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There’s Always Room For Improvement – So Here’s How To Revamp Your Business Processes.

Process improvement opportunities

If your business is stagnant, doing the same thing day in and day out, it’s pretty unlikely that you’re going to see growth and success. Every business needs to evolve to remain competitive in the market. So the question isn’t ‘do we need to change things up?’, it’s actually ‘how should we evolve?’

Business process improvement (BPI) is an approach that identifies areas where the business could improve, redesigning the existing business processes to increase effectiveness and optimize performance. For the modern organization, undergoing a business process improvement is an ongoing necessity.

Every business has hundreds of processes, whether they have to do with community management, procurement, onboarding, or sales. They usually fall into one of these categories – operational, management, supporting. Operational activities are those that repeat every day, such as administrative, advertising, and sales activities. Management activities concentrate on human resources, financials, monitoring, and delegation. Supporting activities are the remaining undertakings such as recruitment, accounting, and IT support.

All tasks and activities require regular evaluation to determine if there are inefficiencies or room for improvement. When opportunities for improvement are identified, that’s where BPI comes in.

Luckily, you don’t have to go into BPI blind. Several BPI methodologies can help you achieve your goal, as they give you a framework that you can apply to your strategy.

Here are a few of the most popular ones:

Six Sigma

Six Sigma was first developed in the 1980s at Motorola to measure defects and improve overall quality. It was then popularized by General Electic, who wanted to reduce waste, improve the quality of the product, and save money. Today, companies all over the world use Six Sigma. Six Sigma contains two methodologies – DMAIC, which is used to improve an existing process, and DMADV, which is used when you want to create a new process.

For BPI, you would use DMAIC, which stands for:

Six Sigma

Define – Define the problem
Measure – Quantify the problem
Analyze – Identify the cause of the problem
Improve – Solve the issue and verify improvement
Control – Maintain the returns

One interesting branch of the Six Sigma methodology is the Lean Thinking approach. The Lean Thinking approach considers everything in terms of the value to the customer – if they don’t bring value, they must be eliminated. It’s a great way of thinking when looking for process improvement opportunities. The customer is usually at the core of our business, so putting forefront the notion that value-added processes should be valuable to them, ultimately increasing the customer’s satisfaction.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

Under TQM, every organization section must draw customers, and their activities and processes should have customer values in mind. It aligns the entire organization to the same goal productively, and that’s what makes it unique.

Total Quality Management (TQM)

One example of TQM’s success is AlantiCare, a healthcare provider located in New Jersey. Alanticare ensured that every individual in their organization gave essential feedback about the healthcare products they manufactured. Observing products from every perspective, including customer service, HR, marketing, etc., led to a total improvement of their products. Implementing TQM ended up boosting the company’s revenue, from $280m to $650m.

Implementing TQM in your organization can help everyone look for process improvement opportunities, as all employees will understand that customer values are at the center of the organization.

Theory of Constraints (TOC)

The Theory of Constraints framework uses a focusing process to identify constraints that affect the organization’s ability to achieve a goal and ultimately find a way to eliminate or work around it. This approach allows the company to increase productivity, streamline product flow, and optimize workflow.

Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, a multinational pharmaceutical company, is a great example of how TOC can benefit an organization. Before implementing TOC, they faced high backorders and low supplier ratings. After implementing TOC, they tightened the supply chain to focus on better inventory management, finances, and project management. They started to track operating expenses, simplifying management accounting and reporting. Their success saw them win the best supplier of the year award.

When you think about the constraints hindering success and achievement in your organization, you will begin to see the opportunities for process improvement.

While these approaches provide us with a great framework to improve processes in our businesses, there are steps that we can follow to help commence the process improvement.

Theory of Constraints (TOC)

Step 1: Identify what needs to change.

The first step is to look at your business processes, across the categories of operational, management, and support, at a high level. Think about what needs to change and why. Here is where you will find the process improvement opportunities. Get people from different departments and ranks involved to help you gain diverse perspectives and understand the company’s pain points. Think about how changing resource requirement levels of different processes would benefit the organization, what saved resources could be put towards.

You can also start with a goal and think about what opportunities there are for process improvement that would lead to achieving that objective. Let’s take Howard Bank as an example; they wanted to spend more time connecting with their new customers during the account opening process. They chose to improve the process efficiencies to achieve this. With a more streamlined process, the bank could engage in more meaningful conversations with customers, learn more about their financial needs, and give them a better experience.

Step 2: Think about how you’ll realistically improve this.

Now that you know what needs to be improved, you’ll need to come up with a plan to execute. Analyze the process in detail, examining where roadblocks are being created, what is taking up the most time unnecessarily, where costs are being wasted, and the impact on quality and delivery. You’ll want to make sure you talk to the people involved here; gaining their perspective on where improvements can be made will help you deeply understand the process.

Step 3: Get the right sign-offs and resource allocation.

In every business, a change to a process will require certain approvals and authorization. Once you have a solid idea of what needs to be improved and how you’ll do it, you can bring this to the necessary people. Here is where you should have an understanding of the resources required as well. Let senior management know what you need from them to execute.

Step 4: Make it happen.

Now that you’ve got an understanding of the process you’re going to improve, how you’ll do it, the approvals, and the resources allocated, it’s time to get going. Organize this as a project because it is one. Plan it out, allocate resources, assign a team and dedicate a deadline.

Conclusion

“A business that doesn’t change is a business that is going to die” – Frank Perdue.

Your business needs to change, adapt, and evolve. But without a proper approach to Business Process Improvement, you could be left worse off than you began. Want to stay ahead of the game? Follow these simple tips to help discover process improvement opportunities and implement the changes required.

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Why Time Management Is Considered a Soft Skill That Can Change Your Career Trajectory For The Better

Time Management

Practicing good time management is one the most important soft skills that you can have in the workplace. It ensures increased productivity, high-quality work, improved confidence in one’s ability to do the job efficiently, and on-time delivery of time-sensitive assignments.

Ultimately, you can meet your professional (and personal) goals and achieve worthwhile success when you take the time to strengthen your time management skills. But what does it mean when we refer to time management as a “soft skill?” What exactly are soft skills? And how do these specific types of skills allow you to thrive in the workplace?

What Is A Soft Skill

What Is A Soft Skill?

Soft skills are the abilities that determine how you work and interact with your colleagues. Whereas hard skills are technical and job-specific, soft skills are about how your professionalism, timeliness, and other essential, intangible traits complement your practical skills that are required for the job itself, making you an attractive candidate for recruiters and prospective employers.

Here are the most common soft skills:

  • Time management – Allocate your time so that tasks are completed efficiently and productively.
  • Problem-solving – The act of identifying the problem, then prescribing and implementing a resolution.
  • Collaboration – A working practice for individuals on a team to come together through a common purpose to achieve an intended outcome.
  • Communication – The way in which we speak and share information with our colleagues about work matters and pending issues so that everyone understands and is on the same page.
  • Adaptability – The ability to change and adjust to different situations in an evolving workplace.
  • Emotional Intelligence – This includes empathy, self-regulation, motivation, social skills, and awareness of your own emotions.
  • Creativity – Using outside-the-box thinking to create innovative solutions.
  • Critical-thinking – The ability to analyze, conceptualize, infer, and problem-solve.
  • Organization – Being able to keep all work-related materials arranged in an orderly manner.
  • Team player – The way in which you work with others on your team on a variety of different tasks to ensure that processes go smoothly.
  • Leadership – Qualities that help you stand out as a leader of a group, such as emotional intelligence.

Alternatively, to give you a better idea of how soft skills are different from hard skills, let’s take a look at the list of the most common hard skills in the workplace:

  • Programming
  • Multilingual
  • Writing/Editing
  • Accounting
  • Data Analysis
  • Computer technology
  • Marketing
  • Design
  • Web Development

Hard skills are the results of your training from a school or on-the-job education, demonstrating your understanding or expertise on a particular matter. Conversely, soft skills are the personal behaviors and traits that you exhibit that shape how you work and collaborate with others.

Why Are Soft Skills Valuable

Why Are Soft Skills Valuable?

Soft skills are valuable because they’re transferable skills you can take into any job, regardless of industry. They can also reveal your ability to grow within the company. Having good soft skills can help your application stand out in a crowded and competitive market, ace the interview, and be the reason why you succeed in your position when you land the job. According to Monster’s The Future Of Work: 2021 Global Outlook, employers named the top skills they found most valuable in prospective employees including dependability, teamwork, flexibility, and problem-solving. Another report created by LinkedIn revealed over 89% of recruiters observed that when a hire didn’t work out with a company, it was due to poor soft skills.

Soft skills can also have a profound effect on the rates of turnover. A study at the University of Michigan, Boston College, and Harvard University discovered that soft skills boost productivity and retention by 12% and produce approximately a 256% return on investment.

The truth of the matter is this: employers understand the value soft skills bring to their organization and are beginning to prioritize candidates with a variety of soft skills over those with more technical experience. In some companies, while hiring managers search for candidates who meet the minimum qualifications for the role, they also keep the dynamic of their current team in mind while sourcing through the potential new hires.

For example, a team that prioritizes a positive workplace culture will either ask their recruiter (or a designated member of their team who is conducting the interviews) to incorporate a question into the interview process that would uncover a candidate’s flexibility and how they would demonstrate collaboration and teamwork to solve a particular scenario. The hiring manager can then determine whether the candidate should move to the next step in the process based on the answer. In another scenario involving a marketing team, the hiring manager may need to identify your skills in persuasion in order to sell a great product or platform. A candidate would likely need to display, either written or verbally, how they would apply this soft skill during the interview.

While soft skills can be difficult to learn at first and can take a fair amount of practice to master, these particular skills are important in your overall productivity, your employee experience, and your relationships with your colleagues.

What Are The Most Important Soft Skills

What Are The Most Important Soft Skills?

Soft skills are an essential component in building a strong, motivated workforce. But what soft skills are considered the most important? According to LinkedIn, employers are particularly seeking out these top soft skills:

  • Adaptability
  • Collaboration
  • Creativity
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Persuasion

Given the permanent changes to the workplace due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it makes sense that adaptability and collaboration would be at the top of the list. With more employers making the switch to either a hybrid or fully remote workforce, teams within the company have had to learn how to adapt to different time zones and new ways of working and communicating with each other. Creativity has always been a highly sought-after soft skill as this allows for more innovative decision-making and outcomes.

Interestingly, more small businesses have steadily launched in 2021, with about 4.3 million new businesses starting up across the United States according to the US Chamber. With more priority given to building a robust online presence and strategic marketing, it’s understandable why persuasion is considered one of the more valuable skills this year. Emotional intelligence is on the rise with self-awareness, conflict resolution, and empathy as essential skills in the workplace and a sign of emerging leadership qualities.

But here’s another soft skill often considered timeless as it will serve you for the rest of your career: time management.

Why is Time Management Considered A Soft Skill

Why is Time Management Considered A Soft Skill?

Time management is considered a soft skill for these three essential reasons:

  • It’s teachable – Similar to hard skills, soft skills can be taught. And it’s important for employers to recognize that these skills must be nurtured in the same way you would encourage continued growth and education with technical experience. In an in-depth SHRM article about the importance of soft skills, Liza Cannata, vice president of HR for CareerBuilder, says, “Companies have a lot to gain by treating soft skills as they would any technical skill.” This means that employers should create and foster a work environment that enables employees to gain the experience needed to enhance their soft skills. For example, employees need to be given the chance to be creative, time to problem-solve, and opportunities to step up in their leadership potential. Training, coaching, workshops, and external mentoring can be excellent advantages for employees seeking to gain the necessary experience.
  • It’s transferable. No matter what career path you follow, soft skills can follow you everywhere. They can be used for a variety of different positions and a variety of professional settings. Time management can serve you no matter what level you are in your career and is considered most of the most in-demand skills. Let’s look at an example of this in action. Say you have experience as an administrative assistant, and you find an open position for a Client Manager. The transferable skill sets you’d want to include on your resume are time management, organization, teamwork, and flexibility as these are all soft skills you’ve demonstrated as an admin.
  • It’s a life skill. Time management is not just a skill for the workplace. You can carry this into your personal life as well. It’s woven into everything that we do, from basic household chores, making time to go to the gym, or evening making space to spend more time with family and friends, time management is integral in our enjoyment of life. If you intentionally manage your time wisely, it leads to better decisions and you can have a healthy and satisfactory work-life balance for years to come.

Why is Time Management An Important Soft Skill

Why is Time Management An Important Soft Skill?

Now that we understand the basics of soft skills, let’s discuss why time management is so important in the workplace.

  • Enhances your work experience. When you’re operating at your best and managing your time effectively, you’re getting more high-quality work done by (or before) the deadline. This reflects positively on your work ethic and boosts your confidence in your abilities. Overall, you’ll feel much more accomplished at work with how much you were able to get done and the overall quality given how much extra time you gave yourself to complete the project or assigned task. You’ll remain motivated and driven to keep contributing to the company’s objectives.
  • Provides more opportunities. With the ability to get the fundamentals of your job accomplished, more opportunities in the workplace will be available to you such as training, career development, promotions, and mentoring. Learning how to manage your time in a productive way can create chances for you to increase your competitiveness as a high performer and gain additional skills that can last your entire career.
  • Make better decisions. When you plan your day strategically, giving priority to the most essential tasks needing to be completed first, you’ve taken the most important step in making good, practical decisions with time management. This eventually becomes a regular habit, which not only increases your productivity in the long run but helps you think creatively and critically about your tasks and how to come to an effective resolution.
  • Less stress. Time management is all about allocating specific time windows to be your designated opportunity to be at your most productive. When you capitalize on these time frames and get your work done efficiently, you’ll feel less stressed overall. Rather than waiting until the last minute — with the tasks always looming in the back of your mind — or allowing fear and insecurities to paralyze your progress, having methods to improve your time management, help you get started, and minimize interruptions and distractions will produce fewer moments of work-related stress.
  • More personal time. Employees crave a work-life balance that feels fulfilling. But when we have an intimidating and insurmountable to-do list, both at home and at work, it can be tough to strike that balance. Practicing good time management can help restore our freedoms and personal time when we’re off the clock. We won’t be working long or odd hours to get the projects done, nor will we be working at home just to meet the deadline. Time management gives us back the time to reset, refresh, and relax.

In Conclusion

The work landscape is changing. Soft skills are in high demand. An increasing number of employers have found that soft skills are not only beneficial to the company, but for their entire team’s morale and motivation. The good news is that soft skills can be learned in the right setting and with appropriate opportunities.

Using your time wisely has a variety of benefits that can only improve your work experience, which is why time management is considered a soft skill that enables you to have a successful and fulfilling career.

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The Beginners Guide to Agile Project Management and PMP Certification

Agile project management

Being in charge of a project can be as exciting as it is challenging. If you’re brand new to taking ownership of a project you may be wondering how to even start. Or maybe you’re looking to expand your skillset and get certified in project management so you’ll be first in line for a promotion.

There are a couple of different schools of thought on how projects should be run. In this article, we’re going to go through PMP (Project Management Professional) certification and Scrum Master certification based on Agile methodology.

Both of these certifications are in high demand and they’ll make you incredibly attractive when applying for new jobs. Let’s take a look at what separates these two certificates and which one you should go for.

What Is Agile Project Management?

The Agile methodology is used by startups and smaller companies who need to remain agile in their work. Agile project management is about breaking project life cycles into smaller iterations or sprints. It’s most commonly used during software development but many other types of businesses have taken to using this model for their projects too.

The core principles of Agile project management are rooted in collaborative working. Project members engage in 2-week sprints and develop their processes as they go along. Sprints are led by a Scrum Master who is there to answer any questions and make sure Agile principles are being adhered to.

The Scrum Master is not the project lead, nor are they solely responsible for the outcome. Instead, the product owner will be the leader but they may not need to attend all of the meetings such as the daily standup. A Scrum Master can oversee these meetings and help teams to progress.

Agile project management incorporates regular feedback, testing, and response to changes. The short sprints mean that project members can debrief and learn from one another. It helps teams to stay agile and easily adapt as they embark on the next sprint.

What is PMP

What Is PMP?

PMP stands for project management professional and it’s based on the PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) model. The PMBOK guide is primarily written for those who want to follow a framework such as Waterfall which is pre-planned. However, it can be utilized with different styles and can work in tandem with Agile methods.

PMBOK takes project management and simplifies it into 5 process groups, sometimes known as phases. These are the following:

  • Initiating: Define a new project or phase and seek authorization for the project to begin.
  • Planning: Establish the deliverables of the project and plan the action needed to reach project objectives.
  • Executing: The processes involved with completing the work to project specifications.
  • Monitoring and controlling: Track, review, and regulate the progress of the projects. Identify areas of necessary change and implement them.
  • Closing: Finalize the activities for all process groups and formally close the project.

PMP is one of the most standardized models for project management. Those who hold certification are held in high regard. Although, whether you choose this or Scrum will depend on the industry you’re in. If your industry emphasizes PMBOK principles, then PMP certification is what you should do.

How Do Scrum and PMP Differ

How Do Scrum and PMP Differ?

Agile and Scrum are very popular among small teams and with startups. This is because it allows teams to be dynamic, adaptable, and adjust their processes as they go on. The Agile methodology was created for software development which benefits from this kind of routine. The principles can be applied to a wide range of industries and are no longer confined to just software.

PMP follows the strict 5 defined processes of PMBOK and doesn’t have much room for alteration. PMP experts will have all 5 phases occur once during the entire project, one after another. Agile, on the other hand, will have you break down the project into smaller sprints that last around 2 weeks.

If your project is following the PMBOK method, stakeholders will be involved only during the early stages of planning. In Agile, they will be responsible for continuing collaboration throughout the project.

The strict structure of PMBOK means that change is viewed as undesirable. There is an emphasis on control. However, change is a key part of Agile and it’s encouraged that teams review roadblocks and implement changes to their processes.

For ongoing projects, you might be better off using PMP methods. It can be particularly useful for projects that aren’t likely to change. PMP gives you a clear roadmap to refer to.

Scrum is going to be more useful if the project is brand new or is unfamiliar. This is because you can change and adapt with each sprint to perfect your team’s workflow.

Certifications

Should You Get Certified In Both?

There’s no obvious right answer for this but it won’t harm your career to get certified in both. If you do, you’ll have more flexibility when job seeking and could find opportunities in new industries. Consider what your career aspirations are and if getting both certificates will be a benefit for you.

Do your research to find out what is the standard choice for your industry before you undertake an exam. Some industries are better suited to PMP and likewise, others will be better suited to Scrum.

If the project suits a traditional waterfall-style workflow, PMP will be the best certificate to get. Many companies will prefer this style of project management, particularly older companies that might be wary of change.

Scrum Master certification is better suited to projects in new verticals or teams that haven’t worked together before but are working on the same deliverables.

If you choose one certificate now, you can always retrain and obtain the other later in your career. There is a benefit to having both certifications because they can work in tandem with each other. Instead of using the 5 phases of PMBOK for the overall project, they can be applied to each sprint.

Scrum Master and PMP Certifications

Choosing which certification you should undertake is down to a few different factors. You’ll want to consider things like salary implications, cost of certification, and what the industry standards are. The good news is, companies are willing to pay more for recruits with these certifications so it’s a great way to improve your job prospects.

Cost of Certifications

PMP certification is administered through the Project Management Institute (PMI) who developed the certification. It’s internationally recognized and over 1 million people have undertaken the course. The cost of certification differs depending on your membership with the PMI. This is how much it costs:

  • Members: $405
  • Non-members: $555

Scrum Master certification is available through many providers including the PMI who offer the PMP certification. The Scrum certificates are also internationally recognized and are a great way to demonstrate your understanding of Scrum and Agile methodology. Scrum Master certification is not the same as being certified in Agile. Although there are some similarities, it is not a replacement for Agile certification.

Here is a selection of certificates worth looking into if you’re looking to get Scrum certified.

  • Professional Scrum Master (PSM I) by Scrum.org: $150
  • Certified ScrumMaster by Scrumalliance.org: $1295
  • Scrum Master Accredited Certification Program by Scrum-Institute.org: $69
  • Disciplined Agile Scrum Master Certification (DASM) by PMI: $399/$499

Salary Expectations

Salary Expectations

Both of the certifications lead to higher salaries compared to project managers without them. The first thing to consider is the average salary for project managers in America which according to Indeed.com is $73,922.

Project managers with PMP certification on average earn +15.36% more than the base earnings. Although PMI claims that their certificate holders can negotiate salaries up to 25% higher.

Those who get certified in Scrum can expect a similar pay increase which averages to be +16.64% more than project managers without the certificate.

It’s clear that either certification increases your earning potential. You could use the certificates as an opportunity to negotiate a pay increase or look for positions at a different company.

Since the overall costs for certification and salary expectations are similar, it’s difficult to suggest one of the other. The most important thing to consider is what the standard is for the industry you work in and your career goals.

Project Management Opportunities

How to Find Project Management Opportunities

Project management is a highly sought-after career both for prospective employees and employers. The job features a lot of important responsibilities with great salaries attached to them. People who work as project managers report high levels of job satisfaction and they get to work with others from a wide range of disciplines.

The key responsibility for project managers is overseeing the development and completion of a project. How big the scope is varies between projects. Typically you will have a team of people working for you and you’ll be responsible for delegating tasks.

You don’t necessarily need to have previous experience in project management to be considered for a position. The skills needed to do the job can be developed while working in other roles. What hiring managers are looking for include:

  • Communication skills
  • Leadership skills
  • Organization skills
  • Critical and creative thinking
  • Collaboration skills
  • Problem-solving

Some jobs may require a degree as a minimum requirement. Degrees in topics such as business, communications, finance, psychology, and sociology can help you land a project management job.

If you are planning out your career then the entry-level positions you could look at are in operations, marketing, customer service, and software development. The key is to apply for positions that share duties with project managers such as overseeing other people and their tasks.

Once you have the necessary skills you can look at the certificates to increase your chances of getting the job as well as your remuneration. Project management positions are sometimes hired internally but a lot of them look for external hires too. Many positions are offered on a per-project basis rather than as a full-time position.

Conclusion

Getting certified in PMP or Agile Project Management is a great choice for any project manager. There are a wealth of opportunities in project management and holding these certificates will demonstrate you as an expert. Once you have obtained them you will be able to secure higher-paying jobs.

If you’re brand new to project management but you’re keen to make this your career, training in one (or both) of these methods will increase your chances of getting a job. There are plenty of free resources online to teach you more about PMBOK and Agile. Check them out before sitting any exams to ensure you pass the first time.

 

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Exposed! Eight Secrets to Creating a Culture of Collaboration

Collaborative Team Culture

Have you heard the saying that a fish doesn’t know water until he’s out of the fishbowl? The same idea is true of company culture. Each company has so many unspoken rules about how everyone behaves and works together, and they’re not even aware of what they all are!

This can easily leave a leader floundering, helpless as to why the team is unified in one moment, yet standoffish in the next.

Businesses face so many complex problems nowadays, it’s impossible to solve them alone. Every leader knows that collaboration is fundamental to saving time, money, and resources. But it can be such a struggle to get teams to trust and work together.

Heck, sometimes it’s hard just getting employees to stick around!

Fortunately, there is a key (or two) to pick the lock. A call center, Wipro, after trying every trick in the book to improve turnover rates, finally landed on a method that increased retention by 270%!

Although it may take stepping outside of familiar waters, the tools to create a collaborative culture are inside every leader’s tackle box.

Let’s look at some ways to catch and reel in a unified team

Company Culture

Defining Company Culture

First off, let’s get into what company culture is, and why collaboration matters.
Company culture refers to many facets of a company, collectively: its systems, processes, employees, leaders, and an ethos that connects them all.

Something like singing and eating cake on employees’ birthdays is a practice that shapes company culture. Policies around personal leave and vacation time do as well.

These patterns develop and grow organically, like a tree. Many stem from the early days of the business. The practices and systems that brought about the company’s early success become a fundamental part of their way of doing things.

A prescient CEO focuses on culture in order to shape a company’s future. Former IBM CEO Louis Gerstner, in his book Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance, went so far to say that culture is the only factor that shapes a business.

In its drive toward success, a company may unwittingly create a destructive culture.

For example, until several years ago, Volkswagen had a culture that prohibited failure at all costs. This perfectionism led to its 2015 fiasco, where it was caught systematically cheating emission tests.

A period where a business struggles and either lays people off, or discontinues a product, also shapes the culture.

When unhealthy practices manifest themselves, a leader needs to strategically graft a healthier culture into the business.

Integrating practices of collaboration is central to creating a culture with strong roots.

Every transparent leader knows that employees are a business’ greatest asset. In order to make good decisions, feedback and input is needed from every team.

The brainpower of a fertile, collaborative team increases exponentially. Although it may sound like a cliche, in the world of collaboration, two brains put together really does equal three!

Now let’s look at specific practices that drive a collaborative culture in an organization.

Get Everyone on the Same Page

1. Get Everyone on the Same Page

Imagine a party where the decoration team knows nothing about the plans of the catering or entertainment teams. This lack of communication could well lead to a fiasco.

When Carly Fiorina joined on as the CEO of Hewlett Packard, the business had four other CEOs who reported to her. She referred to it as a business with many fiefdoms, where the feudal lords rarely communicated.

In order to get everyone to a place where they understood one other, the company held interdepartmental meetings, where they collectively assessed every asset in the company.

This provided each fiefdom with a common frame of reference: they understood the processes, challenges, and goals of the other departments.

Similar to planning a party, every decision within a business is interconnected. Having a practice of in-person meetings between departments is central to creating a collaborative organizational culture.

Use Critical Moments to Cue Belonging

2. Use Critical Moments to Cue Belonging

It’s so common to hear couples share the story of where and how they met. All the circumstances, including eye contact, who said what to whom, and each persons’ emotion are divulged.

These aren’t simply cute or heartwarming stories. Critical moments, including first impressions and first disagreements, actually establish the norms for any relationship, both personal and professional.

Back to the call center company mentioned earlier. In an effort to resolve their chronic turnover problems, Wipro experimented with two methods of onboarding.

In the first, new hires received an hour of standard, run-of-the mill training in job duties. Afterwards, each person received a sweatshirt with Wipro’s name on it.

The second group was treated quite differently. Rather than being instructed about the job, the trainees were asked questions like “Tell me what happens on your best day?” and “Tell me what happens on your worst day?” and “What would you bring with you on a desert island?” At the end of the hour, these trainees received a sweatshirt with their own names written on it.

After seven months, the company followed up with each group, and found the retention rate in the second group was 2.7 times higher than the first!

What went right with the second group? At a critical moment–the first encounter–Wipro established a strong connection with the new hire. This connection created a solid foundation of acceptance and trust.

In order to establish norms of collaboration within a team, then, it’s important to seize these critical moments. By connecting personally with employees during first encounters, and during the first disagreement, a system of trust is set up.

Send Vulnerable Signals Again and Again

3. Send Vulnerable Signals Again and Again

Have you ever tried talking to someone, and the more you pried, the more they clammed up?

A leader knows that he or she doesn’t have all the answers. In order to solve problems, everyone on the team needs to share information and discuss. So even if people seem as stubborn as an oyster, it’s important to tease and twist to get them to open up.

How to do this? Well it’s not always easy. Here’s a suggestion.

Imagine you were at an elegant party, and the host dropped their dinner plate with a crash onto the floor. How might the atmosphere at the party change Chances are, any tension in the air would clear up, and guests would start letting their hair down and unbuttoning their sleeves.

Similarly, when a leader demonstrates vulnerability, it opens the team up to a space of sharing and trust. This doesn’t (necessarily) entail staging a blooper or fall.

Rather, it’s about consistently acknowledging that you need to know more. Laszlo Boch, formerly of Google, used to regularly send his employees this two-line email: “Tell me one thing you want me to keep doing, and one thing you want me to stop doing?”

With this simple message, he communicated several things: there is more I can learn, you can teach me, and it’s safe to open up here.

When a leader regularly sends signals of vulnerability, the climate becomes one in which team members feel safe sharing the precious pearls of their unique insight and wisdom.

4. Foster Collaborative Meetings

Do you ever have a friend that you never get to see, and when you finally do, you gush and gush to catch up, knowing that if you don’t make the most of the conversation, you may not have the opportunity again?

A meeting, similarly, is a valuable window in which to solve problems and arrive at a consensus around an issue. It’s critical to make this time collaborative. Here are three pointers.

First of all, it’s important that everyone understands and agrees on the problem and the purpose of the meeting. Although this may be outlined in the agenda, the leader needs to establish clarity on this at the beginning, and to make sure everyone is in agreement.

Secondly, before hashing things out, everyone needs to connect on a human level. This could mean having everyone share why they think the problem is important, tell something about themselves, or offer what they bring to the table.

Lastly, it’s important everyone set aside position and title, and relate to one another as peers. Within a level playing field, people contribute equally and so more insight is gathered.

5. Align Processes and Systems

Align Processes and Systems

When you set out on a long journey, you of course need to know your destination. But that’s definitely not the only thing to consider. It’s also necessary to acquire all of the equipment needed to get you there.

In a similar way, a collaborative culture needs to be aligned in several areas.
Principally, everyone must understand the goals of the business, or the problems to be solved. Then, roles need to be assigned.

Oftentimes, a goal has eluded a company for some time. This usually means the existing system isn’t working. Achieving the goal, then, entails re-shaping the status quo.

It’s also necessary to establish metrics around goals: to know when they’re meant to be accomplished, and then to reflect periodically on the progress.

And finally, leaders need to be explicit about the behavior that is expected. Is he or she looking for innovation? Risk taking? Collaboration? Stating the expectation outright, then providing training, makes sure everyone is on the same page.

6. Promote Collaborative People

Have you ever read through company reviews on Glassdoor? One criticism that regularly comes up is who was and wasn’t promoted.

A promotion sends a shock of lightning through a business. Everyone notices, and the message is unmistakable.

Not surprisingly, a company where people shift around constantly, projects are abandoned, and people are promoted due to personal friendships with the boss, doesn’t receive a five-star review. This practice sends a crystal clear message of cronyism and dysfucntion.

A culture is built gradually over time, with repeated patterns of behavior. And things like promotion and rewards are central to shaping it.

When a company promotes and rewards employees for demonstrating strong collaborative skills, it signals to everyone else that cooperation is a core value. This behavior then becomes aspired to and emulated.

Connect and Engage Consistently

7. Connect and Engage Consistently

In addition to seizing on critical moments, a collaborative culture is also built with practices of consistent engagement.

When a leader connects on a regular basis, everyone knows they’re cared for, listened to, and part of the team.

This can be as simple as making a morning round to everyone’s desk and catching up on their lives, families, vacations and other out-of-work activities. Being present in the conversation and following up later lets everyone feel valued and heard.

Another way to keep everyone in the loop is with a weekly email full of the latest happenings in the company. When the email includes a personal story from your life, people tend to engage and relate.

This kind of cohesion creates trust and sharing, which are essential to collaborative culture.

Challenge “Leave Well Enough Alone” Mentality

8. Challenge “Leave Well Enough Alone” Mentality

How often do you look at Yelp to decide whether or not to go to a restaurant?

Although online feedback tools are great, one drawback is that they discourage innovation: businesses are concerned about taking risks, for fear it will generate poor feedback and the business will suffer.

In a similar way, a culture where criticism is regularly dished out, is also one where an employee may well simply decide to let a problem fester.

Or, like Volkswagen, a culture with zero tolerance for failure, is ripe territory for unethical practices to emerge.

This sort of fear doesn’t exist within a collaborative culture. Criticism is measured, and dispensed constructively through appropriate channels.

Additionally, a collaborative environment is one in which innovation is celebrated. Even if an idea fails, putting it out there and giving it a go is a success. As Edison taught us with his invention of the light-bulb, sometimes it takes 1,000 times to fail at a great idea before getting it right.

Conclusion

It’s tempting to harbour an image of a collaborative business as a place where people lock arms, sway, and sing Kumbaya.

But this isn’t really the case. In a collaborative culture, people in fact work through a lot of tension. Difficult problems are aired, argued through, and resolved. Friction is actually a healthy sign, as it means that problems are faced and not allowed to fester.

The telling characteristic for collaborative workspaces is that tension is aired in an environment of acceptance and mutual respect.

What methods do you use to collaborate with your team?

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Exploring the Advantages of Project Scheduling

Advantages of project scheduling

Well-thought-out project scheduling allows businesses to establish when a team should begin and finish working on a deliverable, with resources and objectives in mind. Typically, a complete schedule will outline a variety of parameters like durations, dependencies, resource availability, and deadlines. As a result, this will allow the team and stakeholders to have a better understanding of the amount of work that has to be done, in what sequence, and at what time.

In this blog post, we’ll take a closer look at the benefits of project scheduling and why your team should consider reaping the benefits of this practice.

Let’s jump into it.

So, what is project scheduling?

Basically, a project schedule is an essential project management tool that helps teams navigate a project by defining the scope of work that has to be performed and the timeframes associated with it. Similarly, it outlines the necessary skills and the resources required for every task, the order in which they occur, project milestones and interdependencies, as well as the overall project timeline.

Along with that, an important part of project scheduling is analyzing resource availability—this enables project managers to understand the spectrum of resources that are available to their team, when they’re available, and under what conditions. Failing to take these aspects into account may often result in delays and discrepancies in the deliverables.

It’s also important to mention that project schedules come with a fair share of flexibility, allowing you to adapt to the people and organizations that use them. Here are a few common formats:

  • Master project schedule — a surface-level roadmap that outlines the essential tasks and the time allocated to each of them. These schedules are typically used to provide a high-level overview for senior management or external stakeholders that don’t really need an in-depth breakdown of a project.
  • Milestone schedule — these documents outline the major milestones of a project but don’t necessarily feature every task or deliverable. It’s a helpful reference point when reporting status and helping teams provide context for the progress made so far.
  • Detailed project schedule — this document typically offers an in-depth understanding of the milestones and their subtasks and activities. It’s especially useful for the team and managers and allows them to keep track of every detail of the project.

What are the benefits of project scheduling?

Benjamin Franklin’s famous quote, “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail,” is probably one of the most concise and insightful answers to this question—but it would be a shame if we didn’t explore this topic in more depth. So here goes:

Enables detailed analysis and planning

This is probably one of the most important benefits scheduling has to offer. By brainstorming and analyzing a project’s needs, deadlines, and deliverables, you’ll be able to foresee a wide array of potential issues and bottlenecks, as well as plan milestones in a more thoughtful manner.

It’s actually easier to outline the benefits of scheduling by thinking about how a project would proceed without this process in place.

Obviously, there would be a lot of guesswork in place that would result in a significant lack of sync between team members. As a result, this leads to missed deadlines and extra expenses for business owners, along with a variety of other issues that project managers would prefer to avoid.

Allows for better management and communication

Fundamentally, a project schedule is more than just an action plan; it’s a roadmap designed to make a project efficient and streamlined by aligning dependencies, resources, personnel, activities, deliverables, and a host of other crucial elements.

Aside from streamlining the project itself, a detailed schedule allows project leaders or project managers to communicate a team’s progress, performance, and success to stakeholders based on KPIs.

Helps keep close track of progress

Fundamentally, scheduling provides teams with a detailed framework that allows them to track the progress of a project. This ensures that the people on a team receive regular and valuable feedback about the quality of work and overall performance.

With schedules, project leaders can keep track of slipping tasks and potential delays, ensuring that these problems can be addressed and communicated as soon as they arise.

Enables efficient resource management

Scheduling is critical when it comes to planning, managing, and keeping track of the efficiency of the resources involved in a project that range from people to software and finances. Appropriately resourced plans help optimize the sequence and duration of activities and make sure that they alternate smoothly.

Stimulates accountability

We’ve published quite a few articles on accountability on the Teamly blog—we believe that it’s one of the most important components of a successful and efficient workplace. Schedules are absolutely critical when it comes to stimulating accountability because they provide people with a crystal-clear understanding of their responsibilities and the deadlines associated with them.

Furthermore, this provides people with a fair amount of context in regards to what their colleagues are working on and how a person’s work is codependent on the work of others on the team. Unfortunately, this is an often overlooked benefit of scheduling. This broader understanding of how your work ties into the work of others helps eliminate a whole array of issues and misunderstandings during a project, ensuring better focus and coordination.

Ensures better financial performance

Scheduling will have a massive impact on the financial side of a project. This is especially relevant when a project is under serious time constraints.

Developing products is a fairly costly affair and keeping things within schedule is extremely important for business owners and investors.

Furthermore, a disorganized development process also invariably leads to a wide array of bugs that will have to be addressed at a certain point, and, unfortunately, the further a project is into the process, the more costly it is to address these issues.

Adequate estimating and scheduling will help teams keep their costs low as well as prevent unexpected expenses.

Enables better quality control

Schedules are critical when it comes to ensuring and maintaining quality due to the fact that they enable teams to outline the project needs and stakeholder or client expectations. As a result, teams can strategize projects to allow for extensive product testing, avoiding last-minute changes and delays that will end up increasing the bottom line. So by ensuring that a project’s timeline and resources are well-thought-out ahead of time, there are plenty of opportunities to accelerate work and mitigate unwanted expenses.

The bottom line

There is a wide array of factors that make project schedules an extremely valuable part of any project and project management in general.

By taking the time to strategize over a project’s schedule, a team will be able to:

  • Thoroughly analyze a project’s requirements and available resources and, as a result, establish critical codependencies, which will significantly boost delivery time and eliminate a wide array of bugs and issues.
  • Communicate progress across the entire company structure.
  • Stimulate accountability and provide the whole team with essential context to help eliminate a vast amount of bottlenecks and misunderstandings.
  • Ensure higher product quality and less wasted resources.
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Mindfulness Or Multitasking: Which One Is Better?

Mindfulness or Multitasking

The corporate world is changing in response to the new sets of values held by the current generations making up our workforce. We once prided ourselves on our ability to multitask, and took it as a sign of higher thinking, with many considering it a highly desirable skill to market to potential employers. Now, workplaces are shifting to include more intentional practices aimed to help create a healthier environment where their employees can succeed and companies can thrive. Mindfulness is one practice that’s been on the rise, with some companies implementing workshops centered around it, and others even creating entire positions for mindfulness trainers. This has left many wondering, which is better: mindfulness or multitasking?

Let’s consider the pros and cons of each.

Multitasking

What Is Multitasking?

Multitasking refers to the action of doing multiple tasks simultaneously. However, this has become a topic of debate due to a handful of studies and surveys that took a deeper look into the actual level of productivity. Here are some pros and cons to consider when adopting a multitasking work style.

The Pros Of Multitasking

Provides Consistent Mental Stimulation

If you thrive while under pressure and require constant stimulation, multitasking can be a great way to manage your workflow, because the act of switching between multiple tasks simultaneously keeps your brain engaged.

Helps You Avoid Boredom

If you get bored quickly throughout the day and struggle to maintain focus and interest in one task for long periods of time, multitasking can keep your mind busy.

Breaks Up A Repetitive Day

If you struggle with your schedule following a repetitive style, you can break your day up by completing a variety of tasks that require different mindsets, naturally creating a workflow that makes every day different.

Helps You Adapt

When you multitask, you’re naturally building up your ability to adapt to change. Your mind is constantly moving from one thing to another in a way that allows you to learn how to adjust to changes, instead of struggling to understand and cope with unexpected turns.

The Cons Of Multitasking

Exhaustion

When you multitask, you’re filling each hour with a variety of tasks that require different mindsets to perform effectively. By doing this, you’re lowering your energy levels, both mentally and physically, because your mind will have to work harder to change tasks and recall what stage you were at with each one, without being able to rest between demands.

Less Productive

By providing yourself with a way to escape demanding tasks, you’re reducing your productivity. When you create distractions with multiple avenues of work to complete, you’re cultivating an environment where you have lower expectations of yourself, have less willpower, and are reinforcing the habit of escaping when a task begins to pose a challenge.

Lower Quality Of Work

It’s difficult to produce a high quality of work when you’re not invested in each task individually and have split your attention among a handful of others. When you focus your attention on multiple tasks, you create the possibility of mistakes being missed and left for your team to discover and manage.

Increased Stress Levels

Multitasking creates an atmosphere where you have a constant feeling of being under pressure. You’ve begun multiple lines of thinking and placed all your tasks into one timeline, making you feel like your workload is much heavier than it is in reality. This increases stress, which can have detrimental effects in every area of your life.

Burn Out

Burn Out

When you have too many demands on your energy levels for extended periods of time, you can begin struggling to concentrate, have a lower resistance to daily stressors, feel exhausted emotionally and physically, be more irritable, and begin getting sick more frequently than usual. These are all signs of burnout, and it’s your body’s way of telling you to slow down. By expecting your mind to constantly change from one task to another, you’re increasing the demands placed on recall and focus as you try to shift into a mental state that’s beneficial to the new task. This creates additional stress on your brain and naturally depletes its energy. Our minds need time to rest and recoup, and when you don’t allow time for recovery then you risk burning yourself out.

Reduced Motivation

Positive reinforcement is a major influencer of motivation. When you complete a task, you feel accomplished and experience a sense of relief knowing that it’s one less thing you have to do. When you take on multiple tasks at once, you’re drastically reducing the rate of positive reinforcement you experience which naturally decreases your motivation. It’s difficult to continue pushing yourself when you feel like you’re never getting anything done, which is often the case when people multitask because there is always the next task to switch to.

There are some factors of multitasking that are appealing and can create a more diverse workday; however, the struggles that can come from this habit can be detrimental to both your work and mental wellbeing, especially when maintained over long periods of time.

Mindfulness

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is when you are aware of the present moment, and focused on exactly what’s in front of you, without judgment. It’s a state of mind that can be developed over time and can come in many forms.

Companies have begun implementing strategies to promote mindfulness within their workplaces, with some beginning to offer training to help their employees develop the skill. In fact, Google has even created a permanent role for a mindfulness trainer!

The main aspects of mindfulness include:

  • Being attentive
  • Being aware
  • Non-judgemental
  • Focusing on what’s in front of you (whether it’s a person or a task)
  • A “one thing at a time” mentality

The Pros of Mindfulness

Teaches You To Be Non-Judgemental

One of the main foundations of mindfulness is that your thoughts are free from judgment. When you are working through a task or engaged in a conversation with someone, refrain from judging yourself when your mind wanders. Exclusive concentration can be difficult, and it’s natural for your mind to wander when you’re trying to focus intensely on something. By understanding this, it will help you become less judgemental of yourself and of those around you.

More Resilient To Distractions

By redirecting your thoughts back to your work each time you notice your mind wandering, you are naturally building a higher level of resilience to the distractions around you. The more you refocus after losing your concentration, the more you will reinforce your ability to do so.

High Job Satisfaction And Stronger Commitment

Employees who feel supported emotionally and professionally in their work environment have been shown to have higher rates of commitment to the companies they work for and have increased levels of satisfaction. By promoting mindfulness, you show your employees that their wellbeing is important to you. This will help them feel more valued and they’ll develop a deeper respect for their employer and the values the company upholds.

Increased Performance

Our minds work best when they are able to work along a linear line of thinking. When you are able to focus on a task for extended periods of time and work through problems as they arise, you will be able to work through projects quicker and become more productive during your working hours.

Greater Awareness

When you practice mindfulness, you begin focusing more intently on what’s directly in front of you, and what you are experiencing throughout the day. This focus helps you develop a deeper awareness of your emotional responses and thought patterns, while also aiding in your perception of those around you by noticing their body language, tone of voice, and expressions, leading to a much better understanding of both yourself and others.

Better Decision Making

Better Decision Making

By being more aware of your emotions and being less judgemental of them as they arise, you are able to consider problems and your responses to them more effectively. This will help you make better decisions that are influenced less by emotions and more through logical thinking.

More Confidence

Mindfulness builds trust within yourself, both in your abilities and in the decisions you make. As you develop this, you will find your confidence growing because you’ll have a stronger understanding of your needs and the choices you make.

The Cons of Mindfulness

It Takes Time To Develop

Mindfulness is not a skill that can be learned quickly. It takes patience and time to make it a daily habit. There is no “one size fits all” approach to developing it, so it requires some trial and error to find what works best for you.

The Process Can Be Frustrating Initially

When you are just beginning to introduce mindfulness into your daily life, it can become frustrating as you will struggle to maintain it throughout the day. It’s easy to fall into your usual patterns, however, if you continue to bring yourself back and practice mindfulness, it will become easier over time, reducing frustration.

Raises Awareness Of Unappealing Aspects In The Work Environment

According to a Harvard study, individuals who had job roles that required high levels of emotional labor, experienced higher rates of unease when practicing mindfulness. This is in large part due to the development of a higher awareness of suppressed feelings regarding their jobs. This is especially noticeable in those who are required to mask their feelings and look happy during their workday (such as those in the service industry).

Which One Is Better?

Though both multitasking and mindfulness have appealing factors that many people could benefit from, the one that is overall better suited for our modern-day workplace is mindfulness.

While multitasking can benefit some people in certain circumstances, the majority of people would benefit more from the outcomes mindfulness can bring to their workplace and their individual work style. The downsides of mindfulness diminish as you practice it regularly over time.

How To Implement Mindfulness Into Your Workplace

Mindfulness can benefit you both individually and as a company. Here are some ways to begin to implement mindfulness in your daily routines so that you can experience higher levels of productivity and satisfaction with your work.

Implement Mindfulness Into Your Workplace

As A Company

  • Develop multiple programs to offer to the staff that would benefit most from them. For example, a customer service employee won’t benefit from the same mindfulness training that an internal worker would due to the different demands of their jobs.
  • Adjust the work environment to respond to and counteract the areas that cause unpleasant feelings and additional stress where possible. If multiple employees are struggling with being mindful because it causes them unease with a particular aspect of their role, consider how you can mitigate the stress being caused to your employees. Include them in the process to help create an atmosphere they can be proud to work in, enjoy showing up to each day, experience less stress (boosting employee morale), and embrace mindfulness with greater ease.
  • Research and implement training programs for mindfulness. Teach your team what mindfulness is and how it can look in the workplace.
  • Lead by example. Your team is much more likely to embrace mindfulness and begin including it in their workday when they see the leadership of the company doing so. It’s been said “seeing is believing” and this is very much the case with new practices in the workplace. Leaders are some of the most influential people of a team, so model the behavior you wish to see.
  • Encourage your team to take downtime during the workday that isn’t managed by you. When you give people permission to give back to themselves through the day, satisfaction levels and productivity during working periods will increase, and people will begin experiencing higher levels of creativity, aiding in the development of their projects.
  • Encourage deep thinking by asking hard, but attainable questions. Help your team to succeed at the challenges they take on, boosting their confidence levels, and satisfaction at work.
  • Prioritize emotional connections. By encouraging, developing, and supporting emotional connections not only with your colleagues but with your team as a whole, you create a more positive environment and support mental health. This allows people to feel connected to their company and colleagues, feeling safe to take on the challenges they experience both inside and outside of work.

Implement Mindfulness as an Individual

As An Individual

  • Allot specific tasks a set period of time, where you focus solely on that task before considering moving on to something else. The more you resist the urge to deviate from your task, the stronger your resilience will become and your focus will naturally begin to increase.
  • When feeling stuck, change your environment. This can be changing your work location entirely, going for a walk (preferably outside), putting on a new playlist to restimulate your mind, or maybe even lighting a candle with a scent that stimulates positive feelings for you.
  • Share the workload. If someone is better suited to complete a task, reach out to them and request they complete that task (and offer to take one of theirs that is better suited to you). If you’re in a managerial position, assign tasks to your team instead of taking them all on yourself. Not only will this reduce the stress you are feeling, but you will also cultivate an environment of trust with your team.

In conclusion, mindfulness and multitasking can both have their place, depending on each personality and circumstance. However, the current research shows that mindfulness offers more benefits that can be experienced both personally and professionally. When implemented and practiced successfully, mindfulness practices can create a healthier workplace that stands above the rest.

 

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The Must-Have Guide On How To Manage Leads (and increase sales!)

How to manage leads

Building up your customer base and figuring out how to manage leads can be challenging for many businesses. While some seem to do this easily and skyrocket to success, many don’t have that kind of origin story. There are many factors that determine how a company continues to grow its customer base, however, there is one in particular that these highly successful businesses have mastered. The one big thing these companies excel at is generating hot leads (and closing them)! For any business to succeed, they need to learn how to manage leads – and use them to increase sales!

What are sales leads

What Are Sales Leads?

Sales leads are the people who are most likely to become paying clients. While these clients may easily transition from discovering your business to purchasing, most times, there’s a lot more that goes into converting a newly curious prospect into a hot lead ready for your marketing team to close the deal on a final sale! This process is called lead management, and when you have all the right steps in place, your sales will be on the rise.

How Can Sales Leads Help Your Business?

Having strong lead management is essential to any company’s workflow system. It’s more than simply increasing sales. When you have a proper strategy for managing sales leads, you’re able to provide your marketing team with hot leads, making their final sale much less time-consuming and easier to navigate any resistance from the customer. Not only is it reducing the stress on your marketing team, but when done correctly, it provides clear direction for everyone on your sales team, allows for greater collaboration, and creates a strong company culture.

Now that we know what sales leads are and how they can help your business, how do you manage sales leads effectively?

The 7 Best Practice To Manage Leads

There are 7 essential elements to creating a lead management system to support your team. While certain aspects of these may already be active in your company, when you combine them into one system working towards a common goal, they can become a powerful tool to accelerate sales!

1. Know Your Target Audience

This is essential to any business and is often something that is created early on in the development process, but will likely evolve over time. When you’re first creating your lead management system, knowing your ideal audience, and exactly who you will be curating your content to is something that can make or break the entire process. If you don’t already have a clear understanding of your ideal customer, consider asking yourself:

Target Audience

  • “How old are they?”
  • “What’s their gender?”
  • “What’s their income?”
  • “What demographic would they fit into?”
  • “What would they want from your services or products?”
  • “What benefit are you providing them?”
  • “How would they find your products or services?”

All of these questions will help you create a picture of who you are marketing your services to, and it will help you develop your brand voice and marketing techniques across your online presence.

This is what will influence every other stage of your lead management system.

Assess Your Leads

2. Assess Your Leads

As leads begin coming through, it is essential that you rank them according to how likely they are to become customers, with your hottest leads at the top and your coldest ones at the bottom.

The 3 main influencing factors to rate your leads include:

1. Timeline

If your leads are connected to a deal that has a specific time frame, it is important to include that in your rating system. The sooner the deal closes, the more important those potential clients become, as their sale has a natural expiration date.

2. Price point

Secondly, include how much the lead could generate in revenue. How much is this customer expected to pay? This will help you rate your best income leads higher on the list to make the most profit from all your incoming leads.

3. Actions

Lastly, be aware of your potential customer’s actions to help you decide if they are a high priority for your marketing team to engage with. Consider things like:

  • How long they spend on certain, highly converting pages of your site
  • If they spent a certain amount of time browsing your pricing page
  • If they are engaging in your email campaigns
  • If they are recurring readers of your blogs (and if they interact with them!)
  • If they completed any forms on your site
  • Or if they signed up for any promotional items you offer

All of these things reflect how likely a potential lead is to become a paying customer, and will help you with ranking any leads that come from the lead generating systems you have in place.

Define What A Hot Lead Looks Like

3. Define What A Hot Lead Looks Like

In order for your team to know which leads are most important to hand off to your marketing team, they must know how your company defines a hot lead. Your criteria can include:

  • If a lead is coming from an email campaign, and at what stage in the campaign they are coming from
  • If they are a recurring visitor to your website
  • How they navigate your site
  • How they arrive at your site (do you find higher converting leads from a certain social platform?)

While this information can overlap with your lead rating system, it is important to include this information as a hot lead definition to ensure your team collectively understands how to identify the hottest leads coming in, and send them to your sales team immediately.

Collect Information

4. Collect Information

Having top-notch landing pages and forms for potential customers to engage with is paramount. These forms are your first point of contact with the customer and are how you will ensure you get all the most important information prior to making direct contact with the customer. Both sales and marketing teams will need to develop these forms together to ensure no vital prompts for information are missing, allowing you to get a greater understanding of the potential customer and how warm they are.

Pro Tip: Shorter forms tend to yield greater conversion rates. Make your forms easy to get through while still collecting all the essential information needed.

5. Nurture Your Cooler Leads

Not all leads that come through will be hot, or even warm. Some people take longer to commit to a sale than others and will require you to build a relationship with them prior to moving on to any next steps.

An important aspect of nurturing your leads is an email campaign (or several depending on your business and what you offer). These campaigns will help you stay relevant and in their minds (so they don’t forget about you!) and help you create a foundation of trust with them. There are some important rules to follow when designing your nurture sequences. These include:

  • Provide Value: Make sure every email you send provides the reader with some form of value. No one likes spam, and unsubscribe rates are high when customers see emails that lack relevance. The value you offer can range from links to blogs or podcasts, promotional items, or even free gifts that tie into your services. People love being rewarded for being part of your subscription list.
  • Reference Past Emails: This helps the reader recall other posts and adds layers to the relationship you are building.
  • Be Conversational: When you let personality come through your emails, people are much more likely to connect with the contents of it, and with your brand. Talk to them like they’re a friend.
  • Keep Emails Brief: Long emails can seem daunting. When people open them, your run the risk of them immediately closing the email because of the time it will take to read it. If you do need to make your email longer, make sure it’s packed with value and is entertaining the entire read. Don’t add anything that isn’t relevant.
  • Don’t Overwhelm Their Inbox! This is an important one. If you send a series of emails in a short period of time, you risk not only becoming annoying but also decreasing the importance and value of your emails!

Don’t give up on leads that aren’t hot and ready to buy. Nurture your relationship with them and over time, they may become a valued customer.

Address Any Lead Roadblocks

6. Address Any Lead Roadblocks

Occasionally, you’ll notice a lead pathway will become blocked, with none from that avenue making it through to a conversion. Sometimes this simply comes from the lead generation not reaching the people who would benefit enough from your product or service. It may also be that you’re reaching the wrong demographic and those being introduced to what you’re offering can’t meet the financial requests.

When this happens, there are two options you can turn to in hopes of opening up that lead generation system again.

  • Edit Or Delete It: If you’ve noticed a particular system hasn’t been providing good conversion over a specified period of time, you can edit the bounds of it, adjust the settings of your ads, or rewrite sales pages. You could also choose to delete that pathway all together and begin developing a new one that may be a better fit for your target audience at that time.
  • Open Up A Limited Offer: Limited-time-only deals are always a great way to bring a lead pathway back to life. This can help coax people into finally making the jump and purchasing, while also becoming more intriguing to newcomers.

7. Measure Your Lead Management

Once you have designed your lead system, and have fully implemented it, then it is time to measure the system’s success. Keep track of:

  • where your highest-converting customers are coming from,
  • how many hot leads turned into sales, and
  • at what stage of the nurture sequence people transitioned into hotter leads.

Be aware of the conversions and know when they are happening most frequently. Use this information to optimize your lead management system for efficiency and success.

Conclusion

In conclusion, without a well-organized system to manage your leads, it is more difficult to determine where you should be placing most of your marketing efforts, and how you can create a higher rate of customer engagement and, overall, increase sales.

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It’s a Matter of Time: How to Get Employees to Track Hours

How to get employees to track time

When she first met him, Alice was enrapt with the Mad Hatter. Perpetually trapped at six pm, he swept her off her feet, dancing away with his unbirthday celebration.

Eventually, however, his deluge of senseless poetry and riddles drove her away.

A manager with an overbearing fixation on time has a similar effect on employees. When every keystroke is recorded and overseen, it really jeopardizes a company culture that values individual motivation and accountability.

Yet, remote working has become commonplace, and it’s created a dangerous blind spot for managers.

They’re having a rough time finding solutions to questions such as: How is it possible to know if an hourly employee really works 40 hours each week? How can I approve overtime pay? How can I know the amount of time going toward a client or project?

It’s tempting to wish for a “drink me” potion that magically reveals all the data around work hours, but doesn’t interfere with team motivation

There is a strategy, but it’s delicate. The right solution for each team entails carefully looking at all the issues around how to motivate employees to track time.

Anytime you’re ready, let’s dig in.

Give Them an Easy Time

1. Give Them an Easy Time

It’s so simple for employees to just forget to track their time. Yet, it’s information the manager needs: to bill clients, to track projects, and sometimes, to pay employees!

If you want employees to track time consistently, make the process as easy as pie.

Some time-tracking systems are pretty dang complicated. When it takes a lot of digging to figure out where to enter hours, people look for excuses to put it off, and then it doesn’t happen at all.

It’s important to find a simple system where time is recorded with just a click or two. Having the capacity to enter time from a phone really helps.

Friendly reminders work, too. Sending them out every few days, around the end of the day, might be just the jolt people need to get into the software and record daily hours.

Providing incentives is another good idea. Acknowledging perfect time-tracking at weekly meetings, with an award such as a small gift card, motivates people to get on board.

Make a Stitch in Time

2. Make a Stitch in Time

Have you ever had trouble sleeping at night, and the doctor’s advice was simply to do things like turn off the lights, roll down the shades, wear warm pajamas, and sleep in a quiet room?

Sometimes, employees get hung-up just because the basics aren’t covered. Or they’re hazy about the overall process: they want to understand the “why” behind the system, and now just the “how.”

Particularly when onboarding employees, but also at least once a year, make an effort to explain time-tracking expectations thoroughly and completely.

In order to eliminate miscommunication, it’s important to explain the process in person. Then, follow up with an email. Here are some points to address.

  • Time-tracking software is complex and overwhelming! Never assume that anyone can just figure it out on their own. Provide thorough instructions as to where everyone is expected to clock in and out. Using spreadsheets helps to illustrate the process to visual learners. Also, make the process as simple as possible. This way, it can be quickly learned and remembered.
  • Get everyone clear on the process for overtime approval. Let them know whether it goes through human resources or the employees’ manager.
  • Sometimes it isn’t necessary for exempt employees to track time, so clarify to everyone in the company who will and won’t be using time-tracking software.
  • Explain how time-tracking benefits both employees and managers.
  • Let employees know that it isn’t necessary to be precise: time-tracking is a gauge, to give managers a ballpark. Being fifteen minutes off isn’t a big deal.

These are some key areas to cover. Communicating the information verbally, visually, and with text makes it digestible to a variety of learning styles.

Being Ahead of One’s Time

3. Being Ahead of One’s Time

In a transparent culture, employees receive as much information about the company’s decisions and processes as possible. This open communication makes employees trust managers, and increases their willingness to cooperate with procedures.

In an instance where a company updates to a new time-tracking software, employees rightfully may want to know something about it. Answering all questions thoroughly, in full transparency, increases the likelihood that they’ll play along.

It’s important to provide clarity around the following points, and any other questions that arise.

  • Time-tracking software uses various methods to monitor employees as they work. Some take photos of the desktop at random times of the day and monitor mouse pad activity, while others track all keyboard activity, and take videos of the employee throughout the entire workday. To prevent a paranoid “big brother is watching” atmosphere in the work environment, it’s important to fully disclose to employees how their work is monitored.
  • Explain why the update is taking place: what does the current software offer that the previous software did not?
  • Be clear with employees about the consequences of failing to track time. Will this result in negative feedback from the manager, and be reflected in their performance score? If so, be sure they understand this.
  • Why did the company choose this particular software, and what other software did they consider?
  • It’s not uncommon for employees to work overtime at certain times of the month and year. In these instances, what is the process for having overtime approved?

These are just a few of the questions that may come up. The increased surveillance utilized by some time-tracking softwares will be an adjustment. Some employees may find it intimidating and possibly demotivating.

Thoroughly answering all anticipated questions helps to assuage these concerns. Being fully transparent about the system makes the employees feel like they’re part of the process, and they’re more inclined to trust it.

Smoothing a Wrinkle in Time

4. Smoothing a Wrinkle in Time

Culture plays an integral role in how a company works together, interacts with clients, and completes projects. Two central components to building a healthy company culture are employee well-being and appreciation.

The method a company uses to motivate time-tracking impacts both of these areas. It could place pressure on an employee to work long hours, and it may make employees feel unduly supervised.

For this reason, it’s critical that management look closely at its methods, to be sure they’re in alignment with the company’s core values and the culture it aims to create.

There really are no right or wrong answers here, but here are a few topics to consider when communicating with employees about tracking time.

Hustle Culture

Hustle culture has been widely propagated by businesses in Silicon Valley and influencers the self-help industry. It propagates the notion that someone’s productivity is directly correlated to the amount of time they spend working.

When a company fully embraces hustle culture, then, an employee who works fifty hours a week is valued more than one who clocks in at forty.

This makes it impossible for an employee to perform at a high level and still enjoy work-life balance. That is, a company that imbues hustle culture isn’t taking care of its employees.

One way to defuse this mindset within a business is to have policies that measure productivity in terms of milestones and not simply hours worked.

Agile Methodology

The agile methodology for project planning has been widely adopted across many businesses and industries. Its principles of taking an empirical approach to projects has been effective not only with software companies, but in many other areas as well.

The agile method leans heavily on self-organizing teams, and places less emphasis on managerial oversight. A project manager’s role is to facilitate, not oversee.

When a project manager integrates time-tracking into the workday, it can really frustrate this principle of trust.

One antidote to this frustration is to emphasize that time-tracking doesn’t need to be perfect, nor is it a reflection of performance: it’s simply a tool to help understand how a project is going.

Benefits of Guidance and Discipline

Some people are able to get up at 5 am all on their own, while others need an alarm.

In the same way, certain people work best in an environment with little or no oversight. Others, however, need discipline, structure and accountability in order to keep their head in the game.

This is a balance that a manager needs to strike, and time-tracking certainly plays a role.

In sum, it’s important to marry the method for tracking-time with the philosophy and culture within the business. Time tracking is not simply another process, but is a policy that has widespread implications about a company’s culture.

Finding All the Time in the World

5. Finding All the Time in the World

Oftentimes, employees don’t track time because they know they will receive the same salary either way. They just don’t see the incentive.

In these instances, it’s important to communicate that time is a resource, and that it needs to be evaluated and discussed just as you would discuss a budget, or the allocation of any other resources.

Here are a few benefits as to the value of tracking time:

  • In the same way that we tend to save money when we make a budget, we’re more resourceful about how we use time when it’s been recorded. A good time log (developed with time-tracking) indicates areas where time has been wasted. Going forward, a team is able change habits and so use time more resourcefully.
  • When time is closely evaluated, it’s much easier to gauge how long certain things should take. You may think that it takes “forever” to complete a certain task, but when it’s recorded, you realize that it generally only takes 2-3 hours. This knowledge is invaluable in understanding how to set up a timeline and to manage time during the day.
  • When you have a time log of everything that has been done during the week, it can be aligned with all of the prioritized work in the product backlog. This makes it very easy to see if everyone has been spending time on the most important tasks.

When these benefits have been communicated to a team, they’re more likely to develop a consistent practice around it.

Call it a Day

Did this hit you at a good time?

It takes some strategy to develop a method for motivating employees to track time that also maintains integrity with the company’s culture. Each company will arrive at a different solution.

Thorough communication is key. When employees appreciate the value of time-tracking, it’s easier for them to get on board.

What’s your greatest difficulty in getting employees to track time?

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Open Communication At Work – Why We Need It And How To Improve It

Open Communication at Work

Communication is really at the center of the workplace. It guides our relationships with our colleagues, the work that we do and ultimately molds our careers.

While communication in the workplace might be inevitable, a difference remains between good, open communication and poor, closed-off communication. Open communication is when team members are encouraged to share their opinions, thoughts, and beliefs – without fear of being criticized or ridiculed. Closed communication is when one person does most of the talking, and other people don’t have much of a chance to give their input.

To put this in perspective, let’s visualize these two scenarios. So picture this – you work in an office where the person who does most of the talking is your boss. And asking questions, trying out new ideas, or giving your opinion, is met with dismissal.

Contrast that workplace to one where you are encouraged to chat with your peers and superiors alike, and you’re told to ask questions freely and express your opinions and thoughts. Not only will this make you feel like you belong and that your contribution matters, but it will also benefit the workplace and help achieve its strategic goals.

There are actually lots of benefits to open communication in the workplace. Here are our top 5:

1. Reduce error

When a team is unlikely to communicate effectively, misunderstandings are likely to ensue. And misunderstandings usually lead to errors that need to be corrected. For example, imagine that you get an unclear direction. Instead of being afraid of appearing incompetent if you ask for further clarification, you feel confident that your questions will be met with respect and understanding. Asking questions means that you avoid making assumptions about something and avoid taking a wrong turn in the first place.

More input results in better outcomes

2. More input results in better outcomes

When people feel encouraged to communicate at work, they’re more likely to give their opinion and input. Better results come from varied perspectives. But people will only be willing to share their viewpoint if they feel it’s appreciated and valued. Just because someone has worked their way to the top doesn’t mean that their opinion matters the most. One example of why multiple opinions matter is participatory decision-making. Participatory decision-making is a process that gives ownership of decisions to the whole team, coming to a solution that everyone can agree on. And it has been shown to produce the best management outcomes.

3. Creates job satisfaction

Organizations promoting open and accessible communication within a team and between superiors and employees see less employee turnover. By valuing employees and our teammates’ insights and ideas, we motivate them to be more engaged, work harder, and feel appreciated. Therefore, strengthening loyalty and trust, which ultimately contributes to greater job satisfaction.

4. Fostering strong relationships

When employees feel that they can openly communicate with each other, and their superiors, better personal and professional relationships are formed. Resulting in a friendly environment, where jealousy, competition, and indifference can be put aside in favor of collaboration and innovation. When you like the people you work with personally, you’re more likely to stay in your job longer, be more motivated to work harder, and constructively collaborate with your peers.

Increase productivity

5. Increase productivity

Open communication in a team usually means that everyone will be aligned to the goals, objectives, and vision of the team and the organization. This is because they will be clear on what the organization needs from them, and feel free to ask questions if there is any confusion. Employees will be able to deliver better work and increase workplace productivity.

So now it’s clear – open communication in the workplace is important and has a lot of benefits. But if effective communication isn’t already happening in our workplace, how do we make it happen?

First, it might be helpful to understand the barriers to effective open communication. According to a study published in the Global Journal of Commerce & Management Perspective, there are two main barriers to communication – environmental barriers and personal barriers.

Environmental barriers are the characteristics of the organization and its environment. An example of an environmental barrier is the effect of power or status relationships on communication. Say a staff member doesn’t feel comfortable communicating to their boss that a project isn’t going to plan. This barrier to communication leads to further consequences for the team and organization.

Personal barriers result from an individual’s beliefs and values, based on their socio-economic background, and previous experiences. One example of a personal barrier that could hinder communication in the workplace is among coworkers of different generations. As younger generations enter the workforce, it can be a challenge to navigate the different perspectives, beliefs, and communication styles that they bring.

Understanding barriers to communication allows us to reflect on communication more objectively. By having a greater understanding of the environment and personal attributes of an organization and our colleagues, we can approach communication in a way that will be constructive and meaningful.

Here are some tips for how to encourage open communication within your team to overcome any barriers:

1. Set up weekly one-on-one meetings

Usually, the most difficult type of open communication is between employees and their bosses. But if you set up a quick weekly meeting with your direct reports to check in on how they’re doing, what they need from you, and if they have any ideas on the work being done, you’re not only giving them a safe space to openly communicate, but you’re developing a deeper relationship too. They’ll begin to feel more comfortable engaging in a similar way beyond one-on-one meetings, because they feel safe and confident that their contributions matter.

Informal social excursions

2. Informal social excursions

Another way to get your team closer together, and more likely to collaborate, is to encourage outside-of-work hang-outs. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant or complicated. Even hosting a regular happy hour Friday after work gives your employees the opportunity to bond outside of the office. Building these bonds will get them comfortable with one another, so when it does come time to make magic happen at work, they feel free to speak their mind and work together.

Update on the strategic mission

3. Update on the strategic mission

One of the most important aspects of a productive team is being on the same page when it comes to the company’s goals and objectives. Having open and clear communication is important for executing the tasks that contribute to achieving that ultimate goal. Everyone needs to understand what they’re working towards and feel comfortable openly discussing any thoughts, objections, and ideas they may have to achieve that faster, or even go above and beyond that goal.

4. Explicitly ask for your team’s input – on everything

Whenever a new idea comes to the table, or a project is coming about, take notice of who is holding back or not speaking up. Encourage them, in a respectful, gentle way to give their opinion. It can be as simple as saying, “Kim, do you have any thoughts on xyz?” or “Anything else to add on this?” When you ask someone pointedly for their opinion or ideas, they will feel valued and appreciated. When your team contributes, make sure to thank them, show your appreciation, and take their ideas into consideration. This encourages them to keep it up.

Conclusion

The people in our teams were hired for a reason. They have something insightful to add, and we need their contributions to achieve the organization’s ultimate goals. Sometimes, the workplace culture, environment, or team members are not as conducive to open communication as they could be. However, with some simple approaches and tips, your team will be on their way to speaking up when those lightbulbs go off.

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How an Agile Coach Creates a Killer Team

Coaching Agile Teams

Have you ever had the experience of turning your back on a toddler, and in the space of thirty seconds, they’d managed to dump out an entire bag of flour, or spill a gallon of milk across the floor?

After one episode like this, you learn to watch them like a hawk.

It’s easy to bring a similar mindset to overseeing a project. Agile methodology looks wonderful on paper, and many of the central concepts can be learned in the space of an afternoon. Applying it, however, is a different story. It’s hard for a project manager to cut the leash on the team and trust them to solve problems on their own.

Or maybe, for you, it’s more about getting upper management to quit straddling the line between agile and command and control.

I’d be so wonderful to know that if you turned your back on the team, they’d have all the tools and motivation needed to hum right along.

The truth is, no matter what hiccup you’re facing, you can coach agile methods to your team. All you need are the right tools and approach.

An Agile State of Mind

An Agile State of Mind

More than a set of principles and procedures, agile is a mindset. It’s a way of approaching projects that trusts people to do good work without traditional methods of oversight. It in fact professes that this more open framework, which allows teams the freedom to self-organize, is the most fertile environment for solving problems and achieving goals.

Motivated adults don’t need to be supervised like a toddler, right?

This doesn’t eliminate the need for coaches. But the leader’s role is more about facilitating and helping to identify impediments, rather than unilaterally steering the ship.

The key values and principles from the Agile Manifesto provide clear instruction on how to coach a team. Here are four that stand out, particularly.

Come As You Are

An informal online study found that 92% of agile coaches customize their methods, rather than going by the scrum or kanban playbook. This sends a pretty clear signal!

These results reflect one of the Agile Manifesto’s key values: “individuals and interaction over processes and tools.” In other words, this means that yes, the playbook for, say, scrum and kanban are important. However, personal interaction with people on the team takes priority.

As an agile coach, it’s important to meet the team, organization, or product owner where they are, and assess from there. It’s not uncommon to work with someone who’s new to agile methodology. In such an instance, it may be necessary to blur roles and responsibilities and do some coaching.

Build Teams and Motivate

Tony Robbins once said: “What is a must for you and what is a should for you is the difference in your life. Everybody gets their musts.” Not to go too self-helpy on you, but it’s true that when someone wants to reach a finish line, they find a way.

One principle from the Agile Manifesto is to “Build projects around motivated individuals. Give them the environment and support they need, and trust them to get the job done.” That is to say, given everyone is sufficiently skilled and motivated, a team is capable of figuring things out on their own.

What does this mean for agile coaches? They could stand to have some of Tony Robbins’ energy and charisma! Ha ha, maybe that’s going a bit far. However, utilizing tools and practices that increase team dynamics and rapport is central to the role of an agile coach.

Turn Your Back

Turn Your Back

We’ve all had those jobs where our boss hovered and supervised our every move. Or, worse yet, maybe we worked alongside a self-appointed “manager” who spent their days instructing everyone on what they were doing wrong.

That’s not the kind of environment that produces brilliant, creative work. Rather, it instills resentment and fear.

Another principle from the Agile Manifesto is that “The best architectures, requirements, and designs emerge from self-organizing teams.” An astute, skilled team is capable of independently assigning roles and performing at a high level. Within this framework of freedom and trust, they’re able to produce their best work.

This principle takes some getting used to, as it requires a lot of trust. But when all of the other agile tools are in place, including a good product backlog, an agile coach learns that letting go is an important part of the process.

Talk Away

There aren’t any trade schools in how to have a conversation or how to build rapport. But as it turns out, maybe there should be. These sorts of skills make or break a project.

One of the principles in the Agile Manifesto is, “The most efficient and effective method of conveying information to and within a development team is face-to-face conversation.”

Although email is wonderful, in agile it’s mostly used for follow-up. Face-to-face conversation is the most reliable method for understanding tone, facial expressions, and the full meaning a person imparts.

In agile coaching, facilitating open communication is central. Within a remote work environment, this means that video messaging apps and video conference platforms take precedence over text messages.

If you’ve been endowed with the gift of gab, then you’re quite possibly an agile coach in the making. Sometimes soft skills get a bad rap. But within an agile framework, this notion is turned on its head.

As you can see, the role of an agile coach has more to do with facilitation than taking the reins. Soft skills and motivation are central, as are listening and communicating. It’s also important to assess teams and situations for what they are, and go from there.

A Coach Who Facilitates an Agile Transformation

A Coach Who Facilitates an Agile Transformation

“A scrum master who takes teams beyond getting agile practices up and running into their deliberate and joyful pursuit of high performance is an agile coach,” writes Lyssa Adkins in her book Coaching Agile Teams.

Transitioning to agile’s empirical approach is a big step for an organization. From getting universal buy-in to actual implementation, it requires everyone to get up and stretch in a way they possibly never have before.

A good agile coach understands the nuances of each organization, and is able to effectively communicate with the team. Taking some time to find the right coach makes the process successful and fluid. Here are some things to look for.

Passion for Agile

When interviewing and looking through resumes, it’s important to find someone who’s really immersed themselves in agile. A person who enjoys discussing retrospectives, facilitation and sprints is a good start.

A true agile junkie has also attended agile conferences, read books like Coaching for Agile Teams by Lyssa Adkins or Agile Retrospectives: Making Good Teams Great by Esther Derby, and maybe even uses agile methodology in home planning.

Look out for these indicators, as they signal a coach who really is all-in. And this sort of passion translates into a successful transition.

Experience

“An important ingredient needed to call oneself an agile coach is having coached multiple teams and having seen a range of possibilities and limitations and successes and failures across a variety of situations,” writes Adkins.

Agile looks very different depending on the size of the company and the industry. A coach with a breadth of experience knows how to apply agile in companies of different sizes, and with different types of teams. Their array of experience gives them a more intuitive understanding about the principles of agile.

For a team to be high-performing, ideally it would have one designated scrum master. However, this may not be possible for every company’s budget, so it’s not uncommon for a scrum master to oversee several teams.

In order to prevent a scenario where the scrum master’s role becomes secretarial, it’s good to find a coach who has worked with younger companies. They’re likely to understand how to implement agile when a company doesn’t have a lot of resources.

Knowledge

Knowledge

Scrum Master Adam Weisbart worked for several years as an engineer for a social media company, and as a software developer. “When I came across the scrum framework,” he says, “I was super excited that all these things I had sort of learned through trial and error had been codified into this great thing called scrum.”

That is to say, a lot of knowledge about agile is learned through experience. It’s good to find someone who’s developed some on-the-job understanding of agile.

Formal training, such as Kanban workshops, and the Scrum Master Certification, are important as well. The instructor influences how the trainee implements agile. It’s important to dig into the training school for an indication as to how the candidate will work with your team.

It’s good to find a coach who understands the various agile methodologies, including scrum, kanban, extreme programming, and lean. This way, they can assess your particular situation, and apply the appropriate method.

Communication Skills

Constant communication is fundamental to agile. One of the agile principles is: “Business people and developers must work together daily throughout the project.”

In order to facilitate this flow of communication, it’s important to find an agile coach who is warm and approachable.

When a coach doesn’t jibe with a team, frustration mounts. The tension can cause a project to go south.

Going agile requires convincing everyone in the company it’s the right approach. As it’s much different than waterfall, and so entails changing many processes within the company, it’s not uncommon to encounter resistance. A coach with strong soft skills eases the transition, and quickly answers questions and concerns that spring up.

Conundrums for Coaches

Common Conundrums for Coaches

“In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable,” said President Dwight Eisenhower.

Coaching agile is no cinch. For someone with a traditional project management background, it feels non-intuitive. An empirical (agile) approach to projects means letting go of the long-range vision and focusing on the here and now. It means taking the time to make a plan but not being constrained by it.

Here are several traps that many coaches fall into when implementing agile, or using agile within a team, as well as some methods for getting out of them.

Waterfall Relapse

It’s always hard to break a new habit. And for a company, letting go of command and control methods feels at first like swimming alone in the middle of the ocean. It’s very tempting to cling to the known waterfall system of doing things, even if you know these may well sink the project.

When a coach encounters this situation, it’s helpful to find a good agile mentor. It’s also important to maintain strong communication within the team. This is the key to keeping the project humming along. When everyone witnesses the progress, they start to trust the methodology.

By keeping the product backlog up to date, the team understands everything they need to be working on.

And this scenario may call for some education or review. Games and tools, such as Agile Ad-Libs and Agile Antipattern cards, make fun team-building activities that also serve to refresh everyone on the principles of agile. It’s a great opportunity to build some rapport.

A full transition from waterfall to agile will take some time, and entails lots of baby steps, so it’s necessary to be patient.

It’s not uncommon for a team to find itself in a scenario known as “scrummerfall,” where sprints feel like going from 90 to 5 miles per hour over the course of two weeks. In this instance, it’s a good idea to break the jobs in the product backlog down into several smaller projects.

Team Versus Product Owner

Agile is about making human connections. For this reason, it’s really important to approach projects on a case-by-case basis. Some product owners are familiar with agile and their roles, and others not so much. Additionally, product owners come from various backgrounds, including development, project management, and analysis. This affects how they understand and approach the project.

As discussed earlier, rather than pull out the handbook on the duties for the scrum master and product owner, it’s better to meet people where they are. When a product owner doesn’t seem to know what they’re doing, it’s critical to reach out and hold their hand for a time. This may mean guiding them with some user stories at first.

The objective, ultimately, is for the project to buzz along, and for everyone to function as a team, working toward the same goal.

Teams

Teams Keep Changing

In a small company with a dozen or so projects, it’s not unusual for upper management to want everyone working on all projects at all times. On a superficial level, this seems efficient.

But in fact, it entails a lot of wasted time and energy.

The agile method allows for self-organizing teams. This entails going through the four stages of Tuckman’s group development, outlined below.

1) Forming: Everybody meets and not a lot happens.

2) Storming: The group hashes out which role and tasks are assigned to whom.

3) Norming: The team arrives at consensus about the leader and everyone else’s role.

4) Performing: After everything is sorted out, the group begins to perform at a high level.

When a group of people regularly shift around, they cycle through the stages of forming, storming, and norming over and over. This takes away from time they could spend productively working on the project.

Just like multitasking, it’s sheer illusion to entertain any notion that shifting teams around increases productivity.

One way to remedy this situation is to have teams work from the project backlog. Rather than having people move from team to team, have the tasks move to the people.

It’s also necessary to persuade management to keep everyone on just one team. This is where Tony Robbins’ persuasion skills really come in handy. Presenting them with evidence as to the perils of multitasking may help to change their mind.

Coaching Demotivated Teams

Sometimes you may find yourself coaching a team who is just not feeling the love. Maybe they had a former leader who liked to hold the reins or was difficult to talk with, and so everyone fell into patterns of non-communication and resentment.

Here are two things to do about it.

1) Run a timeline retrospective to see where the team is at. Look at everyone’s pros and cons for projects over the year. Create an impediment backlog to use going forward. This makes an good reference tool for identifying and removing anything that demotivates the team.

2) During the daily scrum, just play the role of the facilitator. It’s important to let the team work through things, and to not treat it as a time to gauge performances or ask for reports.

Agile

Practice Makes Perfect

“Becoming a skilled agile coach, like becoming a magician, starts with learning a set of techniques. From there it’s a matter of practice, practice, and more practice,” writes Mike Cohn in his book Succeeding with Agile.

As with most things, honing your agile acumen is something that only happens with time and experience. With a good mentor, too, it becomes easier to let go of the need for command and control.

Although the approach of working empirically and in small batches may sound flimsy at first, a high-producing agile team demonstrates that the approach actually is highly effective.