You see, during the interview process for a firm a few months ago, I was asked to respond to a series of essay questions. The last question in the series, still clearly stuck in my head some months later, presented the image below along with the following directive:

Place yourself in the following chart by moving the red dot, and then describe why you positioned yourself where you did.

Simple, right? As I was reviewing the questions for the first time, I remember thinking exactly that. And wow…was I ever wrong. As I started drafting my response, I actually ended up having a very strong reaction to this particular request, which caused me to spend more time on it than on the responses to any of the other questions.

Why the strong reaction? Because this seemingly simple task actually caused me to dive deep to think long and hard about how I react not only to the day-to-day events in the workplace, but also how I meet long-term goals and challenges—whether I set them for myself or whether they are part of an organization’s goals and challenges.

Nope—this one wasn’t easy at all. To respond appropriately, I wasn’t just outlining things I’d done in the past, like building programs, listing metrics, or discussing project management or training tools I’d used. I wasn’t just describing how I’d managed a situation, like how I’d dealt with a difficult relationship or meeting. For this question, I had to think about the why behind the things I’d done to arrive at the core of how I think what I think, and the reasons and processes for thinking and working the way I do.

After all, my first impulse was to plop that red dot right down in the center of the grid. I’m that good, right? And you’re that good, aren’t you? Aren’t we all that good?

It’s definitely important to ask all the other questions to discover note-worthy experiences or characteristics of a prospective employee, like individual tactical abilities, level of soft skills, or generally whether or not someone is a good culture fit for the organization. But a question like this one—and removing the temptation to place the dot in the center by making that action a no-no—is an excellent gauge of experience, maturity, culture fit, and analytical thinking, as well as how these things match (or don’t) how the organization works and what the organization needs at the time. (And see here for what I would consider a complementary post to this one. It contains a list of skills I believe most employees should have—not only project managers as the post may suggest. These include soft skills, which would not be an appropriate fit for this type of question.)

So where did I end up putting the red dot? It took some pretty deep thoughts (and yes, a little Jack Handey slipped in there from time to time)—thoughts that occurred over a period of a couple of days, actually. This request spoke volumes to me, and I wanted my answer to shout back in response and ring true to who I am.

So check it out below—here, for your reading pleasure, is the image from the essay along with my response.

Place yourself in the following chart by moving the red dot, and then describe why you positioned yourself where you did.

I am equally comfortable with the strategic and tactical execution aspects of an engagement. In today’s business climate, I believe that to provide the most value to the organization, I must be at ease with and successful in the even balance of both aspects. A balance of strategy and tactics is inherent to good business practices, and that balance should also be applied when managing any project, conducting training, or engaging clients.

Having a strategic focus necessitates a clear-cut understanding of the organization’s goals and objectives, an ability to recognize patterns, predict outcomes, anticipate issues, and incorporate all these to knowingly respond to a changing environment. Participating in the strategic aspects of an organization means knowing why the organization exists and where it will be in the future. It means understanding the organization’s industry. It also allows for a more well-rounded understanding of the tactical execution aspects.

A tactical focus involves planning and executing actions to realize and support the organization’s strategic goals. Appropriate tactical execution will improve efficiency in an organization; processes, products and functions that do not directly correlate to an organization’s strategic goals will be removed. While there are bound to be those out there who would prefer to (or actually do) focus on just the tactical aspects of an execution, I believe that doing so without an understanding of the strategic focus is a form of blind implementation that does little in the way of effectively moving initiatives and relationships, and therefore an organization, forward.

Plainly said, an understanding of strategy allows for the proper weight to be applied to a tactical action, and appropriate and well-executed tactical efforts support the strategy.

Balancing strategic and tactical aspects of any engagement—whether looking at the holistic goals of the company, fostering relationships, creating a marketing campaign, defining a sales focus, or managing a project—is paramount to an organization’s success. While it is certainly possible within an organization to develop a full strategic plan and define many tactical actions, if the two do not support each other then the meaning behind both can be lost.

I also have a preference for balancing multiple priorities; I believe that the traditional idea that an organization must limit itself to one priority at a time no longer promotes success in today’s ever-changing business climate. In order to excel, I am required to balance multiple priorities. At the same time, I must make sure to dedicate essential focus to each priority to ensure that each is completed correctly and capably. Multiple priorities are both drivers and results of running an effective organization. Successful organizations and their employees are, as part of thoughtful strategy and day-to-day business, required to balance multiple priorities to prosper.

Yesterday’s employee would have been considered stellar if the “hands-on” part of any initiative were completed competently. This is no longer the case. Today’s successful employee will understand the organization’s strategic goals and objectives, devise and align appropriate tactical actions required to fulfill those goals, and display excellence in the management of the multiple priorities that are naturally part of today’s business environment.

What role does a project manager play in the sales process?

The business acumen required of a successful project manager should encompass an understanding of the nature of the organization, what it does—and where it’s going. It should also extend to include a solid understanding of the organization’s sales cycle and associated processes. The project manager should have an appreciation of the business goals and objectives for the organization, and in conjunction, a comprehension of the types of business deals and clients that are needed to move forward to fulfill those goals and objectives.

A strong project manager will be in a position to understand product strategy, customer economics, competitive barriers, the organization’s methodologies and practices, and production costs—a position effective in balancing new business acquisition with client retention and the management of existing projects.

Armed with this knowledge, the successful project manager will be a true asset when involved in the development of proposals and the definition of proposed solutions. Being involved in this manner will ensure that the resulting projects and clients are kept aligned with the organization’s goals, development, and practices.

A solid project manager can partner with sales to help the organization avoid some classic “overselling” pitfalls, focusing on and ensuring that:

• any new products sold fit into the organization’s development model and strategy;
• processes pushed during a sale will fit within the organization’s tactical processes; and
• deliverables schedules are set that exhibit an understanding of organizational time, resource, and/or people constraints.

The project manager is someone within an organization who is in a position to see the big picture. The project manager already should have, as a key trait, the ability to step back, analyze situations, and see how pieces fit to become the whole.

In return, the most successful sales process will ensure that both strategic goals and the tactical practices are not overrun. The capable and reliable project manager will be aligned with these sales practices to ensure that the sales process serves to grow the organization to its fullest potential.

Overall, the answer to the question may appear too short and simple on the surface. However, if creating synergy between sales and project management were simple, more project managers would find themselves treated as a fundamental step within the sales process. Yet in some organizations, the project manager’s involvement in the sales process is still superficial, allowing interaction between sales and the PMO only after a deal has been completed.

If a relationship between sales and project management is lacking within an organization, a smart step to take would be to approach building the relationship the same way building a project would be approached. This way, relationship standards and processes can be created to ensure harmony, cooperation, and effectiveness between sales and project management.

For about a month now, we at Your42 have been playing with Minggl, a browser toolbar plug-in that serves as a “social interaction manager.” More on what that means shortly.

We’re digging it, so much that we rock-paper-scissored to see who would get to write about it. I won. I’m fierce with the two-person hand games.

Minggl works with Facebook, Myspace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg, and Flickr. I use five of these six sites. I geek out on the features of each. I like being able to stay in touch with people and receive updates about what’s going on around town—and yes, even if that update is that my friends are late for dinner, especially when it’s me they’re meeting for dinner. (There’s some small—and somewhat perverse—joy in realizing that I’m such an important dinner date that my friends feel compelled to tweet their followers if they’re late in meeting me.)

But as much as I love my social networking, I do have some issues with it.

For example, every so often I get too busy or too lazy and it might be ages before I log into one of my sites. By the time I get around to it, I’ve forgotten my password. That actually happens more often than I’d like to admit. I have a freakish memory for phone numbers and birthdays, but passwords continue to elude me.

Also, while each site has different “friends” (my Myspace has mostly musicians/bands; my LinkedIn has mostly business contacts, etc.), and some of those friends have made the crossover from one site to the next, there are others who should have made that crossover but haven’t. That’s because I haven’t taken the time to look at one site, figure out who I want to connect to on another, make sure I haven’t already connected to that person on the other site—and if I haven’t, go through the steps to set up the new connection. Or if my friends haven’t done that with me. All in all, it takes more time to do this than I usually have.

I also get pretty bored fairly quickly with needing to check each site individually to catch up with the happenings.

Enter Minggl. Minggl is already decreasing some of the angst I have around my social networking sites and it’s making me a more connected person. As a “social interaction manager” it functions to consolidate my logins and friends across my various sites. Once installed to my browser toolbar and configured to point to my social networking sites, it has lots of features I like.

First, from the Minggl toolbar I can use a drop-down list of my networking sites to quickly move from one site to the other. When I choose a site from the drop-down, I’m automatically logged into that site within seconds. It’s much faster than going to the site separately and logging in. Plus, because I’ve already configured Minggl with my username and password for each of my sites, I don’t have to remember my password.

Second, Minggl allows me to see, in a sidebar, all my friends across all my sites. I can also choose to see only the friends from one particular site, but at the moment I prefer to see everyone at once. This helps me to see where the holes in my connections are. I can see, for example, that I’ve connected to my friend Kilgore* on Myspace, Facebook, and LinkedIn. He goes by “Kilgore” on Myspace, but as “Kilgore Trout” on Facebook and LinkedIn. So he appears three times in my Minggl friends list, and because the list defaults to alphabetical, I can see all three connections at once. I like this, because when I choose to show all my friends across all sites, I can quickly tell how many different connections I’ve made to any one person. If I need to make more, I can.

Third, the Minggl toolbar also has a pretty cool scrolling update feature. I can choose how often I want to see my friends’ updates (basically, every 1 minute to 30 minutes), and at the appointed time increment the latest updates from across my sites scroll within the toolbar. No more logging into each site and checking out my dashboard or each profile to get the latest news on my connections. Because the updates scroll within the Minggl toolbar itself, they’re not intrusive. Better yet, I don’t have to interrupt whatever I’m working on to visit each of the sites to get the update.

I can also update my status across all my sites using the “Status Blaster” mStream toggle within the Minggl sidebar, and/or see the status of all the folks in my friends list, however I’m connected to them.

Minggl has loads of other features I’ve barely touched, because the specific features I’ve worked with are what I need to manage my social networking. I like that it’s easy-to-use and is a clear response to what I don’t like about my social networking sites. I’m not a technophobe by any means, and admittedly I’ll probably often spend too much time trying to figure out a technology that isn’t friendly in the first place. An intuitive UI is important for me, and this one is looking good, so I believe it’ll be pretty easy to use by even those folks who are uncomfortable with new technologies. I imagine it’ll even promote their usage across their own social networking sites. It’s already done that for me.

This isn’t to say there aren’t some things that personally, I’d like to see changed, but the changes I’m interested in are largely feature tweaks and are certainly things I can live with right now because I’m already getting tons of benefit from one little download of the Minggl toolbar.

Additionally, the Minggl group are open to suggestions, linking from several places within their site to a feedback area where you can suggest new features. I also recently responded to a user survey where I was able to note any problems I’ve been having and also to suggest features I might like to see. Because the Minggl team has been very nicely responsive so far, I have no doubt they’ll take the survey feedback seriously.

Ultimately, I’d recommend that if you suffer from the same woes with your social networking sites as I do, that you give it a try. If you have the same experience with it as I have, you might just find yourself wondering how you’ve gotten along without it without pulling out most of your hair or cursing your social networking sites into next week.

Let us know what you think.

Have fun,

–Nicki, Your42

*Name changed to protect no one in particular.

What are the keys to successful project management, and why?

Now it just so happens that one of us (that would be me) just went through the same kind of process with another company (but perhaps strangely, I loved it), and was asked exactly the same question as part of a series of essay questions. Since this happens to be the question to which I had the second strongest opinion—maybe more on the question with the strongest opinion in a future post—I decided to share my answer.

And before I begin, just a note to the project management wonks out there: We speak Plain English here at Your42, and try our hardest to keep from littering our writing with a lot of jargon. Instead, we like to think that what we write could be useful to many, not just those in whatever profession we happen to be writing about from day to day.

So duly warned, please feel free to read on.

Keys to Successful Project Management

Successful project management requires participation from all levels of the organization, and embodies many of the same characteristics demonstrated overall in a successful company: management should support a project, and all involved should be working toward a common goal with focused objectives. In the most effective situations, the members of high-performing teams will wear many hats and display a wide range of capabilities.

Struggling organizations often display an almost draconian adherence to the fulfillment of projects and their deliverables that neither accomplish the organization’s goals and objectives, nor do they provide for thorough processes to keep a company efficient and allow the company to grow. This “at all costs” approach to project management is a detriment to the company, and illustrates a lack of awareness about the organization’s environment.

Successful project management bolsters an organization’s goals and objectives, and at its center includes a thriving project manager who possesses a well-rounded range of talents to support the business:

• The business acumen to recommend and implement projects aligned to the company’s direction
• The tactical expertise to understand and employ the processes required for project implementation
• The “soft” skills to manage all responsibilities and organize the team and processes

The successful project manager will have a solid, complementary set of hard skills and soft skills, and be willing and able to exercise and hone these skills to ensure that projects are aligned to an organization’s goals, development processes, and project management practices.

The business acumen required of a successful project manager involves an in-depth knowledge of the business and a natural eagerness to learn and adapt. Knowledge breeds strong strategic skills; strong strategic skills breed success. The most effective strategies are born when a project manager has the capacity to place issues in context. Markets shift, and the successful project manager will utilize business knowledge to provide a strong balance between seeing existing projects through to completion and winning new business. Only when actionable strategies are formed can tactical processes be created to support the strategies.

Tactical skills are the means to the goals determined through strong strategic skills. Key among these are a detailed understanding of both the development and management processes, a willingness to adhere to the practice and methodologies employed by the organization, and a determination to drive this adherence across the organization and with clients. The successful project manager will display complete knowledge of and competence in the detailed work behind any practices and procedures that are inherent to the organization’s business. This includes—but is not limited to—knowing and adhering to deadlines and budgets, organizing and effectively communicating with the project team and clients, documenting accurate project information, developing quality controls, and completing project schedules.

A successful project manager must not only exhibit strength in business knowledge, strategic skills, sound tactical knowledge, and management—a successful project manager must also own and readily exercise a variety of “soft” skills:

• Extremely detail-oriented, even when managing multiple priorities
• Flexibility to adapt to changing environments
• Outstanding written and oral communication skills
• Participates thoughtfully and well as a member of the team
• Upholds standards of integrity, commitment to strong morals and ethics
• Willingness to take personal responsibility
• Communicates respect for other people
• Exercises diplomacy and visionary leadership of the project team
• Admirable work ethic and a passion for excellence
• High level of energy
• Dedication to client satisfaction
• Works well with organizational and cultural diversity
• Possesses negotiation skills and the ability to influence teams and stakeholders

If powerful and well-rounded strategic, tactical, and interpersonal skills are fundamental keys to an organization’s overall structure, teams, and project management processes—possibilities for success are limitless.

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Your thoughts?