The Fresh Start Effect: 7 Steps to Better Leadership

Bruce is the founder of ProjectManagementHacks.com, a resource for growing IT project managers.

  Leadership  

Project managers have a unique leadership opportunity—we regularly leverage the “fresh start effect.” The fresh start effect refers to the additional energy and excitement you get when you start a new month, quarte or year. You might also experience it when you start a new job or join a new team.

Every time you start a new project, especially if you are working with new people, you have the chance to lead afresh. This means that project managers have more chances to reinvent themselves and become better leaders than almost anybody else.

To make the most of these leadership opportunities, use these tips to make the most of your new beginning in a project.

Pre Project-Preparation
Before you begin, keep these practices in mind:

1. Check your personal lessons learned from the last project. Your personal lessons learned represent your growing wisdom about how to succeed at work. This could include feedback you've received on presenting, project planning, or working with customers. It can cover nearly any topic. The critical point is that these lessons are for your benefit rather than for the organization as a whole.

Don't have a lesson-learned document ready for review? No problem. Create a blank document in your favorite app and answer the following questions about your current (or most recently completed) project:

• What is one …

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