The Project is over. The deliverables are delivered and you’re ready for the next Project. Or perhaps it didn’t go well and you are now looking for someone to blame.
Stop!
Effective Project Managers seek to understand the motivation and skills of every individual in their team. They create teams that make the most of these individuals and create an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding.
Projects can often be a warzone as the project manager tries to hold onto the plan at all costs against the enemy project sponsors and scope creeps! Many of us derive our self worth on the basis of what we win. The trouble is that a winner means there is also a loser.
Effective Project Managers spend time and effort to understand what is important and plan accordingly. Effective project managers know that early success in a project builds confidence in everyone involved. Effective project managers know that a coherent approach to change management can make the difference between project success and project failure.
All project managers define goals, but effective project managers make sure these are defined clearly and that they understand them unambigously at every level. They make sure they don’t just understand the words, but the meaning and impact of the goals and what the results should be for the business.
You could start by…
When I started out as a Project Manager, long, long ago (before Prince 2 was invented) me and my fellow Project Managers would wait patiently for instructions from the business as to what they wanted me to do. One of our greatest frustrations was…
