My immediate supervisor treats me with respect. By Klaus Christandl (General Manager)

Respect:
Respect is the objective, unbiased consideration and regard for the rights, alues, beliefs and property of all people

Self-Respect
Self-Respect is Self-esteem or self-worth is a person's self-image at an motional level; circumventing reason and logic

Self Awareness
There are four elements of emotional intelligence. Self-awareness is the first of these. Self-awareness is about your own understanding of your personal thoughts and feelings about yourself. It is about having a deep understanding of one’s strengths, limitations, values and motivations.

Here are a couple of key points:
People with strong self-awareness are neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful. They simply see themselves practically. They are honest—with themselves and with others. They recognize how their feelings may affect their own personal behavior.

They recognize how their feelings may affect the behavior of others, as well as their job performance.
A strong sense of self-awareness can result in a strong sense of self-confidence.

Those with a sense of self-awareness are capable of seeing what they do well and what they don’t do well. When they don’t do well, individuals with strong self-awareness are not intimidated by asking others for the help they need.

Self-awareness is not a state of being. Rather, we all attain various levels of self-awareness. Our task should be one of becoming increasingly aware of our self and its affect on us and others.

Self Management
From self-awareness flows self-management. Self-management is about how you choose to respond to your emotions and manage your behaviors. It’s about the actions and choices you make. Self-management is like an inner Conversation that keeps us from becoming the prisoner of our emotions.

How do you demonstrate effective self-management?
Through self-control, by keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control.

Accepting responsibility for choosing your own emotional responses – no one “made” you do it!
By learning to appropriately interpret events. Learn to challenge your own perspectives and assumptions about a situation before reacting to that situation.

Be aware of and learn how to manage your reaction to your emotional triggers. Learn to recognize the signs of emotional hijacking before you lose control.

Some of the personal benefits of a heightened ability to self-manage include: trustworthiness, adaptability, flexibility, better relationships with family, friends and associates, optimism in more situations, and heightened self-confidence.

Some of the business benefits of enhancing our ability to self-manage include: an environment of trust and fairness, fewer arguments, politics, and infighting, better relationships with each other and our guests, flexibility to adjust to changing environmental pressures.


Respect
• CUSTOMERS
• ENVIRONMENTS
• COLLEAGUES
• TIME
• PROPERTY HARDWARE

Treasure Hunt Exersice
In order to confirm the understanding of respecting the above 5 areas the Middle Management group was broken down to 6 groups to make observations, take photos and take notes to elaborate the respect of the 5 areas. The groups visited different places around the hotel using the treasure hunt exersice as shown hereunder

•TREASURE HUNT: (Tools: Basket / digital camera) – 45 minutes in 6 groups of 5 persons
Respect for:
–1. CUSTOMERS: Privacy of guests: Observation of how we can enhance the respect for the privacy of our guests
–2. ENVIRONMENT: PICTURE
•Take at least two pictures that show something that is in dis-respect to the environment
–3. COLLEAGUES: PICTURE OF SITUATIONAL OBSERVATION
•How do colleagues show respect for each other
–4. TIME: The value of time: Discuss about a situation when colleagues did NOT respect the value of time and were unproductive and wasting company time.
–5. Property hardware: PICTURE
•Take at least 2 pictures of damage

Customers:
• It is about being profoundly in touch with and showing respect for who your customers really are and giving them the emotional experience they really want.
– Mark Gobe, Author: Emotional branding














Environment
• There is not a time that you walk through the street, when if you employed your senses you would not learn something worthwhile.
– Henry Ward Beecher, Congregationalist














Colleagues
• You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you.
– Dale Carnegie, Pioneer in public speaking and personality development
• You can buy people’s time, you can buy their physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of muscular motions per hour. But you can not buy enthusiasm…you can not buy loyalty…. You can not buy the devotion of their hearts. This you must earn.
– larence Francis
• If we take people as we find them, we may make them worse, but if we treat them as though they are what they should be, we help them to become what they are capable of becoming.
– Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet, dramatist, novelist and scientist

Time •
You can’t do anything about the length of your life, but you can do something about the width and depth.
– Evan Esar












Colleagues & Customers
• When dealing with people, remember that you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotions.
– Dale Carnegie, Pioneer in public speaking and personality development

My immediate supervisor really cares about me. By Mohamed Balkemy (Director of Engineering) and Rainer Meurer (Executive Chef)

What is caring?
Feelings of worth can flourish only in an atmosphere where individual differences are appreciated, mistakes are tolerated, communication is open, and rules are flexible -- the kind of atmosphere that is found in a nurturing family.- Virginia Satir

•v., cared, car·ing, cares.
•v.intr.
•To be concerned or interested.
•To provide needed assistance or watchful supervision.
•To object or mind.
–To have a liking or attachment.
–To have a wish; be inclined.

INDEX
•Supervisor Duties
•Supervisor Credo
•Emotional Intelligence
•Emotional Bank Accounts
•Conclusions & Final Words

What does a supervisor do?
Orchestrating = Helps
Controlling = Shares
Direction = Cares



How can we perform better duties as a supervisor?
Stress Management
•Identifying the sources of your stress
•Living a more balanced life
•Accepting support from others
•Developing coping skills for stress relief
•Organizing and simplifying your life
•Nurturing yourself

Time Management
•Time management includes tools or techniques for planning and scheduling time, usually with the aim to increase the effectiveness and/or efficiency of personal and corporate time use

Team Building
Team building refers to the process of establishing and developing a greater sense of collaboration and trust between team members. “I am only as good as my team is.”

Supervisor Credo
•If employees are continually criticized, they learn to avoid the responsibilities that they might be criticized for doing.
•If employees are treated with disrespect, they find little reason to respect their product or service.
•If employees are treated like children, they learn to act like children.
•If employees are ridiculed or ignored when they suggest new ideas, they learn to avoid creativity.
•If employees are not praised for their efforts or accomplishments, they learn that there is little sense in trying harder or making an extra effort.
•If employees are encouraged and treated with respect, they become inspired to reach their potential.
•If employees are praised and recognized for their accomplishments, they strive even harder to excel in their efforts.
•If employees are treated in an honest and fair manner, they respond by giving the organization an honest and fair day of work.
•If employees are challenged and given the opportunity to use their skills to the fullest, they feel fulfilled and committed to the work they do.
•If employees are seen and treated as mature, responsible adults, they will behave as mature, responsible adults.
•If employees are to succeed, it is the level of support, encouragement, and concern they receive from their supervisor that will determine their chances for it…for the success of the employee is a direct reflection of the success of the supervisor


Emotional Intelligence
Emotional Intelligence, also called EI and often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient or EQ, describes an ability, capacity, or skill to perceive, assess, and manage the emotions of one's self, of others, and of groups. However, being a relatively new area, the definition of emotional intelligence is still in a state of flux. Some, such as John D. Mayer (2005a) prefer to distinguish emotional knowledge from emotional intelligence. The four key points of EI are:
•The capacity to accurately perceive emotions.
•The capacity to use emotions to facilitate thinking.
•The capacity to understand emotional meanings.
•The capacity to manage emotions.


Emotional Bank Accounts
Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People) uses the metaphor of Emotional Bank Account to describe "the amount of trust that’s been built up in a relationship" (p. 188). Trust is needed for a relationship to thrive. Without trust, we may manage to accommodate and endure another person, however, it cannot be mutually satisfying in the long run.
It is easy to take another person, a spouse or friend, a colleague or anyone we deal with, for granted. Yet, the level of good will that exists in the relationship determines the well-being and ease we feel. It provides the foundation we can build on.

Deposits:
Honesty, walking the talk, support, coaching, feedback. Thanking and providing Recognition. Doing something special and helping them to achieve their Human Truths.

Withdrawals:
Lying, stealing, cheating, not following own words. Not managing emotions effectively, shouting and yelling. Making snap judgments without considering their thoughts, feelings or opinions. Finger pointing and blaming. Keeping them from achieving their Human Truths.


The Human Truths (Reminder)
•We need to be understood
•We want to belong
•We long to feel special
•We crave a little more control over our lives
•We dream of reaching our potential


Conclusions & Final Words
He is honest, leads by example, supports, coaches and gives feedback. Thanks and provides Recognition. Does something special and helps me to achieve the Human Truths.

Taking care of the Emotional Bank Accounts with our Associates and carrying with empathy, will increase our Team Effectiveness and help us reach the potential as a Team but also as a Person.

We are evaluated for what we achieve but we only can accomplish those goals with the help of our teams, and we will be only as effective as our weakest link is. Carrying, knowing better our Associates can and will make the difference to our goal of a Warm, Comforting and Connections, Sheraton Miramar.

and More

Caring is knowing, Feeling, and acting in the interests of others. (Forcey)

To care for another person is to help him/her grow and actualize him/herself. (Milton Meyeroff)

To be concerned about and to facilitate the growth and actualization of other people, the planet, and even oneself. (Harriet Heath)

Why is it important?
If you want your business to succeed, you must let love enter your workplace. Flustered? Don’t worry—we’re not setting you up for a lawsuit. All we’re suggesting is that you show your employees that you care about them.
( expert Joanna Brandi.)

How to Care?
To be able to know how you care for some one, you have first to identify the type of your relation with him.
In our business we have two types of relation
1- professional relation
2- personal relation


Professional Relation
7 steps help you to care about new associate
1- Introduce the Staff Finders employees to their co-workers and
supervisors by name
2- Let them know when breaks are to be taken
3- Show them where the washrooms and lunch rooms are located
4- Clearly advise them about departmental policy
5- Ensure that they have the proper tools and work area to do what’s
expected of them
6- Orient them to your needs and expectations – Let the employee know what your department’s standards are regarding the quantity and quality of work you expect
7- Give Feedback...advise them when your expectations are not being met and especially when they are being exceeded


To show caring for your associates
•Catch them doing something right
•Search for their talents
•Listening to them with respect whatever they are saying
•Encourage them to give new ideas and try to adopt at least one


Personal Relation
Wear Your Heart on Your Sleeve(Rama Ramaswami)

My immediate supervisor is an effective listener. By Yasser Sharkawy (Director of Human Resources) and Abdel-Azia Ahmed (Director of Housekeeping)

Find another’s Voice
•“Few of us can do great things, but all of us can do small things with great love”
Mother Teresa

•Communication is without question the most important skill in life. There are basically 4 modes of communication:
Reading,Writing,speaking and Listening.
People spend ¾ of their life doing those 4things . Listening alone representing 40-50% of our communication time.
Q: Do we really know how to Listen???????

Why we need to Listen Effectively

•Good Communication skills are essential for any successful Career.
•Radically improve the relationship with the people around me.
•Conflictive relationships can become productive.
•Saving Time ,Energy, and Resources.
• To Identify Pain / Problems.
•To find Solutions.

Listen to the VOICES of people
•“I’m stuck, in a rut” .
•“No one really values or appreciates me”.
•“My boss doesn't have a clue of all I’m capable of”.
•“I’m angry”. “I'm scared”.
•“I can’t afford to lose my job”.
•“I’m not making a difference”.
•“I’m stressed out ;everything’s urgent”.
•“I have no life. I burned out-exhausted”.
•“The pressure to produce is unbelievable simply don’t have the time or recourses to do it all”.

Am I a Good Or Poor Listener?
“The One who listens does the most work ,not the one who speaks”
Stephen R Covey

Poor Listener
•tends to "wool-gather" with slow speakers.
•subject is dry so tunes out speaker .
•distracted easily .
•takes intensive notes, but the more notes taken, the less value; has only one way to take notes .
•is over stimulated, tends to seek and enter into arguments .
•inexperienced in listening to difficult material; has usually sought light, recreational materials .
•shows no energy output .
•judges delivery -- tunes out .

Effective Listener
•thinks and mentally summarizes, weighs the evidence, listens between the lines to tones of voice and evidence
•finds what's in it for me
•fights distractions, sees past bad communication habits, knows how to concentrate
•has 2-3 ways to take notes and organize important information
•doesn't judge until comprehension is complete
•uses "heavier" materials to regularly exercise the mind
•holds eye contact and helps speaker along by showing an active body state
•judges content, skips over delivery errors

Effective Listening
1Listen carefully, actively to other people.
2Repeat/rephrase their position/objection.
–“Let me make sure I understand your position…you feel our CPMs are too high?”
3Get their agreement that you understand.
–“Is that correct?”
4Respond with a form of an “I understand” statement (vary your responses)
–“I understand…,”
– “Feel, felt, found.”


Types of Listening
•1- Ignoring .
•2- Pretend Listening.
•3- Selective Listening.
•4- Attentive Listening.
•5- Empathic Listening

Techniques for Improving Listening Skills.
•1- Give your full attention on the person who is speaking.
•2- Make sure your mind is focused, too.
•3- Let the speaker finish before you begin to talk.
•4-Let yourself finish listening before you begin to speak.
•5-Listen for main ideas.
•6-Ask questions. If you are not sure you understand what the speaker has said, just ask.
•7-Give feedback. Sit up straight and look directly at the speaker. Now and then,

REMEMBER
Time is on your side! Thoughts move about four times as fast as speech. With practice, while you are listening you will also be able to think about what you are hearing, really understand it, and give feedback to the speaker

I trust my Immediate supervisor. By Ashraf Ramadan (Director of Guest Services) and Hanan Mustafa (Training Manager)

• In a business world where success depends on quality human capital , the coin of realm is TRUST , trust is the key to keeping and motivating those high performance employees who makes a company competitive

Definition of Trust
Webster defines Trust as
“ Firm reliance in the honesty dependability , strength or character of someone “

A Better Orgazational Definition
• Trust is my faith in your ability or word in some specific areas
And includes the degree to which I believe you will look out for my best interests in a specific area

Consequences of lack of trust
• A lack of commitments
• Lower employee satisfaction
• A lack of open communication
• Empty words and unrealistic image

How to encourage trust in a team
• Ask for input and put it o use
• Do what you say You’ll DO !!
• Delegate effectively

How do you develop trust in your workplace
• Covey trust in your team , eliminate checkpoints .
• Explain your decisions
• Spend planned time with others
• Investigate all associates issues , complaints etc…
• Maintain high standards of personal integrity and decency .
• Draft a credo that articulates your beliefs , values and principles .
• Make ethical choices and think about the short and long term consequences of a decision.
• Maintain your standards under pressure , don’t give or cut corners no matters how easy it may be .
• When ethical issues are brought to your attention , respond to them in a serious manner and encourage others to question practices they don’t support .
• Model Starwood code of business conduct and ensure the same for others .
• Always look for win\win solutions
• Promote fairness through your actions.

Trust and Productivity
We believe on working together with trust will lead to improve our performance.
So you can help the others to:-

Prepare themselves for new responsibilities (leadership skills).

overcome personal obstacles ( fear of public speaking )

Reach their full potential through continuous learning (how to Use computer technology).

Achieve new skills and competencies to become more Effective (communication skills).

Clarify and work toward performance goals (to set realistic Goals).
Increasing job satisfaction and employee motivation.

More effective use of organizational resources.

The impact of Trust on how to lead a team

What is a team? A team is a small number of individuals with complementary skills committed to a common purpose, common performance goals and an approach for which they hold themselves collectively accountable.

Team Work Requirements
Combination of knowledge, expertise and perspective that can not be found in a single individual.
Individual to be highly interdependent to get their work done and achieve a common goal.

Characteristics of productive teams:
• The team culture engenders trust, sharing, spontaneity, and risk taking.
• Members participate in setting specific, realistic goals.
• They agree with the goals and are committed to them.
• Intra-team competitiveness is managed.
• All members feel empowered.
• Decision making is by consensus, rather, than majority vote when Appropriate.
• Communication includes all members, and a range of opinions is encouraged.
• The team works constantly on improving its interactions as well as its performance.
• Creating trust skills within a Team

Observations
It is one of the tools which allow you to enhance your ability to offer relevant information in a timely fashion.

By observing the person’s behavior both formally and informally, (but don’t make judgments or assumptions) you will be able to discuss the situation with other to get their perspectives and then his trusts.

Active listening
Active listening encourages communication and puts other people at ease. Active listening also clarifies what’s been said. As an active listener, do the following:
• Maintain eye contact.
• Smile to put the other person at ease.
• Avoid any thing that will distract your attention.
• Don’t interrupt the other person to ask questions to clarify and to encourage him/her to continue.
• Wait until after she has finished talking to plan your responses.

Asking questions
Asking questions is a valuable tool for understanding the other person and determining his or her perspective.

Open questions:
Explore alternatives.

Uncover attitudes or needs.
Establish priorities and allow elaboration.

Closed questions
Focus the response.
Confirm what the other person has said.

Whenever you want to find out more about the other person's feelings, use open questions.

Advocacy:
Building trust will be most successful if you use both inquiry and advocacy in your communications.

• Over-reliance on inquiry can result in the participants’ withholding important information and positions. (Conversely)
• If you emphasize advocacy too heavily, you create a controlling atmosphere that can undermine the trust.

It is important to advocate your opinions in a clear way by :

• Describe the individual's situation.
• State your opinion
• Encourage the other person to provide his or perspective.

Building Agreement:
The agreements are the foundation of trust. You build agreements in the beginning as you commit to working together.

Tips for developing Trust skills
Ask a lot of open questions.
Listen more than you talk.
Act as good role model.
Don't share confidential information.
Try not to solve other people's problems.
Don't pray into an individual's personal life.
Don't use your own performance as yardstick to measure other.

Project Management: By Islam Mahrous (Director of Six Sigma) and Amr Morsy (Director of Sales & Marketing)

A project is a problem scheduled to be solved

Project management is a highly demanding and complex task. It requires organizational skills, the foresight to anticipate the unexpected, and the ability to monitor progress and change course as needed.
In this topic, you’ll learn how to define the scope and mission of your projects, how to plan schedules, budgets, and tasks, and how to build in Plan B, so that your project can keep going even when you encounter obstacles

The project life cycle
A project is a set of interrelated activities, usually involving a group of people working together on a one-time task for a period of one to 18 months. Designing a new car is a project that requires a group of people to collaborate on design, building, testing, and modification. Once the new car goes into production, the project is over, and the responsibility for the car production is replaced by an ongoing department or business unit.
The life cycle of a typical project comprises four phases:
1- planning
2- build-up
3- implementation
4- phase-out

1- Planning
Uncover the real project
Identify the stakeholders
Set your objectives
Define the activities and estimate the time and effort involved

Uncover the real project.
Even when you’ve been given a project with very explicit responsibilities and expectations, it’s still a good idea to make sure you’re preparing to solve the right problem, or to meet the underlying need. The expectations can be clear, but still not go to the heart of the issue.
Here are some questions that can help you uncover the real issue at the core of your project:
– What is the perceived need or purpose for what we are trying to do?
– What caused people to see this as a problem that needed solving?
– Who has a stake in the solution or outcome?
– How do the various stakeholders’ goals for the project differ?
– What criteria are people going to use to judge this project a success?

Identify the stakeholders:
– A stakeholder is anyone who has a vested interest in the outcome of your project
– To help you identify all the stakeholders in a project, consider
what functions or people might be affected by the project’s activities or outcomes
who contributes resources—people, space, time, tools, and money—to the project.
– Once you have identified the stakeholders, ask them to spell out exactly what success on the project means for them. (Occasionally, it’s useful to have them actually sign off on what they expect of the project and are willing to contribute to it.) Because stakeholders’ interests vary, their definitions are likely to differ. One of your critical tasks in this phase is to meld stakeholders’ expectations into a coherent and manageable set of project objectives.
– Beware of "mission creep": As you find out each stakeholder’s definition of success, be careful about trying to accomplish too much. Don’t get caught up in trying to solve problems—even legitimate or urgent ones that your company needs to address—that lie beyond the scope of your project. Throughout the project, you must guard against mission creep—unwittingly giving in to pressure to do more than has originally been planned for. So be vigilant, especially as you are establishing a relationship with your stakeholders. Remember: it’s all right to change the project’s objectives midstream, but do so with your eyes open, not unconsciously—and only after making sure your stakeholders are willing to go along with the changes.

Set your objectives
– When defining an objective, think SMART. In other words, an objective should be
– specific
– measurable
– action-oriented
– realistic
– time-limited.
Time, cost, and quality are the three related variables that most often determine what is possible for you to achieve—change any one of these and you change your outcome. As you define an achievable objective, first consider these variables: ask yourself how the time and funds you have allocated will affect or limit the quality of the result.
Deciding whether and how to make tradeoffs between time, cost, and quality—this is the stuff of project management. It is crucial that you keep all stakeholders informed of any changes in your project’s objectives—and what the consequences of those changes will be in terms of time, cost, and quality. Whenever you’re making a tradeoff that reduces quality, make sure you’ve got your stakeholders on board. To do otherwise is heading for failure.


Define the activities and estimate the time and effort involved
– Work Breakdown Structure (WBS). The WBS is a tool that can help you develop estimates, assign personnel, track progress, and show the scope of project work. Through this tool complex activity is subdivided into several smaller tasks. This can be continued until the activity can no longer be subdivided. To create a WBS:
Ask, "What will have to be done in order to accomplish X?"
Break down your answer into components that cannot be subdivided by asking the same question over and over.
For each fundamental activity (that is, each activity that cannot be broken down further), estimate how long it will take to complete and how much it will cost in terms of dollars and person-hours.
– Estimating effort and duration. Once you’ve broken down the tasks, you can estimate how long each will take. Keep in mind the following:
– Estimates should be based on experience, using the average expected time to perform a task. The more familiar you are with a particular task, the more accurate your estimate will be.
– Estimates are just that—estimates. They’re not guarantees, so don’t let them be changed into firm commitments at this phase.
– When presenting estimates to stakeholders, make sure they are aware of all the assumptions and variables built into them.


2- Build UP
Assembling your team
Meeting as a group
Assigning people to tasks
Setting the schedule
Choosing the best schedule method
Using software for projects
Developing the budget

Assembling your team
The build-up phase begins with an assessment of the skills needed for the project. This assessment flows directly from your work on the Work Breakdown Structure during the planning phase, in which you developed your best estimate for the necessary tasks and activities. Depending on this assessment, your current team may not have certain requisite skills, and so you may need to recruit people who have them. Be prepared to fight to bring in people—either temporary workers or employees from within the organization—who have the additional skills the project needs.
On other occasions a team will be assigned to you, so that your task becomes one of assessing team members’ skills. You will make assignments according to the best matches between skill and task and then provide training for those people who need to acquire additional skills for the project. Don’t forget to budget time and money for any training you or your team may need to cover these skill gaps.

Meeting as a group
Having assembled your team, get them involved immediately at the first meeting. Go over the plan with them in as much detail as possible. Encourage people to point out where snafus may occur and where improvements may be made. Take all suggestions seriously, especially in areas where the team members have more experience than you do, and adjust your estimates accordingly

Assigning people to tasks
– List all the people who are part of the project team and then list all the skills that are required. Go through the lists, have people talk about their own skill sets and let the group assign tasks during the discussion. Or, if you have worked with these people before and know them well enough, make the assignments yourself.
– Doing this in a group setting allows everyone on the team to know what everyone else’s skills are; also, if someone encounters an issue that they don’t have the skills to deal with, they may know who else has them.

Setting the schedule
– While it would be nice to be able to say, "With the resources we have, the project will take this much time," the reality is that most projects come with fixed beginning and end dates. For example, although you would like to get started immediately, the people or materials may not be ready for another two weeks. However, the stakeholders want or need the project to be completed by a definite time. Scheduling is the classic problem of all projects and is also the problem every project manager must be able to solve.
– Two generally accepted methods of scheduling projects—Gantt Charts and flow charts—are designed to follow either the Critical Path Method (CPM) or Performance Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Both Gantt and flow charts can tell you what has to be done, how long a particular activity will take, in what order each activity has to happen, and who is going to be responsible for it

Choosing the best scheduling method
– The best method is the one you are comfortable and familiar with. Don’t be lured into using something just because "everyone else does" or because "it’s cutting edge." Take a hard look at how you like to work and use the schedule method that best fits your habits.
– To assess what method might suit you best, look at the system you use for tracking your own work and see how satisfied you are with it. That may be the way to go with tracking the entire project. But remember a tracking system’s usefulness comes from its ability to inform all the team members of what is going on and keeping them aware that they are part of a larger effort

Using software for project planning
– Any project planning software you plan to use should:
– Handle development of and changes to Gantt Charts and flow charts, including PERT diagrams and calculations of critical paths.
– Provide on screen viewing of information before printing.
– Produce schedule and budgets.
– Integrate project schedules with a calendar allowing for weekends and holidays.
– Create different scenarios for contingency planning and updating.
– Check for over-scheduling of individuals and groups.

Developing the budget
– A budget is not only a list of all the costs to execute the project, but also a look at whether the project’s benefits justify its costs.
– The first question to ask when developing a budget is: "What is it going to take to actually do the project?" To determine the costs of the project, break it down into the following categories:
Personnel. This is almost always the largest part of your budget and includes current and temporary workers.
Travel. Is everyone on site or will they have to be brought together at one locale?
Training. Does everyone know how to use all the equipment? Will training take place on site or will there be travel expenses involved?
Supplies. In addition to the usual computers, pens, papers, software, is there any particular or unusual equipment that will be needed?
Space. Do people have to be relocated from their current spaces? How much room will be required and at what cost?
Research. Will you have to buy studies on this subject?
Quality. It’s is in the eye of the stakeholder.

3- Implementation

Monitoring and controlling changes
Reporting Progress

Monitoring and controlling changes
– You will need to have a system for monitoring the project and controlling it as much as possible. Any project control system should do the following:
Focus on what is important. You will need to continually ask: what is important to the organization? What are we attempting to do? Which parts of the project are the most important to track and control? What are the essential points at which controls need to be placed?
Enable corrective action. Your control system should emphasize response. If control data doesn’t trigger a response, then your system is useless. Your system must use the information to initiate a corrective action; otherwise, all you are doing is monitoring and not exercising control. Be very careful, however, that control doesn’t lapse into the micromanagement of over-responding.
Emphasize timely responses. You need to receive information in a reasonably fast manner for your responses to do any good at all. The best case scenario is to get information on a real-time basis. In most cases, though, weekly updates will do fine.

Reporting progress
– Communicating the project’s progress to the stakeholders is a critical part of the project manager’s job. The best way to do this is to make an agreement at the project’s outset on how frequently updates are needed. As the project progresses, consult with stakeholders to see if either fewer or more progress reports are called for.
– Be aware of the tendency to downplay or hide problems as they come up. If you do this and the problems have a significant impact on the project (in the stakeholders’ eyes), your problem will be twice as large than it owuld be if you had alerted stakeholders to the difficulty in the first place.

4- Phase out
Evaluating the performance
– The final stage in the life cycle of a project is the phase-out, in which your and your team complete your work and evaluate the overall project. It’s helpful for the team to debrief at this point in order to gain the full benefit of "lessons learned."
– Evaluating performance
– In the best of all possible worlds, project evaluations would be conducted by an independent person who could objectively assess the information. Even when an independent auditor is not available, the evaluation must be done in a spirit of learning, rather than with an attitude of criticism and blame. If people think they’ll be punished for problems, they will try to hide those problems.
– An audit report must at a minimum contain the following:
Current project status.
Future status. What will happen to the project now that it has been completed?
Status of critical tasks. What is the current condition of on-going tasks that contain either a high level of technical risk or are being performed by outside vendors or subcontractors, over whom the project manager may have limited control?
Risk assessment. Identify any risks that could have a potential for financial loss, project failure, or other liabilities.
Information relevant to other projects. Indicate any lessons that can be applied to other projects either underway or being planned.
Limitations of the audit. List any factors that might limit the validity of the audit: assumptions that could be changed or information that is missing or suspect. Also note where anyone wasn’t forthcoming in providing information for the audit.

DrEAME Team

We should be concerned about the future because we will have to spend the rest of our lives there.”—Charles F. Kettering

Managers Week Photos

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Managers Week Evaluation

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