Your name is Ethan Hunt. You are a x-PMO agent who is working for a top secret agency.

Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to deliver a project on-time on-budget and on-scope, codenamed Project: Impossible.

I’ve already dispatched a team from your usual force – your undercover business liaison, your technical guru, your hacker developers, and a surveillance expert/coordinator to monitor and cover your tracks. Your preferred virtual assistants will be available to you 24/7 to handle all administration needs including transportation and paper work. As always, you know how to reach me if you need to cut through any red tape that is critical for mission success.

In case you are wondering, that was a rip-off from the Mission Impossible TV series that I grew up watching, which was made into a very successful movie series. I think there is a fourth and final installment coming out this year and it’s going to be awesome. Obviously, I am a fan.

But this post is not about the movie. It is about project management.

What if your next assignment to a project was a project initiation email from your boss that read like the message above? Your PM life would get a lot more exciting, especially if it is perceived as impossible to begin with and a question of survival is the undertone. Would you take up the challenge?

What if you had the option to work with your usual team? I am talking about the people with whom you have worked in past projects. They trust you and they work well under your leadership; and you trust them because they’ve always got your back. What if projects in real life would allow Managers to form a team of their liking? Do you think it will lower your chances of failure?

Think about it and now let’s get back to your mission.

Should you or any member of your force be caught or killed during the mission, we will disavow all knowledge of your actions.

This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds.

Good luck, Ethan.

I am born in the month of May and I consider myself a classic Taurean personality – mentally strong, very stubborn, mostly supportive, sometimes stupid… Generally, I have a high tolerance level but there is a tipping point beyond which all hell can break lose. It’s rare, but it happens. I am the bull. When I see red, I charge.

I used to lose my cool a lot in my school and college days, and even during the early years of my job. I remember the time when my Manager’s reference to me as a resource blew off my lid and I charged at him with my words. The R word still does wipe off my smile as I feel it is wrong to de-humanize your team (Related post: Humanize your team) but lessons in life have taught me not to react instantly in such situations. I learned to let such moments pass by.

There are times when unauthorized thoughts slips through and enter a world of nasty words or rude actions or both on a self-destructive path. It’s happened before and it will happen again. The reality is that no matter how much we try, there are going to be bad days. When blood rushes into the brain we can’t always take a deep breath and make sensible choices. We are only human. We make mistakes. But what matters the most really is what we do next. Can we muster enough of those reactionary impulses to take necessary steps to make amends? How quickly can we free our sensible mind from the grip of guilt and remorse?

It’s tough. Recovering from a bad row with someone and setting things right means that we have to let go of our ego, admit our mistakes, focus on the larger picture and initiate a discussion of what went down and negotiate an agreement to what needs to be done. But it can be done and its effective. Even a simple apology (Related post: The Power of Apologies) goes a long way sometimes. No matter what approach we take or how long it takes, the point is that Managers need to take the first step even in the worst of situations. We are not bulls, not always.

What is your tolerance level to issues, inconsistencies, incompetence, incapabilities, and irritable actions? How much of your personality plays into the level of patience you show towards your team?

Have you seen your Manager lose it? Tell me, what happened next?

People leave Managers, not companies.

The effectiveness and success to managing people lies in the leadership skills, sense and style of the Managers. When done right, people stay motivated and bend over backwards without complain or regret. The Manager and the Team Member builds a relationship fueled by trust.

According to an article by Business News Daily, a 2010 survey conducted by a career-management agency called Right Management revealed that “84% of workers want to quit jobs, find new gigs in 2011“. The article also quoted the company’s President who said that “Employees’ trust has been seriously shaken and there is a general lack of confidence in leaders.” Almost all the top reasons for why employees leave seem to point towards ineffective Managers and broken trust. If we look beyond the obvious reasons for why that is so, we start to see the trail that leads to a much bigger issue.

A Manager who is mis-managed is almost always likely to mis-manage his team.

Leadership is infectious. Good leadership has a positive impact on the team whereas bad leadership impacts negatively. Whatever the effects of leadership, it surely trickles down from the top honcho to many levels down.

A friend recently told me about his Manager who had begun to show signs of maturity causing a positive change in his leadership ways. Such incidents give me hope that a transition from bad to good leadership is not an impossibility. When experience teaches us how to adopt as well as adapt to changing times and situations, it is not uncommon to see such drastic changes in leadership styles. Most leaders I know strive for that continuous improvement. However, in my friend’s situation, there was one compelling factor that could not be dismissed. The change that he noticed occurred only after a leadership change at a level above his i.e. his Manager’s Manager had changed. So if we were to believe that this is not a lone one-off incident, that mis-management is also infectious, then what next?

We have the power to choose.

Change happes when we are dissatisfied with the status quo. But choosing to change is not the only choice we have. We have the power to choose who we work for. So let’s circle back to the beginning. People leave Managers, not companies. In other words, we change Managers, not companies. And there lies the choice, a rather difficult one because unlike companies the value and worth of a Manager cannot be googled.

But there is an easier choice available to us now, every minute of every day, a choice to strengthen our relationship as a Manager with our Team, and vice versa.  Let’s choose to prepare ourselves for the time when we become ready to leave a company to work for a Manager.

Of the 10 years of my experience in the software services industry, I have spent more than half of that time onsite interacting with customers. I am the onsite Lead – the face of the vendor, the contractor, the consulant. It’s a key role – a complex mix of delivery and client services.

You are a leader in your domain and you are embarking on your first or repeat onsite trip. Your proven communication skills, your success in your domain, your high “like-factor” with the customer during the many phone/email communication, and your team coordination abilities… these are the skills that undoubtedly makes you the ideal candidate to perform the very crucial role of the onsite Lead. You tell yourself, “I am ready!”.

I have been in an Onsite Lead/Manager role for nearly 8 years now, intially on rotational stints before becoming a permanent face for the customer. I have worked in the Middle East and the USA; with the Qataris, Palestenians, Jordanians, Germans, Brits, Koreans, Americans and ofcourse the NRIs. Cultural etiquettes to cuisines to movies – my understanding and most importantly my adaptability to these cultural differences became a key factor to help me build key relationships.

Do you understand your customers culture? Are your confident of changing your customer mindsets to accepting your own culture? Can you bridge that cultural gap? Now ask yourself “Am I ready?”.

To be successful at your onsite mission, you need to develop this underlying, yet not often talked about, skill that will prove to be critical. You need to be able to bridge the cultural gap between the onsite and the offshore teams because in our line of work, it is important to understand and respect cultures.

To build that bridge, a simple thought process might help:

At the beginning, you have “Your Way” of doing things and your customer has “Their Way” of doing things. As an oniste Lead, your job is to work your way towards forming a mutual understanding and acceptance of the two different ways of doing things. This takes time and this is where you will struggle but if you have the right attitude, focus and some patience, you will get through this stage. In the end, when “Your Way” and “Their Way” becomes “Our Way”, you know you have succeeded. Until then, keep trying.

Imagine going to the symphony.  Imagine watching the orchestra and all those musicians with their drums and violins and flutes and all the instruments. Haven’t you been awed by talent and skills of all these musicians creating a perfect musical score in response to the “magical” gestures of the Conductor?

Now, imagine what it would be like if the conductor was 7000 miles away from his orchestra?

Today I will talk about a similar ensemble of developers, business analysts, testers and IT personnel working remotely who follow the directions of another kind of conductor – the Onsite Program Manager.

I was born in India, the land of cultures. At a very young age my family moved to the Middle East and most of my childhood memories are of growing up in the gulf. So, I could say that very early in my life I was exposed to different cultures and knew the importance of building relationships with friends and family far away.

In 1994, I returned to India for my Bachelor’s Degree in Computer Science & Engineering. In September of 2000, I got a job as a Web Developer and I have been with them ever since.

Today I am a Program Manager working at a customer facility. I manage multiple IT maintenance and development projects. I work with a team of around 35 skilled people, who are located 7000 miles away. They work while I sleep.

I’ve been a “conductor” of such an ensemble of software development teams for the past 6 years.

In music, the primary responsibility of a conductor is to first set the tempo, then give a clear direction, and finally to listen critically to shape the sound of the ensemble.

That’s exactly what I do as an Onsite Program Manager and let me tell you how.

#1 Set the Tempo

How do I set the tempo if I am miles away from my team? It’s tough. My role expects me to work with people who I can identify only by voice or words in an email, people who I may never actually meet. It is tough but possible.

Setting the tempo to me starts with getting to know my team, establishing effective communication protocols, and enabling them with the power of processes.

What are their names? What are their hobbies? What role do they play and what are their responsibilities? Who do they report to? Who is my point of contact? What are their expectations from me? How do we communicate and resolve issues? What systems and processes will help me check the health of the team and the project?

My point is that, if you are an Onsite Manager working with remote teams, you start by building a rapport with the team. Get them to know you and your role. Then work with them and implement customized processes, those that enable you and your team to function effectively. Put it all together and soon you are all set to create some good music.

#2 Give a Clear Direction

Whenever I interview a candidate for an Onsite Lead role, a common question I ask is “What challenges have you faced with your remote teams?” The almost immediate answer is Communication. The extended hours due to the time-zone differences, the frustration due to cultural differences leading to a difference in attitudes, and the difficulties in understanding the Indian-English accent are just some of their reasons why they feel this way.

These are issues and they are real. They are caused by what I call a “communication disconnect” between you and the far away team. That I think is the real challenge. I can attribute almost every issue or failure I’ve faced in such an engagement to a communication disconnect.

To give a clear direction to our team, we must remove this disconnect.

1. Communicate with your team often.
2. Think, talk and act as though we are a part of them. Do not consider the remote team as third party.
3. Be part of the resolution, not the problem.
4. Assume less, know more.
5. Acknowledge their achievements and pardon their mistakes.

The Onsite Manager must remove the barriers of time-zones and attitudes and cultures, to set the stage for success.

All this becomes easier if you have already set the tempo.

#3 Listen & Shape the Sound

An effective Onsite Manager needs to be good listener. We have to listen to what our team is saying, listen to their concerns and issues, understand them non-judgmentally and be able to remove the noise from the sound.

Listening also means, to be able to check the health of your project, remotely. This is where systems and processes play a major part to help you monitor your team’s productivity; review activity plans, set milestones and meet SLA’s.

Effective listening will help us shape the deliverables to the satisfaction of our customers.

We are not Maestros but don’t we all strive to be one someday? We have a team of talented musicians working for us. They wait for our direction to create a perfect symphony. Let’s try to be the conductors who are always trying to give the best performance ever. Let us keep our audience entertained and satisfied. And let’s get them to always ask for an encore.

Thank You all for listening.