Does project escalation help?

You've been there, seen the issues, suffered the consequences and lived through the remedial plans. Does escalating the issues on a risky project really benefit the project? Does engaging the executive team help or hinder? Controversial maybe, but the whole point of different roles in a successful business is to ensure the
best people are involved in the most relevant positions. Where they add the most value.

Getting a CXO involved on what is likely to be a day-to-day issue is highly unlikely to benefit anyone. The decisions they make are important but not necessary on anything more than high level direction and possibly business focus. Lower level resource decisions and tactical selections need to reflect the overall business vision set at the highest level and organisations need to trust the abilities of the team selected to make these decisions.

Does the senior management team really help fix broken projects? How do we decide what breaks a project? Is a RED project in need of senior executive attention? If the project manager needs something, why don't we just let them have it? The only CXO decision here is where there are conflicting priorities. How does 'sitting' on the progress and getting a daily update really help?

My CEO is great at generating excitement in a growing start-up business, he demonstrates great vision and leadership. He is not employed for his ability to manage, or  fix, challenging projects. Escalating to his level does not add much value to any part of a project. Making important decisions is helpful, especially if impacting other business priorities, but where does he get his key input? Others that are probably better placed to make the decision in the first place.

So what help do executive stakeholders offer? Are they simply consumers of the results of their leadership?

It is ironic that once a project reaches a RED status, the main focus of the PM is to report on a more frequent basis to the senior team. When their efforts are far more useful and beneficial focused on the team that is actually doing the work (and hopefully fixing the problems). The senior executives are often keen to offer helpful advice during the many status update meetings, but this is often based on the canned case-studies from their MBA rather than real experience. What the books tell you is often irrelevant when face-to-face with the actual problems, in most cases a solid dose of reality is necessary to help achieve the goals.

Well prepared and documented procedures are designed to prevent projects failing, they rarely offer benefit once a project has failed and is in need of attention. Here you need hands-on, focused support to overcome specific problems not covered in the 'business-as-usual' rules. This is where the experienced 'hands-on' project manager differentiates from the qualified 'professional' project manager with a portfolio of successful deliveries. There is a need to do what will work, not necessarily what the procedure says. Rules are indeed often broken.

I wonder if most successful projects are those that avoid executive support and help entirely (high-level vision and direction excepted). Certainly those that stay below the radar attract less stress and concern for all involved. Then again, in my experience I have rarely been complimented or rewarded for successfully delivering a project that went by-the-book and no-one noticed. The plaudits and rewards have been for rescuing the projects everyone thought were unrecoverable. Not a great example for following good project management practice in the first place.

My usual goal is to prevent and avoid escalation at all costs, even on a challenging project that has already gone wrong. The chance of failure once the CXOs get involved probably increases 10-fold. If the executives could manage the project better than a good project manager then the organisation probably needs to seriously review its recruitment and resourcing policies. All I generally need is the resource or time necessary to turn things around.

I wonder if I'll remember this advice if  I ever get to be one of these executives?

How to pick where to do your MBA...

Job hunting is continuing to prove unrewarding. Despite a number of leads and conversations with ex-colleagues, friends and various recruiters; I am still unable to secure a decent face-to-face interview. It seems that the few jobs on offer are going to those ideally qualified. If you don’t already have significant experience in a role identical to the one on offer, then keep looking. Not an ideal situation for someone looking to advance their career with a ‘stretch’ opportunity, or something that is a step-up (or even sideways) from their previous role.

Still it does leave me plenty of time to post further entries to this blog. Following on from the previous comments, I figured it worth mentioning how I selected my MBA course, a common question from others considering a similar career break.

Despite the enormous amount of information and marketing literature provided by MBA schools, various MBA websites and the general media; my choice came down to two things: the location and the cohort. The location because I didn’t want to move home or face a long commute. The cohort because I was looking for a group of peers with similar length of work experience, i.e. not recent graduates but experienced professionals with a number of years management under their belt.

Content of course is very important, but in my research I found that core subjects were generally similar; the only differences were to reflect ‘specialisations’ from some schools. How this content is taught does vary considerably; with a big range between classroom teaching, group case studies and self-taught. Most schools have their own style so it is worth checking this matches your preferred option. I chose a general management MBA with a focus on personal development. Content was taught with a combination of techniques, including real-world case studies and study trips to Eastern Europe, China and South Africa.

Some MBA schools (usually those that score highly) make a big deal of the various rankings. Whilst these shouldn’t be overlooked, it is worth remembering that rankings are statistics. They are very subjective (often based on questioning current or recent past students with a vested interest in rating ‘their’ school highly) and can be manipulated to reflect whatever is important to the message being relayed. Be careful placing too much emphasis on rankings and treat them in the context they are presented. For example a higher than average increase in salary on graduation could simply reflect a lower than average pre-MBA salary (and thus possibly a lower than average standard of student at the start of the course).

The reputation of the course and/or school is very important, but there is a need to ensure this matches your potential career path. There is no point spending a large amount of time and money completing a course at an international ‘prestige’ school, only to find that your industry doesn’t value the qualification higher than a more local/in-country school. Some companies also have their preferred list. Probably the best method to gauge quality of school is to ask people you trust. In particular ask people in your company, current industry or target industry. This maybe a requirement if you are looking for an employer to help fund your course (I was self-funded so had no restrictions other than mentioned above).

The final criteria I will mention is cost. Most colleges/universities now offer some sort of management degree. Prices for MBAs range widely, in the UK between £5K and £50K depending on the school. A high priced course will typically indicate one in-demand, but this may not mean it’s the best MBA for you. Similarly the lower cost options may lack the academic content and rigour of the more expensive courses and thus a reduced ‘kudos’ for their alumni. Again this may or may not matter to you, depending on what you are hoping to get out of the MBA, or where you intend to use it.

Finally, I completed my MBA at Henley Business School (previously Henley Management College), now part of the University of Reading. It was close enough to my current home to enable a reasonable daily commute and I was very impressed with the quality of my fellow cohort (in terms of ability and experience). Based on my main criteria, I was very pleased with the choice. In addition I was also really happy with the very high quality of the faculty and the overall teamwork demonstrated by everyone involved from cohort, through faculty to the admin staff. It really did feel as if everyone was there to help me succeed.

Overall a good choice of MBA. Now if only I could use it to get a job...

Is it worth doing an MBA?

My MBA has officially finished, or at least I have submitted everything I need to submit. It is now just a case of waiting to see what grade my final MBA dissertation achieves (review comments on my draft copy were positive). Now I just need to find myself a job in one of the most challenging employment environments in recent times...

The job hunt is proving to be a little more challenging than I had hoped. Once upon a time it was sufficient to reply to a suitable job advert with my CV, head to an interview, then discuss the details of my potential new role. Prior to this year (and my current job hunt) I had a 100% record of offers to applications (though admittedly based on a very small sample). Since my MBA I have applied for a large number of roles have yet to secure even a first face-to-face interview (though I have turned away a few less senior roles).

At least I’m not alone, one of the best things to come out of the MBA experience has been meeting, working with and developing friendships with others on the course. We can now all sit around unemployed and discuss the challenges together.

So was it all worth it? Would I recommend an MBA to others? To be honest... I’m not sure. Well not yet anyway.

It would be easy to say it hasn’t really helped being in a position of job-hunter at a time when the employment market is so depressed. The last year also hasn’t been cheap, MBA courses are expensive, living expenses are still incurred and there is always the niggling doubt around the lost opportunity cost (what I could have been earning if I’d stayed at work). Personally I am trying to keep a long term view of the decision to expand my career options. I am hoping the last year or so has been a positive investment in my future and in a few years time I will look back with conviction that I made the right decision.

My advice to others would be to take a step back and review the real reasons you want to get an MBA. Stuck in middle-management? A switch to another industry? Need a more challenging role? Just want more money? An MBA isn’t the only way to achieve major change in your career, though it is one of the most expensive and work intensive! Could you achieve your desired change another way? Career coaching, finding a suitable mentor, just expanding your network of contacts? It is worth finding out how much value others in your business or industry rate an MBA, what benefits do they see if you had one?

One thing I have seen is that different people have got different things from their MBA. From our cohort some people have developed their ability to analyse problems, others have seen an increase in their self-confidence, some have clarified their career and personal objectives (in at least one case resulting in a step away from a executive career)... everyone has taken away their own benefits.

Personally I have developed my ability to work in teams, with a significant change in my approach. Bearing in mind this is an area I have always considered a strength, it has been a revelation how much I have relied on team members having similar drivers and personalities as myself (not uncommon in technology-led industries). I now have a much better appreciation of how different people have different styles for learning, adopting change and motivation. My nature tendency is to be very result driven in terms of completing tasks; to adopt a cliché, I now have a much better understanding of the importance of the journey, i.e. how the result is 'achieved'. Hopefully this will help me build on previous successes and take my leadership abilities to an even higher level.

But first I need my next role... so back to the job hunt. Fingers crossed that one day this blog will wax lyrical about the wonders and benefits of taking time out from a career to invest in an MBA.