This quote shows the value of sharing your vision - the WHAT you want to achieve - instead of focusing on process - the HOW to get there.

As a leader, you focus on vision while those who report to you focus on process.

To your success!

In addidtion to the Pareto Rule (80/20 rule), Gary talks about the two most productive hours in any day. The all important first hour of the day, and the surprising last hour of the day.

Gary writes the first hour of his day. He doesn’t spend it on breakfast or exercise or TV. He uses that first hour to write. He’s a copy writer - one of the best in the world - and his most profitable work is writing. He writes for at least one hour.

As a project manager, supervisor, executive, etc., what is your most profitable activity? Creating your vision? Creating a strategy? Solving a problem? Learning?

Whatever moves you forward in your job and career, that’s what you can focus on for that all important first hour every day.

The surprise hour that helps Gary is the hour before he goes to sleep. He makes the point that our subconscious mind works out all kinds of things for us. And it gets more time and energy to do that while we’re asleep.

Do you have a complicated problem to solve at work? Turn it over to your subconscious right before you go to sleep. Then when you wake up, you’ll have at least one option for solving the problem.

See how that works? Give the problem to your brain before you go do sleep, then use the first hour you’re awake to write down all the ideas that your brain gives back to you. Synergy!

To read Gary’s article, and I think he explains all of this very well, click on the link. http://marketingbullets.com/index.htm

I’ll keep you informed as Gary passes on more of his knowledge.

Projects can be troubled in any area - project team dynamics, stakeholder problems, risks that weren’t identified, procurement of items or services vital to the project product, etc.

Where have you experienced project troubles?

Based on the classic Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, Boylston gives us the story of a modern CEO. This executive has lost his bearings in a world of wealth and success. He’s also about to lose his family and his job. Cutting corners is taking a toll on his life - one that he doesn’t even recognize.

Boylston calls himself a “Rescued Executive,” so he knows what he’s talking about. His vision is to rescue one million executives from the lives that they have created for themselves. Lives that are frantic and filled with anxiety. Lives where the money is good, but the living ain’t easy.

Want to help an executive rescue him/herself? Give them this book. It not only shows the problems, but also the solutions.

This book is easy to read, so get a copy soon. You might recognize someone you know, work for, or - maybe - even yourself.

RescueInstitute.org

As executives and project managers, our jobs are to get work done through other people. If you’re really good at that, you spend a lot of your time talking with people. Motivating, learning, begging, pleading, etc. You find that the only time you have left to actually manage the project, or the department, is after everyone else leaves work for the day.

Would you like to find out how to change the way that you work in order to get more done and have more time for yourself? Then revisit the Pareto Rule. Eighty percent of your success comes from twenty percent of your work. If you can identify that twenty percent, how much more successful could you be by spending all of your time on it?

A copywriter named Gary Bencivenga - one of the most successful in the world - has an article about this very thing. As usual, I can’t think of a better way to put it than Gary does.

There are two things that he mentions in his article that are near and dear to my heart - having a NOT-TO-DO list and managing your time by prioritizing your activities.

Here’s the link to Gary’s article: http://www.bencivengabullets.com/bullets.asp?id=26

He’s planning a follow-up article on this subject and I’ll let you know when it’s published.

Enjoy!

That’s right - for free.

The other great thing about it is that it uses geo-targeting. That means that a visitor based in the US will see trainers who offer their services in the US. As the listing increase, this will be true for other countries as well.

Take a look at it here: http://www.pmhut.com/trainers/index.php

If you’ve ever considered yourself in an executive management position at your company - or any company - then this survey is for you. It is a comprehensive survye, so please allow about one hour to complete it. Here is the official invitation.

Subject: Invitation to Program and Project Managers to Participate in an Important PM Research Project

All Program and Project Managers around the world are urged to contribute to an important research project co-sponsored by PMI and the ESC-Lille Business School (France.) The project is titled “Project Managers as Senior Executives?” and focuses on these questions:

Does experience as a program or project manager lead to senior executive positions? Are there differences in this regard within project-driven versus project dependent organizations in business, industry, and government?

The research will attempt to prove or disprove these three hypotheses:

In competing for CEO & other top jobs, Project Managers:
1. Have disadvantages compared with traditional “functional” managers
2. Need to become Program Managers and PMO directors to achieve top positions
3. Have experience similar to that required by successful CEOs and other senior executives; if so, this should be recognized more that it is at present.

For a more complete description of this research project please go to http://www.pmforum.org/library/research/PMI_ESC_Research_Project.pdf

This research is being conducted with a three-pronged approach:
1. Interviews with CEOs and other Senior Executives in 10 countries.
2. On-line interview/surveys of Program and Project Managers in many countries and business, industrial, and governmental sectors.
3. Literature search and analysis.

To participate by completing the on-line interview/survey: Program and Project Managers in any country of the world are invited to go to http://executive-pm.com/]http://executive-pm.com/ to complete the interview/survey, which will take most people about 1 hour to finish. If you wish to see the complete interview/survey prior to completing it on-line you can download it here:
http://www.pmforum.org/library/research/PMI-ESC-ResearchSurvey.pdf

Benefits to You: Participants will gain these benefits from completing the on-line interview/survey:

• Insight into the pros and cons of this research project
• Ideas for further investigation by you
• Credit for you and your PM organizations in the final report
• Networking with our Project Team members
• PMI PDU credit for the time spent

Interviews with CEOs and Other Senior Executives: You are also invited to participate further in this research effort by arranging and conducting one or more interviews with CEOs or other Senior Executives. To download the project Guidelines for Interviewing CEOs and Other Senior Executives please go to:
http://www.pmforum/library/research/PMI-ESC-CEO-SrExInterviewGuidelines.pdf

Persons conducting these important interviews will gain the benefits listed above PLUS the important personal exposure that they will experience from the face-to-face time spent with the CEOs or Senior Executives whom they interview.

The cut-off date for the on-line survey and the face-to-face CEO/Senior Executive interviews is December 15, 2007. For further information on this research project please contact Prof. Jean-Pierre Debourse at <jp.debourse@esc-lille.fr> or Russ Archibald at <russell_archibald@yahoo.com>.

Please feel free to forward this invitation to all of your colleagues whom you believe will be interested in participating in this PM research project.

Best regards,
The PMI-ESC Lille Research Project Team

Recently created by a project manager who works for an IT company in Canada, the PM Hut is addressing the chaotic world of project management information. I think it’s an admirable goal.

Just to let you know, some of my articles and posts are showing up there. Yes, indeed, a little flattery will get you lots of words.

I added PM Hut to my blog roll - see the links at the left side of the window. Please take a look at it. There’s already great information there.

That’s when I really got fired up about open source. If a volunteer community can develop - and continuously improve - complicated software like this, what else could they do?

Quite simply, everything!

OpenOffice is an open source suite of programs that out performs Microsoft Office. http://openoffice.org

The GIMP is a program that does everything PhotoShop can do. http://gimp.org

Audacity is an audio recording and editing program that took me one hour to begin using productively. (Of course, I’m an electrical engineer, so wave forms are part of my professional training and experience.) http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

There are so many more open source programs that I can’t list them all here. However, if you’re a project manager who’s sick and tired of MS Project or Primavera, take a look at Open Workbench. http://www.openworkbench.org/

Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with any of these products, except as a user.

All of these open source programs work on Mac OSX, too. By switching to a more stable operating system, with so many tools already built in, I’m also able to continue using the programs that I already know.

Now go and discover new lands for yourself.

Technorati Tags: Mac, Microsoft, OSX, open source, Firefox, Thunderbird, OpenOffice, GIMP, Audacity, Open Workbench, computers, software, programs

The blog title is How do You SPEND Your Time? And the article title is Spending Time.

If you like the article, please let your friends and colleagues know about it.