Leading Squad Nightmares Are Just Nightmares
Being a Project Manager is not a cakewalk. You got to balance all the elements of a complex project – time, money, scope and people. To understand the nature of the everyday challenge job, we discussed its intricate sides with our Project Manager that worked with us since day one – Kristina Scherba.
“Project Management is the mix of art, science and major headache. To deal with unexpected challenges in projects, PM has to be prepared to all possible ways and has to know exactly what essential steps to perform – and that’s where the devil sits. We will show you how to manage these challenges by highlighting the solutions that are proven by experience and actually work.”
Challenge 1
HANDLING THE TIME FRAMES
Lots of projects face the issue of ‘not getting work done in time for the deadline’. The solution here lies in the proper alternative approach the Project Manager have to find. We suggest to you to have it ready even before the expected schedule slippage. Manage the stress of ‘impossibility’. Don’t demand the impossible in your team members – in that way, you will lower the productivity and morale in everybody. Be sure, that with the creative approach in planning and deep analysis you may prevent almost any negative scenarios.
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Challenge 2
DEFINING THE GOALS
That’s the common situation where there are no clear goals in the project and the members will not agree on a certain step. The solution here is the proper questions asked by the Project Manager that will determine the clear goals from the outset.
Challenge 3
SETTING THE POSITIVE COMMUNICATION
Project Managers and team members always lack information that may be provided to each other. The most important nuance in a project is its culture of communication. You have to determine the suitable nature of communication and create a plan of how the certain information has to be conveyed between the participants. Set the schedule of reports, update statuses, make sure that every member is aware of the present situation. The other thing to remember is that Project Manager always has to determine which parts of the project may not be understood by the project participants. This is to be checked and corrected along with the project documentation.
Challenge 4
KEEPING THE COMPETITION
The competition lies in people, money and time. And the most important here is to set the priority across the project stages. The projects priority will determine the position and will help to run the initiative on the proper level.
Challenge 5
DEALING WITH RISKS
There are always risks included throughout the whole project plan. Learn how to face these situations and always know the potential of your team for resolving unexpected issues. The solution here is to investigate the failure properly and respond to it in the way of reducing its occurrence. Dealing with risks is the essential piece of Project Management.
Challenge 6
KEEPING TEAM MEMBER SKILLS SUFFICIENT
List the skills of each team member and the skills needed for accomplishing the expected workloads. Create a map for assigning the tasks to the proper workers with certain skills and availability. In order to close the needed skill gaps in teams, Project Manager should give training and provide team members with all the needed additional resources. Creating a method where you improve the skills throughout the working process is the smartest way of both managing the project and make your team more competitive.
Challenge 7
NOT FLOODING YOURSELF WITH NEVER ENDING MEETINGS
Meetings to updating project status are obligatory, as nothing will replace the actual human communication. But being often on calls is not the best use of team members time. Building a model, where updating and communicating will be just a part of working process is not that hard. Usually, this kind of issue disappears with experience. Let project resources report back on tasks, setting the reporting responsibility on those who work on a particular part of the project.
Challenge 8
KEEPING CUSTOMERS ENGAGED AND HAPPY
Don’t flood yourself and project team members in an internal routine of deliverables and deadlines. It is very important to provide status updates to all participants of the current project. Always be organized and informative, leave no shades behind.
Being Brought Into the Strategic Process at the Appropriate Time
The Project Manager always has to analyze failures and setbacks in order to keep the professional level. Any project is different and to keep leadership in always changing environment is the most important capability. Don’t rely on time intensive status meetings but get the full resource information and set the proper workflow where more things are getting done without constant explanation. Honestly evaluate the possibilities and improve those that you lack. A Project Managers success is not in avoiding critical situations, but is in the proper approach to every hard challenge.
