Full Contact Project Management Strategy from “Coach” Gary:

Let’s say that you wanted to make the team. As a matter of fact, you always wanted to make the team; even dreamed about it. I’m not sure how you went about it, but let me tell you what I did.

As a kid, I watched the game on TV and in person. I played the game with my friends: at school, after school—it didn’t matter. Always wanted to play at a “higher level”, meaning the school team, and beyond.

I found out something, though, when I tried out for the school team. Lots of guys wanted to play. Lots of guys had dreams. Lots of guys signed up. It was a big deal: real coaches and real uniforms, with real refs and real people watching the games. I wanted to be a part of all that. How about you? Remember trying out for any school teams? And by the way, I mean any school team: athletics, band, cheer, academics, music & drama; you name it. Any team. Which team stands out in your memory?

In my case, two teams come to mind: football, as a 16-1/2 year-old high school senior, and the college debate team, as a 50 year-old “senior” on a team with 18 to 24 year-olds (and that’s a separate story, all by itself!) Both teams had coaches and players. The players on both teams were told by the coaches what was expected of them. What did your coaches expect of you?

Here’s what mine told me: we had practice every day until the season began, then four practices a week, plus game day. We all understood one thing: if you didn’t make it to practice, you had better be dead or seriously injured, because cutting practice was just not tolerated! As a matter of fact, the consequences of missing practice were serious, because you let down your entire team. Plays couldn’t be run with the right mix of players in them, and other guys had to cover for you. And the fact that you missed practice was never missed by the coaches, either!

What did you do at practice? I know that we spent most of it in conditioning drills–both physical and mental. We were expected to come to practice prepared, and ready to leave it all on the field, every day. Nothing less was tolerated, nor would we have wanted it any other way. Both of those teams had a shot at championships: one a high school football league championship, and the other a national debate championship. Unfortunately, neither championship came to be, but the experience of being part of both was priceless.

“But Coach, But Coach…” you say, “What does all of this have to do with project management?” I thought you’d never ask!

Team, it has everything to do with your work as a PM and a leader on your projects. Think about this for a second. When you were a part of a competitive team back at some school, and were about to step onto the “field”, and do your part, how prepared were you? I’m not saying that you weren’t nervous—you might have been performing in front of a large crowd. Sure, it’s a little scary. But you went there with the knowledge that your coaches had prepared you, that you were as good as you could possibly be, and you knew that your teammates could count on you, and you could count on them.

Is it any different today? Don’t you count on your field guys to do their part, to move through the job as quickly as possible, with the least number of mistakes, and no “dropped balls”? And don’t they know that you’ve got their backs, that you’ll do everything humanly possible to make sure that they have a safe work environment, with good tools, equipment and supervision?

And don’t the owners and the executive managers of your company count on you to be on your game, and to represent them even better than they might be able to represent themselves? I hope I hear some of you saying “yes” out there, because that’s why you have your job.

Now, I don’t know what level you are playing at today. Maybe you’re the guy who wears all of the hats, including that of the owner and the trades person; maybe you’re an estimator/salesperson/project manager of a small subcontracting company; maybe you’re with a larger company, as a project engineer, assistant PM, or even a senior PM. But regardless of the company size and your title, much is expected and required of you.

The companies I’ve worked for in the past have sent me to seminars on project management, claims, scheduling, safety; you name it. It’s education. It’s practice. It’s expected. It’s required. It’s needed. You need it!

These companies have also expected of me that I would continue to practice every day, honing my skills for game day. But for me, these days, my practice might consist of looking at the specs of every one of our jobs, talking to all of our foremen about what they are doing, making sure that they are not doing any work not called for in our contracts. And if a foreman tells me that something doesn’t seem right, I jump into action, usually by firing off a “winning RFI” to our client and letting him know that we might have a potential problem. I get into the game. Right now.

Each time I get in, I do my best. Sometimes we win and sometimes we don’t. But we don’t just sit on the bench and ignore the game.

I learned a long time ago—and you probably did, too—that you can’t cut practice if you want to get into the game. And I don’t just want in—I want in as a starter. I expect to win. That’s the attitude I caught from my coaches, and I suspect that you did, too.

So, now that you’re out in the real world, aspire to be a Full Contact PM. Get as much coaching as you can. Go to every relevant seminar you can possibly attend. Buy the best books (I can suggest a great one on how to get paid!) Take every applicable course. It’s all tax-deductible, as well as necessary. Get the free stuff at my website. Practice, practice, practice! Your competition does. Your company pays you for it. Coach Gary expects nothing less of you.

(c) 2007 Gary Micheloni

“Coach” Gary Micheloni is a working project manager, speaker and consultant. His Full Contact Project Management columns appear in Masonry, Site Prep, Coatings Pro, Construction Purchasing, and the Kimmel Construction Newsletter. These publications have a readership of close to 250,000, making Gary one of the most widely-read authors in the construction industry today. He is also the author of the print book, “Get Paid for a Change!”, which is subtitled, “The Contractor’s Blueprint for Turning Extra Work into Extra Money–through Change Orders”. (Supreme Word Publishers, 2007.)

Gary’s website is http://www.fullcontactPM.com, and he can also be reached via e-mail, gary.micheloni@usa.net