It's been over 15 years since I met Mister Rogers, and I still can't shake the experience. 15 years. He's outlasted most of my socks (which my lovely wife accuses me of hanging onto forever).

By way of explanation, my PPM career (pre-project management) was in radio. I was the News Director of WASH-FM, Washington in the 80's. It's a rather labyrinthine career path I'll delve into some other time. But one of my roles was to do the "author interviews." Celebrities hawking their latest books would cross my doorstep in a flurried rush to get one more bit of publicity before getting out of Washington. This day, it was to be Mister Rogers.

I did my traditional rushed introductions as I set up the equipment in the studio. As I strung sentence after sentence together in a spate of oral diarrhea, Fred Rogers leaned across the table and spoke in his gentle voice.

"Please don't rush on my account. We have a full 40 minutes together. I want to make sure you get everything you need."

It was eerie.

Just as I had watched him calm my son with gentle voice and soothing tone, he was doing the same for me. But there was something more. It was focus. The man was focused, and he was focused on me. The more he spoke, the more he talked about what I hoped to get out of the interview and how I could take best advantage of our time together. He was interested in ensuring I looked good. In my years of conducting such interviews, no one had ever done that for me. He wasn't worried about his next limo ride, his interview upstairs at Channel 5 or his agenda for the Minneapolis leg of the trip. He was focused on me.

The interview went well, with the traditional give-and-take of information about his philosophy, attitude and approach to life. As he spoke, I gave each concept greater weight because of the deference he had shown me. I lent him more credence because he had done the same for me. And when he left, I found I had turned into a fan of Mister Rogers, explaining his positions to others and identifying why he's such a great influence for children.

My children have now outgrown Mister Rogers. I have not.

I believe he has a powerful message for project managers, and particularly project managers in charge of sizeable teams. It's a message of respect and focus-two traits we can leverage as project managers to higher levels of performance and more dedicated teams.

Respect
Respect is not just a "lip service" acknowledgement of a person's accomplishments. It is, according to Chambers Dictionary of Etymology, rooted in the Latin terms for regard, delay and look back. Basically, it comes from stopping and taking a look at something or someone. It didn't turn to mean honor or deference until the mid-1550's. Mister Rogers seems to know that lesson all too well. In dealing with his tour hosts, he showed them respect. When they asked a question or posed a concern, he paused, considered their issue and provided a thoughtful response. Position or title did not appear to be the roots of his interest. He seemed to genuinely respect them as peers.

As project managers, there is the occasional battle to set ourselves apart because of the sometimes daunting nature of our work. We strive to ensure that others understand just how complex and overwhelming our worlds can be. Rather than elevate others (be they project managers or team members) we occasionally find ourselves in a battle of "worsts," trying to outdo the other person with the challenges of our day-to-day existence.

"I have three meetings this week, and two of them are out of town."

"THREE meetings? I have four, and for one, I'll be up at 2 AM for an Australian telecon!"

"I have four TODAY! And the one's an all-nighter to develop a new strategy on meeting protocols!"

This doesn't show a lot of respect for what each other are going through, and I doubt Fred Rogers gets caught in this kind of battle. Respect means acknowledging what others are challenged by, and attempting to show a reasonable level of empathy for their experience. It means giving them credit for what they're accomplishing and how they're accomplishing it.

Focus
This all ties in to the nature of focus. When I met with Fred Rogers, I expected a traditional celebrity experience. Celebrities expect the world to be focused on them. Most of those in the public eye that I had the honor to meet had rather egocentric perspectives on reality. The role reversal with Fred Rogers caught me off guard. I did not expect to have him ask me what I needed or how he could help me in the course of the interview.

Similarly, most of our team members are accustomed to our propensity for multi-tasking. They do not expect us to have the time or energy to invest in them, even when we carve out a few minutes to have them into our offices or cubicles. We can change how much we accomplish in those little meetings and how they're received by a simple change in protocol.

Try this the next time someone asks for a few minutes of your time. Ask for 15 seconds to prepare your desk or office. Turn off the computer monitor and the speakers. Put the phone on "do-not-disturb" mode or off the hook. Clear any potentially distracting papers from the desk. Grab a pen and pad for notes (and only for notes). Look across the desk. Begin the conversation.

The change in tone from the conventional office meeting will be dramatic. Those who genuinely need your time and attention will feel valued, appreciated and recognized. They will sense the level of acknowledgement you're affording them. In many instances, they will intensify their focus to optimize your time together. By contrast, those who seek simply to "shoot the breeze" will sometimes be intimidated by the level of intimacy created by this practice. They will often cut those conversations short. In either case, you are improving business communication, showing respect and focus to those who merit it, and encouraging clarity of communication and information sharing.

For most project managers, multi-tasking has become such a way of life that to do otherwise is a major change in practice. By becoming a little more like Fred Rogers we have the potential to render it a more "beautiful day in the (project) neighborhood."

Carl Pritchard is the principal of Pritchard Management Associates and is an internationally recognized author and lecturer on project and risk management. He can be reached through by e-mail at Carl@carlpritchard.com or on the web at www.carlpritchard.com. His office phone is 301-662-7877.

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