Since it was first published in 1989, Stephen R. Covey's The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (Simon & Schuster) has become an influential book. On the bestseller list for more than 200 consecutive weeks as a paperback, it has become required reading for those seeking to improve individual and team effectiveness through the advancement of what Covey terms “Principle-Centered Leadership.” As I continue to study and teach the concepts that Covey presents, I have observed that these principles can easily be applied to the discipline of project management and provide a framework for project manager effectiveness.
Covey's concepts are neither revolutionary nor unique. In fact, it is the simplicity, practicality and integration of the “Habits” that makes their application within a personal and interpersonal environment so powerful. Once introduced to the concepts, any project or program manager could develop a personal action plan (see sidebar) for implementing these habits on current and future assignments.
The Habits
Habit One: Be Proactive. Proactivity means implementing your ability/power to choose and focus on those things you can control and influence—your “circle of influence.” Covey points out that, while a reactive individual's response is determined by the stimulus (“There's nothing I can do” … “I have no control over events” … “That's the way things are”), a proactive individual's response is the result of an empowered, authoritative, “take charge” position: “What could go wrong if this happens?” … “How might we succeed despite this setback?” … “Is this really what the customer/client wants?” According to Covey, proactive people focus their energy on productive actions that add value, whereas reactive people focus their attention on the weakness of others, the problems of the environment and circumstances over which they have no control—what Covey calls the “circle of concern.”
How does this habit relate to effective project management? Proactive project management is distinguished from other disciplines by a management focus on the “circle of influence” (those things over which the project manager has control). The proactive project manager exhibits this habit through four competencies:
- The Project Manager as Decision Maker. The effective project manager is decisive. Only project managers with the proper perspective and the drive to do what is right can effectively evaluate and act upon the implications and tradeoffs associated with important project decisions. For example, when integrating risk management processes, the project manager must address risk from a holistic viewpoint. The mitigation of project risks involves choices and decisions. Project managers who neglect to manage risk proactively through decisive action will surely be managed by risk—forced into a reactive mode.
- The Project Manager as Marketeer. The effective project manager is business-oriented. Within our division, project managers identify and develop additional opportunities to service our clients and customers. Without a proactive project manager, the vision doesn't exist to create/add more value.
- The Project Manager as Problem Solver. The effective project manager is accountable for the successful completion of the project, even when confronted with seemingly insurmountable problems. Ineffective project managers blame “the system” and others when problems arise. Even when the organizational design inhibits the formal authority of the project manager to execute effective problem-solving actions, the project manager must be proactive in the use of other forms of influence to solve problems and complete the project successfully.
- The Project Manager as Team Builder (see Habit Six). The proactive project manager establishes rewards and incentives for proactive team behavior as well. When team members are proactive, Covey says, “… the nature of their energy is positive, enlarging and magnifying, causing the circle of influence to increase …” A wise senior manager once noted that tools do not control projects, people do. The proactive project manager maximizes productivity by encouraging and leveraging the benefits of a participative project organization. A sense of project ownership that this creates within each team member is a highly motivational force. A proactive-oriented team supports the project manager in controlling cost, schedule and scope management issues much more effectively than any project management software package can. Team members can capture historical data and put it to use in later stages of the same project. Therefore, the development, encouragement and reward of proactive behavior of team members by the project manager will go a long way toward ensuring project success.
Habit Two: Begin With the End in Mind. Covey describes this habit as the essence of visionary leadership. It is based on the principle that everything is first created in the mind, before any physical creation occurs. Project managers will recognize this habit as the combination of the first two phases of the life cycle of a project, Concept and Development. From a project management perspective, this habit answers the question, “What are the things this project should accomplish?” It also embodies the concept of management-by-objectives. The cumulative effect of each team member's actions and the summation of each work package completes the end product of the project. But without first defining what the end product's characteristics should be, it is impossible for the parts to be designed in any sort of an integrated fashion.
How could effective project management not begin with the end in mind? Project direction, goals, the mission statement, and critical success factors are all derived from the definition of needs and customer requirements. Again, it sounds self-evident to state that effective project management derives from the effective definition of requirements and effective planning (or as Covey points out, the creation of a blueprint).
Successful projects have been executed on an ad hoc basis without consideration of the core principles of project management, as defined in the PMBOK. But at what risk? What is the danger? Have you ever been involved in a software development project and heard someone (or yourself) say, “We are already behind schedule, let's skip all this planning and start developing some code!”?
Would you like to bet your career on a move like that?
As J. Davidson Frame pointed out in Managing Projects in Organizations (Jossey-Bass, 1987), the primary cause of project failure is poor requirements definition. Beyond that, it just makes good business sense to invest the time and energy with the customer to begin with the end in mind. It is far easier and less expensive to make project changes in the concept and development phase of the project than later during the implementation or close-out phases.
Consider this classic example of visionary leadership: Would it have ever been possible for the Apollo Space Program to have achieved such awesome success if President Kennedy had not first articulated the vision of man traveling to and walking on the moon? The grandeur of the goal created a common sense of purpose for the vast number of interrelated, geographically dispersed project teams supporting the overall program objective, despite humbling technological and scheduling hurdles that at first seemed insurmountable.
Covey refers to what he calls the “Carpenters Rule”: Measure twice, cut once. The project manager's variation might be Plan thoroughly first, then act accordingly.
Habit Three: Put First Things First. In its simplest form, Habit Three is the implementation of the plan developed from Habit Two. As Covey points out, Habit Three is the physical creation of the vision developed by beginning with the end in mind.
Putting first things first involves the analysis, breakdown and sequencing of tasks and actions: the fundamentals associated with the work breakdown structure and development of the network diagram. Prioritizing tasks is an important aspect of effective project management. As the project progresses, a detailed understanding of the relative importance of the tasks will provide invaluable support as project decisions (see Habit One) and tradeoffs are assessed. This will also assist the project manager in identifying and correcting problems as early as possible, when it is least costly to do so. However, this habit is not just the implementation of the critical path method; it is more closely related to the traceability matrix that relates tasks to critical success factors and important client quality measures.
Another way of looking at project task prioritization goes back to the Pareto principle. A relatively small percentage of tasks, based on their importance, should occupy the majority of the project manager's time.
Thus, “putting first things first” addresses the important issue of time management. Time is one of our most limited resources; once expended, it can never be recovered. The effective project manager has a clear understanding of the difference between important issues and urgent issues. Covey points out that tasks and activities can be separated into four quadrants:
| I. Important Urgent | II. Important Not Urgent |
| III. Not Important Urgent | IV Not Important Not Urgent |
Important tasks contribute to the success and completion of the project. Examples of important tasks include tasks on the critical path, contractually authorized work, and other activities that add value. Urgent tasks are pressing and demand immediate attention but are not necessarily important. The classic example of an urgent task is a ringing phone. The phone call may or may not be important enough to warrant your attention. What important task is not being completed as your attention is continually drawn away to immediate concerns? Isn't there an opportunity cost that must be weighed?
The effective project manager spends time in Quadrants I and II only! (Why devote any of your important time to unimportant tasks? Leave the time wasters to your competitors!) Time management implies the effective use of meetings, limited paperwork and telephone conversations, and the ability to say no (see Habit One).
Covey makes another relevant point with this habit: Time devoted to tasks in Quadrant II (Important but not Urgent) will reduce the number of high-pressure, high-stress events that require project manager attention in Quadrant I (Important and Urgent). Effective project managers therefore spend time developing team member skills and motivation through effective and appropriate delegation, improving communication tools, developing relationships with important team members and associates and designing and participating in team-building exercises. These actions reduce the size and scope of Quadrant I (Important and Urgent) tasks, resulting in more time for Quadrant II (Important but not Urgent) tasks.
Habit Four: Think Win-Win. The success of a project is dependent on the interrelations and behavior of people. The contemporary behavioral view is that conflict between people is inevitable, yet can be beneficial. Covey points out that the use of consensus and integrative decision making is part of thinking win-win. The positive result of this habit is improved and productive group behavioral patterns (See Habit Six) as described in the Tuckman model of a performing team: growth, insight, collaboration, freedom of communication, shared responsibility, personal accountability. (For more information about the Tuckman model, see Project Management Applications, Educational Services Institute, 1994.)
Unfortunately, win-win is not always the most productive or appropriate conflict resolution technique for all situations. Some employees are not motivated—or are perhaps demotivated—by team activities and actions that demand their involvement. Win-win consensus building also may not be the most efficient technique, since it requires a substantial investment of time (see Habit Three). There are some situations in which the project cannot afford the time it takes to reach consensus.
The effective project manager recognizes the sources of conflict in the team structure and can confidently (Habit One) select an appropriate approach for resolving a conflict. When all the stakeholders' interests are served and team members are acknowledged and rewarded for their roles and participation, then “thinking win-win” is an effective project management habit.
Habit Five: Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood. How much of a project manager's time is devoted to communication? The PMBOK and other project management literature suggest that we spend 90 percent of our day engaged in some form of communication and that over 50 percent of that time we are communicating with team members.
I have been taught and have observed in my own project management situations that, although many of us are comfortable, trained, and skilled in reading, writing, and speaking, there is one communication skill that we have not been trained in and may lack—a communication “differentiator,” as Covey terms it, that distinguishes effective project managers from others. That differentiator is the communication habit of active listening.
This habit is relevant to all communications, including communication with customers, team members, suppliers and subcontractors and upper management. The project manager who fails to manage communications will become a bottleneck or will create bottlenecks that can be a disservice to the project. There are many components of active listening, but the relevant habits include listening carefully to what the other person has to say, then summarizing and rephrasing what you heard in order to clarify your understanding of the other's position or feelings. It is very powerful and affirming for someone to feel that their ideas are valued and considered, and rephrasing what you think you heard can clear up misunderstandings.
A personal experience from several years ago may help illustrate my point. Our customer's program manager of several strategically important contracts for our firm asked if we could create a PERT diagram that would integrate the schedules of several projects that “competed” for critical scarce resources.
The way we interpreted this request was to propose a complete overhaul of our project management toolset and information systems to achieve what we thought was his desire. When presented with our proposal, he said that all he wanted was the ability to view the status of multiple projects in the same project file. It turns out that although the customer referred to PERT, what he really wanted was a CPM network diagram. He was disturbed that he was paying for our “professional project management services” when it appeared that we had no concept of the basics of the discipline. All this embarrassment and potential for lost revenue was the result of our failure to use active listening to determine the true requirements and needs of our customer.
Habit Six: Synergize. Habit Six is the essence of project management: the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Your team is more effective by partnering than by working alone. The goal is to far exceed the potential output of the individual team members. The project manager is a team builder who uses all available resources to create value for clients and customers. This value is enhanced as the team works together, functioning as a single productive unit.
This should be familiar material for effective project managers. The project manager is the only team member with the perspective (see Habit Two) to see and understand how the parts fit into the overall plan. As a team leader, the project manager guides those with a diverse and sometimes divergent perspective to develop creative solutions to existing or potential problems. Team building is one of the highest priorities of a project manager.
Habit Seven: Sharpen the Saw. Covey stresses the physical, social/emotional, spiritual, and mental dimensions of this habit. In a project management context, this habit embodies the principle of growth and renewal.
Effective project managers recognize that projects come in an infinite variety, and that they can also be managed (or mismanaged) in a variety of ways. Learning from the experience of others prepares the project manager for that future, never-before-encountered project. Sharpening the “project management saw” includes continuing education, mentoring less-experienced or less-confident project managers, supporting other nonbusiness-related interests through your talent as a project manager (community, church, family interests), and active participation in your local PMI Chapter. In a sense, Habit Seven is the realization that continuous process improvement is as relevant to the discipline of project management as it is to Total Quality Management.
Integrating the Habits
Thus, just as Covey has suggested the seven habits as a model for effective living, effective project management also embodies these habits. An effective project manager:
- Is a leader who exerts authority and control whether it formally exists or not
- Is a planner who knows where the project is headed before action is taken
- Understands how to manage time and can differentiate between what is important and what is merely urgent
- Recognizes the causes of conflict between team members, understands interpersonal relations, and implements the appropriate corrective actions in a conflict
- Is a strong communicator and practices active listening
- Recognizes the importance and value of team building and the contribution of disparate team member perspectives
- Understands that mastering the discipline of project management is a continuous endeavor that requires a commitment to continuous improvement.
It's no wonder that project management is a growing profession—based on the skills and habits identified, project management has a real, tangible, bottom-line impact that cannot be denied! ▄
Doug Ross (PMP) is a senior consultant with Computer Sciences Corp. in Falls Church, Va., who has managed large system integration projects in the federal and commercial marketplace.
Reader Service Number 5027