Lead and Manage the Project
Great Project Managers are Successful at Leading and Managing
How to Lead and Manage Projects
Plan Before Doing
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Projects are often the result of "Ready, Shoot, Aim" don't allow yourself to fall victim to that approach.
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Develop and apply a specific leadership and management plan tailored for each of your projects. Identify what you will do, how you will provide leadership for your team(s), what and how you will manage.
Develop Effective Project Teams
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An effective team can be your biggest asset, an ineffective team can be your biggest risk.
Facilitate Effective Meetings
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Having effective meetings is easy, it simply requires planning and sticking to the plan, or consciously recognize the plan isn't working and develop and agree to a new plan.
Verify Needs and Requirements Often
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The longer the project the more you need to break the plan/schedule into shorter intervals. The world is constantly changing, account for the change.
Observe and Verify Assumptions
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Assign a team member to uncover, identify, record, and verify assumptions throughout the life of the project. Assumptions drive risk.
Establish Effective Operating Norms
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If only one person is new on your team it is important to establish the team's norms. The norms you establish or allow to occur will become your culture. Culture drives behavior.
Verify Agreements and Commitments
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Just because someone agreed to do something in a meeting it doesn't necessarily mean they will do it. "Stuff" happens, things change, if you really need it done, verify.
Communicate Often
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Projects create change, people need to know what is changing, why it's changing, how it will change, and when it will change. People also need to know what is not changing.
Resolve Conflict
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Assume that every project will have some amount of disagreement or conflict. Don't allow the conflict to focus on the people, keep it focused on the issues, i.e. the data.
Coach and Influence Behavior Change
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Projects expect to produce new results. New results requires using the deliverables in a particular way, that's behavior change. Changing behavior is not just flipping a switch.
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Record and share learnings
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Every project is a rich source for uncovering learning opportunities. Build continuous learning into your team's norms i.e. culture.
Reward Results and Almost Rights
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If you want it to happen again, reward it. Telling people what not to do isn't helpful, demonstrate what you want and then reward the almost right, it's never exactly "right."
Identify, Recommend, and Implement Improvements
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Become the observer, observe yourself, others, and your company. If you're not happy with what you see, be aware of what you can and can not change, and change what you can.