Monica Ashley free essay sample

Why do you think that Monica Ashley was so interested in pushing so hard to implement Project Hippocrates? What made her interested in the project? At first Monica was not interested in leading Project Hippocrates, she intended on moving up in the ranks within her company. However, she was known for intensity and energy when working on a project and figured that she would throw herself at the project and perhaps after one more high-profile success she could move out of program/project management. Also, Monica believed that the President Gary Dorr wanted her to run the Hippocrates project and knew her as a go-getter, who would challenge anyone and analyze extensive data to back up her arguments. It seemed that the leadership she respected entrusted her with this project and she was not going to let them down. Why was Monica driving so hard to meet her self-imposed deadlines? Monica struggled to meet her deadlines because she believed that meeting those deadlines, and presenting factual data would be the way to win over leadership when it came down to making key decisions regarding the data that she was presenting. We will write a custom essay sample on Monica Ashley or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page She wasted no time making political connections, instead focused all her energy on meeting deadlines to achieve the greater goal of garnering senior leadership buy-in behind her and her ideas. Who were the key players that Monica needed to interact with to make Project Hippocrates Successful? How did each of them view the project? Who was supportive of Monica and the project and who was not? What was important to each of the players? The key players were Gary Dorr, President, Ralph Parker, VP of Signal Processor Design, Dan Stella, VP of Maj. Production Line Design, ED Kane, a manager reporting to Ralph Parker. Gary Dorr viewed the project as key to the organization and trusted Monica to achieve success as she had before, but during the project he switched his view drastically as she did not heed his advice regarding her confrontations with Ralph Parker. As President, Gary probably expected Monica to build a relationship with Parker, however she never attempted to, instead confronted and responded directly to Parkers direct confrontations. The project’s success was key to Gary, and his relationships with the customers and with his leaders are also important. Ralph Parker had a different way of getting to the end result, and due to that variation and his attitude which was known to be rough, Monica never approached him to build a relationship prior to running the project. She actually went against his approaches building a case with data, instead of asking his opinion during and prior to key decision points. Ralph never liked Monica’s style or approach, and did not believe that her outsourcing answers were right for the business. He was a barrier to Monica at each meeting and encounter. ED Kane was taking direction from Ralph and of course fighting for his team’s product and his team’s voices to be heard. Monica had taken an approach of exclusion and therefore Kane was not bought in. He was a tough adversary as he was knowledgeable and vocal, and was fighting for his living in the company. Dan Stella, Monica’s boss was passive yet overall supportive of Monica. However his communications to her were interpreted as vague and while he supported her he did not coach Monica on building relationships and garnering buy-in from key parties and stakeholders prior and during the project. Dan was a hands-off leader who would benefit greatly from project success. What were Monica’s strengths and weaknesses in managing Project Hippocrates? What did she do well and where did she go wrong? Monica had many strengths in managing the project. She quickly realized the need for change and wasted no time in analyzing all available data and determining a path. She could multi-task well, was focused, and exuded confidence. She was hard on herself which is a strength but only to a point. Monica’s main weakness was that she did not understand or seem to want to understand the people behind the project. She was so data driven and did not take the time to engage the key players, or build a sense of cohesiveness around her ideas and data. She focused well on the small picture but lacked the big picture focus that was needed for a cross functional project this size. Monica also relied on a few relationships to carry her through the project, a mistake since these relationships would have backed her as they had previously had she gone through the necessary politicking. What could Monica have done differently to make the implementation process for Project Hippocrates less contentious? Monica had great ideas, but she could have instead gathered her staff and Parker’s staff and had a brainstorming session perhaps listing out the pros and cons of each potential project track with all key players in the room. Then everyone could voice their opinions in a non-partial forum. Of course Monica and others could present data, and their beliefs, but whatever decision was made at this lower level, it would at least have more buy-in due to the nature of the discussion. Monica could have spent more time building relationships with key leaders and presented her data in a less aggressive manner. What are the implications for Monica? Should she look for a job with another company? I most likely would look elsewhere. Monica’s reputation is tarnished for the time being. Yet, she is an excellent employee, with great ideas, and has learned the ins and outs of leadership from this experience. Her skills could be highly valued elsewhere and if she spends time building key relationships as well as focusing on data and maintaining her work ethic, she could be invaluable to another organization. She would leave her reputation at Heal, inc. , and move on. It might also be a good time for her to look for a leadership role, whereas Heal, inc. might not jump to put her in such a position.