Practice What you Preach

Cliche, yes. But setting a good example by doing yourself what you ask of others is invaluable in getting buy-in and respect.

I was recently talking with my sister, who works for the US government. We were discussing work meetings. She asked me how I kept track of so many appointments.

“Do you use an Outlook calendar?” she asked.

“Of course,” I answered. “I couldn’t function without it.”

She looked at me with envy.

“You don’t?” I asked incredulously.

“No,” she admitted. “Co-workers send emails asking if we can meet at a certain time. Or they walk around and ask people to meet right then in an open conference room.”

I was astounded.

“Even my boss, a government bureau chief, uses a paper calendar,” she said.
She probed further. “Do you use SharePoint?”

“Something just like it called Livelink,” I answered. At this point, I almost felt like I was bragging.

“Wow,” she responded. “I sure wish we could use something like that. The government is just too big to coordinate such a solution.”

I thought for a minute. The federal government, specifically the Office of Personnel Management, was my customer at my last job. They required us to use specific software, have organized file systems, satisfy many security requirements, and our project managers had to use Earned Value Management – an advanced project management budgeting/performance practice. I asked her about similar requirements, even though she works for another department. “Oh yes! We require all that of our contractors and subcontractors. But we don’t do it ourselves, even though we should.”

I don’t mention this to criticize our government. Many organizations follow similar poor practices. If the contractors and subcontractors knew that what they were being asked to do wasn’t being followed by those dictating it, how serious about compliance do you think they would be?

Just in our little world of the PMO, our mission is to set and oversee solid project management practices for IS. The PMO team members are PMs themselves. They manage projects and must follow the methodology set out for everyone. Doing so helps us experience first-hand what we’re asking others to do and gauge its feasibility. It also earns us the respect of others who know we’re not just delivering best practices for others to follow, but we’re practicing what we preach.

Think about what you expect of others. What are you asking them to do, and are you setting a good example by doing it yourself?