Welcome the New Project Manager!

May 18, 2018 / G C Network / Comments Off on Welcome the New Project Manager!

Robert Duffner Interviews Chris Kemp, NASA, and Kevin Jackson, NJVC, on GovCloud

By G C Network | November 7, 2010

Recently, I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Mr. Robert Duffner, director of Product Management for Windows Azure, as part of his “Thought Leaders in the Cloud” series. In this interview,…

NJVC, Invertix Announce Cloud Computing Demonstration at GEOINT 2010

By G C Network | November 2, 2010

VIENNA, Va. — (BUSINESS WIRE) — NJVC®, one of the largest providers of information technology (IT) solutions to the U.S. Department of Defense, and Invertix Corporation, a proven technology company…

On The Frontlines: Cloud Computing in Government

By G C Network | October 27, 2010

Today, Trezza Media Group released the latest installment of it’s “On The Frontlines” series of government technology reports. The “On The Frontlines” Publications are dedicated to showcasing the positive progress…

GSA Awards Eleven US Federal IaaS Contracts

By G C Network | October 20, 2010

According to Federal News Radio, GSA awarded eleven vendor spots in the first Federal cloud infrastructure-as-a-service award. The winners were: * Apptis Inc. partnered with Amazon Web Services* AT&T* Autonomic…

NIST To Hold 2nd Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop

By G C Network | October 15, 2010

On November 4-5, 2010, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) will hold their second Cloud Computing Forum & Workshop. During this event, NIST will report on the status of federal…

“On The Frontlines” Interview

By G C Network | October 5, 2010

Look out for  “On The Frontlines: The Government Cloud” scheduled for release in November 2010! Trezza Media Group provides high-quality thought leadership media and marketing services to help companies connect…

Yongsan Army Garrison Does Cloud Computing!!

By G C Network | September 24, 2010

First Signal is ready for the cloud ! Even with the time constraints of the Chusok holiday and the onslaught of a 100-year flood, the class soldiered on with five…

Army Cloud Computing in Korea!

By G C Network | September 19, 2010

After a long uneventful flight, I’ve arrived at Yongsan Army Garrison in Soeul Korea. After enjoying the economy accomodation on a Boeing 777 for over 14 hours, my room and…

The Taiwan GovCloud

By G C Network | September 11, 2010

Last week, Henry Kenyon of Federal Computer Week reported that the Taiwanese government is planning to spend $744M to develop cloud computing technology. Premier Den-yih Wu sees this as a…

Geospatial Cloud Computing In Support Of National Policy

By G C Network | August 29, 2010

A few weeks ago I once again had the pleasure of participating in a private discussion on cloud computing with Mr. Vivek Kundra.  What struck me in this most recent meeting was his views…

According to CIO.com, the six traits of highly effective project managers are:

  1. Be a strategic business partner who can offer higher-level strategic leadership skills, not just technical management skills, provide significant advantages for organizations of all sizes.
  2. Encourage and recognize valuable contributions because a project leader’s effectiveness is strongly impacted by the contributions of others on his or her team.
  3. Respect and motivate stakeholders using an ability to communicate with and influence a variety of stakeholders. You must demonstrate respect for team members, stakeholders, and sponsors at all times if you are to receive their respect in turn.
  4. Be fully vested in success and believe in the work you are doing and be completely involved in all professional aspects of the project, its activities, and its people.
  5. Stress integrity and accountability. Being accountable for your decisions and actions is vital, and sends a strong message to the rest of the team.
  6. Be able to work in the gray because this is what truly sets a project manager apart. Thisis a must-have skill since the majority of projects, regardless of type, industry, size, or complexity, will havegray areas that need to be navigated at some point.

 

A vital component of all of these straits is an ability to communicate both up the chain to superiors and down the chain to your team. In short, successful project management is about successful teamwork.  Teamwork starts with the project manager recognizing that “Job #1” is knowing the people and blending their styles.  This task can be very challenging given the broad societal demographics and cultural variations.  Just in looking at the different generations that may exist in a team, work ethic and values across multiple generations must be addressed from the very beginning of a project. 
Figure 1– Workplace Characteristic Comparative
For a project manager, this challenge often manifests itself through inordinate amounts of time spent on administrative tasks and poor or unproductive meetings.  These symptoms may also lead to the perception of failure or professional stagnation within the team.
Graphic Courtesy Instapage
To avoid this trap, managers should focus on team enablement that also respects personal differences and goals. This path values:
  • Creativitythrough the use of office spaces optimized for focusing, creating, and collaboration
  • Productivitythrough the use of secure, reliable access to essential tools and information, regardless of location or device; and
  • Satisfactionthrough the recognition and celebration of different goals and value frameworks
Good project managers can also discover and create business value by eliminating the need for physical proximity while simultaneously embracing the importance of human connection. Tools like WebEx Teams accomplish this by taking the pain out of both physical and virtual meetings through the use of intuitive voice interaction and collaborative features no matter where your team members may be. These capabilities also make it easier for distributed teams to exchange ideas and collaborate through shared digital whiteboards and chat. This approach addresses modern workers’ ability to work from wherever they can contribute the most value.
By automating mundane meeting components and optimizing the mobile experience of remote  team members, the exceptional project manager reinvents project management by taking advantage of today’s advance communication channels. This will, in turn, create unprecedented value for the team and the entire organization
This post is brought to you by Cisco and IDG. The views and opinions expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Cisco.

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