{"id":7420,"date":"2011-09-13T20:07:36","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T03:07:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=7420"},"modified":"2011-09-13T20:07:37","modified_gmt":"2011-09-14T03:07:37","slug":"reality-or-interpretation-you-decide%e2%80%a6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/?p=7420","title":{"rendered":"Reality or Interpretation? You decide\u2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>I\u2019ve been thinking a lot lately about communication and perception. A friend of mine has gone from team member to project leader. I\u2019ve known this person for a decade now and it\u2019s been a fascinating process to see how he views the team now that he\u2019s in charge, and vice versa, how the team views him.<\/p>\n

Some team members seem to willingly accept the change, while others treat him as if he\u2019s still a team member, complaining about all the little things that most of you in your right mind would never complain to your boss about \u2013 at least not without worry of getting fired. Why is it that some of us seem to accept change and are able to adapt quickly while other\u2019s of us get stuck in what was? And how do you as a new leader gracefully navigate through the obstacles that will be thrown at you by people you thought were your friends.<\/p>\n

This is the time that managing the project team knowledge area will really help you along with the tools and techniques of:<\/p>\n

1) Observation and conversation
\n2) Conflict management, and
\n3) Interpersonal skills<\/p>\n

Since most of us seem to be hard wired to get things done, we forget about some of the tools and techniques of project management that will really help us out in times like these. With a clear project management plan and clear staff assignments some of the confusion of the team can quickly be clarified. It is especially important to observe your team and have conversations with them. And use your very best interpersonal skills. It may not be the time to push for managerial type dominance. Remember your team members still see you as one of them. They are confused and off balance, so using your active listening skills to uncover their concerns will be most helpful. Remember that many of them, especially if they have more seniority than you, may be wondering why they weren\u2019t picked to lead the project, even if shortly thereafter they are glad they weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Patience is key \u2013 and not taking things personally. This is where your perception comes in. If you believe it is \u2013 it is, and if you believe it isn\u2019t \u2013 it isn\u2019t. The truth is somewhere in the middle \u2013 maybe…<\/p>\n

Another tool you may want to use is exchanging the word \u201cbut\u201d for the word \u201cand\u201d in your conversations with your team. The word \u201cbut\u201d for many of us feels confrontational \u2013 try it out for a week \u2013 see if others react to you differently by making this word exchange. Remember, we\u2019ve probably been using the word \u201cbut\u201d as a filler \u2013 so it\u2019s just one of those habits you may want to break.<\/p>\n

Other concepts to practice are to remember that:<\/p>\n

1) Reality is just your interpretation
\n2) Truth is your perception of reality, and
\n3) Blame is a perspective \u2013 so what might be another perspective?<\/p>\n

Next time I\u2019ll explore how communication plans are a have to have rather than a nice to have\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve been thinking a lot lately about communication and perception. A friend of mine has gone from team member to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1524,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,845,6,849,939],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-human-resources","category-communications","category-team-leadership","category-change-2"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1524"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7420\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}