Your unique set of skills

As I am ready to start a new endeavor, and with it, to establish a new team, I started thinking on what skills I already have. Every person on a team has a particular set of skills that give value to a project. As a Manager, being able to recognize these skills and take advantage of them, will help immensely in delivering the project or process as planned.

But the skill starts with oneself, the ability to recognize our own personal unique skills, and measure them objectively is one of the most valuable trades or a good executive. Know thy self, they say.

At this stage of my life, I am reviewing my past experience, my core values and deciding what are the skills I will develop even further. What is the Project Manager and Executive I am? This is what I have come up with so far:

For good or worst, I am aware of how everybody in a team provides value (or problems) from their own perspective. I have a great difficulty to see people as their titles or status, I see people. Jerarquies mean little to me, in work environment, I see people as their role in the particular project or scenario but have no special distinction on how I treat anybody, according to rank. So I do well in organizations with more horizontal structures, where people speak their mind and a good debate is always welcome, where respect is shown equally to everyone.

I also like to learn and speak other people's language. Even though I have a technical background you will not see me talking in IT technical jargon unless I am sure everyone in the room has also a technical background. I do not assume all people know the same as me and don't expect them to know what I know. I do good in interdisciplinary and multicultural teams.

I am an introvert. I am not shy or insecure, just an introvert. I am constantly having so much inner dialogue that I need to spend time with myself just to think. I like having lunch on my own and spend most of the time in a meeting in silence, listening and analyzing. I am bad at small talk and will avoid office parties if I can, but will develop deep connections with each person in the team. I just need to talk to them one at a time, get to know them, really listen.

I am goal oriented. I need to see tasks finished, and even when I take on multiple tasks at the same time, I will naturally use the Kanban approach and stop taking new ones until I have finished the first ones. I like working smart instead of hard, so, eventually will have no problem with canceling a task if it no longer provides value to the project or the organization. The reason to finish the task is to add value, not just mere stubbornness.

I am always thinking of the new product, the new service, the new something. I can´t help imagining new solutions to the problems I see. I am a startup person and will find a way to create a new startup or innovation team in where ever I can. I am also good at the excitement and the risk, the constant moving and adapting, the need to "move fast and break things". I am a specialist in Startup Project Management (yes, this is a thing! check it out: https://www.toptal.com/project-managers/startup)

Many of the projects I have worked on where software development. Software Engineering is probably one of the Engineering disciplines in which you develop more respect for being methodical and keeping best practices in mind at all times. Software projects can go wrong in so many ways, that you do not skip steps on the way. I started my career when RUP was the best thing available, and have seen the Agile take over in many scenarios. Then you complete your view with PMI and, you have a PM Certified Profesional, able to identify what is the best methodology for a particular project and then, using it to produce value.

Having been an Entrepreneur and CEO on medium-sized companies, I am very much aware of how costs and cash flow can affect the results of a project. It's not all technical, or about the quality. Money issues will determine if you survive or not. Keeping a business perspective is as important as finishing the tasks.

Finally, I think I am old enough to not take things personally. Many ways conflict comes from taking too personally things that are not even about you. Took me years to understand it, and embrace it. Wish I knew it when I was younger, but I guess that is how we all feel, as we grow wise.

With this reflection done, I am now ready to take on new challenges. Knowing the unique skills I have already in my team. What are the skills you can bring to the team?


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Loyalty, respect and fear

There are as many Managing styles are there are managers. Some base their leadership in loyalty, others in respect, others in fear, and so on.

I take a lot of time just thinking in the type of manager I want to be, and how I want my teams to follow me. I sometimes experiment on different approaches and see what happens. But there are some things that don´t change, they are a part of me. I do love working with smart, rebellious people that challenge me. I love teams that debate, where people need to be convinced instead or ordered. And I make sure they know they can all argue and challenge me, again and again.

I really takes a lot of effort to lead teams of people where people just do what I say and never argue, those that bring me coffee cause they think that is what I want, and always answer what I want to hear. It annoys me deeply, and I have to breathe deep for a while just not to react quite badly.

Now I am facing the challenge to work for people that expect from me being obedient and quiet. And I am not sure I can do it. I am not sure I want to do it. It’s going to be a hard week. Hope I can survive it. 

It has been really hard to be lead after so many years of being the leader. But his has also given me back the sense of working on a team, to put one stone to build something bigger.

The ones we miss, the ones we don´t.

What makes people a good employee… according to me!


Last night, we were talking among other things about all the people that have helped us in projects since our company started. We remember a few because we really missed them when they left, and others because we were so happy they left, we almost made a party.

I was a lousy employee when I was one. But after being a “boss” for many years I think I will now be a fairly decent employee. (Same when you start driving, you suddenly become a very good pedestrian. You are aware of what bad pedestrians do and endanger their lives quite stupidly.)

These are some of the things I leaned:

Good employees help solve problems, bad employees create problems. I have so many many things in my mind, that what I appreciate the most is someone taking some of the load from me. When employees complicate the simple, or interrupt me to tell me some really silly problem, it’s really annoying.

Good employees work even when I am not watching. Bad employees need me to be on their back all day in order to achieve minimum goals. The typical bad employee spends most of his/her day chatting, doing homework or working in their second job, the funny thing is that they all think I´m stupid and don´t know.

Good employees tell the truth even when things are bad, bad employees will always lie and say everything is perfect and suddenly resign when they can’t keep up the lie. As a manager, when there is trouble in a project, and you know it soon, you can do something about it. As an employee you will never be punished for raising issues when they come. Hiding it and resigning the day before the dead line is the best example of a bad employee.

Good employees know they still have to do their jobs, even if I am friendly to them. Bad employees assume they can stop doing what they are supposed to because they share a beer or lunch with me. I finally learned my lesson and no longer share any beer with any employee. Have to say I learned it the hard way.

Good employees will help with ideas and new perspectives when a decision needs to be made, but then follow my lead even if they don’t understand or agree. Bad employees always want to do what they want and fight every single day about it. You cannot lead a team that does not understand you are the leader. In my experience, it happens a lot with very young employees (like a pack of teenagers fighting their parents).

I have a mental list of all my employees. They are listed in good or bad employees. But, why keep the bad ones? Well… It’s all about the money. Some times it’s cheaper to keep the bad ones that finding new ones, training them and taking the risk they are worst employees than the ones I already have.

How to deal with recent graduates

One of the most difficult tasks when managing any kind of company, is dealing with people. Recent graduates represent a large percentage of my technical and administrative staff. But the youngsters that join a working team for the first time, need to be dealt in different way that more experienced professionals.
So far, this is what we know and how we deal with it.

Recent graduates tend to see you as their teacher, not their boss. They expect you to tell them how to do all tasks and to get help when they don’t understand something. They no longer raise their hands (they know they are not in a classroom), but will ask you anyway. We deal with it by empowering them: “Do it your way, just complete the task”.

But it usually brings the second problem. Recent graduates tend to ask for a good grade cause it was hard, without even finishing it. While in the educative system effort and learn by doing is valued, the switch needs to be made to make them result oriented people. Since they don’t deal directly with clients, and they don’t understand the pressure you are facing when they don’t complete a task on time, you need to pass the pressure to them. Be inflexible when it comes to dead lines, get mad if they are late, get madder if they are late a second time. Make it completely clear that the work will not be appreciated if it is not delivered 100% and on time.

But then, there is the next problem. They don’t have enough experience to estimate how long a task will take, so they usually cant keep a dead line even if they decided on the due date. So, don’t let them decide schedules. That is your job as manager. Trust your statistics, your data, and your Delphi ability(*). But don’t let recent graduates put dates on tasks, or you are going to be disappointed. Help them be systematic (force them if you have to), to learn how to estimate. We use the logt form from PSP and make them record all activities they do every day, until they get what they are doing wrong.

Since, at this point the new team members still don´t differentiate well if a difficulty is due to their inexperience or a real problem, they will complaint incessantly or not tell you if they are behind until it’s too late. So, check on them frequently. You need to monitor if a delay is coming and if its caused a real issue and a due date needs to be moved. When in doubt if it’s a real problem or just whining, keep the deadline and let them deal with the heat later. They are not your kids, keep that in mind.

Finally, the hardest thing to deal with. Recent graduates tend to think their work has a greater value than it has. When I was in my senior year in Engineer School, a Professor I have a lot of respect for, once told us, the one that hires you when you graduate is well aware that you don’t know anything. I found it funny, but took me several years to understand he was serious and right. You are dealing with smart people, with ability to learn, but they still don´t know how to behave outside campus. Don´t expect too much. Be patient. When they ask for a raise for no reason, just kindly explain that their salaries are proportional to the amount of money each individual represent for the company (if you can make us make money, you get paid more). That is clear for us managers, but not to them.

*http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphi_method