- Time zone difference is the most important thing to consider
- Culture needs to be treated as a bonding factor
- Accents and language barriers can be solved
- Work ethics should be synched
- Communication will keep the team together
- Work will happen on how you manage all of the above
Working in a Global Setting- I
What mentor-ing can teach you?
Have you joined PM groups yet?
Steppingintopm is back
Are you feeling down today?
Have you heard the news once again or taken a cold shoulder from your best buddy? Your boss doesn’t like you anymore and you are at the receiving end of all wraths from your team members?
Stop. Breathe. Calm down.
We all have our downtime, whether we talk about it or not. Life in the world of project management or otherwise is not sans emotions infact it’s loaded with it.
Learn to tackle negativity-
- Let go- stop criticizing yourself because someone said you are not good enough
- Quit- not your job, but the forces that drag you behind
- Laugh- with your friends over pop corn and a funny movie
- Identify- the problem and see if you can tackle it better
- Evolve- to a positive person
- Read- happiness blogs
- Create- a positive environment
- Never- give up
- Awaken- to your life’s purpose and go ahead and do it
- Realize- downtime will come and how you handle is what your future will be
Change
April has been a month of change for me.
Things are always crazy, however I decided to take it on- all challenges, my shortcomings, plans and the enthusiasm to do something more.
I decided to incorporate a lot of new things in my life. With so much in my plan platter, I decided to let everything stop for a day.
I think the hardest job is to prioritize and get things done one after the other. I enjoy doing them all but keeping a tab of the list is time consuming.
My schedule has to be something that I enjoy doing. So while I work around it, I’m trying to pick up on the vibes. I have given up on processed food and meat in the last month (includes bread). So, it takes time to get my meals ready, however am glad I did it. It’s something I have done for me!
I’m working on getting my 40 minutes of exercise (cardio, yoga, light weights) everyday, the treadmill looks dusty and I need to get back at it. I’m trying out the time and getting in at least 10 minutes of meditation into the regular schedule. I want to be more calm when I handle pressure and deadlines.
It’s hard to keep promises and maintain the level of energy in a stressed out ambience that we are so becoming used to. I have my flaws and fall off the wagon but I do get up and get on it easily.
A paper clipping in my purse from Les Brown says- "When life knocks you down, try to land up on your back. If you can look up, you can get up."
Instead of trying to check off my done chores and treat them as one, all I want is to enjoy what I am doing- be conscious of it. This is the life I wanted- to be super busy and now when I have it- I haven’t smelled a rose in the last one month. Everything has become a job, a to-do that needs to be get over with.
I want fresh flowers this summer, peace, happiness and gratefulness that I'm doing what I wanted to do.
(Picture: Google Images)
Interview with Jonathan Mead
I think it's more applicable than ever. The downturn in the economy is just showing us that mediocrity cannot be tolerated. The downturn is basically distilling the market down to a level of excellence. Only the truly excellent, truly passionate and driven individuals will survive.
Now is a better time than ever to devote yourself to doing something you're really passionate about. When you focus that passion into something that fills a need or a gap in the market, that's when you create truly remarkable interactions. And remarkable, amazing value is what is always going to be safe, no matter how great the downturn.
As for the template life, it didn't really work. My cog has been malfunctioning for quite some time. I think it's now broken beyond repair.
Times are hard and sometimes it’s not so easy to take the risk, to do things out of the norm even when the person really wants it. What do you suggest- what should they do? Are they doing wrong by taking the much traveled path?
Taking risks is a big deal, especially when you have a family or people depending on you. In that case, don't kill your dreams. What you'll have to do is carve out some time every day that you'll use to work on your dreams. In the beginning in might be 20 minutes, then after a while you find a way to turn it into an hour. You have to ruthlessly remove all of the things from your schedule that aren't adding value, to make time to work on your dreams.
Then once you're making a decent amount of income doing it, your "dream time" starts to snowball. That's when you can really use the momentum to cut back on your day job hours and keep the snowball going.
I personally believe in what you are suggesting like “inspirational desktop” or “poster board” to keep quotation or pictures that inspire me. In fact, my purse has 3 quotations in them- do you think visualizing is in a big way an aid to get closer to your dreams?
I think it is a big aid. It's something to keep you inspired and reminded about why you're doing what you're doing. It helps you keep plugging away when it seems like the culmination of your dreams is far off in the distance. And it doesn't have to be visual. It could be an audio recording, or a "dream movie" with your favorite music. It sounds kind of cheesy, but I've found this incredibly powerful.
I’m big fan of your writings and this book is fascinating and a must read I think for everyone, so where can the readers get a copy for themselves?
Looking into the brain of a Project Manager
- How do you select/choose the best possible candidate of your technical team? Do you have some sort of criteria / selection process which you may want to share?
- How do you ensure that each person on your project team is highly motivated?
- How do you cope when one (or some) of your project(s) is/are
getting way behind schedules and upper management is pinching you on
the matter? - How do you decide on the methodology with which to apply on your project?
- Best advice (or something learned) ever from a person on your project team?
Earning PDU through your blog
You are into project management and you blog, how cool would it be if you can get some PDU's from your blog?
2. Read...a lot - The PMP is a nice title and all, but what I really got out of the process was introduction to many very interesting project management topics which I then did my own independent research & reading on after my PMP boot camp was over. Had I only started reading years earlier, I would have had real knowledge and lessons learned to apply to all the questions and challenges I had while I was learning through trial & error.
3. Don't get discouraged- Project management is an ongoing challenge, there's always something new coming out of left field. The short, simple and straightforward projects can almost get boring after a while. It's better to have something more complex that takes serious focus to keep going and complete successfully. So, don't get frustrated if things don't always go right in those complicated projects, there's always a lesson to be learned from it.
Getting job in the new economy
Alec is one my favorite Project Managers whom I really enjoy talking to. The economy has made us all aware of our jobs more than ever. So, are there things that we can do to keep us prepared for the next move, the next job, the next strategy- I ask Alec.
Hi Alec, glad to have you back at Stepping into PM. Do you think that with the changing times job hunting has become a new game?
Hi Soma. It’s always great to speak with you. Your question reminds me of a comment a friend of mine made recently. He is a Broadway actor here in New York. For anyone not familiar first-hand with the acting profession, it is a world characterized by many people going to many auditions and chasing relatively few jobs. His comment was, “Now everyone is experiencing what it is like to be an actor.”
What are the three most important things to keep in mind while looking for a job ?
Professional career coaches have always de-emphasized job boards and want ads. This is even more important in today’s economy. I’d go so far as to say if a person looking for a job is spending more than 1 hour a day answering ads and perusing job boards, they are using their time much less efficiently than they could. Three suggestions:
- Treat your search like a full-time job. If you’re a project manager, handle it as if you were just handed a major initiative for your client. Spend at least 7 hours a day on your project. If you can’t work at home, find someplace else to go. Here in the States, Starbucks is filled right now with people conducting job campaigns 9 am – 5pm.
- Know what distinguishes you from everyone else out there. Are you crystal-clear on what Richard Koch http://is.gd/tcfh calls your 20% spike – those things that you can easily do better than most others? If not, spend some time figuring these out. This is not the time to apply for any job. There’s too much competition for each position. To have a chance, you must focus only on those positions which tightly correspond to your best skills.
- You must reach out to others. Sending out resumes randomly won’t work. You must talk to people, message them, seek them out, befriend them, and seek to serve them without focusing on what they can do for you.
Does networking really come in handy while doing so?
Some people think of networking as trying to get someone else to do something for them. This is called “using”. It won’t work. A better type of networking is developing long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. If you seek to serve, to help, to give to others, you are on the right track.
So, lets say I'm looking for my next step to move into project management, what should I be doing to get the job in today's economy?
While the long-term employment prospects for project managers continue to be good, it may be a little hard going at the moment. My belief is that a new project manager will be more likely to find a position in today’s economy through their existing contacts, that is, those people they’ve worked with before and can vouch for them. Go after the jobs which haven’t yet been advertised. Prepare a portfolio of documents, plans, anything you have which can show you know what you’re doing.
Where do you think "social media" is coming in these days in the job search scenario? There are so many recruiters in Twitter, hundreds of candidates who would like to network- what is the right thing to do?
Twitter has now become, "The next big thing". All the media outlets, marketers and others are getting on board. Some recruiters on twitter will be of extreme help to job seekers. Other recruiters are making big promises with little evidence to back them up. The best advice is just to get out there and start using social media. If you have questions, ask the people you meet online. There are many, many generous and helpful people around.
Thanks Alec