your Team

By Michelle LaBrosse

Inspire. Just the word itself causes us to pause and think. We may remember our own personal heroes like Martin Luther King or Mother Theresa or a teacher or mentor who brought out the best in us and showed us the power of one person.

It’s easy in business to get cynical when we’re surrounded by what I like to call “faux inspiration.” I’m talking about the corporate posters with motivational sayings that are easy to spoof when the actions of management don’t reflect the glossy images and quotations.

In my experience, inspiration comes from example. As Albert Einstein said: “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.” So, that means we all have the power to inspire others by our actions. As project managers, you’re in a prime position to inspire your team. Here are 10 ways to get you started.

1. Have a clear goal with a reasonable approach to achieve it. Shooting for stars may work for you when you’re developing your personal goals, but when you’re inspiring a team, people need to be able to clearly see how they are going to get from point A to point B and believe that it’s possible.
   
   
2. Be enthusiastic about each person’s contributions. Remember how good it felt when a teacher recognized your contribution? You glowed all day and nearly flew home. It costs nothing to tell people how they’re doing. Recognizing what they’re doing well, and also giving ideas on how they can work even better, goes a long way.
   
   
3. Wear your blue hat and leave the black hat at home. You may have played the game where you wear different hats to assume different roles. The black hat starts with the negatives and tells you everything that’s going wrong. This is the person who can kill idea generation in any meeting. When you’re inspiring a team, wear the blue hat. See the possibility and opportunity in every challenge. Begin with what is working and then build on it.
   
   
4. Focus on the strengths of each person. One of the biggest myths in business is to focus on weaknesses instead of building strengths. It’s a backward way to approach problem solving – like fitting the proverbial square peg into the round hole. It’s faster and more effective to focus on the strengths of your team members and develop them. Not only will you see results faster, you’ll also have a happier team because people are doing what they’re good at and contributing at their highest level.
   
   
5. Clear hurdles like a Super Hero. How do you get your team to feel like rock stars? Think like Superman and clear any hurdles that are in their way. When you remove obstacles, you show your team that you’ve got their back.
   
   
6. Get the slackers off the team. Nothing brings down a team like slackers. When people aren’t pulling their weight, it lowers the standards of everyone and makes it seem like quality doesn’t matter. When you remove people who aren’t performing, it improves morale because it shows your team that you’re serious about the best results.
   
   
7. Roll up your sleeves. When you work with the team in the areas where you can contribute, you send a strong message because you are showing that you are part of the team with your actions.
   
   
8. Acknowledge people’s contributions every week. Many managers make the mistake of recognizing people once a year. Recognition isn’t a holiday. It should be a regular part of your team dynamic. Take the time every week to tell people how they’ve contributed to the team.
   
   
9. Be the model of accountability you want to drive through your team. If you’re telling people to be accountable while not meeting your own deadlines, it doesn’t take too long for the eyes to roll. Keep your team inspired by keeping your commitments to them and meeting every milestone.
   
   
10. Show and communicate your progress. Don’t make the mistake of doing project updates only at milestones. Communicate the progress of the project every week to make sure you’re on track.
    

And inside every one of these steps, add one key ingredient: Fun! Whether it’s a quick team-building exercise during a milestone meeting or an inside joke that has come to define your team, give people every reason to laugh out loud and let the sound of laughter inspire your team to be the best they can be.


Michelle LaBrosse is the founder and Chief Cheetah of Cheetah Learning. An international expert on accelerated learning and Project Management, she has grown Cheetah Learning into the market leader for Project Management training and professional development. In 2006, The Project Management Institute, www.pmi.org, selected Michelle as one of the 25 Most Influential Women in Project Management in the world, and only one of two women selected from the training and education industry. Michelle is a graduate of the Harvard Business School’s Owner & President Management program for entrepreneurs, and is the author of “Cheetah Project Management” and “Cheetah Negotiations.”