Project Leadership Reflection

Project Leadership Reflection

Sean Sapirman

Prof Ben Pandya

OGL 321: Project Leadership

March 3, 2020
Project Leadership Reflection

Project Management vs People Management

For a leader that deals with people and manages and leads people, learning this type of

management is a game changer; for one reason and one reason only at least to me. This is not

people management. My definition of Project Management is having to juggle different teams

handling multiple priorities on a strict time schedule while adjusting plans to work out problems

that arise all to meet the client’s budget and deadline. This is very different from what I do

which is people management which is leading employees to grow and develop their skills in the

field that I am in to better serve our customers while growing our business to meet the needs of

our stakeholders. It has taken time to understand that while there are similarities between the

two, they are key differences to the approaches.

My Understanding of my Approaches

Both of these classes have helped me to understand more about myself as a leader and

where my strengths are and where I fall short. It has come to the point where my realizations

have become more of a reality for me than at times I would like to admit. Dealing with people

management I had to analyze the smaller components of my job that fit more of the project

management. Like I said, my job is people management, we produce goods and provide

services for our customers seven days a week. What part of my job would be considered

project management? This is where we really get down to the nitty gritty.

Let’s say that my store is going to focus on realigning on everyone's understanding of

roles and routines. We are having some issues and need everyone on the same page and need

this to happen with immediacy. This is the scope of my project, the realignment of

expectations. This is the need of our stakeholders, our customers, because we are not
Project Leadership Reflection

performing efficiently. The team that will be performing this realignment will be all of my

trainers and other leaders in my store. They are given all of the tools necessary to go through

this realignment and are given the timeframe that this needs to complete by. The completion

includes the follow up to make sure that everyone is fully aligned and can demonstrate their

understanding and not just speak to it.

Closing the gaps

An important part of being a leader is being able to recognize your opportunities and

have a solution to turn them into a strength (Team, n.d.). For me, I have come to realize that

effective planning and communication are areas that I need to develop. These are two major

components to project leadership and people leadership. In order to meet the needs of my

customers every day, there needs to be clear plans for each day brings and the leaders need to

have plans for how they are going to approach their shifts. Communication is important

because it is the lifeline that keeps everyone in the loop (Team, n.d.).

A big part of readjusting my approach over these courses was to really focus on where I

was falling short. One of those opportunities for me was my ability to effectively communicate.

An essential part of communication is being able to communicate with the right people at the

right time in the right way. I was effective with outlining what needed to be done, by whom and

by when, the hard part for me was the follow up. I feel that is one of the essential parts of

communication because it is opening up the dialogue to ensure that the goals which have been

laid out on the table are being met and the people executing them are demonstrating their

understanding (Team, n.d.).

Planning involves setting clear expectations for the team and managing performance on

an individual level and a collective level. This starts with outlining the who, what, where, when,

why and how with a planning document. This will help everyone involved understand how all of

the project elements fit together. My shortcoming was that I verbalized everything and did not

have a document that outlined everything. A planning document that outlines everything is

more effective because it allows the team to see everything that is supposed to happen and

when and for what amount of time.

I have adjusted how I approach tasks at work. With realizing that there are plenty

aspects of what I do that deal with project management, so with that came adjustments to

grow my opportunities. When it comes to project set up, I now have a full outline of what is to

be done, by whom and by when along with the goals of the project. My opportunity with

communication was the follow up piece. I go back to each of my team members to follow up on

their progress and to see if they are understanding the work. I look for their ability to

demonstrate what is being asked of them.

Simulation Approaches

The Harvard Simulation Scenarios were an interesting way to teach different approaches

to real life situations. It has made me realize that there is no one approach to projects. The only

similarities going into any sort of a project is having clear communication and a clear project

plan with what is expected and a timeframe. My initial approach to these were to spend a little

more upfront in training to get ahead and slowly ramp down. Meetings played a big role into

seeing all of the projects to completion. These meetings were how the employees got their

one-on-one training, it’s how they discussed what work was going to be done at the beginning
Project Leadership Reflection

of the workday and discussed what was done at the end of the day. I got strategic and

alternated certain meetings during even and odd numbered weeks as I did not want to take

hours away from production but at the same time, I did not want them to feel like they were

not informed or valued for their work.

Each of the scenarios presented with their own unique challenges and hurdles. Some of

them dealt with staffing issues while others gave you a short timeframe to work with and half

way through your team was replaced with new people (Project Management Simulation, n.d.).

There were times that in order to meet the scheduled goal, there were going to have to be

trade-offs, I did not see any other sort of way around certain situations. Most of the time, a big

tradeoff for me was to sacrifice the budget. That allowed me to add the extra labor where I

needed to and to increase the skillset my teamwork working with. Spending more on the labor

upfront would allow me to prepare for those situations if I were thrown into a staffing crisis.

This benefited me on more than one occasion where a quarter or halfway through, I had a

staffing freeze or went down to only one employee (Project Management Simulation, n.d.). In a

way I relied on those to help me bring the spending down because I could not spend on the

labor and was forced to use only what I had.

I found myself getting frustrated frequently during these simulations. Often, I found that

there was not a lot of communication between upper management and my team. There was

just the expectation that if something came up, we would have to plow through it despite how

it affected the project (Project Management Simulation, n.d.). We often found ourselves

struggling to catch up or fighting with morale issues because everyone was extremely

overworked. While these simulations only give us a glimpse into what real life scenarios look
Project Leadership Reflection

like, my big take away is that it left me feeling more confused and with a lack of trust for my

leaders. If this is how I was expected to operate my projects, based on how communication is

then I would more than likely find a company that aligns more with my vision and mine theirs.

My Takeaway from the Simulations

It has opened up my eyes to the fact that I do not want to be in project management as

it does not really deal with people but also how to incorporate key components into my

approach as a leader. Project Management has guided me to a realization that I am still a work

in progress and have gaps in my leadership and have strengths too. I know that while

communication is an opportunity for me when it comes to following up, it is important to be

fully transparent with our teams when we know things are coming up that can have an effect

on the success of the project. This give line leadership the ability to make adjustments in a

timely manner to see that the adjustments are beneficial.

Like I said before, I had to really analyze how project fits into my role of people

management because I am not in the business of time limited projects. I do not have temporary

teams that are only there to complete a certain project and then move on to the next one. I am

there with the same team every day to produce goods and services for our customers. I had to

figure out what part of my job dealt with fitting the components of a “project”. In a food &

beverage setting there are many ways that projects fit into this. My example from above,

needing to realign my team on expectations of their jobs to better meet the needs of our

customers. This is a time sensitive project that is delegated between multiple people and lead

by the project leaders steered by the customers feedback. PM has helped me close my gaps

with planning and understand how to effectively plan along with effective communication. A
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key piece of communication is the follow up piece and checking for understanding. Scheduling

management has allowed me to understand that time goals need to be set to complete certain

tasks, that is my approach when I go into meetings. This is how I organize my agenda and keep

the meeting on track. There is also “what if” time built in just in case. I ensure everyone has a

copy of the timed agenda to keep them all on track too. Last thing I need is to have everything

planned out and to go be over on time for each of the topics we need to cover. Giving out the

agenda also covers the proper planning and communicating piece also.

How to approach the Harvard Simulations

The Harvard Business Simulations gave us a true inside look and feel as to what it would

be like to be a Project Manager. Each scenario focused on the output of a different product

along with setting the staffing parameters, the type of outsourcing you want done, the number

of prototypes completed and the different types of meetings to have and at what frequency.

The objectives were to put out the required printer by the end of the deadline or sooner and

within the budget while maintaining employee morale. Seems simple enough, right? We are

judged based on those criteria, the scope, schedule and resources. The first tip may seem like a

no brainer but it’s the most. In order to fully understand what is expected of us, we need to

read the project scope. This will tell us exactly what is expected of us for each project.

 Scope: The scope of each project was the same, to put out a printer. The senior

management set the expectations for the scope based on the following factors:

o Their analysis of the competitive situation

o Market objectives for a new printer.

Each printer has a certain number of tasks that need to be completed, as scenarios are

completed, the courses build in experience allowing us to adjust each time how we want to

proceed. We have the freedom to adjust the scope at any time, to produce a more advanced

printer and earn more or a less advanced one and earn less.

 Schedule: The project scope will include the analysis of the competitive situation which

factors into what the schedule timeline will look like. There is a deadline for each scenario

and that is the goal, exceed it and gain more points. Utilize the scope to really figure out

how to best approach staffing and understand if at some point there will be some sort of

factor that will have an effect on the scheduled timeline.

 Resources: You cannot effectively work though the project unless there is a full

understanding of the scope and the schedule. This will allow you to structure the project

properly. The resources include the following items:

o Staffing: We have the freedom of choosing the amount of team members we want

working and their skill level. Obviously, more team members will give you the

freedom to do more work (to an extent) but it will also cost more money. Other

things to take into consideration is that higher skills also cost more but are more

productive.

o Outsourcing: This helps to reduce costs but at the same time requires effort to

coordinate the work being done in multiple locations.

Changing the resources during the project can also have a negative effect on productivity.

Increasing staffing or skill will require more training that wasn’t planned and too much

outsourcing I have found can hinder performance because the team doesn’t feel valued.
Project Leadership Reflection

There are three questions that you should be asking yourself while you are on the journey

through each simulation,

 Project Scope: Did you deliver a competitive printer that met or exceeded senior

management's expectations?

 Project Schedule: Did you deliver on time to meet senior management's schedule

requirements? Did your schedule estimate consistent during the project?

 Project Resources: Did you complete the project within senior management's budget

objective?

Learn from the Curveballs

Each of these scenarios had some sort of curveball that was thrown at you. My

approach to each of them was after I read the scope and set myself up, I ran through the

simulation the first time to get an understanding of what it was asking of me. I made note of

when things were going to happen so I could start to figure out how I was going to adjust my

approach. I know this is not how it is going to work in the real world, but these situations are

real life and could happen or something similar could happen. In this setting, I could take my

time and really think as to how I want to change my approach each time I would go through the

scenarios. The overall goal for us is to not only meet the objectives but to learn each time and

really knowledge gain and think outside the box for the next simulation. Use the debriefs as a

sounding board and work through when these get frustrating. Learn how everyone else

approached things and see how you can learn from others POV.
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Focus on what is important to you as a leader

Everyone needed to work together in each of the simulations. That was not always the

case. The team did rely a lot on the project manager for training, motivation, direction. That is

expected and the leader should rely on upper management to communicate down when things

are not going as planned. Communication is the most important successor and the number one

killer of projects. I made it a point to ensure that my team during each of the simulations had

the proper amount of training and meetings but did not want to take up too much of their time

that they felt like I did not trust the work they were doing. These teams are very vocal as to

what they need and when they need it. They tell us at the end of each week how they are

feeling. Go into every single simulation with an open mind and note down everything that is

going on because that information will be useful for the next attempt and unlocks information

for future scenarios.

The End

I have learned a lot about myself as a person and as a leader. I felt empowered enough

and brave enough to realize that my leadership has gaps and that one of those gaps is

something that I felt I prided myself on. After taking both of these classes, I have been able to

realize how much of my work incorporates some form of project management. It may not be to

this degree but on some scale, I deal with it every day and it guides my store to the vision

everyone has set.

References

Project Management Simulation. (n.d.). Retrieved from Harvard Business Publishing :

https://forio.com/simulate/harvard/project-management/simulation/#prepare

Team, C. (n.d.). How Good Are Your Project Management Skills? Retrieved from Mindtools :

https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_60.htm