Utpal Writes - on a project called life...

Project Management

Instead, Develop the Traits That Matter

February 2, 2012

She was managing one of the most important projects of the company for past 26 months. One day, the junior most team member asked her if he was smart, she said, “No”. He asked him again if he thinks that he wanted to have him in her team, she said “No”. Then he asked him [...]

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Was that confrontation essential?

January 28, 2012

That’s the question you need to ask post each confrontation. Sure, it’s a powerful tool in bringing your team members to the next level but pausing and measuring the progress is even more important. Confrontation is more of a cost v/s benefits issue so measurement is required. And, the thing about progress is that the [...]

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The Inordinate Team Member

January 19, 2012

There are a few grounds to stand a team member who makes inordinate requests: You anticipated you would; His skills are peerless; He’s a great grapeviner – has good political influence that you think would help you one day; Consequences of informing the client that you’ve sacked him are much worse ; He’s indispensible… It’s [...]

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Dumb Vs. Clueless

December 7, 2011

Your crucifying client or your difficult programmer… probably are not dumb, probably just clueless. There’s a distinction between two. Every person takes actions based on their climate of opinions and the information at hand. If two people have the same climate of opinions and the same information, they’ll take same action, every time, given they’re [...]

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What’s better? Being able to be specific or being able to do the work?

November 6, 2011

Observe the conversation below: “When I say that Jack is the Module Lead and anything that goes right or wrong in the module, Jack is responsible, I’d like to know how you acknowledge it, Jack?” Jack replied: “It means that I’m the Module Lead and anything that I code or test is my responsibility. For [...]

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