Apr 28

Project Leadership

ProSync Career News, ProSync Employee News No Comments »

By Michael Lessing, CEO

ProSync is in its 10th year of business!  We have come a long way and the company has stood the test of time, persevered, and made smart business choices along the way.  That is because we never stop learning and we never stop finding ways to reinvent ourselves.  In our 10th year I’m looking to blaze new trails for the next 10 years, and in order to do this effectively I must teach and challenge our future leaders on how business gets done at ProSync.

In the pursuit of knowledge, growth, and success I have partnered with my Management Team to bring the Project Leadership (PL) program to light.  Each and every ProSync’er here today was selected for various reasons.  You have qualities that make you unique, skilled, and forward thinking.  The most important reason of all is because you are LEADERS.  Here’s what we are looking for in our Project Leaders:

1. It starts with good “Business Acumen” – Do you have a high-level overview or total understanding of the scope of work (SOW)?  Can you provide written or proof of contribution to the SOW?  Are you capable of generating evidence of cause and effect on the business front solving problems and delivering measurable solutions?  Can you set standards & meet deliverables?

2. It starts with “Asking” – working side-by-side with people not just ProSync.  The team is usually a multidisciplinary group of contractors and government employees.  Can you help them achieve their goals in an individual and team capacity?  Are you willing to mentor and set examples for personnel? Can you follow direction with proper delegation of work as required by customer or stated SOW? Are you able to mix it up by challenging personnel to attain personal and professional goals?

3. It starts with “Leadership” -  By example or by delegation.  Have you been recognized by the customer as the “authority” in your field of expertise. Have you been recognized by your customer and/or your peers as a team leader (under 360 degree review)? Do you take personal accountability with what you do with *new information that directly affects your team, customer, prime, or ProSync?

4. It starts with “Business Development” (New & Growth of your TTO or Project) – The federal government spends a lot of money, but it is sometimes difficult to get access or the bids are large and complex.  Can you run with vital information in a moments notice to be analyzed and reviewed by your management/executive team?

Are you capable of reporting all information in real time (i.e. org changes, funding, emerging efforts, talks of new efforts, and significant problems reported or rumored)?  Are you getting to know your “end” customer (Not only your COR)?  Do you know what product and services ProSync can provide?  Do you understand how they fit into the customer’s current needs and projected uses?  Are you able to build relationships with ALL vendors supporting the client (i.e. CISCO rep, ORACLE rep, MICROSOFT rep, VMWARE rep, HP rep, etc…)

5. It starts with “You” – Do you have a desire to take on more challenges?  Do you feel your potential as a leader is not being realized? Are you willing to make the extra effort to take your career and ProSync over the top?

These are the qualities our current Project Leaders bring to the table.  And these are the qualities that I see all ProSync’ers already in possession of.  It starts with “You” wanting more and showing it.  Knowledge is a two way conversation. Let’s have one.

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Mar 12

Catalytic Coaching?

ProSync Career News, ProSync Employee News 1 Comment »

After an All Hands Meeting last week I was pretty curious about a new term I hadn’t really heard of before.  That term was “Catalytic Coaching.”  What the heck is Catalytic Coaching?

Well, I did a little homework on the subject to share with everyone.  Catalytic Coaching is a method of professional/personal development using feedback where the coach is getting the feedback from those being coached.  Wikipedia wasn’t too much help on this topic, but I did find a guy who wrote extensively on the topic in his book titled Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review.  The author is Garold Markle.  His hard cover is kind of pricey ($119.00) but luckily the paperback and kindle copy run around $20.00 if you’d like to buy it to read more about the subject.

Good book on Catalytic Coaching

Good book on Catalytic Coaching

He presents the concept of Catalytic Coaching in a way where it’s an alternative to the all too dreaded “Performance Reviews” we’ve come to look forward to every year (yes I am being sarcastic).  Suffice it to say, the concept of spending time with a manager to have a discussion with you about the work you do and the progress you’d like to make would be daunting regardless of how you label the conversation, i.e. “Performance Review” or “Catalytic Coaching Session.”

Is this simply a relabeling of the same old process of doing performance evaluations so that management can assign a monetary value to your past performance and how it may impact your future performance?  I was pretty skeptical at the All Hands Meeting last week, thinking, “okay, so here’s another play on words. . .”  but hold on a sec. It turns out Catalytic Coaching is an authentic, bonafide methodology being used by some of the most influential and productive small, medium and large companies today.

Okay, so is there really something to this Catalytic Coaching thing?  Yes, there is, and here are the A,B,C’s on why:

A. Catalytic coaching puts the typically “reviewed” employee in the driver seat by giving the employee an opportunity to voice input on where they are and where they would like to go.  This is different from “performance reviews” because instead of dwelling on where you’ve been, it puts the emphasis on where you are headed.

B. Management is no longer in a judgement capacity on gauging value via performance. They are now the ones being judged based on their role in your success.  Either they are a great manager and really show some interest in you and your development, or they suck!  And no one wants a lame boss!

C. You get a personal development plan.  What the heck is a personal development plan?  It really is what ever you’d like it to be.   Our CEO mentioned at the All Hands that it’s your custom plan to be where you want to be in the next year to 5 years using your Manager as a guide, and the resources available at your company as your tools.  So it’s not just rhetoric, it’s actually a written roadmap where you identify your tools, your guides to get you to your destination, and where you give input on the quality of your support and resources.   And if you don’t make the kind of progress you wanted, then the company is at fault for failing you, not the other way around! Whoa!  This is what I call a MAJOR paradigm shift!

D. Ever been in a stewardship? Me neither. But that’s the fourth big mental whammy being dished up with the concept of Catalytic Coaching.  You enter into a “Stewardship” with your company.  What does this mean?  Well, a stewardship is a relationship we enter into with our environments so that you are taking care in making sure our environment is being protected, preserved and well managed.  Ever hear the catch phrase “stewards of good will”?  Take that idea and replace “good will” with “good careers” and I think you get the picture.  I love the concept of entering into a Stewardship with ProSync, because there’s nothing better then knowing my company’s got my back.

So there you have it, the A,B,C’s of catalytic coaching.  This is one topic that isn’t going away, so keep an eye out for some more articles on this subject in next month’s newsletter and our future ProSync website news feeds.

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