1. Hi Everyone,
Thanks for joining today
Today’s webinar is focused on how to lead your team to success – and, I know that sounds vague, so to put things in a bit more context for you, we’re going to tackle a few key pieces of how we can enable the managers in our firm to really thrive as they take on more leadership, and what that looks like in practice.
Most of our audience today are principals, and we have a few project managers out there as well  as a reference, most of what we’ll be covering today relates to how you as a principal can really set up project managers for success, and as a result, not only make things a lot easier for yourselves as principals, but also make sure that your clients have the best experience possible when working with your firm.
As a quick introduction before we move forward, just so you know who the voice behind the screen is coming from, my name is Kari Beaulieu and I work here at Appfluence in Palo Alto California – we are the team behind the software Priority Matrix, which we will actually be talking about a little bit later in the presentation.
So, let’s get started!

2. Agenda Webinar duration: ~30 minutes
The makings of a “successful” team
Needs: Principals, PMs, and more
How Priority Matrix to enables managers
Today’s webinar should last about 30 minutes +/- a Q&A, and we’re going to start out covering a few broader topics, before we hone in on some concrete steps to really up our team’s game and take things to the next level.
First off, we’ll tackle what makes a “success team”, along with the needs of Principals, Project Managers, all the way down to the level of project architects as it relates to tackling architecture projects.
Then, we’ll cover a number of concrete and simple ways that you can help your team fulfill these needs, while staying in the loop to make sure that everyone really is meeting those competing deadlines, communicating clearly, and not letting anything important slip through the cracks.

3. What makes a “successful” team?
“Responsibility equals accountability equals ownership. And a sense of ownership is the most powerful weapon a team or organization can have.” - Pat Summitt
So, as we kick things off, here we have a quote from Pat Summitt, one of the most successful women’s basketball coaches of all times. And she says, “-”. The reason we’re starting with this is because during the registration for the webinar, I asked you all one question,
‘What’s the biggest positive change that could happen in your organization’?
The majority of responses to this included something along the lines of “The managers in my firm to develop better leadership skills”; “I need PM’s to take great ownership of their projects”; “Team members self managing”.
And we can clearly see here that this sentiment, the importance of taking ownership of your projects (or even your basketball team), is almost universally understood.

4. So, what stands in the way of this?
And, there are a few things that really stand in the way of this, coming from all sides of the organization.

5. Partially, and this isn’t something we can tackle fully today, but it’s worth mentioning, it can be scary to do what feels like giving up part of your control. However, when we start to dig deeper into that fear, we realize that it actually stems from feeling like we’re losing control.
But! It doesn’t have to be like that.
When we start to analyze the juxtaposition of needs, between principals and project managers, as we’re going to do in the next slides, we’ll arrive to some conclusions about how we as principals can enable project managers to take control WITHOUT worrying that something will slip through the cracks
And before we move on, it’s not to say that fear is the only thing that holds us back from empowering and enabling others, because there are a lot of other factors that are outside of our control as well, I can’t tell you how many stories I’ve heard about Principals who really WANT to give control to project mangers and managers in their organization, but they’ve run into problems in the past because they run up against challenges like:
Managers who have a hard time taking control of competing deadlines
Or managers who don’t communicate back to them clearly enough to make them feel like they’re really in control.

6. Principals: what do you need?
“I need to know that my project manager is keeping all of the ‘balls in the air’…”
“My team to understand project priorities.”
“Visibility of the big picture.”
Does this sound like you?
Visibility of the big picture: to ensure that the top two things are true

7. What do Project Managers “need”?
Clear milestones
Understanding of team workload
Ability to track progress
So, let’s be honest, these guys have a ton on their plates. And before we go any further, we definitely owe project managers at least a mental round of applause for all they do. At the end of the day, they’re really taking the heat from both sides.
As principals, it’s really our job to set them up for success in all of these aspects. Not only is this beneficial to them, because they can do a better job, but it’s beneficial to us, because we KNOW they’re doing a better job.
As far as milestones go, when we talk about needing to know that project managers have “all of the balls in the air,” this is essentially a middle step to making sure they’re meeting project milestones.
Understanding of team workload: also includes knowing who is working on what, and if they have missed any deadlines
Tracking progress: not only so that they can make sure their team is getting work done, but also to make it easier for them to report back to you (principals)

8. Principal
Priorities
Progress
PMs
Project Architects

9. What does your team need?
Work on the right things
Clear expectations / communication

10. So, how do we do it?

11. Have no fear! Priority Matrix is here!
And, the same way that every super-hero has their trusted sidekick that always has their back, Priority Matrix is the tool that supports managers (even, or perhaps especially those who haven’t been formally trained, which is totally normal in the architecture industry), so that they can do the best job possible, and really help their team succeed.

12. What is Priority Matrix?
Priority Matrix is a platform for managing team priorities that facilitates clear communication within your team, enables project managers to take leadership of their projects, and provides the visibility principals need to achieve peace of mind.

13. Communicating Priorities
Everything is in context

14. Meeting Needs Across the Team
Principals: Sees priorities aligned
PMs: Communication of assignments
Team: Knows what to work on

15. Competing Deadlines

16. Understanding Team Workload
Filter by team member

17. Meeting Needs Across the Team
Principals: Check for overdue work across all projects
PMs: Simple understanding of team workload
Team: Focus on what matters
Bonus: More efficient meetings!

18. Seeing “The Big Picture”

19. Meeting Needs Across the Team
Principals: Understanding of overall progress
PMs: Simplified status reporting
Team: Recognition of work

20. At this point you may be wondering: okay, but “who cares
At this point you may be wondering: okay, but “who cares?” “how is this actually relevant to me?”
I know that a lot of what we just covered is pretty high level, so I want to give you a couple examples of Priority Matrix in use for some of the teams and managers who use it, to show how Priority Matrix not only helps spur overarching progress by tackling those ‘big words’ like visibility and accountability, so I want to show you a couple of concrete examples from teams just like yours 

21. Judy Cleaned her Outlook inbox!
Mobile app check-ins with subcontractors
Gets information out of PMs head
I imagine Judy may be similar to a lot of our audience because when Penny first came to us, her first objection about using Priority Matrix was, ‘well, that seems like a lot of data to enter into the system’. However, what we uncovered was that
Penny can print out a list of everything she needs from her subcontractors, or just send it to them via .
Penny joking described the system as “simple and archaic”, with a laugh, but what she meant was, it makes it easy to pull out information and share it with people who

22. Eric Tracks milestones from Gantt charts
Keeps visibility of the big picture
Projection of team workload

23. Tim Transparency for project owners Working with external parties
File sharing

24. Wants & Needs Increased ownership Better communication
Ability to handle deadlines

25. Priority Matrix Provides
Clarity for team members
Transparency for project managers
Peace of mind for principals

26. After Work: Pre-Priority Matrix

27. After Work: Post Priority Matrix

28. Want to try Priority Matrix?
Head to Appfluence.com
Add your team
We’re here to help 