Do You Have a Life Plan?

One of the things you learn in project management is that to have control tou must have a plan. This is because control is exercised by comparing where you are to where you are supposed to be and taking action to correct for any deviations that exist. Now since your plan tells where you are supposed to be,  if you have no plan you have nothing with which to compare so CONTROL IS IMPOSSIBLE!

Now consider that your life is a project that you should manage. To have control then, you must have a life plan. It doesn't need to be elaborate but it needs to exist. 

Otherwise, I can tell you from experience that without managing your life you will be at the mercy of whatever the world does and it isn't likely to be what you would have wanted. 

The Importance of Coaching

I've been coaching people since 1963. I was teaching guitar during my last year of college and only 50 years later realized that most of Music teaching is actually coaching. 

Then, in 1966 I got my first job as an electrical engineer and was actively coached myself by my more experienced peers and my new boss.

In 1981 I left my corporate job and began teaching management and leadership seminars. I did that for 43 years, before deciding to offer coaching and mentoring in order to share what I've learned over the years.

All athletes know that coaching is essential to their success. For some reason the rest of us don't understand the importance. A coach can help you take advantage of your innate abilities and minimize the impact of your deficiencies. They can be objective in identifying these, something you personally don't usually do very well. I would urge you to seek a mentor or coach. Consider group coaching as a cost-effective approach. If you would like some help deciding what to do, I'm happy to help. My website is drjimlewis.com.

It's All About People

When I was 16, I became a ham radio operator. I was so consumed by building radio equipment that I could hardly think of anything else. I managed to borrow my way through engineering school and for 15 years I designed communications equipment. For the most part, I loved the work, but I hated the coercive, management by intimidation culture I found myself in.

I also discovered something else. Solving technical problems was like candy. However, most of the problems I faced as a manager were what we normally call "people problems." Lack of motivation, crappy attitudes, personality conflicts--these were a few of the issues I faced and as an engineer, I was totally unprepared for handling them.

During the last three years of my industrial career, I worked on a doctorate in psychology, a choice made because of my lack of skill in dealing with people as a manager. When I left my job in 1981 I began teaching Leadership Skills for Project Managers, and I absolutely loved sharing what I had learned with other people like myself--many engineers and scientists who were delighted to learn that you actually could do something about the people problems in their groups.

In fact, I trademarked the expression projects are people® because I felt it was such an important thing for people to understand. I'm afraid the message hasn't gotten to a lot of people, but I'm still emphasizing it. And I'm going to be blunt: If you don't know how to effectively deal with people, you're not competent to be a manager--of any kind. The good news is that you can learn people skills. 

How do you know if you don't have good skills? If you find situations with your people to be frustrating or confusing, leaving you saying, "I don't know what to do about this," then you need help. There are some books on dealing with difficult people, but I suggest you take training in which you must practice actually dealing with various situations. This is normally called role-playing, a term that I don't like. I prefer to call it skill-building exercises, as that is the real intent.

Most importantly, if you hate trying to deal with people problems, and you prefer doing technical work, by all means, tell you boss you don't want to be a manager and see if you can have your job redefined. Of course, unless you live in a cave, you can't avoid some interaction with people, but you don't have to live with the every day grief of trying to cope with people issues as part of your job. Good luck.

The Importance of Meaning In Life

Ham radio saved my life!

It's true.

I had a very difficult childhood, and when I was about 14 I seriously considered suicide. Fortunately, I loved to read Popular Electronics, and I found an article on how to build a crystal radio set. I went to the local TV repair shop, that was run by a fellow who learned his trade in the navy. He helped me build the receiver and it was uphill from there. I was consumed by electronics, especially radio communication, and by age 16 I passed the code and written exam for my novice licence. That was 62 years ago. 

I became an electrical engineer when I graduated high school. My parents were middle class and had no money for college, so I worked summers and added to my meager wages with student loans. I designed communications equipment for 15 years, and during that time became disenchanted with the profession, so I went back to school part time and earned MS and Ph.D. degrees in psychology. Since 1981, I've taught seminars on leadership, teams, and project management in 30 countries. I also wrote 12 books on these subjects under my full name, James P Lewis.

Now I'm telling you this because along the way, I read a book by Dr. Viktor Frankl, entitled Man's Search for Meaning. Frankl survived several concentration camps and emerged with a deep insight to the importance of meaning in life. According to Frankl, if an individual didn't die of disease or starvation, or get executed, many took their own lives because of the terrible hardships. Those who survived had something that they wanted to do once freed that kept them going. Frankl founded a school of therapy called logo therapy based on this premise.

I have confirmed this importance both in my own childhood experience and in observing the lives of many of the 60,000 individuals I've taught or counseled in my 39 year career as a psychologist.

As a related subject, I am convinced that much of the violence and substance abuse in our society/world today is a consequence of many people having no meaning in their lives. This is supported by the fact that each month there are 550,000 searches on Google for the word MEANING. There are also large numbers of searches for topics like depression (450,000), anxiety (450,000), suicidal (74,000), and so on. 

And because I'm interested in organizational behavior, it distresses me that only 33 percent of workers are engaged in their jobs, primarily because the jobs hold no meaning for them. This is a topic that I intend to address in subsequent blogs. If you are one of the 67 percent who find your work virtually meaningless, perhaps I can help you find a way out of that dark spot. Please subscribe to my blog so you will receive these posts. You can always cancel at any time. All the best. Dr. Jim