Get on the right track
Are You a 97 Pound
PM Weakling?
Exercise Your Soft Skills
1 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Session Objectives
By the end of this session, you will be
able to:
• Recognize your soft skill deficiencies
• Express your core values
• Defend them with confidence
• Exercise your soft skills
• Provide useful counsel
2 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Agenda
• Why we lack soft skill muscle
• An unconventional definition of soft skills
• Describe your core values
• Defend your core values
• How to give useful counsel
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Get on the right track
You Lack Soft Skills
* It’s true … I know things
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Get on the right track
You were told that your job is to
create a thing
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The truth is that your job is to
develop the team that delivers the
thing
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Get on the right track
How much time do you spend
developing your team?
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Then you deserve the team you’ve
got
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Here’s a few more reasons that
your soft skill muscles are flaccid*
• Classes put more focus on hard
skills
• Performance appraisals put more
emphasis on results than teaming
• We assume that we are born with
soft skills (or not)
• Practicing soft skills can make us
feel uncomfortable
* Flaccid: soft, mushy, weak
9 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
An Unconventional
Definition of Soft
Skills
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Get on the right track
Soft skills are the ability to defend
your core principles without the
other guy getting too mad.
* John’s unorthodox definition in a nutshell
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This is not
soft skills
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What are your core
values?
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Can you describe the core values
you want to defend?
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Jot down your PM Philosophy
• Don’t waste my time.
• This team is a decision making body.
• I feel comfortable using directionally correct data to
make decisions.
• The whole team commits every deliverable.
• You are expected to provide headlight warnings if we
could potentially miss an important milestone or
deliverable.
• You are the single focal point for your entire function.
• You are empowered to schedule side meetings and talk
directly to anyone else on the team.
• I expect every person on this team to provide tangible
value to the project.
15 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

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You can’t access my Team workspace
without seeing my PM Philosophy
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This gives us the foundation to
exercise our soft skills
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Get on the right track
Defend your core
values
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Get on the right track
Practicing soft skills doesn’t mean
being “Soft”
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Call violations every time you see
one
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Put a Team Tune-up item on your
agenda
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Don’t permit bad behaviors to become
institutionalized on your watch
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Talk Openly About Your Pet Peeves
• Stop attacking me with your instant
message Tommy Gun!
• Don’t embed massive files in emails or
calendar invites
• Stop inviting me to useless meetings.
• Stop pressing these keys
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You’ll be surprised how many other
people share your frustrations and
will be receptive to change.
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How To Give Useful
Counsel
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Jot down a list of Good and Bad
behaviors*
* Deliverables and results will follow behaviors
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Let’s prep for a performance review
Good Behaviors Not So Good
• His attendance is regular and he actively • His attendance is spotty and he is consistently late
participates in the meeting to the meeting. This means that I sometimes have
to repeat things to bring him up to speed.
• He strives to reach consensus with other team
members. • He tends to take a functional point of view on
decisions. He should strive to reach a team
• He is the single point of contact for his function consensus on all matters.
• He closes actions promptly • He sometimes redirects other core team members to
• He provides crisp, clear status reports other people in his function. This extends the lines of
• He considers the customers in every decision He talks about
communication and sometimes results in delays in
closing actions.
project team decisions. I expect AFTER
problems him to keep his
• He keeps his management team well informed • His management team is sometimes “surprised” by
• He manages his stakeholders so that there are few function well appraised of project issues and
“surprises” during checkpoint meetings decisions. they become an
• He schedules sub team meetings to resolve issues He does not assume ownership of change requests
issue.
•
• He drives sponsored change requests through the initiated by his function. He depends heavily on the
established process. PM to call sub team meetings to collect change
request impact assessments and to secure other
• He uses directional data to make decisions team member votes. These are things he should do
He provides tangible value to the project on his own.
He raises risks
•
• He has a sharp mind and he provides critical • He does not highlight risks early. They tend to be
raised after they become an issue.
•
analysis.
early and often
He raises risks early and often and he crafts • He’s bogged down by data paralysis. He requires
effective mitigation plans multiple iterations of cases when the first sizing was
sufficient to make the decision.
• He defines a well constructed plan
• He resists direction from the project team
• He shares his function’s vision / strategy with the
team • He provides little value to the team.
• He solves problems
27 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Provide useful counsel
Steve exhibited this positive behavior _____
The impact on your team
Steve could improve in this area ______
The impact on your team
Love,
John
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Write a note every week …
make it a part of your regular routine
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Teach Positive
Behaviors
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Teach Positive Behaviors
• Tie recognition / awards to a behavior
• Write a pithy note and copy the manager
• Use a template so its fast and easy
• Do it every Friday
• Read this:
http://projectez.com/blog/2008/07/06/chuckies-not-a-monster/
31 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Practical Application
Jot down your PM Philosophy
Communicate it
Draft a list of good/bad behaviors
Show it to your team
Develop a routine [set time] to give
counsel
Give your worst rep counsel today
Give your best rep praise today
32 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Conclusions
It’s up to YOU to develop your
team
• Our soft skill muscle is weak
• It’s not our fault
• We can bulk up our soft skill muscle
by defending our core values
• Counsel team members every time
they attack your core values
• Praise positive behaviors
33 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Pass it on!
Three things to remember and why
they are important to share
1. _________
2. _________
3. _________
Why should I remember these?
– _________
– _________
– _________
34 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Pass it on!
Here’s my three things I want to
remember (yours can be different)
1. Defend my core values
2. Stick to a soft skill exercise routine
3. Focus on behaviors
Why should I remember these?
– I will sleep better
– My team will respect me
– My team will be high performing
35 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Review of Objectives
Now that you’ve completed this
session, you are able to:
– Recognize your soft skill deficiencies
– Express your core values
– Defend them with confidence
– Influence positive behaviors
– Exercise your soft skills
36 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com

Get on the right track
Your next actions*
• Visit my website for more useful tips
www.projectEZ.com
• Learn the Secrets of Project Management
http://www.projectez.com/Reading_Railroad.html
• Join the discussion
http://projectez.com/blog/
* Do it. Do it now.
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Get on the right track
If YOU thought this presentation was
useful / cool / nice, let me know.
Post your comments here
Thanks for
the support!
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Get on the right track
Presentation Author
The contents of the presentation are sole
intellectual property of John Langlois and are not
to be distributed without prior written approval.
Sources for pictures
http://www.projectez.com
http://www.istockphoto.com
39 John M. Langlois, PMP, SCPM © projectEZ.com