Often, I feel I am living under a delusion that I know the answers to all the questions when it relates to me.
Fair enough, right? Each of us knows ourselves the best. However, a self-assessment check is not only a healthy habit but also aids in taking corrective actions based on the results. How do I perform a self-assessment? Here’s an idea to conduct this evaluation test: Ask questions by playing the role of a stakeholder (describing your needs) and a business analyst (eliciting requirements) at the same time. I know what you are thinking, “How is interviewing myself going to add any value?” This simple yet powerful technique forces us to reflect and come up with honest responses. You will be surprised to see how much of a gap is there between what we are thinking vs what responses we give when questioned.
Imagine you are considering pursuing a certification. Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:
Interviewer (You): Why do you want to become certified?
Response from stakeholder (You): I want to enhance my professional credibility. Also, the sense of accomplishment that I met a professional goal will be satisfying.
Interviewer (You): What specific problems are you facing in your progress towards achieving this certification?
Response from stakeholder (You): I am unable to take out time to prepare for certification and tend to procrastinate.
Interviewer (You): What are you going to do to stop procrastinating?
Response from stakeholder (You): By scheduling the exam date and then backtracking to prepare based on this date.
Interviewer (You): What are the risks associated with this certification?
Response from stakeholder (You): Time and opportunity cost.
Interviewer (You): How would you measure success?
Response from stakeholder (You): Passing the certification exam on the first attempt.
Interviewer (You): What if you don’t pass in your first attempt?
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Stakeholder (You): I will focus on the topics I didn’t score well and schedule my next exam date so that I don’t procrastinate (again!)
Interviewer (You): How will this certification add value to your career?
Response from stakeholder (You): I can apply what I have learned to my daily work and it gives the external world a chance to interpret my level of knowledge in my domain.
Interviewer (You): What would you do differently from what you have done in the past?
Response from stakeholder (You): I will allocate dedicated study time and follow a schedule diligently.
A few recommendations relating to the self-assessment check:
Tailor the interview questions to whatever you would like to achieve (personally or professionally). Tip: Find sample questions online.
Questions and responses can be short or extensive.
Skip the typical questions that you would ask in a requirements elicitation session. Example: You don’t have to ask who is going to benefit from this initiative since this is an exercise for yourself.
You must be self-disciplined to conduct this interview at least once a year. Tip: Schedule a meeting on your calendar for a self-assessment check.
You must be honest when responding to questions.
You must take time to evaluate your interview results and analyze areas of improvement.
What next after this interview? Create a “to-do” list based on the interview results and post it in a place where you can see it. At a minimum, it will be a reminder to work on those action items before it goes off your radar. I hope you can follow the interview style (or come up with a style of your own) to help you to track progress towards your goals.
“My goal is not to be better than anyone else but better than I used to be” (tinybuddha.com)
As business professionals, we know the increasing importance of data-driven decision making in our projects and operations.
This article will explain why we need to bring that same approach to resume writing, and how to level up your Project Manager/Business Analyst resume writing skills.
The Importance Of Data
In the business world today, it is hard to come by important decisions that are made in the absence of data to support them. Managers are, understandably, loath to not have evidence stacked up to support a claim or decision that exposes their organization to opportunity, but also risk.
This same perspective can be applied to hiring decisions as well. Are not employees a huge opportunity, albeit potential risk, for any business? A star employee can transform an organization for the better, resulting in a strong bottom line and happier customers. In a competitive job market, candidates need to sell their attributes and accomplishments to hiring managers, who increasingly need to base their hiring decisions on strong evidence, not unlike other operational or project decisions. Show me the data!
What Does This Mean For Your Resume?
For one, your resume needs to be quantitative. Most resumes list work experience and education in a neat table, sorted by date and organization. This is a good start. However, when you drill down into the details (the bullet points) underlying each previous job, the descriptions often leave something to be desired. For example;
“Compiled project analysis for company executives”
“Managed an organization-wide ERP solution implementation”
“Trained support teams on use of new software tool”
What these examples demonstrate is a lack of volume, scale, or size. How is a hiring manager to know if you managed the roll out of an ERP system for a staff of 10, or 2000? What does improved service delivery really mean? That each agent more consistently said thank you at the end of each call? Or were turnaround times reduced by 30%? Look for your ‘wins’ and highlight them with data.
What this can look like:
“Comprehensively analyzed and compiled dozens of address, routing, and fuel data points on a weekly cadence, to draft executive reports that could be quickly understood and acted upon”
“Managed a 1 year ERP implementation affecting 900 staff, resulting in time savings of 5 FTEs”
“Facilitated dozens of training sessions of 5‐25 participants each, achieving an average instructor rating of 4.5/5 from feedback forms”
There are 2 important take-aways from the above examples:
Fully use the real estate provided to you on the page. Your resume should only be 1-2 pages, so use up that white space as efficiently as possible.
The examples use specifics that are quantified.
Examples of other metrics you can use:
$’s spent, saved or earned
Time taken or time saved
Cadence or turnaround time of process or task
# of people impacted, trained or involved
# of computers/machines updated or provisioned
Volume or quantity of materials
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Is The Data Impressive Enough?
What if the numbers aren’t impressive, you may ask? When providing feedback on resumes, mentees often state they don’t think their accomplishments sound big or important enough if too much detail is given, as if keeping it vague somehow augments their work. If you don’t think an accomplishment is worth quantifying, remember that hiring managers can also revert to the lowest common denominator, if quantities aren’t provided. You may have concurrently managed 10 accounts worth an average of $10,000. In the absence of concrete numbers, a hiring manager may theoretically guess that maybe it was 4 accounts worth $5000 each.
Sometimes, exploring different ways of telling your data story can make your work history sound more effective too. Maybe you successfully negotiated a $100 savings on a monthly vendor contract. That’s great, but maybe you can re-word it as, “Negotiated a 10% savings on a recurring monthly expense, saving $1000s per year”. Explore absolute versus percent versus ratio metrics for each claim, as sometimes one will sound better than the other.
Internal- And External-Facing Data Points
You may notice 2 distinct metrics types, that we can call internal, vs. external. Often, when we are stuck in the weeds of our projects, we only think of our internal metrics. These could include things like # of stakeholders managed, dollars spent, or groups involved. What are often more impactful, in terms of convincing employers of the significance of your work, are metrics that speak to what your project ultimately accomplished; the downstream outcomes. Sometimes, these data points may not be known for months or years. These could include things like # of new clients, # of people trained, or incremental dollars earned or saved, directly due to actions you took while deep in the weeds of your project. Have a think about your last few projects. What were their downstream outcomes?
Quantify Your Interests
People differ on the utility of a personal interests or extracurricular section of your resume. I’m personally a fan, because hiring managers are hiring people, not robots, and want to know who the person is that they are hiring. Also, hiring managers, like all humans, are subject to nervousness around meeting new people in a formal interview setting. The personal interests section provide great small chat talking points to fill otherwise awkward pauses that can occur before and after the formal questioning part of an interview.
Just like with the other sections of your resume, be specific, and quantified, with your personal life! Instead of;
“Organizer of musical festivals”, or
“Love travelling and photography”
you could say
“Have organized 3 musical festivals with 1000s of participants each”, or
“Have traveled in 23 countries, and photographed the Taj Mahal to the fish & corals of the Great Barrier Reef”
Final Thoughts
Lastly, quantifying your resume is an exercise to perform not only once you are looking for your next contract or job, but on an ongoing basis, so that you can leverage the metrics you have formulated for yourself in conversations and informal networking chats.
Often, we work so hard on our jobs that we neglect our personal and professional selves.
The Best Time to Be a Project/Product Manager is NOW!
Let’s focus on ourselves and our careers for a moment.
Because our work is transformative and impactful, the demand for project managers is through the roof with no signs of stopping (Ex. Salaries, Challenges, Growth Opportunities, etc. – all rising).
FACT: PMI estimated project-oriented work may top $20 trillion by 2027 and put 88 million people to work (HBR.org Article Written by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez)
However, it would help if you STILL asked yourself these critical questions about your work:
Do I feel like the work gives me Purpose?
Is this work fulfilling?
Do you love problem-solving?
Is organizing things in your DNA?
Do you look forward to aligning people’s strengths to do great things?
Are you excited to learn new technologies and concepts to get more out of your day?
Can you answer each question with an emphatic “Yes?”
If so, you are operating in or near your life’s big “Why” or Purpose.
Check out this video for more on finding your life’s big “Why.”
As project managers, the work we do should be an extension of our reason for existence, in service to others, at this moment in time.
If not, revisit your career path because there may be a far more lucrative and fulfilling path than project management.
Beyond Market Demand, Does Project Management Help You Fulfill Your Purpose?
John’s article appeared on HBR.org, and it’s legit!
Here’s a key point John makes that will help you frame up your WHY:
Remember why you work. Please identify the person or group of people in your personal [and professional] life that your work is in service for, and keep them in mind when you work through even the most tedious of tasks. A purpose isn’t magic — it’s something we must consciously pursue and create. With the right approach, almost any job can be meaningful.
Yes – You CAN find Purpose in any work, but it does not guarantee fulfillment.
CAVEAT: However, the most fulfilling work emerges from a clear sense of service that transcends self and targets impacts for you and those you serve with what you do best.
Bonus: the most fulfilled, financially free, and divine aligned beings on the planet figure out their “Why” and then strike out to touch the sky!
Is Project Management an extension of your why?
Well, it should be!
Is Project Management Your Jam?
If you are still reading, you must love what you do, so here’s a question for you:
How would your career change if you applied Project Management rigor to transform your career?
Listen, Jim Rohn – motivational speaker and businessman, once said:
Credit: Google Images
Do You Have a Job Or A Career?
Working on yourself means your life purpose gets integrated with your career.
A purposed career takes reflection, decision-making, and work creation that ensures work is more fun and lucrative than you could imagine.
Now ask yourself: Do you work harder on your job than you do on your career?
Wait – What’s the difference between a job and a career?
Simple: Careers are fulfilling because they work on you. Jobs are not fulfilling because you work on them.
You’ve heard of the great resignation.
The great resignation is partly fueled by retirement.
And, many post-pandemic workers slowed down long enough and realized their life and life’s Purpose was more doable with a flexible, remote environment where their best and most fulfilling work could be done.
And an unfulfilling job is like getting a root canal without anesthesia – it hurts too much and should never be done.
You need work that fills your heart, wallet, and purpose-driven needs for being alive at this point in time.
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Take a Page Out of PMBOK (Career Style)
Remember, we use PMBOK to transform our work.
Why not use the same rigor to transform our careers, too?
Let’s discuss the triple constraints as they apply to your career’s development.
You will focus on developing your first career phase, which takes approximately 6 – 12 months.
After that, you will revisit your plans, reassess them, and schedule another 6-12 month sprint until you reach career nirvana or something close to it.
Triple Constraints Blended with Project Phases
Credit: Projectmanager.com
As with any project, the goal is to add value.
Your career project is no different. Your career project is about adding fulfillment and value-adding capability to your career.
Let’s start with your scope, which breathes life into your life’s big “Why” with “What and How.”
INITIATE AND PLAN
Scope: Start with a career project charter and plan to initiate/solidify your career project:
First, suspend all logic and hold nothing back, so you won’t get in the way of getting what you deserve!
BUSINESS CASE/OBJECTIVES:
What project work, people, places, and things give you the greatest fulfillment?
What would doing this work look like each day?
What short- and long-term benefits could you realize if bullets 1 and 2 came true?
Please be detailed with your descriptions.
Finally, write a DESIRED STATE narrative summing up bullets 1-3 or create bullet points using the same rigor and diligence you give at work.
CONSTRAINTS: How does your CURRENT STATE differ from your DESIRED STATE?
Make a few notes about the key differences, then burn them! Acknowledging the old will help you move forward toward the new. Its history and focusing on it will keep you stuck.
RISKS: What things must change about YOU AND THE WORK YOU DO to achieve YOUR DESIRED STATE career?
What must you change personally and professionally to reach your DESIRED STATE career?
Create bullet points using the same rigor and diligence you give at work.
STAKEHOLDER ANALYSIS: What stakeholders must you assemble to gain clarity on your best way forward?
List your stakeholders, the input you seek, and the input you receive. These stakeholders can be just about anyone you trust, like a:
Someone further along in the career journey than you
A trusted advisor and Truth Teller
Spiritual wisdom from your Source
EXECUTE, MONITOR, AND CONTROL
Time: Develop your career project plan and time box your steps:
What three steps or tasks must you first execute, monitor, and control, to deliver on your 6 to 12-month career development project:
Think Start, Stop, and Continuing certain behaviors related to:
Professional Development (Ex. Continuous Learning)
Personal Development (Ex. Mindset Management)
Networking (Ex. Real relationships with other doers – not just LinkedIn connections, meaningful conversations with people behind, beside, or ahead of you in their career journey).
Distill your “Start, Stop, and Continue” into tangible steps:
Take a certification or online/live training course
Do volunteer work for experience
Watch personal development videos, so you are not the barrier to your success
Add some details and time boxes.
Remember, the three steps or big things you must do will encompass no less than six months but no greater than 12 months.
As the phrase goes, “You must count the cost.”
Cost: Pencils down. It is time to revisit your scope activities and consider what it will cost you to deliver on this 6 to 12-month career project.
For example:
Have you determined how you fund your personal or professional development where needed?
Are you fully committed to making this project move forward regardless of the obstacles?
Have you accurately estimated how much time and effort you will expend each month reaching project completion?
How will you socialize your plan, gain support, and keep your career project on track?
Have you considered most likely project disruptions and accounted for contingencies to them?
You are compelled and equipped to navigate this massive career lift and shift ahead if you do your homework.
Fast forward.
You’ve successfully counted the cost and dove into your career project.
And you remain on track to complete your three initial steps.
You must properly close out those steps that transitioned from DOING to DONE.
CLOSEOUT
After completing all three steps, you ensure they delivered on your expectations or receive sufficient evidence to do something different next time.
Here are a few examples:
Did steps add work/life fulfillment? If not, what should have happened or been done differently?
Did steps add value? If not, what should have happened or been done differently?
What were your personal and professional lessons learned?
In what ways did the project grow you personally and professionally? If not, what should have happened or been done differently?
Did you connect and benefit/serve someone behind, beside, or ahead of you on the same/similar career journey? If not, what should have happened or been done differently?
If everything went according to plan, you close out your final step before moving on to the next step(s) in your 6 – 12 month career project.
Conclusion
Remember, project management isn’t for everyone, no matter how well you do the work. The work must be fulfilling, tie into your big “Why,” and help you thrive, not just survive!
After noodling your big “Why” and choosing a project management career desired state or path to begin leveraging the Career “Triple Constraints” concepts, develop your unique journey, and decidedly fulfilling career path.
Call to Action
The world needs us – get equipped for a world of projects producing exponential value! Finally, Global demand for Agile/Scrum/Product Management expertise is heating up for PMs with this experience and may be the key to you prospering in the new remote economy.
It’s only a matter of time before it intersects with your work or influences your opportunities.
After hiring candidates, companies often ignore the importance of their employees’ well-being. If you’re wondering why some companies can have a high turnover rate, regardless of how popular they are among giant names, the percentage of employee engagement is one of those contributing factors to this situation.
While managers can set up a fun activity to keep their employees engaged at the office, they can’t really do the same now due to the Covid-19 pandemic. This dreadful situation has forced many to put employees’ safety first. Hence, working from home isn’t that odd anymore.
That doesn’t mean managers can’t initiate an employee engagement program on remote terms. This article will dive into how businesses can thrive by improving employee engagement even though they are working away from the office.
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The Importance of Employee Engagement
Employees are companies’ biggest assets. Keeping them happy at your workplace will greatly benefit your business. After all, happy employees will do their best at work, resulting in better outcomes.
Here are a few benefits of getting your employees engaged.
Reduce turnover rates
Turnover is often one of the manager’s biggest enemies when it comes to ensuring a running project. Sometimes employees can quit at a time when companies need them the most, and that’s something managers can’t avoid or hold them to stay longer. This is where employee engagement plays a big part in avoiding this situation.
When companies pay attention to employees’ difficulties at work and provide them with a solution that helps overcome the situation, employees can put more trust in the organization. More trust means higher loyalty, which decreases their consideration to move out.
This can be done if the company provides a number of onboarding processes via training videos to help employees get the experience of what they can expect from the company. The onboarding also improves the communication between the company and employees so that they get engaged from the get-go.
Improve productivity
Productivity has been linked to employees’ ability to finish a task and handle a situation in a timely manner. But when said employees are unable to concentrate at work, whether it’s from internal or external problems, they may lose their performance. If companies have engaged with employees well, things that may potentially reduce productivity can be identified and avoided quickly.
Better customer service
Enthusiastic employees at work bring such a positive vibe around them. This can often be seen in the way employees treat and communicate with customers. Highly engaged employees don’t see work as an inevitable responsibility as an adult. They consider getting up every day to work to ensure they provide solutions to customers they are communicating with while also benefiting from working.
5 Tips to Improve Employee Engagement for Remote Team
1. Encourage two-way communications
Communication is key in every part of life, including the workplace. Make sure to always have clear communication with employees, so you can get rid of misunderstandings at work.
After all, the workplace is one of the common areas where people get misunderstood easily. If you can’t initiate direct, two-way communication with people working in your organization, they may feel left out and consider you don’t provide the solution they are facing at the moment.
2. Listen to them
Make sure your employees don’t get left out even though they are working on a remote term. While they don’t often show any difficulties because of the distance, managers should ensure if they are doing okay in the first place.
Many won’t initiate a conversation due to location and time differences. That’s why employees keep almost everything about work themselves—asking if they face a certain problem while remote working can improve their connection with you and possibly open up for more conversation in the future.
3. Recognize their efforts
Companies often don’t see what their employees have done in maintaining their performance at work. Managers only see the result without considering how much effort one has put into gaining such an outcome.
Make sure to recognize your employees’ efforts and appreciate them for what they do. After all, everyone’s hard work has made it possible for the company to thrive in this difficult time. So, show them that you acknowledge their work.
4. Reward your employees
The act of acknowledging someone’s work may come in many forms, including giving a simple ‘thanks’ and round applause. While these are common and relatively inexpensive, you can go as far as giving points or a bonus as a reward for their hard work.
Your employees will surely appreciate it if their boss shares gifts or free coupons to the nearest villa when they achieve a goal. It shows that companies take care of their employees by giving them a reward after working hard.
Knowing how companies take little things, such as small wins matter, will improve how employees see their workplace. This convinces them more that they are working in the right place.
5. Create fun activities together
Sometimes working from the home policy can greatly impact employees in terms of getting burnout quickly. Compared when working in the office, employees could say hi to each other and wind down a little bit when the tension was too serious or when the workload was so heavy.
Remote working means the ability to communicate with other teammates is limited, which often causes more stress to employees. In order to avoid a quick burnout, managers can provide fun activities or games virtually. Getting into games can reduce stress and boost the employee’s motivation to work after it’s done.
Takeaway
Remote teams are prone to having burnout because they are limited to doing certain activities like they used to. When employees are easily stressed out without a quick handle from the company, they will feel excluded from the entire organization.
In the long term, such condition may reduce their performance and ownership as they don’t feel connected at all. Managers can handle this situation by taking into consideration what makes these employees engaged again.
It’s crucial to introduce exciting activities to boost up their mood. Make sure to listen to their voices and create a safe space for a private conversation. These will help remote employees engage in the company they are working.
This year (2022) is the best time to talk about something interesting – that is professional development. Why do I think you may be interested in this topic? Well, a recent (Sep 2021) survey conducted by HR Platform Employment Hero [1] via about 1000 survey respondents found that 48 percent of Australian workers planned to look for a new job in the next six months. That’s 1 in 2 people Down Under, a huge number, isn’t it? No wonder people in the US are talking about the Great Resignation[2]!
If you are still reading this article, you are potentially interested in investing your time, energy, and money in your professional development, so that you can seize the chance to progress your career sooner. You may want to ask me, “where should I start?” Well, Richard Branson once said: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.” So, my first advice is for you to check if your employer’s career paths and progression programs are in place that you can take advantage of. It is probably the easiest way for you.
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However, if the existing solution is not in place, the next best solution is to have a private chat with your people manager, see if he or she can create a bespoke solution for you, based on your circumstances. Check out this article from the job search portal Indeed and follow the 9 steps[3] to prepare your talking points before your meeting with your boss to show your commitment.
My personal experiences have been that most employers do care about their people’s career plans, especially when you have made consistent and visible contributions to their business. However, I admit there are organizations where staff hasn’t been provided with sufficient career progression opportunities. If unfortunately, this has been your experience, keep reading and I have a piece of good news for you – you can own your own professional development.
Here is how (3-Steps Plan):
Set your career goal – If you like what you do, do you want to work at a more senior level? If you don’t like what you are doing, use your imagination superpower to determine your dream jobs. Talk to your family and friends to understand your strengths and talk to a trusted industry connection to understand which roles will match your strengths.
Analyze the gaps – How can you get there? What skills will be required from your future job? What skills have you already got? What are the gaps? This step may sound difficult, but there is a short path – check out your current & future jobs on seek.com and write down the required skills.
Bridge the gaps – Prioritise the skill gaps based on importance, urgency, and logical sequence. Now you may ask, is there a learning model that I can follow to upskill myself? The answer is yes! Let me tell you a bit of the 70-20-10 learning framework.
70% of your new skills can be learned from doing. You can ask for new tasks at work, apply for a secondment or participate in professional volunteering. These activities can help you accumulate the required experience for your future.
20% of your new skills can be learned from others. Coaching, mentoring, and attending industry events are widely available options to you.
10% of your new skills can be learned from formal learning. Courses and certifications, if chosen wisely, will give you a decent return on investment.
To help you best bridge your skill and experience gaps, I have created a 1-pager diagram for your kick-start. It is based on my own professional development experience and the successful mentoring sessions that I have provided to my mentees in the last 7 years.
If you follow the 3 steps plan, make sure you set up regular checkpoints to reflect your progress. Adjust your approach as required. If you show your commitment, I don’t see why you cannot achieve your goal after a reasonable period of time. So, I wish you good luck and be part of your own success in the year ahead.
