A few years back, while studying for the PMP exam, I committed the formula for calculating communications paths to memory.

[N(N-1)]/2

So, what’s the big deal? Why is it so important? If you’re in the Project Management (or leadership) field, you know all too well how important communications is. I used to call myself a project manager. I now prefer to use the term project leader. What’s the difference? According to Warren Bennis and Dan Goldsmith (1997) there are 12 distinctions between managers and leaders.

• Managers administer; leaders innovate.
• Managers ask how and when; leaders ask what and why.
• Managers focus on systems; leaders focus on people.
• Managers do things right; leaders do the right things.
• Managers maintain; leaders develop.
• Managers rely on control; leaders inspire trust.
• Managers have short-term perspective; leaders have long-term perspective.
• Managers accept the status-quo; leaders challenge the status-quo.[*]
• Managers have an eye on the bottom line; leaders have an eye on the horizon.
• Managers imitate; leaders originate.
• Managers emulate the classic good soldier; leaders are their own person.
• Managers copy; leaders show originality.

In order to both innovate and do the right things, I listen and listen a LOT. (Some people listen; some wait to talk) I’ve watched executives and managers, who knew absolutely nothing about a subject, make uneducated decisions because they were too stubborn or proud to consult a subject matter expert (SME). Good leaders do not operate in a vacuum. They exchange ideas and information with people. Offer free information and it will come back to you tenfold. Listen to knowledgeable people and then make a more educated leadership decision.

Where does social media fit into the grand scheme of things? Old-school managers and executives who believe in the bureaucratic organization and status quo, tend to lean toward command-and-control or top-down management. That group is operating under the assumption people higher in the organizational chart know more. New-school leaders believe in social media. Why? It strips away all of the nonsense and connects people to people. They have real conversations as human beings. They educate and they listen with a freedom to connect at an exponential rate. They are not confined to the notion of an hierarchical organization.

My example is my current engagement, which I have been at for 13 months: Within my direct cross-functional organization chart, I have 28 contacts to interface with. There are no plans to increase the size of this group. [28(28-1)]/2 is 378 communication paths. Not too bad.

Turn now to option number two, social media like Twitter and Facebook. For arguments sake, I’ll say I have 200 followers on Twitter with a growth rate of 10% a month. (I’m actually have 450+ and counting)  Each Twitter Follower is a communications path.

[200(200-1)]/2 = 19,900 communication paths

After one month it would be projected to increase to 21,945 communication paths

Every Friday, people I follow on Twitter recommend others in the industry who I should consider following (#followfriday). Every week, I learn more about my craft and more importantly I get to form relationships with people all over the world. By bypassing the organizational structure to get my information, inbound communications is at a much higher velocity and is now flowing up through the organization.

Social Media helps you be a project leader.

12 distinctions between managers and leaders by Bennis, Warren and Dan Goldsmith. Learning to Lead. Massachusetts: Persus Book, 1997.

Thank you Laurel Papworth for the use of the Social Media Campaign image

* I recommend reading Fighting Status Quo by Pawel Brodzinski

I’m Derek, a project manager and technology geek who lives and breaths general project management, Agile, Scrum, Kanban, and technology.  You can follow me on Twitter @derekhuether or if you really liked this article, subscribe to the RSS Feed.

Over the course of the last 15 years, I’ve really expanded my personal brand.  I started out as a full on Tech Geek.  I launched my first startup in October of 1996.  Yes, when the Pentium 133 was the latest thing.  It was a good ride.  Sure, the company died off after 10 years of business but I got my exit and I learned a lot.  Two things I learned.  One, I like to interact with people.  Two, I don’t like to interact with people when they don’t want to interact with me.  Let’s not waste our time here, people.  Who would you rather have a conversation with?  [1] That guy or gal who walks around the room pushing his business card into everyone’s face.  Or [2], that guy or gal who you know has similar interests or passions as you.

After leaving the hardware-and-software-geek world for the application development world, I found a niche with project management.  I loved the idea I could help solve a problem (deliver on time, on budget, within scope) when given the opportunity to do so.  I could identify a need and provide a solution.  The need to talk project management when dealing with Businesses, Government Agencies and Educational Institutions led me to get my PMP® Certification.  The need to empower my development teams led me to get my Certified Scrum Master Certification.  The need to optimize my work throughput led me to champion the use of a Personal Kanban.

All of these are all mere tools in my toolbox.  But, when you put them all together, they start to describe my personal brand.  I’m a guy who believes in transparency, technology, and information dissemination.  I deliver products with passion, commitment, and skill.

So, what’s the paradox?  I’ve been writing The Critical Path for a while now.  Since it’s launch, I’ve grown more and more passionate about things other then just project management.  I really have two options.  [1] Launch another blog with my personal perspective and focus The Critical Path on my professional perspective. [2] Expand The Critical Path to include more about my other passions.

I love going on Twitter and finding a thousand personal brand experts or social media experts. (That’s kind of a joke)  But, what I believe in most is the wisdom of the crowd.  I would love to see what you have to say.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to post them below.

Snapshot from @projectmgmt on Twitter

I’m going to steal an idea that I’ve seen used on The Project Centric – How to Manage a Camel blog. They have “Monday Morning Links” where they list blogs to read or people to follow on Twitter.  I found Lindsay Scott and the blog via Twitter on a Follow Friday.  I’ve been reading the blog ever since, enjoying the excellent Project Management related posts.  I’ve found other great blogs just by reading their Monday Morning Link posts.

I also look forward to #FollowFriday (FF) on Twitter.  It’s a great way to find and begin a conversation with other Project Managers, Agile Enthusiasts, Kanban Practitioners, or anyone else having similar ideas or interests.  I feel bad when I sometimes forget to FF others who really should be reminded they write great stuff.

So, here are a few links to posts from blogs I read on a regular basis and a few people I follow on Twitter.  Twitter is so fast paced, a recommendation can come and go and perhaps be lost in the rapid stream of tweets.  By posting a few blog links here, I think there is a higher probability my praise of them will be heard by others.  In Latin I would say nanos gigantum humeris insidentes.  In layman terms, I would say I stand on the shoulders of giants.

Who’s blog I read:

• Alec Satin This week Alec wrote 7 lessons from a heart attack. It was an excellent post that helped me put things into perspective.  I’m glad Alec will be ok and will continue to post about people, projects, and process.
• Deep Fried Brain This week Harwinder a.k.a Brian Washer wrote about the good, the bad, and the ugly of PMI component chapters.  This was great insight  PMPs (new and seasoned) will find valuable.  This blog provides a lot of excellent information about preparing for the PMP exam or maintaining your PMP credentials.
• Mike Cottmeyer This week Mike wrote on his Leading Agile blog asking Why is Agile so hard to sell? He went on to ask why wouldn’t a management team embrace a set of methodologies so focused on giving them what they need the most?   He’s an Agile thinker, writer, consultant, and coffee drinker.

Who I Follow:

@pmstudent – Josh Nankivel helps new and aspiring project managers reach their career goals including gaining experience, education, PMP certification, and more.  He’s listed as the “unofficial” most influential Project Manager on Twitter.  His blog is a must read if you’re active in the PM community.  He’s a member of PMI’s New Media Council.  Lastly, he recently released his own product, WBS Coach.  Yes, if you purchase WBS Coach some of the proceeds would go back to me by way of an affiliate fee.  I’m not afraid to say that because I’m honored to be affiliated with what Josh does.  I can’t say enough good things about what he does.

That’s all I can offer for now.  There are numerous people I would recommend but there is just so much people want to read in a blog post before their eyes start rolling to the back of their heads.

When Twitter launched their list feature recently, I immediately wondered if #FollowFriday was going to go the way of the dinosaur.

For those out there not using Twitter, you have the power to “follow” people of interest and see what they are saying.  By following people of similar personal or professional interests, you get an idea of what is happening in real time.

As you begin to follow people, you are exposed to more and more who can really offer interesting things to say.

Because I wanted to read about what’s new in Tech, I followed Leo Laporte, founder of the TWiT® Netcast Network. Because I wanted to read about entrepreneurs and start-ups, I followed Jason Calacanis, founder of Mahalo.com.  Because I wanted to read about Project Management, I followed Dave Garrett, CEO of Gantthead.com.  Granted, I didn’t just go out and follow them at random.  I followed others and patiently waited for Friday to arrive to see who they would recommend to Follow.  Though I enjoy this organic process of discovery, it is not particularly efficient.  Though the introduction of lists has allowed me to see similar people in large numbers, there is no guarantee it is nothing more then a popularity contest.

Who shall I follow and who shall I recommend to follow?  Alas, I am but one person.  Who am I to suggest who you should follow and who you should not? I will yield my recommendation to one I consider superior in the decision making process.  I yield to what James Surowiecki termed the Wisdom of the Crowd and a nice webapp created by The Plan Is.

It appears The Plan Is tracks all tweets tagged with #pmot and uses them to update a list of the most influential project managers on Twitter. Updates are calculated continuously and new results are displayed every 5 minutes. They won’t tell you how the scores are calculated, as that would make it too easy to game the system.  It appears ranking is based on the number of followers, volume of tweets being retweeted, and the number of lists appeared on.  I may be wrong.  But, the list appears pretty accurate.  Go on Twitter and look at the hashtag #pmot.  If you say (tweet) something interesting, it gets retweeted.  If people like to read what you’re tweeting, you’ll get followed.  What I like about this dynamic reputation score is there are NOT people out there tweeting “vote for me, vote for me”.  It just seems to work.

So, you’re a new Project Manager, Scrum Master, Agile aficionado, or Kanban practitioner on Twitter.  Who do you follow?  Who has the best reputation, from the crowd point of view?  Follow the links below and find out.

Project Managers on Twitter

1. DaveG253: 2175 points
2. francisojsaez: 1800 points
3. projectmgmt: 1685 points
4. ProjectShrink: 1400 points
5. Qtask: 1400 points
6. JohnEstrella: 1135 points
7. pmstudent: 1100 points
8. franciscojsaez: 980 points
9. thesambarnes: 915 points
10. PM_StrayDogg: 835 points

If you would like to see a list from an Agile perspective, there’s a list for that as well.

Note:  The 10 Project Managers in the list above were dynamically generating at the time of this post.

If you have ever been on the fence about doing something, out of fear of failing, this video will give you the push you need.

• Create that new service or product
• Go for that promotion
• Get that new job
• Launch that company

Life = Risk