Results Without Authority - 2nd Edition by Tom Kendrick (Paperback)

About the Book

Leading a team of people who don't report to you is a tricky endeavor--and an essential feature of a project manager's role. Discover the start-to-finish system for getting others to deliver top results.

Book Synopsis

For project managers looking to establish credibility and drive winning results, author Tom Kendrick's groundbreaking system provides the key to leading cross-functional, outsourced, and other types of teams through every stage of the project cycle.

Results Without Authority is the definitive book on control--teaching the three principal levels of control, including project process, influence, and metrics, among other important areas. You learn the surefire way to keep projects moving forward: by relying only on these factors.

The book's completely updated second edition includes new information on:

• agile methods and evolving project management tools,
• strategies for working with virtual teams,
• analytical versus "blink" decision processes,
• the use (and misuse) of social media in project environments,
• and the myth of multitasking.

For project leaders lacking clear-cut authority, getting everyone on board--and keeping them there--can be a challenge. Whether you're managing small, team-level projects or major organizational initiatives, Results Without Authority is the must-have guide to getting the best outcomes for your company.

From the Back Cover

When you're a project manager with a team of people who don't technically report to you, your challenge is to get Results Without Authority. This book delivers proven techniques for controlling projects and managing diverse teams in a wide variety of situations, and bringing those projects to successful closure. The concepts in this book are essential for all project managers, with and without authority, because they offer a productive alternative to "command and control" management techniques that can easily backfire.

Tom Kendrick's system will help you get successful project results from diverse, cross-functional, virtual, outsourced, and other types of project teams by showing how to establish and build:

- Control Through Process. Key project management processes, infrastructure, and the role of the project office.

- Control Through Influence. Productive leadership styles, reciprocity, and maintaining relationships.

- Control Through Project Metrics. Quantitative, predictive, diagnostic, and retrospective metrics for project control, motivating desired behaviors, and avoiding potential problems.

- Control Through Project Initiation. The role of the sponsor in project control, the importance of project vision, project launch documentation, and the project start-up workshop.

- Control Through Project Planning. Collaborative planning as the foundation of project control; planning as a key factor in setting baselines and establishing metrics.

- Control During Project Execution. Measurement and interpretation of project status, informal communication, and maintaining relationships as keys to maintaining control.

- Control Through Tracking and Monitoring. Controlling scope and other project parameters; formal project communication and reporting, rewards and recognition, and project reviews.

- Enhancing Overall Control Through Project Closure. Sign-off, evaluating retrospective project metrics, celebrating, and rewarding the team; improving long-term project control through lessons learned.

Packed with invaluable guidance for managing projects of all scopes and in any field, Results Without Authority will help novice and experienced project leaders get the best from their project teams.

Tom Kendrick is a program manager, most recently with the Hewlett-Packard Company, and the author of Identifying and Managing Project Risk and The Project Management Tool Kit. He conducts project management classes, and presents at conferences and universities on program manage-ment, project risk, and related topics.

Review Quotes

-...author is very thorough in his coverage, and the skills presented are worth developing. Following the recommendations in this book can only improve your effectiveness as a leader.- --Quality Progress

-...filled with great information. Readers will use it again and again.- --Portland Book Review

-...no slavish following of methodology, or talk about what should happen. It's a book for project managers in the messy real world...- --A Girl's Guide to Project Management

-...provides a useful and universal road map for navigating through entire projects from the very earliest planning stages to the final closing down of the project.- --BlogBusinessWorld

-...talks about real-world, understandable concepts such as clearly defining processes, the importance of managing information, creating interest in projects...- --Anna Jedrziewski, New Age Retailer

..".author is very thorough in his coverage, and the skills presented are worth developing. Following the recommendations in this book can only improve your effectiveness as a leader." --Quality Progress

..".filled with great information. Readers will use it again and again." --Portland Book Review

..".no slavish following of methodology, or talk about what should happen. It's a book for project managers in the messy real world..." --A Girl's Guide to Project Management

..".provides a useful and universal road map for navigating through entire projects from the very earliest planning stages to the final closing down of the project." --BlogBusinessWorld

..".talks about real-world, understandable concepts such as clearly defining processes, the importance of managing information, creating interest in projects..." --Anna Jedrziewski, New Age Retailer

."..author is very thorough in his coverage, and the skills presented are worth developing. Following the recommendations in this book can only improve your effectiveness as a leader." -"-Quality Progress "

."..no slavish following of methodology, or talk about what should happen. It's a book for project managers in the messy real world..." --"A Girl's Guide to Project Management"

."..talks about real-world, understandable concepts such as clearly defining processes, the importance of managing information, creating interest in projects..." "--Anna Jedrziewski, New Age Retailer"

."..provides a useful and universal road map for navigating through entire projects from the very earliest planning stages to the final closing down of the project." --"BlogBusinessWorld"

About the Author

TOM KENDRICK has over 35 years of project and program experience, including senior positions with Hewlett-Packard and Visa. He is a certified Project Management Professional (PMP(R)) and the author of several highly respected project management books, including Identifying and Managing Project Risk.