Imagine you have a big problem to solve.

And it has become overwhelming – or it may – with everything else that’s also underway.

It’s time to call in an expert, you say?

But who – for you and this circumstance – is the right one?

Before you look for the masterful resources, reinforcements or experienced clean-up crew for the problem you’re solving, stop and think a few things through.

Consider, for example:

1. Are you sure you need an expert?

You may not.

You may be the best person to solve the problem, even if you think that you don’t have the time or experience or confidence to do so.

Consider the immediate circumstance, and the consequences and benefits of solving this problem on your own, compared to bringing in someone who may can do the job faster and better this time around…but will take the skills with him or her when this work is done…unless they teach, coach or mentor people in your organization while they work.

2. If you need an expert, what do they need to be an expert in?

You may be hiring a technical expert, or someone who’s experienced in managing major change.

Perhaps you need someone to create a new product, process or service for you, or someone who can find better and more cost-effective ways of getting your work done.

Consider, also, if the expertise you need exists in one person, or if you need to look for a few.

3. What role do you want the expert to play for you?

Consider what you want them to do for you, specifically, and how much you can and want to be involved in solving this problem.

- Are they doing all the work for you, start to finish?

- Are they working with you by collaborating or coaching?

- Are they helping you solve this problem and also teaching you how to prevent it or minimize it, if it ever happens again?

- Will your right expert primarily be there to give you confidence, and to be your backup team, making sure nothing goes wrong as you solve this problem?

4. What’s the best way to find your expert?

Some of the places you might check include websites, LinkedIn and other social media, professional associations, alumni organizations, and your own professional and personal networks to find someone well-qualified, and with whom you can work well.

Also, ask for referrals from people who have experience with this type of problem, and have successfully solved it using the help of outside experts.

5. How will you recognize your expert?

Consider what criteria and credentials are important to you in the expert you hire.

- Is their educational background important to you?

It may be. It may not.

- What experience and affiliations do they need to have, if any, to give you confidence they can do the job?

- What prior experience did they need to have in solving this type of problem?

- Is it important to you that they have experience in your industry?

- What working style makes you most comfortable when you work with experts?

Some people are most comfortable working with people who are collaborative, while others seek the firm hand of very directive experts.

Still others like mentoring-style expertise, or a flexible combination of styles, depending on the situation in which they’re involved.

6. Do you need your expert to be able to share their knowledge, leaving you and your team with more skills than you had before?

Or is it OK if they solve this problem – just get the job done as fast and well as they can – and move on?

Many experts have a hard time sharing what they know. Others don’t have any interest in sharing their knowledge, for any of a variety of reasons.

When she was in college, our daughter needed help building her skills and confidence with college chemistry.

The only people she could find as tutors were primarily PhD candidates whose love for chemistry and knowledge were so deep that they had a hard time comprehending what a frightened, overwhelmed freshman didn’t know and couldn’t see.

It was hard in that case for our daughter to find her right expert – and all the while she was getting further behind in college chemistry.

That’s why great experts are, in many cases, like great teachers, worth their weight in gold.

7. Is there any downside for you in working with experts?

Expertise is not to be taken lightly.

And yet, expertise can sometimes restrict creative thought.

Great inventions often come from someone with little or no experience in the industry involved.

Their eyes are fresh, their assumptions are few, and their intuition and creativity are turned on “high,” focusing on their target of having the problem solved, few limitations clouding their beliefs and expectations about what they can consider in getting that job done.

And here’s one final thought.

It’s easy for people to make assertions about their expertise, sometimes without much information to back it up.

But expertise is not swagger, “war stories,” broad assertions, perceived or presumed bragging rights.

It’s a hard-earned asset that can be a relative life saver for you and your company, when an expert is the right one for the job.

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Consider a few recent parties and celebrations at your company (there are a few celebrations to consider, I hope. If not, that’s the first thing about team celebrations that we need to address).

Of the parties and other team recognition that you recall most readily, are they events you enjoyed?

Or were they parties people hoped to get out of as quickly as possible – or avoid attending, if they could?

Team celebrations can be simple, positively memorable, recharging events that acknowledge challenges and milestones that have been successfully met.

Celebrating is the last of the Seven C’s, seven stages of taking an idea from its earliest beginnings, all the way through successful completion and celebration at the end. I covered the Seven C’s in an earlier blog post, Let the Seven C’s take you from earliest idea to ultimate success.

Make sure your celebrations have the power and “rememberability” that you intend.

Here are a few ideas about how to create team celebrations that are remembered fondly, as in, “THAT was the BEST!”

1. Focus on what THIS team cares about when you plan how to recognize good work

If you know your team well, you can guess what would make a great celebration for them.

And if you aren’t sure what’s most important to them for ways to spend a little downtime together, just ask.

Consider these types of things as you plan:

- Is this a group that almost always enjoys its time together?

In that case, you have many choices about how to take time off well together. This group is likely to enjoy its time together, whatever you plan.

- Do they need to spend time together to build relationships and teamwork for future success, yet teamwork is not easy for them?

In this case, look for an activity that diverts them and creates the bond of a shared new experience.

Find an activity that puts everyone on the common ground of learning something new and making new memories together.

Do something neutral where expertise is not needed, where an open mind and the willingness to learn and experiment is an asset that you develop or tap.

- Do they spend so much time at work that team members need encouragement to get away from work now and then?

One way to do this is to give everyone a gift certificate that they can use to treat family or friends to dinner or an evening out as a way to celebrate and refresh.

2. Don’t wait until the end to celebrate…sprinkle it throughout the project

Sometimes the most valuable thing you can do to help a team achieve success is to sprinkle small celebrations through the long weeks and months the team works together.

Especially on long or high pressure projects, the team may need “way stations,” and other regular opportunities to pause, let their hair down a bit, release the stress, and refresh.

Don’t wait till the very end to celebrate progress and results.

Check in with members of the team to see what milestones seem most significant to them, and most worthy of a mid-course celebration.

When a team is working really hard, a small celebration, a brief pause to regroup and refresh can go a very long  way toward strengthening team bonds and creating even greater team ease and success together.

3. Don’t break the bank

Celebrations don’t have to break the bank or throw the project off schedule because, instead of working, you’re throwing a big party out back.

Celebrate in an appropriate scale for the milestone being acknowledged, and the needs of this specific team to pause, honor the quality and positive impact of their work together, and to refresh.

Set expectations about the types of celebrations they can look forward to.

- Respect the team its preferences.

- Respect the time you can invest

- Be honest about the budget that you have (and remember that some of the best celebrations are low-cost events where great creativity is the main thing that you invest).

- Make sure that the celebrations you have are in a scale that are appropriate for how the rest of your company handles such things, as well.

At one company where I worked, a marketing department head threw a HUGE, attention-getting, eyebrow-raising event that was very costly and very much out of proportion with how others were honoring their teams at a time when budgets had been slashed.

The fact that this manager was acknowledging his team was not the problem, but the scale and expense of it was.

Remember these three things as you figure out the right ways to acknowledge success:

- Pause to celebrate in a way that says “celebration” to THIS team.

- Celebrate in appropriate ways at significant times throughout the project…and sometimes, just as a way to pause and refresh.

- Celebrate in a scale that’s appropriate to the achievements you’re recognizing and the time and budget you have.

Make your celebrations memorable in all the best ways.

Create a celebration that honors your team in a way that they appreciate and understand.

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Complete. Finished. Done.

It sounds so clear, so final, right?

Often, the end of a project, and knowing if you have really found and crossed the finish line, is far from clear.

Completing is one of the “Seven C’s,” seven stages involved in taking an idea from its earliest days all the way to celebration of the great results achieved.

I covered these seven stages in a blog post, Let the Seven C’s carry you from early idea to ultimate success.

These are some of the reasons there can be confusion or disagreement about whether a project is complete:

1. Perfectionism, and different priorities are in play.

2. Fear exists about how the product will be received.

3. The team really likes working together (really…it can happen).

4. Problems have arisen and no one is sure how to put them to bed…so the project never ends.

There are other reasons, of course, but those are some of the main causes of a fuzzy finish line, or one that seems impossible to cross.

Let’s look at each of these issues a little more so you can prevent them with your next project.

1. Perfectionism

You’re the expert who’s been hired to do or lead the work.

As the expert who knows what quality work is in your realm, you should advise and try to influence the decision-makers’ understanding about what a completed product is.

In addition, you hope to positively affect the decision-makers’ desire to produce excellent work.

But at the end of the day, the customer decides where the finish line is.

It’s their money and their priorities are the ones you’re addressing.

And your customers, whether they’re inside your company or outside of it, are the people who have to live with the final outcome. The solution must meet their priorities and requirements for success.

As a result, customers may not want finishes or flourishes or details that you, the expert, would love to include in order to meet your peers’ or industry’s most rigorous standards  for award-winning excellence.

Or, as people used to comment about the marketing work at a company where I once worked, “We’re not creating coffee table art, and we’re not trying to win Academy Awards or get our work into the Museum of Modern Art. We’re telling customers about our products, and hope they’re inspired enough to buy them.”

Keep a clear focus on your customers’ goals and objectives for this work.

2. Fear about how the product will be received

This fear is likely to occur if you don’t know a lot about your customers or their needs for your new product or service.

And even if you do, this fear can still occur. It’s like an artist’s performance anxiety.

To prevent it as much as possible, learn all you can about:

- Your customers

- Their needs for this product or service

- Their desire for a product or service like this

- The problems and fears and frustrations they have that this product or service may be able to eliminate or prevent

- How they’re meeting those needs now (what’s your competition, as things currently stand? It may the decision to do nothing about the problem, if its impact is not really felt, or a high priority at the moment).

- How satisfied customers currently are (is there really an opportunity for something new, or is the market saturated?)

Then test the product or service with a sample of customers as you create it.

By the time you release the finished product, customers’ ideas will have been built in.

Market acceptance will be far more likely than if you did all the work in the absence of any customer involvement.

Once you release the new product or service to the full market, pay close attention to the results.

You’re likely to learn a lot about your process of turning a great idea into great results, which will make it more likely your next new product or service will be even more successful.

3. The team doesn’t want to stop working together.

This is a good problem to have.

So often, a team can’t wait to disband.

Consider a team that doesn’t want to go their separate ways a bonus of some type, and an accolade for your leadership, if you’re at the helm.

And then look for ways to work together again in the future, if you can.

4. Problems have arisen and no one is sure how to put them to bed…so the project never ends.

For this, you may need to reset expectations about when the project will be complete. This may mean renegotiating the schedule, deliverables and milestone with  your client and team.

And then make the time to dive into the problems as much as possible to put them to rest.

Or, as may be the case, you may find out they’re not really problems at all – or at least not as big as you feared.

You may, in fact, be dealing with perfectionism or fear about how the product will be received. The answer to those issues is more, not less, customer involvement all  through your development process.

If you found this post valuable, please share it with friends and colleagues who can use this information, too. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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What do great project managers do that other people don’t?

That was one of the questions I asked Women in Consulting (WIC) Community list readers recently as I researched an article I was writing.

I was curious about how they felt about these issues, as well:

Can great project management skills be taught, or are they just natural for some people (i.e., “you have to be born that way”)?

If project management excellence can be taught, how do you think these skills can be learned and developed most easily?

The answers came flying back.

These are the qualities they think excellent project managers have:

- See the Big Picture, and shift easily between the overall view and detail of the project

- Have strong people skills and emotional intelligence

- Build consensus and deal well with all members of the team, including the most challenging ones

- Set up a project well, such as by creating and communicating clear expectations, articulating why the project is important to customers of the work and to the business, and breaking big projects into do-able, assignable tasks

- Are able to ask people to make commitments to achieve team and individual goals, and then follow up well to ensure that commitments made are commitments kept

- Align disparate people and resources to meet business objectives on time and within budget

- Synthesize multiple streams and sources of information well

- Are knowledgeable about the content and type of project they’re managing

- Are process-oriented, and manage the project with an eye to using a good process

- Have good problem-solving skills

- Are observant, adaptable, and juggle well

Here are a few of their specific quotes:

“If you can’t ‘see’ the whole project form the beginning…it becomes just a series of tactics. Project management, when delivered most effectively, is strategic,” one writer explained.

“A good project manager takes the ‘angst’ out of the process, calms down the players, steps in and lets them make their own contributions without worrying about how it is all going to fit together,” said one contributor.

“They have “grace under fire,” explained another.

“They’re committed to the success of the project as well as the people involved. They develop strong and effective relationships with people – not just the project plan and milestones.

When it came to the question about whether great project managers are born or made, one person expressed the belief that all project management skills can be taught and learned. More typical of the responses to this question, however, was the belief one person expressed that some of these skills can be taught, while perhaps 25% of great project managers’ abilities are innate.

What, then, did the WIC Community list contributors see as the best way to develop strong project management skills?

Most described the best way to develop great project management skills as being a combination of learning on one’s own, such as by reading or taking classes, and then supplementing this with coaching or mentoring.

And as a final thought, most added that strong project management skills are vital to success for many organizations.

And, noted more than a few, “You’ve asked questions about one of my favorite subjects!”

If you liked this post, and have friends and colleagues who may find the information valuable, please share it with them. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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You have a great idea.

And you want to turn that pure possibility into pure gold.

You’re ready to roll up your sleeves and dive into action.

You’re ready to create…not just think about getting things done.

Creating is one of the seven stages involved in turning a great idea into great results.

I covered these stages in this blog post, Let the Seven C’s carry you from early idea to ultimate success.

At its heart, the creation stage involves great project management skills.

Think about the best project you were ever involved in.

Now think about the worst one.

What were the primary differences in the experiences?

And what were the differences in the final results?

For the all-important creation stage to be effective, make sure you have all these parts of project and team success in place:

1. Know clearly who your customers are for this work, and what success looks like to them.

2. Have a clear vision of success, and share it with everyone involved in the project.

3. Make sure you have the people and resources you need to succeed.

This is easier to say than to achieve, particularly in a time of sparse resources at many companies.

Still, this is an important thing to think through in order to decide if the project is worth doing now, at all.

4. Create and communicate a solid, easy-to-understand action plan that’s responsive to the circumstances you actually have to work with, rather than the conditions and resources you wish you had.

5. Write and communicate clear and succinct roles and responsibilities.

Make sure they’re well-understood and accepted by everyone involved.

If not, you may constantly fight team dynamics that almost guarantee a less than optimal result.

6. Create simple follow-up and follow-through processes.

Then use them consistently to keep the team focused and moving forward together well.

7. Anticipate possible problems and do all you can to prevent them from happening.

However, if they do occur, respond rapidly and completely to reduce any negative impact that might occur.

8. Be creative when it creates a better final outcome and team experience, yet keep everyone focused on producing results at each step of the way, all the way to the final outcome.

Creativity and serendipity can get you to your goal faster and better than you would ever imagine.

But creativity, if poorly timed and poorly focused, can throw everyone off track…and it may be hard to get them back.

There’s a lot riding on your skill in handling this aspect of team dynamics effectively.

9. Lead and manage the team in a way that allows them to be as self-correcting and self-managing as possible.

10. Set up the systems and team dynamics to make sure you can communicate well, in good times and difficult circumstances, both.

There are other key conditions that lead to project success, as well.

However, if you follow these ten rules consistently with the projects and teams you lead, you’ll be well on your way to creating predictably great results.

If you liked this post, and have friends and colleagues who may find the information valuable, please share it with them. You’ll also like the free weekly newsletter I publish every Tuesday. Sign up for the newsletter here.

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