Today I’m interviewing Dr Lynda Bourne, author of Advising Upwards: A Framework for Understanding and Engaging Senior Management Stakeholders (Gower, 2011). Lynda is CEO of Stakeholder Management Pty Ltd, a training and consultancy firm based in Australia.

Lynda, your book is about helping project managers communicate better with executive stakeholders. Let’s start at the beginning. How do you define a stakeholder?

Individuals or groups who are impacted by or can impact the work of an organisation or the outcomes of that work. This is a far wider definition than is normally used: it is important to make sure that the stakeholder list is not just the ‘usual group’. Thinking in wider terms about stakeholders ensures that the ‘nasty surprises’ – not powerful but influential, are identified as early as possible.

One of the things you discuss is how hard it is for middle managers who have just been promoted into senior roles, and you say that project managers should be aware that their executive stakeholders may be finding their new jobs difficult. Why is it difficult for middle managers to adapt to senior jobs?

Middle managers achieve recognition and promotions through competition with their peers: they have to be better and be seen to be better than everyone else. This is the culture of ‘command and control’ that has its roots in the military and in the building of the railways in the 19th century. ‘Command and control’ and competition serves managers well until they are promoted to the ranks of the executive (the ‘C’ suite). Suddenly they are required to exhibit a different set of leadership characteristics – the level 5 humility and will of Collins’s as described in Built to Last. Not only are they required to learn on the job, but with collaboration and delegation: a complete change of approach from what got them to promotion in the first place.

Project managers must understand the management styles of their important stakeholders – whether they operate in the ‘command and control’ mode or have acquired more mature leadership styles. It is important to also understand that their senior stakeholders operate in the same uncertain environment that everyone else in the organisation experiences. A successful project manager recognises not only the specific management/leadership styles but also how best to ‘help their senior stakeholders help them’.

OK, we all want our senior stakeholders to help us get the job done. What did your research show as the characteristics of project managers who are most successful at advising upwards?

From experience and research the winning characteristics are:

• Recognition that relationships with stakeholders are most important to success (rather than the schedule, for example – the schedule is only another tool for communication).
• Recognition that building and maintaining robust relationships with stakeholders requires communication.
• Working to build personal and team credibility through proactive managing of risk and conflict, and building that reputation through appropriate information exchange with stakeholders.
• Helping stakeholders know what they need to do to support the project to success.

Those are the characteristics, but what do good project managers actually do?

Project managers need to understand the expectations (the needs and requirements) of their senior stakeholders and to:

• Ensure there is no conflict between the expectations of their important senior stakeholders. If there is conflict detected the project manager must work to negotiate an acceptable resolution with these stakeholders. The earlier the better.
• Communicate to all stakeholders, but especially the important stakeholders, information about the project in a way that best meets the needs of the stakeholder AND the project and project manager.
• Continue to ensure that the expectations of the stakeholders are understood and met – they may change during the project’s life.
• Work constantly to maintain a trusting and robust relationship (this will occur through appropriate communication)

You have curated content from various experts to produce this book. What was the most difficult part about managing all the stakeholders on this project?

Editing a book such as this is like the most complex projects! I invited colleagues who were experts in their fields. This meant that they were very busy and sometimes had difficulty meeting my deadlines. Some were accustomed to writing in their own styles and I had to manage the potential issue of my occasional edits (for style consistency). Those who were writing for the first time welcomed my input and are now moving to publish more of their work.

It sounds like a challenge! Now the book is finished, how do you feel it can contribute to improving projects overall?

Managing organisational work, especially projects, is never easy. There are so many complexities in getting the right level of support from senior stakeholders. They are so busy and need to be encouraged to even recognise a particular project. The contributions in this book provide insights and advice for those struggling to be ‘heard’.

People are complex; there is no ‘silver bullet’ in the struggle to gain consistent, sustained support from senior stakeholders. While recognising that people are complex, and offering information about aspects of communicating to senior stakeholders, the book seeks to provide project managers and others needing to achieve successful outcomes in complex organisations with tools and ideas to improve their chances of being successful.

Thanks, Lynda!

Buy Advising Upwards on Amazon.co.uk
Buy Advising Upwards on Amazon.com

No related posts.

Josh Nankivel, speaking at PMI Global Congress

It’s January, which means it is cold and grey and we are looking to do things better than last year. That’s why I’m spending January focusing on coaching and the role it can play in improving your performance and that of your team. Today I’m talking to project management coach Josh Nankivel about what he does when he coaches people. Josh founded pmStudent.com in 2006 and has been writing and training in the project management space ever since, primarily focused on helping new and aspiring project managers.

Hello Josh. I know you coach new project managers, but what does a coach do?

I identify with the definition put forth by Eric Parsloe in The Manager as Coach and Mentor.

Coaching is “a process that enables learning and development to occur and thus performance to improve. To be a successful a Coach requires a knowledge and understanding of process as well as the variety of styles, skills and techniques that are appropriate to the context in which the coaching takes place.”

So it’s about teaching?

A successful coach enables learning and development through teaching, but even more than that a good coach cares deeply about empowering the people they coach to reach their goals.  I teach people how to land a job or manage project effectively, but if they don’t go out and actually DO it to earn success for themselves, I’ve failed as a coach.

Therefore, much of what I do is making people see why they are empowered to make things happen for themselves and inspire them to tap into their own potential. I’m not satisfied unless they execute on theory and make it reality.

If you want to start coaching people in your team, where should you begin?

Begin by listening, observing, and building trust. Until you have gained the trust of your team members, you won’t be able to coach them effectively. They need to know at a gut level that you are there for THEM, not the other way around. They need to know your goal is for them to grow and be successful.

If you charge in with great ideas and ‘best practices’ you will lose them immediately. Only after you’ve figured out what the heck is going on and have gained trust can you coach.

Sounds like a challenging job. What do you enjoy about coaching?

I love seeing people succeed. That could be a light bulb going on, having them implement a strategy I coached them on and having it land them a job, etc. It makes all the hard work worth it.

I also enjoy challenging people. Some of the advice I give to people I’m coaching or in writing on my blog is hard to swallow. I tend to be rather candid (but nice!) when pointing out how people can improve. These are the times when I see the most light bulbs going on, because I’m challenging basic assumptions and getting people outside of their comfort zone.

You write a lot and you work with people online, for example through your Work Breakdown Structures that Work (And How to Implement Them) course. Isn’t it necessary to coach people face to face?

It’s not necessary to coach people face to face, but without that direct interaction steps must be taken in order to have the best communication possible.

In my online programs for instance, I have had students create their own plans for sample projects and then in a coaching session I record my screen and voice as I critique their ideas and work. We go through iterations back and forth, improving the item under discussion as we go.

These lessons are made available to all students and are a very powerful way of coaching on specific nuts-and-bolts topics that you can’t really understand unless you are doing it yourself.

Regardless of the medium, the best method of coaching is to be able to observe what someone is doing directly and give candid feedback on how they can improve. That is why having a mentor at your workplace can be so valuable, because they can observe you managing your team or running a meeting and give you direct feedback based on their observations of your behaviour.

What do people do with the feedback?

Just as with everything else in life, results are dependent on the work put forth. You get out what you put into any endeavour, including a coaching relationship. Great athletes can’t rely on their coaches to make them successful, they have to put in the hard work and persevere. Many people I have coached have gone on to land jobs in line with the career trajectory I helped them define and pursue.

That’s pretty good. Do you have any examples?

There are several examples of people on the Career in Project Management LinkedIn group where people have shared their personal success. Some leave comments on pmStudent.com and many more send me personal email. Sometimes I ask for permission to share these stories when they involve lessons learned that can help everyone else too.

I’ll take a look at those. Thanks, Josh!

Josh has been managing projects in Computing, Financial Services, Telecommunications, and Aerospace for over a decade. Josh’s educational background includes a Bachelor of Science degree in Project Management and he is PMP certified. He uses his experience and love of teaching to empower people to get started and get ahead in their project management careers.

Some links in this post are affiliate links, so if you click them and sign up for one of Josh’s products, I’ll make a small commission. Thanks, if you do that.

Related posts:

1. Focus on Coaching: expert team coaching with Phil Hayes Phil Hayes is a coach with over 20 years experience in team development. He’s executive director of London training and coaching company Management Futures. I...
2. Focus on Coaching: Book review of Leading and Coaching Teams to Success I particularly liked the sub-title of this book: The Secret Life of Teams. Leading and Coaching Teams to Success by Phil Hayes is about what...
3. Focus on Coaching: The Project Management Coaching Workbook This short series is looking at coaching in a project management environment. Today, I’m reviewing The Project Management Coaching Workbook by Susanne Madsen (Management Concepts,...

PM Network last month reported that 65% of people feel that there is a generation gap in project management. We are living in the first period where five generations are working together in the workplace. Experienced (i.e. older) project managers now have Generation X and Generation Y people on their teams. The age differences at work, and strategies for managing younger people, were mentioned by several presenters at the PMI Global Congress in October.

Social media is often mentioned as the driver for having to ‘deal’ with young people at work: we must get up to date! Young people are much better at technology than we are! A whole generation of new project managers can’t spell properly because they only understand txt spk!

Where are the speakers discussing how younger project managers can work successfully with Baby Boomers? Is everyone talking about the generation gap at work over the age of 45?

Baby Boomers are everywhere!

Regular readers will know that I turned 35 recently. I have worked with people older than me for my entire career, and I’m sure I have many more years to go before I’m the oldest person in the office.

I’m also sure that I am not alone in working with people older than me.

Baby Boomers are those people born 1946 and 1964. According to Larry and Meagan Johnson, authors of Generations, Inc., they make up 30% of the workforce. There’s an even older generation – the Traditionals – who were born before 1946, and this group makes up 8% of the workforce. That’s nearly 40% of people in the office, so if you are 45 or under, chances are you work with some of them.

Baby Boomers are often in managerial or specialist jobs, so they are highly likely to be:

• Your project sponsor
• The line manager of staff members you want to bring on to your project team
• Your PMO Director
• Subject matter experts you need to consult or have work on your project
• Members of your Project Board, Steering Group or governance body

Young project managers can’t escape them! Just like Baby Boomers have to come to terms with the technically-savvy Gen X, Gen Y and Linksters (those born after 1995), we have to come to terms with working with those older than us.

The challenges of working with older colleagues

Working with Baby Boomers is not without its challenges. The biggest challenge, which I hear over and over again from younger project managers (and have experienced myself in some roles) is not being taken seriously. Their ideas are discounted because of their age. They don’t have the experience of older colleagues, so their views are not considered as reliable or weighty.

Unfortunately, in a project management role as a young person, you still have to get the job done, whether your older colleagues rate you or not. Here are 5 tips for working with Baby Boomers.

5 tips for working with Baby Boomers

1. Acknowledge their experience. Whether you like it or not, Boomers have been around the block and seen it all before. As a younger project manager, you bring a different set of skills and knowledge to the team, but don’t discount their contribution. Respecting their experience will also earn their respect.

2. Use them. Boomers have been around projects and your organisation for some time. What can you get them to usefully contribute? How can you tap into their networks to access knowledge from other people or get a better understanding of how the company works?

3. Don’t micromanage them. Boomers have been used to managing their own time and getting on with the job. They don’t need to be constantly supervised, and they won’t thank you for it. Remember to keep a balance though – as any project team member, they still need guidelines, a sense of structure and to provide you with regular updates.

4. Get them onboard. It’s no good running a project that ignores the needs of Boomers. Yes, they might have retirement plans and they might be sitting it out through yet another round of changes at work. But if you ignore their resistance and simply assume that they will soon be gone, you’ll be storing up more problems after project implementation. Help them adapt to the changes that the project brings.

5. Be excellent. This applies regardless of your age, or the age of the people you are managing. It’s hard to respect and take seriously someone who messes about at work and doesn’t do a professional job. Hold yourself to high standards.

What is your experience of managing projects where the team members are of a different generation to you? Share your tips for harmonious working relationships with us in the comments.

Get a copy of my free report, 6 Ways to Get Taken Seriously at Work, when you buy a copy of Overcoming Imposter Syndrome.

Related posts:

1. 6 More tips for getting taken seriously at work Last month I wrote an article for The Glass Hammer on being taken seriously at work.  I was surprised at the feedback I got and...
2. Project management tips – from me! Want to know the thing I found hardest when I first started managing projects?  Or what to read to stay informed?  Read the interview with me...
3. 10 tips to overcome Imposter Syndrome You know how you feel when you get a new project or a whole lot more responsibility and suddenly you feel you’re in the wrong...

Conrado Morlan

This is a guest post by Conrado Morlan, the Smart PM.

Dear Smart PM…

I am a new hire at the project management office of a large corporation. I had been working in project management for several years as a freelancer. Although I consider myself to be a good networker, I found difficulties networking within the organization. What can I do to build long lasting relationships with the project stakeholders? – PM Lost in Corporate World.

Dear Lost in Corporate World…

Your networking skills as a freelancer should be transferable to the new permanent workplace. In your new position it is important for you to learn what your company does. Speak with the experts. For example, if you work for an accounting firm, talk with accountants. Knowledge about your company will also be helpful while networking within your personal network.

As a project manager it is important for you to have a solid network and build strong relationships with stakeholders. With the help of your manager and peers, identify the strategic functional areas and select a couple. Understand their role in the organization and select two or three people in each one. Focus on people at various levels of responsibility.

Networking within the organization doesn’t have to be a complex process. At a coffee break, go to different break rooms, bring your favorite mug, and introduce yourself. It is always a good idea to leave your desk and scout the building.

Company events may be a great opportunity for you to meet other employees. The environment is usually relaxed and fosters camaraderie. Since you are a new hire, this may be the best “ice-breaker” and would help you to be welcome by other employees and learn more about what the company does. Check for other available activities that will help you to expand your internal network.

Consider including administrative assistants in your internal network. They usually are the “gate-keepers” and having them on your side may be a good strategy to get access to project stakeholders when you need it most. Keep close contact with them and make sure you send birthday and greeting cards for special occasions.

Related posts:

1. Networking for networkers Denise Best from Oxford University’s Careers Service has written an interesting article on networking, pitched at IT students, but for beginner networkers like me, I...
2. Networking (part 1) I’m not that good at networking at conferences and seminars. You know, standing around making small talk with people you are unlikely to meet ever...
3. Networking: how do you do it? This month, on my mission to turn you all into Office Goddesses, I spoke to Heather White, CEO of The Magic of Networking Ltd, a...

Two new career resources for you today:

Stepping into Project Management

Stepping into Project Management is a new website from Soma Bhattacharya which aims to pair novice and experienced project managers together to form mentoring relationships.

You might know Soma from her blog:  she’s an Assistant Project Manager who started out on her journey to work in project management in 2007.  I met her last year when she was well on the way, but she acknowledges it was a long journey, and that is why she has started this new site.

“I wanted to spread the help I was getting in my career to others, who could benefit from finding mentors and understanding Project Management first hand,” she says.  “It’s a chance to experience instead of just read about theories on becoming a Project Manager.  This site will give you a chance to meet your mentors, see Project Managers who are working on some amazing projects.  Hopefully you’ll be inspired enough to one day come back on to the site as an expert and help others!”

Project managers wishing to take on mentoring roles – however large or small – can sign up as experts.  New and aspiring project managers can sign up as ‘newbies’ and look for help on the site from the experienced project managers.  And it’s free, whether you are a newbie or an expert.

Training grants

The UKRC, the UK government’s lead body for advice and consultancy on gender equality to employers in industry and academia, professional institutes, education and research councils, is offering training grants to help women progress their science, engineering and technology careers.  So if you are an IT project manager, or you would like to be, this could be relevant for you.  Or maybe you are a project manager but would like to move into a more technical role, following in the footsteps of Computer Engineer Barbie, perhaps.

The awards are worth up to £500 and can be to use for a number of eligible courses including higher degree level.  You could put the money towards the course fees, travel to the course or as a contribution towards child care or other care costs that are incurred as a result of attending the training.

See all the eligibility criteria and the application forms online here.

Related posts:

1. Career know-how from people who’ve done it This time last week I was at a BCS young professionals group event in London, listening to Owen King, Mark Bloodworth and Marc Holmes talking...
2. Useful Resources Lots of people ask me about where they can find good project management resources online. The trouble is, there are loads of websites dedicated to...
3. Two resources for jargon Don’t know your ALO from your elbow? Business Balls has a long list of business (and other) acronyms to help you decode all those TLA’s....