A Dim Outlook

It is so easy to hide behind email in Project Management. 

Email is a great way of communicating clear requirements and keeping a documentation trail for your project team.  It is especially handy for working in virtual teams.

Email can also be a noose! 

I have heard project team members advise their deliverable is delayed because they never received an answer to their email request.  Communication is a high percentage of project management so we need to step away from Outlook and call people (maybe even face-to-face if possible).

Many people manage their tasks via email as well.  If your deliverable email is not in the top 20 of their inbox, the task gets buried.  As project managers, we need to ensure we recognize the way our team members manage tasks so we can ensure we help them deliver on time.  I call this “gentle nagging”.

Dan Markovitz recently wrote a great article about how the problem is the lack of a decent process for handling email, not a lack of time to handle it.  Tim Ferriss wrote about implementing Zero E-mail Fridays.

Once we stop hiding behind email as a single tool, our communication can only improve!

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Offensive

People aren’t perfect.

We can easily be offended by a person’s intentional or non-intentional actions.  I have seen people get upset because an action was NOT taken (“He/She SHOULD HAVE done such and such”).  Gossip can make us offended on behalf of somebody!

I have found lack of communication to be a primary reason for remaining offended.  Either I have not explained my expectations to someone or I haven’t asked the reason why something was done. How many times have you discovered somebody acted rude to you because they were dealing with something aweful or stressful?  It would be great if people remained civil when they were stressed, but wouldn’t it be greater to reach out to them and help reduce their stress instead?

Kevin Gerald wrote: “You do yourself a favor when you forgive others. We must be careful not to pick up someone else’s offense. Even though it’s hard for us to deal with someone offending someone close to us, God calls us to take the high road. Anger, resentment and the desire for revenge can waste valuable energy that could be directed towards positive actions.”