Companies are faced with a need to constantly be evolving and improving in order to effectively respond to the market. This pressure to evolve usually results in a long list of projects the company wants to complete in order to stay competitive, improve profitability, or respond to regulations. When I joined the board of the PMI Mile Hi Chapter, there was a list of 20 great projects we needed to undertake in order to improve the value we were delivering to our customers and ensure we were staying relevant. The team tried to take on all 20 projects. At the end of the year, how many were delivered? None. Companies must reduce the number of in process projects. Do less to do more. Too many projects result in:

Divided focus. Leaders are spread thin and cannot provide the support projects need to overcome issues that arise. Multiple teams vie for the leader’s attention. This is evidenced by calendars full of meetings and the project not being able to get key decision-makers together timely; deliverable reviews and sign offs being delayed; and leaders multi-tasking while attending project meetings. I have seen this countless times in organizations. Jim Collins mentions in Good to Great, “If you have more than three priorities, you don’t have any.” This is scalable to the organization level. If a department or company has more than three priorities, nothing is truly a priority because the proper focus cannot be given to it. An example of divided focus: we were holding an executive steering committee meeting and the CEO was immersed in his iPad and occasionally glanced up to ask questions that had already been answered just minutes before. Not only was the meeting not adding the value for him, it also sent a message to the project team that the project wasn’t that important and seemingly, not worth his time.

Overworked team. I have yet to work with a company that doesn’t have a capacity issue. Teams are always asked to do more with less without being given the environment to do so. Project teams are often spread thin and face challenges having the time to focus on a project. Project team members are often overbooked in meetings and do not have time to get project deliverables completed until after the standard workday ends. Or, they are forced to work on deliverables while half-listening to project calls resulting in a risk in quality. From a quantitative perspective, an over-allocated team increases risk and increases project duration and eventually cost. From a qualitative perspective, it results in reduced customer satisfaction, because the project isn’t delivering the results expected when expected, and reduced morale of an overworked team.

Extended project timelines. If the project team is anything less than 100% allocated to the project, then the project will be slower than it could be. If resources are 100% dedicated, they can work on project tasks without interruption and be available precisely when the project needs them. Having the entire project team 100% dedicated is not always realistic but the concept is applicable. The objective is to keep projects minimized so project team members can be available exactly when the project needs them, in order to reduce wait time, unnecessary hand-offs, and partially done work that is not delivering value, which all culminates into waste.

Increased risk. The more in-flight projects, the more risk. First, it puts quality at risk. As mentioned above, if there are many projects in flight, there is a divided focus. This division can result in poor decision-making because the proper amount of time is not being put into making a quality decision. Quality can also be compromised due to resources moving between projects and therefore rushing to get things done and possibly taking shortcuts, or forgetting where they left off and missing important details. Second, there is a risk that the solution the project is delivering will be obsolete or will be delivering at a lower project ROI. The business landscape is always changing and if solutions are being delivered a year after the business need was identified, the market opportunity may be missed, or the market may have shifted enough that the solution is no longer able to capitalize on the opportunity to achieve the company’s IRR.

Managing the project portfolio is important in order to support project success. If an organization has a right-sized portfolio, it will likely reduce the number of projects that ever get off-track. And if a project does get off-track, the leaders and resources will have the availability necessary to support the project to get it back on track. This isn’t possible if an organization is taking on too many projects simultaneously.

Right-sizing portfolios can be challenging and deserves its own blog post. But some key things to look at are ensuring that the organization is delivering no more than three enterprise-wide projects at once. After allocating those resources, if a department or team still has capacity, they can look to deliver their own department or team specific projects – again, no more than three. Starting here will often bring up questions around ancillary project team members (ones with highly specialized skills) and under allocated resources. It may mean you have to redesign the way projects are staffed. We will discuss these in the future.

What ways have you seen companies effectively manage portfolio size? What benefits did you see?

Jana Axline is Chief Project Officer at Project Genetics and the author of Becoming You. Through her leadership musings, she inspires audiences to grow as leaders and ultimately achieve who they were created to be. For more information visit Project Genetics.

When I once joined a project as a recovery consultant, the organization had already spent $10 million on a Salesforce implementation. Despite the amount of money invested, nothing was yet in production. It was one of the top three initiatives in the company. One of the first things I do during a project rescue is to understand the project org chart. As the team was walking me through it, they mentioned that we were to meet weekly with the sponsors. Sponsors? As in more than one? On this project, there were three, each from a different department.

Sponsors play a critical role in project success, and can also be a direct cause of project failure.

When evaluating why a project is off-track, it is important to learn what role the sponsor plays to determine if there is an opportunity for them to be more effective.

Is there only one sponsor? The sponsor is the captain of the ship. Imagine what would happen if there was more than one captain, and each wanted to steer to a different location! In a project, it’s not uncommon for there to be competing priorities between stakeholders. Each stakeholder group focuses on what’s best for them and the outcomes they need. The sponsor must be focused on the overall project outcomes and attaining the project ROI that outlined in the business case. A sponsor is often responsible for sorting through competing priorities and understanding what will get the project the best overall outcome. If there is more than one sponsor, than there is no single point of accountability to project outcomes. And if sponsors have competing priorities that have to be de-conflicted, we will have to go to a leader outside the project to resolve the conflicts. The key is to have a single point of accountability, and that manifests itself as one sponsor.

Have the role and expectations been clearly defined? Often someone is assigned the role of a sponsor with no explanation of what that means. Maybe it’s assumed that the newly designated sponsor knows their roles and responsibilities. Perhaps they are assigned simply because a project must have a sponsor, and no one understands the position. A sponsor is the champion of the project. This person should be the project’s biggest cheerleader. The sponsor should be advocating the project through the organization and ensuring it’s getting the right visibility within the organization. The sponsor is responsible for providing the project with the resources it needs, typically in funding. Finally, the sponsor is the professional roadblock remover. They are an escalation path for the project when the project fails in achieving its results.

Is the right person the sponsor? As you learn the sponsor’s role, you may determine the person assigned isn’t the right fit. The sponsor owns the business case and, therefore, the project outcomes. The sponsor should invest in reaching those outcomes. If the results are to improve customer service and the sponsor is in finance, that is most likely a misaligned sponsor.

Is the sponsor actively engaged? It should be clear that a sponsor cannot be a person who sits on the sidelines and only shows up for steering committee meetings. A sponsor should always know how the project is going, and work with the project manager to adjust project activities to ensure the project hits its goals. The sponsor should be scanning the environment, and validating the project is still going to fulfill the business case and resolve the business driver. A disengaged sponsor becomes an anchor to the project.

If your project is off-track and needs rescue, examine the sponsor’s role and purpose. What challenges have your projects faced when it comes to a less than ideal project sponsor? What techniques have you used to circumvent those issues?

Jana Axline is Chief Project Officer at Project Genetics and the author of Becoming You. Through her leadership musings, she inspires audiences to grow as leaders and ultimately achieve who they were created to be. For more information visit Project Genetics.

Walking into my boss’ office to tell him I was quitting was one of the hardest moments in my career. I was in tears. I loved my job. My boss was wonderful. My team was fun. The company was a great company to work for. But it was time to leave. At university I took the Myers Briggs test. I remember sitting in class, reading about the best careers for an ENTJ. There was one that stood out to me: CEO. That’s what I wanted. Over time I forgot though, distracted by different career options. In my MBA I took a project management course and discovered an entire career field just for me. I poured everything into project management. I began volunteering at the Project Management Institute, worked on finding a project management job, and in general lived and breathed project management. Life as a project manager was great, but there was still something missing.

I walked into my boss’s office and said “I Quit”.   I reached my  “search is over” moment. I was ready to say “I Do” to a lifelong career in Project Leadership.

I said I do to risk. Risk is a funny thing. While it can be quantified,  most people look at risk from a subjective point of view. Staying with a company seems less risky than being an entrepreneur. There is actually a lot of risk to being an employee at a company. Your future is in the hands of its leaders who could decide at any point that you are disposable. Being an entrepreneur has risk as well. Your success is 100% reliant on your hustle. When faced with the option of leaving a company and being an entrepreneur, I asked myself what the worst thing was that could happen if I chose the entrepreneur path. After assessing what the worst future could look like, I asked myself if I was comfortable accepting that risk. I was.

I said I do to giving up the good for the great. I loved my job as a project manager. But something in me was saying I needed to do more. While things were going well, I knew that I wouldn’t reach my potential and my desire to lead a company. As Jim Collins says, “Good is the enemy of great.”  So I quit the good (you can read about the Five Reasons to Quit a Job You Love) and I said I do to the great.

I said I do to talent and passion. I have had so many jobs across many different industries. I remember my uncle teasing me that I never stayed at a job much more than a year. With each new job in a new industry, that I took, I found it didn’t keep my attention very long. I learned what I needed to do the job, but not what I needed to be the best at my job. Project management, combined with leadership and employee engagement, were the attributes I needed to stay engaged because those disciplines leveraged my talent. Talent + passion + discipline = success.

I said I do to agility and resilience.  When I started my company, I wanted to grow to 100 consultants in 5 years. 5 years after starting, the most I had was 10. When I started, I had a very precise business plan to get to 100 consultants. But that business plan didn’t account for the entire landscape I was facing. As time went on, I had to pivot. Same strategic goal, different tactics to get there. I had to be agile enough to try new things and have the tenacity to keep trying when I saw I was still far from the goal. The important thing was, I was still making forward progress. I could see how we were becoming a better company, even if the numbers weren’t where I expected them to be.

I said I do to saying yes and no. Many times I have been asked, “Can you (or your team) help with this?” And the answer is always “yes.” And there have been times that has happened and I have suddenly gotten a panic attack wondering how in the world I was going to be able to accomplish it. But the reason I would always say yes is that I was confident in my skills to figure it out. No problem that my clients were facing was out of my ability to solve. And every time I have said yes, I have been able to deliver. I have also said “no” to opportunities that are really just distractions from the big picture. Entrepreneurs often chase many ideas and that can lead to dilution of effectiveness. I have learned to say no to ideas that don’t align to the overall strategy and purpose of my company.

Saying “I DO” meant accepting that the search stopped here and doing everything it takes to build on the commitment.   I said “I do” to hustling, humility, getting out of my comfort zone and so much more. But it was all worth it. Best of all, I met husband at a project management conference in Singapore and had the same feeling of “search stops here”. I said “I do”. I have realized that saying“I do” unlocks the path to reach your full potential.

Are you ready reach your full potential?

Do you know what you are searching for?  Will you realize when you reach your “Search stops here“ moment? At that instant, will you say “I Quit” to everything and say “I DO” from all your heart?   Are you willing to doing everything it takes build on the commitment after you say “I do”?  Are you ready reach your full potential?

Jana Axline is Chief Project Officer at Project Genetics and author of Becoming You. Through her leadership musings she inspires audiences to grow as leaders and ultimately achieve who they were created to be. For more information visit Project Genetics.

The project was struggling – over budget and behind schedule. It was a critical subproject of a larger program and delivery was critical. Senior leadership decided it was time to change the project manager, and I was brought in to lead a turnaround effort. As I was digging into the details of the project, I came to the conclusion that my predecessor wasn’t a bad project manager (thankfully he was just transferred and not let go). The project needed a different leader with a different style and set of skills. If you have projects in your portfolio that are struggling or the team is burnt out, here are some reasons it may be good to change the project manager:

Infuse the team with energy. If the team is burnt out, it becomes difficult to work in the same environment day after day, facing struggles. When projects aren’t executing as planned, it’s not uncommon for morale to decrease as the project team blames themselves. Bringing in a new project manager can help the team rally. Changing something in the team’s environment can be invigorating.

Bring a new perspective. Changing project managers can bring a new perspective in the project. As the project manager gets up to speed, they have the opportunity to ask questions and review project materials that can result in uncovering inefficiencies, project waste, or hidden issues. Reviewing the project from a fresh perspective allows the new project manager to approach it in a different way that could be more effective.

Align skills. In my story above, as I assessed the state of the project I realized that part of the reason the project was off-track was due to the project manager being so technically oriented. It was a complex project and the project manager spent excessive time trying to solve the technical issues instead of managing the project. When I took over the project, I facilitated issue resolution instead of trying to solve issues myself. I had more time to focus on other parts of the project. I was able to keep my head up and prevent future issues instead of burying by head in current issues. Aligning project teams with the right project manager can be an accelerator. To do this effectively, it’s important to understand the team culture, the work the team is delivering, and the leadership style of the project manager.

Uncover bad habits. Every project team has a bad habit; some are insignificant but some can adversely impact project success. I was on another turnaround project where the IT team was operating smoothly but there were no processes to connect IT to the business besides a weekly team meeting. IT had a habit of “throwing things over the fence” to the business and the business had a habit of being slow to roll out the products. When I joined the project, we established processes that allowed more effective handoffs. This project team needed a lot of structure to be effective. Bringing in someone new, with a different style, can bring these habits to life, and if you’ve done the proper alignment from the prior point, then your new project manager will be the right person to instill project practices to change those habits.

Project reputation. Sometimes projects drag on and seem to make very little progress. The project can start getting a reputation of failing or not executing effectively. When this happen, people around the organization, outside the project team, start questioning the people on the project, or they talk negatively about the project, “How much more money do they need? They’ve already sucked up millions.” “Why can’t that team hit any of its milestones?” “When is leadership going to do something?” This type of talk makes morale on the project go down further and the team’s effectiveness further decreases. Changing the project manager can give the organization the impression that leadership is taking action and getting involved in the project, which can change the project’s reputation.

Changing out a project manager should be done with care. Messaging and change management are critical. Ensure the project manager being removed is on board and understands what’s in it for them. Clearly communicate to the entire team that the change isn’t a punishment to the project manager or a “demotion.” The focus should be on the opportunities that are being provided to the new project manager and the former one. Changing project managers can revitalize the project but not if it’s executed without carefully communicating the right messages around the change.

Jana Axline is Chief Project Officer at Project Genetics and author of Becoming You. Through her leadership musings she inspires audiences to grow as leaders and ultimately achieve who they were created to be. For more information visit Project Genetics.