Interview 2: How to Become a #PMOT Author?

The second interview in this series of #PMOT authors is with Gina Abudi . 

It’s a big milestone to be an author- why did you decide to be one?

I have a significant amount to share with others based on 20+ years of experience. Most particularly, you see many individuals who have left - either voluntarily or not - their current job going out on their own. They need some guidance on how to begin their business adventure and how to sustain it. My current book does just that.

What are your published works and where can we find them?
I have been published on a number of websites and blogs, including Vistage, Business on Main, and a number of international websites/blogs and magazines. I have one published book to date and I have been a contributing author for another book. I’m hard at work on my next one! My current book is: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Best Practices for Small Business, Alpha Books, 2011. I co-authored the book with Brandon Toropov. It can be found here. 

  

The book to which I was a contributing author is Gantthead’s Project Pain Reliever, J. Ross Publishing, 2011. You can find that book here.

How long did it take you to write your last published book?

Once I officially began the book, it only took about 4 - 5 months to write The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Best Practices for Small Business.  I did all the writing on weekends and in the evenings.

What was your schedule like while working full time and writing it?

Not always easy!  I restricted my writing to weekends and in the evenings so as not to interfere with the job. It meant many late nights certainly and weekends where I did not much other than writing!

How different is authoring a book from blogging?

In my opinion blogging is easier because I have no restrictions other than what I put on myself, and, of course, based on what I know my audience wants from the blog. When writing books, especially when working with a publisher, you have guidelines to follow and sometimes you may want to include information in the book that is not able to be included due to space constraints, etc.

Three things every #PMOT author should know?

• Commit some time every day to writing - even if it is just 30 minutes a day
• Stick to the timeline you have from a publisher. If you don’t have a publisher - create your own timeline and stick to it!
• Have someone read the book with a critical eye. It’s hard for you to be critical since you are too close to it.

Is it tough luck finding a publisher?

Yes, it is.

Frankly, I sort of “fell into” it. I was asked to do a technical expert review a year prior to taking on this book and ended up having a conversation with the acquiring editor at Alpha Books about writing. He introduced me to a co-author who introduced me to his agent, who is now my agent also. That being said, you should still try to submit your work and keep at it. Don’t give up!  There are also many small boutique publishing houses and many options for self-publishing.

Name a book/incident/person that inspired you to become an author.

There is no particular book, incident or person that inspired me to become an author. I do read lots of books - both fiction and non-fiction and business focused books.  I suppose I could say that all my reading has inspired me!  For as long as I can remember I wanted to write. My dream is to one day write a fiction book - a mystery!

Gina Abudi, MBA has over 20 years of consulting experience in helping businesses of all sizes develop and implement strategy around projects, process and people. She is President of Abudi Consulting Group, LLC and an adjunct faculty at Hesser College (NH) teaching in the business administration department. Gina regularly presents at conferences, forums and corporate events on a variety of topics.  She has written a number of white papers, case studies, and articles on various management and project management topics, which can be found on her blog:http://www.GinaAbudi.com.  Gina serves as President of the PMI® Massachusetts Bay Chapter Board of Directors. She has been honored as one of the Power 50 from PMI^®.   

Interview 1: How to become a #PMOT Author?

If you are still celebrating the first week of this year, doing more in 2012 will matter or how to have a great year without setting a goal!

The next few posts will be about #PMOT authors and how they have managed it. We start with Elizabeth Harrin.

It’s a big milestone to be an author- why did you decide to be one? 

I have always written; when I was younger I wrote stories and poems. For me, there was never an option of not writing, and getting a publisher seemed like a logical next step. My motivation for Project Management in the Real World was partly because I wanted to write a book before I was 30. We had the book launch event a month after my 30th birthday, so I nearly made it!

What are your published works and where can we find them? 

Project Management in the Real World came out in 2006. Social Media for Project Managers was published in 2010. They are available on Amazon and the other online stores or you can get them through bookshops. You can pre-order Customer-Centric Project Management from the Gower website now, I think. That isn't due out until the summer, provided my co-author, Phil Peplow, and I finish the manuscript in time.

I have also self-published two books: Get Started Using Social Media on Your Projects is a practical ebook that walks you through the steps to - you guessed it - start using social media on your projects. You can get that from my blog. Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Ten Strategies to Stop Feeling Like a Fraud at Work came out just before Christmas. I wrote that because I gave a presentation on the subject and it seemed to impact so many people that I felt there was more to say on the topic. You can get that at www.overcomingimpostersyndrome.com or from the Amazon Kindle store.

How long did it take you to write your last published book? 

Social Media for Project Managers took about 6 months to write, if I remember rightly.

What was your schedule like while working full time and writing it? 

I do remember the last few weeks being horrendous. The deadline was fixed because it was due to be launched at the PMI Global Congress in Washington and I was working full time and then writing every evening and all weekend. The hardest part isn't the writing, although that is tough. It's the co-ordination of everything else: quote approvals and permissions, footnotes and references, preparing images and tables, checking formatting, proofing over and over, responding to the copy editor's queries (I had to take out the word senior because she felt US audiences would interpret that as meaning 'old' when over here it means 'executive'), reading the galleys, doing launch interviews ahead of time. There is a lot more that goes into producing a book than just the words.

How different is authoring a book from blogging? 

In blog posts you make a point in 700 words. In a book, the whole argument has to hang together over 70,000 words! Some of the worst books I've read are when a blogger takes a collection of blog posts and puts them in one document and calls it a book. The structure needs to be completely different.

Three things every #PMOT author should know? 

• If you want to write, write.
• Don't write a non-fiction book without selling it first. Just do a book proposal, as you will get feedback from the commissioning editor about how they want to make it fit into their list.
• Don't underestimate the amount of work, and always add a month or two extra into your contract with the publisher so you give yourself some slack.

 Is it tough finding a publisher? 

No. Well, I didn't find it difficult the second or third time round. First time round I pitched to a big publisher who took a year to say no. I should have done better research because I realise now they would never have published a book by a nobody like me. I matched my next attempt at selling Project Management in the Real World to a smaller publisher, the British Computer Society, and they rang me the next day. I have had a great experience working with them and my other publishers.

Name a book/incident/person that inspired you to become an author. 

That's tough. My mother would let me sit on her lap while she read romance novels, but it was my grandparents who gave me a journal for Christmas one year and that started me out writing.

Elizabeth Harrin is Head if IT Programme Delivery at Spire Healthcare, and Director of The Otobos Group, a business writing consultancy. She was recently named IT Professional Blogger of the Year by the readers of Computer Weekly. Find her online at www.GirlsGuideToPM.com or on Twitter @pm4girls. 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year everyone!

This year starts the beginning of the SIPM Business Group. 

As you know the beta site is doing really well and was built with the help of volunteers- all of them my friends, I always wanted to do more with the site so more people know about project management first hand. Maintaining a site and keeping up with it (adding new features) requires a lot of time and some money.

So, the SIPM Business Group was born.

The Business Group offers three packages and customized work- we work with small and medium businesses including start ups.

The money of course allows me to pay my friends and volunteers who have been with me for so long and at the same time grow the beta site. By the way, the beta site got a new name- it’s called CONNECT- The SIPM Community.

The Business Group offers:

• Branding through social media
• Search Engine Optimization (both on page and off page)
• Customized website development (including design)

The special offers are posted through twitter.

January- February, we have a $350 on page optimization option for 60 working days. For more information, you can email at info@sipm.biz

And if everything goes right, the newbies can work on the project management side with their mentors for the SIPM Business Group projects. So many of the newbies say they don’t get the chance to work on project management to try their hands and develop skills- this initiation hopefully will solve some of it and provide everyone with a stepping stone.

You can only become truly accomplished at something you love. Don’t

make money your goal. Instead, pursue the things you love doing, and

then do them so well that people can’t take their eyes off you.—Maya Angelou

I hope this year brings in lots of luck, good opportunities and amazing work to you all.

Happy Holidays

Almost ready to take off for the Holidays.

If you are celebrating Christmas- Merry Christmas!

Have a wonderful New Year everyone. I will be back on Jan 5.

Till then- enjoy the e-books or simply be inspired.

Do Something

View more presentations from Sarah Kathleen Peck

Gift Yourself

This holiday season, gift yourself first.

Here are some good stuff that will help you see yourself:

•Imposter Syndrome - Its worth every single minute of your time and it’s such an important factor to understand that this e-book is a must read. While you relate to the real life stories and see yourself in them, you know how to encounter it next time.
•Go through the book reviews and pick your favorite, even if you don’t want to buy the book, borrow it from the library.  This holiday season, I have ordered books and 2 out of the 3 are after reading reviews and their effects on someone else.
•Make Sh*t Happen – Is by Jenny and doors open January 10 it will be $297 and open to 36 people who are ready to find their courage and change their lives.
•Gift yourself by building your own brand this holiday season- stand apart from the rest of the crowd, work on your credibility and see yourself grow.
•Find a mentor, there’s no replacement for a mentor.

Family/Work Balance

Honest Confessions

Being honest isn’t easy.

When I started this blog, I wanted everyone to know the hurdles and the real life story of what happens every day.

I have been honest but there are times when you tend not to write about the truth- the horrible days, the irritating moments and the failures. When you are aware that the blog is being read, you don’t want to feel vulnerable and to protect your work identity and private details, you skip it.

But here am I, someone who promised to tell the truth, don’t want to be miles away from the truth as well.

I have had bad days like most of us, really bad days at work- when someone doesn’t get the point, takes advantage of me being polite, back stabs you for not getting what they want, sabotages your projects just because they want to and hate you for you-can’t-figure it out. It’s all part of the game.

It’s all alright as long as you can take it or if it happens for a few days and you have managed it well. Mentors can be great assets during this time period, especially if you have in-house mentors. However, there will be always days, when nothing gets solved, you feel horrible, feel belittled and feel you are in the wrong place.

Team building and management is an art and when they don’t follow certain aspects of life, work life can becomes as stressful as it sounds.

Stress, deadlines, projects can all be handled if you have a great team and good support system at work. When it doesn’t, stop blaming yourself- you can do so much with your life.

Pick up your life and get going, get another certification, look for your next job, write the perfect resume and don’t blame yourself for not being the right fit. Sometimes, it’s just not about you!

Want to read up on what great project managers do, download the collection of interviews that happened in the blog by clicking here  (its free).

Pic Courtesy: Google Images

Team Building Pt2

Hope you all had a restful long weekend with your family and loved ones. If you celebrate Thanksgiving- I am sure this weekend was special.

The best part of your job, should be to love it . Let’s face it most of us don’t realise what the job is in hold for us, till we have entered it and figure out the reality.

You can opt to make your work meaningful but that certainly mean that it will happen unless of course your team supports you.

So, here are some more theories on team building:

Belbin Team Dynamics

The nine Belbin team roles:

 Plant

Creative, imaginative, unorthodox. Solves difficult problems. However tends to ignore incidentals and be too immersed to communicate effectively.

Resource Investigator

Extrovert, enthusiastic, communicative. Explores opportunities and networks with others. However can be over optimistic and loses interest after initial enthusiasm has waned.

Co-ordinator

Belbin's Co-ordinator is a mature, confident and a natural chairperson. Clarifies goals, promotes decision-making and delegates effectively. However can be seen as manipulative and controlling. Can over delegate by off loading personal work.

Shaper

Challenging, dynamic, thrives under pressure. Jumps hurdles using determination and courage. However can be easily provoked and ignorant of the feelings of others.

Monitor Evaluator

Even tempered, strategic and discerning. Sees all the options and judges accurately. However can lack drive and lack inspired leadership qualities.

 Team Worker

Co-operative, relationship focused, sensitive and diplomatic. Belbin described the Team Worker as a good listener who builds relationships and who dislikes confrontation. However can be indecisive in a crisis.

 Implementer

Disciplined, reliable, conservative and efficient. Acts on ideas. However can be inflexible and slow to see new opportunities.

Completer-Finisher

Conscientious and anxious to get the job done. An eye for detail, good at searching out the errors. Finishes and delivers on time however can be a worrier and reluctant to delegate.

Specialist

Single minded self starter. Dedicated and provides specialist knowledge. The rarer the supplier of this knowledge, said Belbin, the more dedicated the specialist. However can be stuck in their niche with little interest in the world outside it and dwell on technicalities.

Strength Inventory Deployment

People are our/your working Environment

Discover how vital relationship skills are to business success

The cost of neglecting your people

Create a high performance environment

Understand People

Why people behave as they do

The seven motivational styles

Discover your own personal drivers

Recognise Different Styles

What can you learn from body language, hobbies, pets and work place?

Predict how others will behave

Understand insecurity, self-doubt and de-motivation

Listening

Create Rapport

Match the other's style

Behaviours that bring dramatic results

Practical tips to get along with difficult people

Handle Conflict

Understand why people can be difficult

Discover your behaviour pattern in conflict

Recognize individual needs in conflict

How to deal with the angry customer/team member

The secrets of lasting agreement

Manage your impression

How does your style of working come across to others?

Some practical ways to close the perception gap

Actively manage your impression for better results

Feedback not biteback

Practical things to do when there are conflict and perception gaps

Feedback v criticism

Develop competency in giving and receiving feedback

Influence with integrity

Discover your current persuasion strategy

Learn five key processes of influence

Beware of fishing with vindaloo chicken

Organizational implications

Communicate organisational change and get commitment

Easy steps to improve motivation and job satisfaction

Become a facilitative leader and empower your team

Application

Implications in your professional life

Implications in your personal life

Decide action agenda

Forming - Storming - Norming – Performing

Developed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965. It is one of the more known team development theories and has formed the basis of many further ideas since its conception.

Tuckman's theory focuses on the way in which a team tackles a task from the initial formation of the team through to the completion of the project. Tuckman later added a fifth phase; Adjourning and Transforming to cover the finishing of a task.

Forming

The team is assembled and the task is allocated. Team members tend to behave independently and although goodwill may exist they do not know each other well enough to unconditionally trust one another.

Time is spent planning, collecting information and bonding.

Storming

The team starts to address the task suggesting ideas. Different ideas may compete for ascendancy and if badly managed this phase can be very destructive for the team.

Relationships between team members will be made or broken in this phase and some may never recover. In extreme cases the team can become stuck in the Storming phase.

If a team is too focused on consensus they may decide on a plan which is less effective in completing the task for the sake of the team. This carries its own set of problems. It is essential that a team has strong facilitative leadership in this phase.

Norming

As the team moves out of the Storming phase they will enter the Norming phase. This tends to be a move towards harmonious working practices with teams agreeing on the rules and values by which they operate.

In the ideal situation teams begin to trust themselves during this phase as they accept the vital contribution of each member to the team. Team leaders can take a step back from the team at this stage as individual members take greater responsibility.

The risk during the Norming stage is that the team becomes complacent and loses either their creative edge or the drive that brought them to this phase.

The rest of this article covers the final stage of Performing and Adjourning and Transforming.

You can read Part 1 here.

(Content courtesy) 
(Image Courtesy: Google images)

Team Building- Pt1

Have a team?  Have trouble communicating them. Feel you are always on the wrong side?

And you want to win them over?

Here are some theories:

•Maslow’s Team Building Theory- his pyramid had 5 levels and you have to complete one to move on to the next. From the bottom:

• Survival/basic needs
• security/safety Needs
• Social
• Ego status/Esteem Needs
• Self-actualization

So, identify your team members level, make them comfortable and let them move forward to the next.

•Theory X and Theory Y-Developed by Douglas McGregor, he described 2 opposing views of style that will influence management style.

Theory X- is the tradional view of direction and style
Theory Y- a self directed workforce that takes an interest in the goals of their organisation and integrates some of their own goals into these.

Theory X assumes:
•The average person dislikes work and will avoid it unless directly supervised.
•Employees must be coerced, controlled and directed to ensure that organisational objectives are met.
•The threat of punishment must exist within an organisation.
•In fact people prefer to be managed in this way so that they avoid responsibility.
•Theory X assumes that people are relatively un-ambitious and their prime driving force is the desire for security.

Theory Y effectively takes the opposite view.

It assumes:
•Employees are ambitious, keen to accept greater responsibility and exercise both self-control and direction.
•Employees will, in the right conditions, work toward organisational objectives and that commitment will in itself be a reward for so doing.
•Employees will exercise their imagination and creativity in their jobs if given the chance and this will give an opportunity for greater productivity.
•Theory Y assumes that the average human being will, under the right conditions, not only accept responsibility but also seek more.
•Lack of ambition and the qualities of Theory X are not inherent human characteristics but learned in working environments that suffocate or do not promote Theory Y behaviours.

•The color Works- Team Building Theory- The Colour Works uses a psychological model of behaviours that helps teams to understand similarities and differences in order to become more effective.

A 25-frame online evaluator measures our preferences for the use of all 4 colour energies.We will all have a dominant, a secondary, a tertiary and a least preferred energy.This detailed questionnaire is designed to measure these levels as it uses a sliding scale of responses rather than a simple YES or NO.The resulting profile is comprehensive - a minimum of 24 pages covering amongst other things strengths, weaknesses, stress points, blind spots, management style, preferred environment, communication needs, value to the team - often scarily insightful and unique to the profilee.

The order and intensity of your colour preferences places you on a 72-type wheel, made up of 8 archetypes, as follows:

THE DIRECTOR
Has the ability to focus on results. They decide what it is they want from life and set a strategy to achieve it. Their natural assertiveness means they will push both themselves and others to achieve goals.  They are not put off by setbacks.

THE MOTIVATOR
Has enormous enthusiasm that he spreads to those around them.  Their drive to succeed gives them a high level of motivation to achieve their dreams.  They are not easily put off and find it easy to think positively about every situation.

THE INSPIRER
Has well-developed people skills and has a constant need to enjoy interactions with others. They are persuasiveand their quick minds produce creative solutions to others' problems.

THE HELPER
Has a genuine desire to help others and put their needs first. This makes them flexible and adaptable with a natural ability to share ideas and knowledge.

THE SUPPORTER
 Has a true team approach.  Their expert listening skills can uncover others' true needs and they are loyal to both their colleagues and their organisation.

THE CO-ORDINATOR
Can pull all the loose ends together to organise themselves and others in a structured approach.  Their planningand time management skills make them thorough and reliable.

THE OBSERVER
 Can write the book on product knowledge required for their job.  When others need the facts to make a decision, they know them.  They set the standards for others and analyse and collect the data.

THE REFORMER  
Has a natural desire to monitor and judge performance.  Their own approach is disciplined and logical and they back this up with a determination to succeed.

What are you using to effectively work with your team?


(Content courtesy) 
(Image Courtesy: Google images)

Be happy- don't over plan

When you know what you want from life, you can plan it well.

To make the changes take the baby steps one day at a time. It isn’t easy to suddenly start preparing for PMP and put 4 hours a day.

Pen down what you want next month and the coming year. Set your priorities, look at it realistically and then decide your goal.

Change is good and forming new habits are better. For me, I have planned my goals that I need to get done for the next 6 months- both personal and professional. I have listed them down and on a weekend chalked it out- what I can do instead of what I want to do.

Turns out, I need more time to do self studies and am always running out of time. All the travelling and hectic schedule was taking a toll on me and I missed being super- happy about life.  Also, I tried reading while commuting to work which I used to successfully in Chicago when I took public transport.  Now, reading in jam packed streets of India seems impossible. I tried, hated myself for not being able to do it and wasting 45 minutes everyday twice doing nothing.

So, I changed. I wanted the happy positive feeling that I could keep to myself for the rest of the day and also use the time. So, I started listening to podcasts- motivational stuff, things that will inspire me. I download them on Sundays, to keep me busy for the next 5 days. And I have enjoyed it very much.

I have also kept my list very lean- no additional distractions. Focus on things you can do and that will make you happy.

This is something I read and am sure you will like how people chisel their own career paths

I also read that when you have decided on something, don’t share it because chances are you won’t do it then. I read these 2 different articles  in complete different context but in a way they made sense.

So, don’t make random new year promises this year. Don’t right down pages and then feel silly for not doing them. Keep it lean and keep it right and don’t judge yourself too often- I think you will be fine.

(Pic courtesy)