What drives a “Want to get away?” moment in our industry? Perspective matters. In the dynamic world of project management, a deliberate pause with your team to check on the fundamentals can be critical to project success.
Project managers are valuable because of their ability to plan, organize and direct mission-critical initiatives to meet organizational goals. But management skills alone don’t ensure success. Leadership is a critical component to successfully guiding a team to the finish line.
Project managers have a responsibility to their teams to be a leader, and leaders put pressure on themselves to be mistake-free. But having to be "right" all the time is a detriment, not a benefit. Here are some ways to deal with the want or need to be right…
It’s a very strange thing, but we don’t really like success. We don’t embrace it. We often forget to celebrate it. We very frequently look upon the idea of rejoicing in success as an unproductive and unnecessary frivolity. But it doesn’t have to be this way...
Timely decision-making is critical to project success. In fact, sometimes no decision is worse than any decision. Here are three common reasons that decisions don’t get made, and tips for how project leaders can possibly circumvent them to avoid delays that frustrate the team and put the schedule at risk.
How do we ensure that project managers can be empowered to drive the decisions that organizations need—while still being supported by those organizations? And how can that be achieved in an environment where leaders can drive overall strategy without having to be involved in every key decision?
Learning and the need to learn are hallmarks of the professional knowledge worker. To be effective leaders and help promote learning in our teams and organizations, we must embrace and model desired behaviors.
An idealistic leader believes eradicating problems is a virtuous endeavor and engages the struggle despite its apparent futility. A pragmatic leader accepts the existence of issues and mitigates them to the best of their ability. But what about a challenge-based leader? They see a problem as an opportunity to exploit the discovery of knowledge.
Recognizing the needs of our team members is a huge step in becoming an effective leader and creating an environment where success is easier to achieve. These needs include confidence, motivation and recognition/reward. But they aren’t the same for everyone.
Project managers have never had it so good. Much of their administrative work is now handled by automated tools, freeing up a significant number of hours. How is that time best utilized?
|
"Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren't." - Margaret Thatcher |
