The Project Manager’s Playbook: Melinda Cooley, Vice President, Honeywell

Melinda Cooley has over twenty years of professional experience and more than a decade of experience in supply chain and operations management with a heavy focus on driving transformational change. This also includes running the global PMO organization for a top manufacturer of N-95 masks during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

“It was intense and fast paced but also exciting,” Melinda recalled. “Anytime I’m asked about my career and how I’ve been successful as a leader, it always comes back to my project management foundation and the skills I honed as a project and program manager. I wholeheartedly believe that project management ability and knowledge significantly shapes leadership and informs leadership success.” 

In 2022, Melinda joined the Program Advisory Board (PAB) for the Master of Project Management program at Wake Forest University’s School of Professional Services. The PAB is made up of industry leaders and experts who ensure SPS programs remain impactful, accessible, and relevant. We sat down with Melinda recently to discuss the real-world application of project management, his atypical days, and how he works within the organization he supports. 

Meet Melinda Cooley

Current role / organization: Vice President, S&OE responsible for Material Execution, Business and Manufacturing Excellence, and Analytics for the Industrial Automation Division in Honeywell Inc.

Degrees earned: B.S. in Business Administration from University of Illinois; MBA, Indiana Wesleyan University

Certifications: 6 Sigma Black Belt Certification; Certified in Production and Inventory Management (CPIM)

What to know about her outside of work: Has a passion for volunteering and is involved in several civic organizations, including Big Brothers, Big Sisters and is currently pursuing a PhD in Organizational Leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University.

Connect with Melinda on LinkedIn. 

Project Management in Action: The Power of Tenacity 

Wake Forest School of Professional Studies (SPS): What’s the view or approach you take to project management? 

Melinda Cooley (MC): Project and program management simply put center around delivering a quality product on time and under budget. It’s about coordination and leadership with consideration of strategic planning, resource management, and problem solving. It’s the ability of a PM to influence a team and drive them to develop and execute a plan within a required timeline and budget.

SPS: Typically, what’s the first thing you do when you get to work for the day?

MC: In the Honeywell environment, we use an MOS or management operating system to establish and drive our day and our calendars. This process outlines the standard work behind a meeting to support a process – the agenda, invitees, purpose, deliverables, escalations, and measures for success. We initiate special MOS’ to help drive new or priority projects to drive our say do, and ensure we are meeting deliverables on time and within cost requirements.

I also use an app called Todoist. In the app, it helps me project manage my entire schedule. After looking at my work calendar for the day and seeing what meetings I have, prioritizing those and ensuring I have any prework needed ready, I then dive into my email and get current with my to-do list. 

SPS: How do you typically end your day? 

MC: At the end of each day, I take time to reflect on the day and consider what went well, what needs attention, and where I need to spend focus and energy to support my team and our initiatives and priorities. I take a few minutes every day to look ahead to my MOS and calendar for the next three days. I’ll review my short-term to-do list but also my bigger project list. Looking at this ahead of time allows me to prioritize things, so that I’m spending 60-70% of my focus the next few days to ensure me and my team are supporting the business in what we need to complete,  20-30% of my time on those more strategic items, and then I always allot 5-10% of my time on people – developing an employee, checking in to see how they are doing, and how I can support them. Finally, I try to end my day at the gym, so I can workout and reset my mind from the stressors of the work day. 

SPS: After more than 20 years in the field, what’s one of the biggest misconceptions people have about project management?

MC: People seem to get this perception that it’s all easy times and accolades. They don’t see the PM spending hours a day, every single day, weeks in a row on calls with the team, pushing through, working to get needed detailed information, peeling back the layers. There are projects that go great, and we love that. But then there’s projects that are tough and require a lot of extra time, inputs, investigation and course correction. Part of excelling as a project or program manager is having tenacity and commitment. It’s pushing through those types of projects. 

I also see a lot of misconceptions around the industry. For some reason, people think program managers and project managers are construction people wearing a hard hat program managing a new building. While that’s certainly true, there is a lot of space for project, program, and portfolio management in banking, healthcare, manufacturing, new product introduction, technology, business process excellence, lean manufacturing, and many other areas.. 

SPS: What are some of the major challenges you face in your current role?

MC: For my level, it’s time and resource management. It’s always a challenge to spend the exact right amount of time to get what I need for the business out of a project or a specific deliverable and there’s a balance with not over or underinvesting my focus and energy. More importantly where I ask my team to spend their time and efforts to ensure we are prioritizing the right things with the right resources to meet our commitments.

SPS: What’s a skill that PMs need that most people don’t think about?

MC: You have to have dedication, passion, tenacity and be committed to building a relationship with your stakeholders. As the PM, you are responsible for the failure or success of the project. There are times when you have to demonstrate courage and be able to drive difficult conversations or receive constructive criticisms, feedback, and course corrections. You have to learn how to navigate through those situations and not pour your self-worth into a single outcome with one leader or stakeholder but instead, let the outcome of a project be your measure of success. I think that’s tough for early project managers and program managers, but it’s necessary for success.

SPS: What’s your go-to advice for new or upcoming project managers?

MC: There is a tendency in the PM world to simply execute the standard work. Check the boxes to make sure each item and action happens. There are many applications, programs, and standards, and we get caught up in checking the box and not taking a thoughtful approach. To deliver a project, network, and demonstrate your knowledge which helps you grow in your career, a PM needs to arrive eager to learn and focused on increasing their breadth of knowledge. Ask more informed questions and course correct or escalate when needed. I always encourage PMs to “go deep”. 

SPS: What have you enjoyed most about participating in the PAB at Wake Forest SPS?

MC: Rich Rinaldi invited me to speak with one of his classes about my career, and after that, multiple students reached out to me which I thought was so cool. I connected with each one that reached out and gave them some suggestions, feedback, and tips on jobs they might look for. The students are just so engaged and excited. Anytime I can interact with them and especially if I can offer help or support, it is very rewarding.  

Growing the Next Generation of Project Managers through Mentorship 

Melinda is committed to mentoring the next generation of project managers and leaders, which was part of her motivation when joining the PAB. It’s also something she focuses on at Honeywell. One of her mentees is Monica Bockhorst.

“She is one of my high performing project managers,” Melinda said. “Something Monica does really well is she takes the time to understand the details of the project, and she is thoughtful about the questions she asks to advance the project, while also keeping a high-level handle on the workstreams and team members to make sure that we’re not wasting time and are focused on things that are value add.”   

Monica joined Honeywell in 2020 and now serves as a Senior Supply Chain Program Manager for the Industrial Automation Division in Honeywell, Inc. With the support from leaders like Melinda, she also recently obtained her PMP certification. Like Melinda, Monica spends her time balancing the competing priorities of different projects and stakeholders. Her motto is that it’s her responsibility as a PM to make her boss’s life easier, whether that boss is internal or an external client. 

Throughout Monica’s career, one of the biggest things she’s learned is the importance of asking questions: “You aren’t going to know everything,” Monica said. “That’s okay. Sometimes it’s not about having all the answers but having the willingness to learn and reach out to ask the right questions.” 

Meet Monica Bockhorst 

Current Role/Organization: Senior Supply Chain Program Manager for the Industrial Automation Division in Honeywell Inc

Education: Supply Chain Management from Miami University; MBA from University of Cincinnati

Certifications: 6 Sigma Green Belt Certification; Certified PMP

Hobbies: Traveling, baking, pilates, Cincinnati sports 

Connect with Monica on LinkedIn.

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