By one estimate, adults ask 10 to 30 questions per day. On that score, Maggie McGuire’s well above average.
It’s a main part of her job as project manager at Aartrijk: Asking people to do things.
She’s very good — not only at asking questions (unassumingly, gently, intently) but at using questions to push work forward. These qualities have been so beneficial for our clients here at Aartrijk.
Since she’s good at asking, we, ahem, asked her how she asks people to do things.
1. Project management involves a lot of things but one of them is asking people to do things. Do you enjoy that part of project management? What rewards do you get?
I do really enjoy it. Everybody has their skill set and mine is that I’m an organized, task-oriented person. There’s a sense of accomplishment in setting up a long to-do list every day and then checking things off as I go.
Some people can sit for hours and write an article. I’m so impressed with creative people, writers or designers who focus on one thing for long, long stretches of time. I could never do that. I don’t have that skill set. But I can juggle 100 balls in the air to ensure that the real talent — our thought leaders, our writers, our designers — can succeed. That’s what project management at Aartrijk requires me to do. It’s a puzzle, putting these different pieces together so, at the end of the day, you’ve created something worthwhile.
2. So if you have that list of 100 things to get done, how do you ask people to do them?
The key is in the word “ask,” which is different than demanding. I’m asking them, recognizing that they are better than I am at doing whatever it is I’m asking them to do.
Another key is respect — respecting their time and the way they want to work on the project. So I see big difference between saying, “You must do this by this date and you have to do it exactly as I say,” and saying, “We need this article written. Are you interested? Can you do it? Does this deadline work for you?”
It’s important to recognize they have their own process of absorbing information and arriving at decisions. I really am asking. I’m not demanding.
3. Does the word “please” matter?
Very much so. “Please” and “thank you” matter in in everything you do in life. Yes, of course.
4. Whether or not people get things done on a timely basis can make or break a project or even a client relationship. Do you feel pressure around that from a project management perspective?
When I first started at Aartrijk, I very much felt that pressure. But as I’ve gotten to know the projects, our clients and our team better, I feel much, much less pressure, mainly because I’ve gotten to know the way different people work. I know that some people will leave things right up to the deadline, but always get the work done. So, I don’t have to worry or feel pressure three days before the deadline because I know we will have a great product at the end of the day.
That being said, there’s always going to be pressure, in any job. We need to honor the commitments we’re making to our clients and to the publications we work with. It’s a collaboration — made much easier by working with such a great group of professionals.
5. What is the range of reactions you get when you ask people to do things?
Some people commit right away and others take more time. For me, the hardest part is when people don’t commit outright. But I also encourage them to say “no” — it’s a complete sentence, as the saying goes. A “no” I can work with. An ignored request is more difficult.
6. Any tips on how to respond when someone asks you to do something?
Somebody told me once if you’re ever asked to do something and it’s going to take less than five minutes, do it right away. If you don’t do it right away, you’re going to end up spending significantly more than five minutes writing it on a Post-it note, then ignoring it and then thinking about it two days later and rewriting it on another note and then ignoring it and then thinking about it a week later. That procrastination takes a lot more time and space in your head.
And that’s how I approach everything I do at work and even in my personal life. It is a really effective way to manage your time.
6. How about project management systems — how do they play a role in this business of asking?
Technology is a blessing and a curse. But when it comes to project management, it’s indispensable. If you can gently push people toward the technology and help them use it in the way that it was intended, everybody wins.
7. Any other thoughts on this topic of how to ask people to do things?
I’m not going to ask my husband to do something in the same way that I’d ask my teenager. And the same concept applies to work. No matter who you’re asking, you treat each person as an individual and learn how to communicate with them most effectively. It makes for a more successful organization, and more importantly, it’s good for the friendships that grow out of them.