Leading Economic Indicators are indicators which change before the economy as a whole changes. For example, stock market returns are a leading economic indicator. As the stock market declines or improves, similar changes follow suit in the economy.
I believe there are Leading Project Indicators that alert us if a project is soon to be in danger. For example, a lack of a sense of urgency or questions from the Project sponsor could indicate a potential shift in the strategy or direction of the company. The project may not be written off yet, but it may be a sign that the project is in danger. This results in resources being pulled, funding drying up and the project becoming much harder to complete.
What are some Leading Project Indicators that you look for to determine if a project is soon to be in trouble?
I recently had an experience that many of us are all too familiar with…my flight was delayed by nearly two hours! After the initial disappointment, I began to think about what I could do for two hours. I could walk around the airport and/or eat (for the second time). I could try to get some work done for the upcoming week but realized I was too tired to concentrate.
Then the lemonade idea hit me! I remembered I had recently downloaded a PDU PAK of 5 PDUs on my iPod. I settled into as comfortable as a chair I could find, propped my feet up and began listening to Richard Forbus, Ph.D.’s excellent course about Communicating for Productivity and Buy-In! http://bit.ly/c4ombo
By the time I landed, I had completed the course, earned 5 PDUs, and made lemonade out of lemons!
Remember the first day you started your job? Everything was new and exciting, every conversation was brimming with opportunity and the days flew by! Fast forward a couple of years and the picture has changed. Many things have become routine, the same conversation has been had a thousand times before, and the days seem to drag.
What happened?
It’s the same job, the same people, and the same place as the day you started, but something has happened. You may have even contemplated quitting your job to start somewhere else so you can experience the same excitement again.
Before you take such drastic measures, consider four things you can do to plug yourself back in and get energized about your position again. (more…)
Before I go any farther with this article I want to make it clear that I know this is an unusual topic for general business leaders. Forgiveness is never easy whether in organizational life, family life or just generally in relationships. It is, however, a relevant topic when it comes to leadership. To forgive someone is a powerful and complex action. It can mean to absolve or clear another of their wrongdoing towards you or others. It may include the next step of freeing that person or persons from the repercussions of their incorrect actions. When we make an emotional decision to exonerate another or to be exonerated by another for our actions, something deeply emotional transpires.
Leadership has never and will never take place in a vacuum. To be a leader one has to involve others. It is the “involving of others” that brings about the relational challenges. Most leaders, from my experience as a coach, consider walking into another’s office and asking for their forgiveness a glaring weakness. Leaders also often find it awkward to respond when someone forgives them for a wrongdoing. Even though it is difficult to talk about forgiving someone in the corporate setting, what may appear to be a weakness, could be a definable strength as a leader.
Forgive and forget. Easier said than done, right? Well, now studies are showing forgiveness is not only good religion but good medicine as well. According to the latest medical and psychological research, forgiving is good for our souls-and our bodies. People who forgive: (1) benefit from better immune functioning and lower blood pressure (2) have better mental health than people who do not forgive (3) feel better physically (4) have lower amounts of anger and fewer symptoms of anxiety and depression, and (4) maintain more satisfying and long-lasting relationships. “When we allow ourselves to feel like victims or sit around dreaming up how to retaliate against people who have hurt us, these thought patterns take a toll on our minds and bodies,’ says Michael McCullough, director of research for the National Institute for Healthcare Research and a co-author of To Forgive is Human: How to Put Your Past in the Past (IVP, 1997). (more…)
Thoughts are your greatest power. You are what you think you are. See for yourself. Spend the day tracking every anxious, fearful, stressful thought you think. Bring these thoughts into simple awareness. Observe the emotion each carries. Look at the picture it paints that becomes the world you see.
It’s the weight on your heart produced by the thought I’m not going to make it that can suddenly diffuse into cold fear, immobilizing you completely. A moment later the fear can sink into depression that casts a shadow over your life. The world you will see through this thought-generated-lens will feel unsafe, unkind and seem hell bent on crushing your dreams.
The term we give this mind-made picture is “reality.” It is not some fixed reality. It is a representation of your own state of mind.
Three out of four of us are struggling with stress and anxiety. When stress and anxiety are chronic, the brain becomes fear conditioned and wires for fight or flight. We see life through the eyes of our primitive brain, leading us to believe that we are alone, lost and constantly pursued by predators. When this part of the brain takes charge, life becomes a nightmare. It all begins in thought, as Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University states: (more…)
Forget being liked. You’re the boss, so your job is to make tough decisions, not popular ones. Results, not harmony, are the goal. Effective outcomes will always trump collaboration.
Forget you’re a woman. Maybe things happen to you because you’re a woman, but maybe not. People behave badly just because they do, not because of you. It isn’t personal. Sometimes people don’t like you, your product, your service, or your company. It doesn’t mean you should change.
Stay off thin ice and quit admitting your limitations. When you’re on thin ice, don’t carry a blowtorch. Everyone has limitations and insecurities. Keep them private every chance you get.
Take advice only from trusted advisors. People will line up to give you feedback that has far more to do with their need to say it than your need to hear it. Seek advice only from those who have actually achieved what you strive to accomplish. Would you take ski instructions from someone who had never been on a slope? Then why consider the opinions of those who want to tell you how to do what they haven’t done? (more…)
When it comes to laughter, it appears that what is important here is the social context in which it occurs. So what is said prior to the laughter determines the effect more than any other single variable. In terms of social context, what matters is the sex of the individuals involved (same or different) and whether they’re friends or strangers. The laugh of a female who approaches a male who is a stranger will most likely have sexual overtones. A female’s laugh in a mixed group such as a business cocktail party will likely have flirtatious overtones. That exact same laughter, as heard by a nearby female, may result in an aggressive or withdrawal reaction which we might characterize as jealousy or competitiveness. (more…)
How many times have you stayed at a hotel and walked up to a boring and character-less coffee station? You yawn as you grab a cup of coffee and get frustrated with where to drop your used stirrer and empty sugar packets. Who could possibly improve this scene and make it a “point of differentiation” and a source of conversation and promotion?
On a recent visit to the Epic Hotel in Miami, the creative folks at Kimpton Hotels have completely re-invented the way to present something as dull, mundane and ordinary as free morning coffee.
Even the sign for identifying the milk containers was replaced with a snorkel mask with “whole” and “skim” written on each goggle. The morning coffee bar had become the “water cooler” for hotel guests to gather, meet and take photos.
Innovating is difficult to do, because it takes enormous energy and thought. When done right, it is priceless.
As consumers of services or products, we LOVE creativity and as producers, more often than not, we stand back and wait for someone else to take action….and then we say “Why couldn’t I have thought of that?”
I just got back from three days of workshops led by people who are very successful in their fields. Here are some words of wisdom that may help you and me reach their level of success.
1. Use a spreadsheet to capture ideas of the moment while you are working on other projects. This is how it works for Jeanette Cates. She cuts down on distractions by having a spreadsheet file on her desktop. When she is working on a project and gets a thought about a different project, she flips over to the spreadsheet file and notes the idea. At the end of the day, she reviews the ideas she captured and plugs them into her schedule.
2. Use spreadsheets to keep your lists on. One page is your daily to-do lists, another page is your daily tasks, another can be improvements you need to make to the filing system, and another sheet is reserved for expenses.
3. If you do an activity three or more times, automate it. Create a template for that type of report to speed you up the next time you prepare one. Or go to sites such as rentacoder.com or scriptlance.com and find a software geek who can create a simple program for you to automate the task.
4. Each day set three goals that you can accomplish in 10 minutes of concentrated time. Then just do them—in the 10 minutes you set aside for the tasks. This builds muscles so you can take action. (more…)
Would love to hear opinions about what some Leading Indicators are that a Project is in trouble:http://bit.ly/9Tw8dh #pmp#projectmanagerabout 5 hours agofrom API
Good communication is the right info at the right time in the right amount to the right person. Easy, right? http://bit.ly/bpjzTe Sort of.about 23 hours agofrom API
Putting finishing touches on PDUs2Go.com’s Special Edition for 8/1. Wait until you see the great articles from our Authors this month! #pmp09:18:48 AM July 28, 2010from API
Powered by Optimo, Inc. | Copyright 2007 - 2010 | Optimo, Inc. | All rights reserved worldwide.
"PMBOK, PMI, PMP and REP" are trademarks, service marks or certification marks of the Project Management Institute Inc. Optimo Inc. | 3562 Piedmont Road NE, Suite 102 | Atlanta, GA 30305 | 404-815-4644
Remember the first day you started your job? Everything was new and exciting, every conversation was brimming with opportunity and the days flew by! Fast forward a couple of years and the picture has changed. Many things have become routine, the same conversation has been had a thousand times before, and the days seem to drag.
