Risk Management: Planning for the Unexpected
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to guess everything that could go wrong — and come up with a step-by-step plan to address it before it even happens? Of course, it’s pretty much impossible to guess the future. However, we can make educated predictions and projections —...
This Isn’t Going Well — How Do We Pivot?
Pivot, pivot, pivot! — Ross Geller. The one with the cop (ep. 16, season 5). If you’ve ever done, well, anything in life, you know that things rarely go according to plan. Even the most seasoned PMs have faced unexpected issues during a project. What sets them apart...
4 Tips To Encourage Your Team To Participate In Professional Development
Early in my career, I learned the power of professional development when my manager encouraged me to participate in various skill-enhancing opportunities. Soon, I began to ask myself, “What do you want to learn this year?” Like a kid in a candy store, I’d peruse the...
Empowering Your Employees to Become Better Problem-Solvers
For many things, there is no one answer. There is no clear guidance about what steps to take. We have to think through what we're experiencing and then lay out a path to resolution. Determining a path forward makes some people uncomfortable. They want to treat it like...
Work Environments That Can Destroy Teams
Have you ever been on a team of self-driven, motivated, tenacious people? A team where it seems like everyone comes to work prepared to take on whatever the charge is? A team where people are confident in themselves and trust the motives of their co-workers? A team...
How I Landed My First Job on An Airplane
It was February 1996, and I was serving on the National Board of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). I was a senior civil engineering student at Georgia Tech. Several NSBE regional conferences were taking place, and I thought I should show my support at...
Is It Really Imposter Syndrome or Something Else?
I don't propose to know much about imposter syndrome, and I've seen several takes on what it is and what it is not. So, rather than trying to insert my thoughts into something that I am not an expert on, I’m going to name my own syndrome. It's called ‘People aren't...
Honesty is always the best policy
I am not smart enough to tell different versions of a story to different people and keep them straight, and neither or you. You might think you are, but people notice. I hate when I realize that someone is giving me a new and different version of something they've...
Keeping Our Focus on The Main Thing
I always have a long to-do list. I imagine you do, too. I have a long list for home, my kids, for nonprofits I support, for building my business, for supporting each customer, etc. So even though I give the advice, focus on the main thing. I often get irritated with...