Blog - Newsletter

PMIGLC to Celebrate Its 40th Anniversary

The PMI Great Lakes Chapter is excited to welcome Caterina La Tona, Immediate Past Chair and a Director of PMI's 2019 Board of Directors, to our 18th Annual Spring Symposium to help us celebrate our chapter's 40th Anniversary.

Please join us during lunch at the Symposium to take part in the celebration!

Monthly Meeting & Networking Forum

May Monthly Dinner Meeting

Surveys of data professionals showed that 40% of them spent over 20 hours per week preparing data, while only 12% of executives understood the impact of data on their organizations.

Imagine spending 50% to 80% less time in the grunt work of preparing data in Excel and PowerPoint, while making a bigger impact with data, and delivering insights from data that executives actually understand.

Artificial Intelligence-augmented state-of-the-art data analytics technologies like Microsoft Power BI empower regular business users to get more value from data analytics, faster. In this session, participants will learn how to leverage Artificial Intelligence and advanced analytics capabilities to support the management needs of project managers, portfolio managers and resource managers, by arranging data to support timely decision making, from the perspectives of Individual Projects, Portfolio of projects and the organization’s resources.

Increase your data analytics productivity, and elevate your business impact through self-service big data analytics:

1.  AI Augmented data analysis and Data Science-lite.
2. Data Collaboration Apps
3. Automation of manual data analysis processes that are performed in Excel and PowerPoint today.

Lenzy Petty, Jr, is the founder of Data Analytics Technology Advantage LLC, a firm that specializes in deployment and training of state-of-the-art data analytics technologies that enable line of business professionals, who are not IT professionals or data scientists, to get more value from their data, in far less time.

Professional Development Opportunities

Spring Symposium 2019 ⋅ "Project Managers as Champions of Change"

Friday, April 26, 2019 • 8 AM - 5 PM 

The PMIGLC 2019 Spring Symposium “Project Managers as Champions of Change” is an educational and networking forum that provides a platform for the best minds in academia and industry to share the latest developments and advancements in the field of project management. The offerings this year include keynote speakers and a choice of presentations covering various topics. Previous Symposiums have been highly successful sold out events with management practitioners attending from numerous Midwestern states and Canada.

Take advantage of earlybird pricing!

PMI & PMIGLC Members: $275USD

Non-Members: $345 USD 

PMP®/ CAPM® Certification Exam Prep Classes - Spring 2019 - Southfield

Saturdays, May 11, 18, June 1, and June 8  ⋅ 8 am - 4 pm

A four-day, Instructor led, classroom setting PMP® exam preparation course designed to meet the training needs of those wishing to prepare for PMI’s PMP® or CAPM® Certification Exams.

The objective of this course is to help the participants gain a level of competency required to pass the PMP® and CAPM® and certification exam through a review of the concepts and terminology covered in the Project Management Book of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide).

• Participants will earn 35 hours of education toward PMI’s exam prerequisite.
• Training is based on the PMP Exam Prep textbook by Joseph Phillips 4th Edition (Based on the Sixth edition of PMBOK).
• Includes the Joseph Phillips textbook, practice questions and quizzes.

The courses are led by PMP® certified experts working in the field of project management.

Communications

Moylan’s Mulligans for April 2019

Mentoring – Your Opportunity to Cultivate the Next Generation

In the mid-1980’s, then mega-star Michael Jackson asked Berry Gordy, the founder of Motown Records, how he could be give back to the music and entertainment industry. Barry advised Michael to find a promising singer / entertainer and help them become a bigger star than he had become. Barry encouraged Michael to become a mentor to this promising protégé. Powerful stuff mentoring – making someone more successful than yourself. What a great way to leave a lasting, impactful legacy.

Great leaders cultivate and nurture group members into great team members and future leaders. Mentoring another individual is a personally rewarding and a professionally challenging experience. You have the opportunity to apply the lessons you have learned from the work you have done. Sharing your life lessons on what you did right, not so right, and, maybe downright stupid, with another benefits both the mentee and the mentor. The individual serving as the mentor will learn about themselves [personal introspection] as they advise their protégé. The perspectives of “been there / done that” and “don’t make that mistake / better do this” are invaluable.

Getting Started

Getting started requires a personal self-assessment. The interested mentor needs to know how to help a protégé set personal and/or professional goals. The mentor needs to feel confident in the role of mentor and in their ability to overcome the potential challenges of mentoring. A mentor is required to actively listen and communicate effectively. Do you fit the bill? The effective mentor needs to actively engage with a protégé to help them meet their goals, personal and/or professional, without asserting themselves like a boss, coach or stakeholder. The mentor must understand their role in assisting their protégé / mentee in their planning, executing, understanding and evaluating their identified goals.

People learn a great deal from others by observing how they behave. Mentoring can be an ongoing responsibility, or, a role you fill from time to time. The mentor serves as a role model to the mentee; their words and actions much be in alignment. It cannot be – “do as I say, not as I do.” The most effective mentors are models of the behaviors and levels of achievement that their protégés are working to achieve. To serve properly in their role, the mentor needs to do the following key things - be available, set boundaries, and, listen effectively. Let’s discuss each.

Be Available

A mentor must devote time in order to get to know and help their protégés. It is up to the mentor and protégé how much time they agree to spend together during a mentoring relationship. At a minimum, a mentor must spend two hours per month with their protégé. How that time is organized is up to the mentor and their mentee. Though two hours is suggested, regular communication above the minimum will support the development of a positive mentoring partnership.

Set Boundaries

Setting clear boundaries for the mentoring partnership at the beginning is essential. It is advised for both parties to communicate their availability as well as their preferred methods of communication and contact. If you are serving as the mentor, be sure to ask your protégé / mentee for the same information.  For example, if you prefer to be contacted via email between meetings, let your protégé know at the onset of the relationship. Make note of your protégé’s preferences and honor them. Discuss your responsibilities as a mentor with your protégé and share your view of their responsibilities. Be clear about what you can and cannot do in your role and give your protégé an opportunity to do the same. Share your expectations about confidentiality and any other issues that are important to you.

Listen Effectively

Listening is a powerful skill. Simply listening can often be enough to help a protégé work through any challenges she/he is facing. The mentor should give their mentee the opportunity to tell the mentor what they need before beginning to give direct advice. Active listening is a way of listening that is more than sitting back and absorbing what another person says. It is the process of hearing, understanding, and repeating back what one has heard. For example, the protégé / mentee may share that they are to give a major presentation for their project in a few weeks. The mentor could respond with, “I understand that you want to practice your speech with me by next month?” This type of exchange allows the speaker to hear their own thoughts restated; it creates an easy opportunity for clarification and understanding. Additionally, it allows both the speaker and listener to learn how the other hears them, and how to more effectively communicate in the future.

Promote Independent Thinking

The mentor supports their protégé as she/he makes their way to achieving their goals. A protégé may ask for advice, and it is reasonable for the mentor to provide it as long as the protégé has the opportunity to come to their own conclusions. Offering advice while still encouraging critical, independent thinking is the best way to help a protégé solve a problem.

The ultimate goal of any mentoring relationship is to build the skills and knowledge of the protégé. As skills and knowledge increase so does confidence. When a protégé asks for advice, it may be more effective for the mentor to share personal stories about similar experiences, either their own or another’s, rather than offering direct suggestions for what the mentee should or must do. By telling a story, the mentor indirectly shares information while allowing their protégé to reach her/his own conclusion. Encouraging protégés to think for themselves involves the mentor to stand back and listen, and, observe more than act. The most effective mentors know when to speak and when to observe without comment. It is imperative for the mentor to give their protégés the space to learn from their own experiences. Mistakes are part of the learning process.

Asking open-ended questions is another excellent strategy for promoting independent thought. It can also help mentors to better understand their protégés goals, motivations, and ideas. An example of an open-ended question is one that begins with who, what, where, when, why, or how.

For example, “How did you feel about the research you accomplished today?” is an effective open-ended question. “Did you finish your research today?” is not. The first question encourages a thoughtful response while the second only requires a simple yes or no to answer. In sum, the mentor is the advisor rather than a coach. The mentor offers advice and suggestions to help the mentee think for themselves. Whereas, a coach focuses on giving clear directions to improve their charge’s performance and/or correct specific actions. 

Mentoring can be a professionally rewarding and satisfying experience. I highly encourage you to take the sage advice of Berry Gordy to seek out and then nurture future talent. It will serve you well by serving others.

As always, your comments are welcome.

Best regards, 
Dr. Bill William A Moylan, PhD, PMP, FESD, DTM
Just a PMI Member

PMI® News

PMI® PMO Symposium® 2019 - Call for Presentation Proposals is Open The PMO Symposium 2019 will be held 3-6 November in Denver, Colorado, at the Gaylord Rockies Resort and Convention Center. 

The deadline to submit proposals is 3 May 2019.