Lauren Stevens

In my experience, a Senior Program Manager leads with: • Strategic Vision & Planning: Clearly defines and communicates goals, aligns with organizational objectives, anticipates challenges, and sets achievable milestones. • Stakeholder Management: Manages relationships with all stakeholders, understanding diverse needs, and ensuring clear, honest communication. • Problem-Solving/Decision Making: Uses strong problem-solving skills to address complex issues, making decisions based on facts and data, considering immediate and long-term impacts. • Integrity: Upholds ethical and moral principles, fostering trust and respect, ensuring the program maintains high ethical standards.

Here are effective strategies that I have used to address conflicts with team members who miss deadlines: 1. Initiate candid, non-confrontational conversations to understand challenges & explain the impact of missed deadlines. 2. Ensure everyone understands the importance of deadlines, then provide necessary support or resources, & use project management tools for better tracking & accountability. 3. Regularly provide feedback, acknowledge improvements & be willing to review and adjust unrealistic deadlines. 4. Drive Accountability through trust & verification, not punishment. Lead accountability with purpose, follow up with intent, create an environment where responsibility is met with support, not fear.

A program manager can lead effective risk & opportunity management in 3 key ways: 1. Active Participation: Engage directly in identifying risks & opportunities, setting a standard for proactive behavior. Regularly discuss these points in team meetings, demonstrating transparency. 2. Following Protocols: Adhere to risk management processes, including updating risk registers & implementing mitigation plans. This encourages the team to take them seriously. 3. Valuing Team Contributions: Encourage team members to have open dialogue. Act on their input to foster a collaborative environment where everyone feels responsible for & capable of contributing to risk management. These practices cultivate a risk-aware culture.

In my experience, how the risk description is written is key to narrowing down the specific problem that needs to be solved. Below is a simple format for a concise risk description: If <insert the driving problem you are trying to mitigate> by <insert date to time bound when the problem needs to be resolved> due to <insert root cause>, then <insert financial implication> Example: If we do not deliver the system to our customer by 03/10/2024 due to supply chain schedule slips, then we will not receive our milestone based payment causing us to miss our 1Q financial forecast. I have found that the more specific you are in identifying the cause of the risk, the more focussed and executable the risk mitigations and contingency plans can be.

Delegate responsibility, set clear expectations, check in on progress, be accessible, and foster open communication At the end of the day, a leader’s job is to remove impediments; not be one.

What has worked for me is to ensure each role has clear RAA: Responsibility: what is the person leading this statement of work responsible for? Accountability: what results is the person leading this statement of work being held accountable for? Who is this role accountable to? Authority: does this person have the authority and resources required to perform the statement of work she/he is responsible for and being held accountable to? Clarity around RAA is required for all positions on a team. And the position needs all three elements of RAA to be successful in the role. This is what has worked for me as a 25 year veteran running programs and teams.