Email Check. From HR… Check… Content – Congratulations you have been promoted as a project manager. You have demonstrated excellent working skills over the past couple of years. Shocked? Confused? Amazed? Don’t know what to do?
Well to begin with, you need to understand what project management is. It is a tough job, since it does not only involve the management of financial resources, but also technical and marketing resources too. The role of a project manager is a unique blend of five managers rolled into a single person.
The profile is challenging and every time you, along with your team members execute a challenging project, there is a lot of learning takeaway. Before you reach to the execution stage, there are a series of protocols you need to follow. These protocols are applicable for all types of projects irrespective of its complexity. Thus, the steps involved towards excelling in your project management include:
Clarity of Vision
To begin with, you should know what you are doing. Project management involves an equal amount of uncertainty and potential. It is essential to note that your project rests on the pivot point of clear vision. To obtain a clear vision, you need to understand every nuance of the project and derive the maximum yield out of it.
Therefore, in the long run, this helps in the elimination of conflicts and confusion enabling you to move ahead of your competitors. Clarity of vision also includes good organizational skills. Unless you are organized and have a clear vision, you will never be able to fathom what your team members are up to. As someone has aptly said, ‘do it, delete it, or delegate it’, it is essential to follow this rhythm which will create a synergy for excellence.
Set a proper goal
Once you are acclimatised with a clear vision, it is essential to set a goal and work towards achieving it. You are seldom lucky to work on a single project. There are multiple projects and multiple agendas to meet. The client might want you to do X work in Y amount of time with Z amount of resources. This will form a cyclical pattern as more clients come into your picture. It is essential to interact with the client to know what his requirements are and set goals accordingly. As a consequence, the client will depend on you for you have reassured him that you are capable of doing the work; he will know you are the leading man. This will not only help you make the client happy, but also be beneficial for your company in the long run.
Know your team
In order to work towards excellence, you need to understand your team and their abilities. Assigning right work to the wrong person will lead to a major disaster. It is also essential to have faith in your team members, for a constant suspicious attitude will lead you to nowhere.
Be Bold
In management terms, ‘Risk and innovation are perennial bedfellows.’ You have to risk it to get the biscuit. For project management to excel risk taking ability is very important. You cannot always be on the shore. Learning to swim against the wave pays off. Also, for a leader to succeed, innovation is the elixir of excellence. One has to be convincing and bold to face clients and convince them.
Positive attitude towards criticism
As discussed previously, it is essential to be bold and have an innovative attitude, but as a human you are capable of committing glitches. This is where criticisms sweep in. It is your positive attitude towards it which helps you excel in your project management. Instead of playing the blame game, it is important to accept your mistake and rectify it at the earliest.
Active communication with your stakeholders
To explain this point, we are going to employ the RACI model, which is an acronym for Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, and Informed.
Over here the project manager comprises of the ‘R’. He is responsible for everything being done in the project field. Often the project manager comprises of the ‘A’ when dealing with small projects. But most of the time the project is big and the engineers and designers associated with it, are held accountable.
The project manager has to intervene here and resolve disputes and motivate people against playing the blame game. In order to excel in your project management, you need to detect problems beforehand rather than trying to reduce it, once escalated.
In certain projects, ‘C’ is consulted, that is someone of a higher authority. It is extremely risky, for a lot of consulting professionals tend to infiltrate your project leading to the broth getting spoilt. Therefore, in order to prevent such a chaos, it is essential to list out your priorities and skim through a long list of people capable enough for the project.
Lastly, the subordinates come and inform the project manager ‘I’ about the lower level work and the manager accordingly informs the client. It is more of a hierarchical process.
This model is extremely important as it offers a lot of transparency and people know about the kind of expectation the manager is expectant of, with absolutely nothing to hide.
To conclude, it is not easy to become a project manager and excel in project management. The above mentioned protocols need to be followed like the Bible and you are sure to achieve excellence. Apart from the above mentioned points, you need to keep reading, learning and applying your thoughts in the practical world.
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