Initiating
How to get someone to do something that isn’t important to them
Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose. I am a speaker and author. My background is in time and project management. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more profitable …
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Returning to work after summer vacation
Hello, this is Laura Lee Rose. I am a speaker and author. I am an expert in time and project management. I help busy professionals and entrepreneurs create effective systems so that they can comfortably delegate to others, be more …
Signs that you are a micro-manager
This client’s issue was that she continually put in over 10 hours a day in a draining work environment. Although she had desires to do other hobbies and side businesses, she was too exhausted to do anything about those other dreams. She self-diagnosed herself as having no follow-through, although at the office – she had lots of follow-through.
After hearing her story, I suggested that she was actually micromanaging her people too much. This was taking her time away from the items she really wanted to accomplish as well as zapping all her energy. Her knee-jerk reaction was that she was not a micro-manager.
How to handle a problem business partner
I’ve been having major difficulties with my business partner for a new venture we’re trying to grow. Any tips/advice for remedying the situation?
Most problems between partners occur because there isn’t a clear definition of roles, expectations and responsibilities. One person often sees themselves as the big thinker but needs someone that can follow-through on those items. The other person that is great at execution needs someone that can sit down long enough to clearly articulate the path. Neither role is sufficient for a successful business. If each one doesn’t understand what needs to be accomplished for a successful business, it will be a difficult road.
Narrowing your career choices to your advantage
Recently I was approached by a professional struggling with what her next career position should be. Her background was in project management, but she could go back to school and get her MBA. She should start something on her own, or she could stay exactly where she is and focus on her PMP certification. She could take her transferable skills and move into operational management for the executive level. She could do this or that or the other. She was continually flip-flopping among all these options that she was stalled.
You can’t get your money, unless you ask for it
4 weeks after I had completed his taxes for him, I asked this friend-first-removed if he had received his refund yet. He confessed that he has the forms signed, but he has not mailed them in yet.
“Well — you know you can’t get your money, until you mail the forms in….”
It’s the same in life and work. It’s more difficult to get what you really want if you don’t explicitly ask for it and then follow-through with your plan.
The most convincing reason to change from waterfall to agile
Given virtually no one on product teams believes in waterfall – even those using waterfall (see my last post on The 2013 Study of Product Team Performance) – what to do about managers who insist upon seeing a waterfall project …
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Colleges: Teach the “How”!
We’re at an inflection point. Agile practices transitioned over the last couple years from “emerging” to “predominant”. Companies are sampling if not wholesale adopting agile, from scrum and extreme programming to lean and kanban. Our study of product team productivity …
Remote Pair Programming
I’ve been enamored of remote pair programming since briefly leading development at Socialtext, where no three developers were in the same locale. Socialtext was committed to agile approaches including pair programming (but not including colocation, I might note!). Being distributed, …
Strategic Planning: Which Direction Shall We Go?
Signs and times are confusing. Which way should organizations go? Which mix of projects can get you there? So how can project professionals help leaders navigate turbulent and traumatic times and provide direction? Over yummy breakfast burritos in San Diego …
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Prescription for Project Success
Today I am at the Project Management Institute (PMI) Community of Practice (Cop) leadership event in San Diego, California. I chatted at lunch with Mark (Doc) Dochtermann, a PMI CoP Advisory Member. As a PMI-SP, PMP and a project leader …