The art of Project Management isn’t something which will be taught and learned instantly. Sometimes it takes sheer skill to develop a knack for project managers. It could take years to succeed in that level of experience. Regardless of what percentage PM certifications or diplomas you acquire, you’ll always find room for improvement. That’s how the professional world works lately. Whether you’ve got been managing projects and teams for five years or 15, you’ll always avoid running into workplace pitfalls. Here are 10 don’ts of project management that you simply may are hearing since forever. However, altogether honesty, these “don’ts” shapes the result of each routine project
1. Don’t alienate your team from decision making
Teams that were involved in decision-making worked with greater productivity, innovation, and motivation. Remember, you get what you endorse. Project Managers that endorse participative behavior, have fewer jumbles on their plates to affect. Teams of such managers are constantly conscious of their responsibilities as individuals and what’s expected of them.
When you hand the autonomy of decision-making to your team, you show them the trust you’ve got in their skills and more importantly the worth of their role. Your team not seems like they’re involuntary robots programmed to follow strict guidelines and as a result, they develop a way of liberation that propels them to pour extra effort into the project which relies not only on the shoulders of their project manager but on their heads also.
2. Don’t conduct empty meetings deprived of agenda
Conducting empty meetings.
Time may arrive when your team would categorically stop believing in your leadership authority and can quit paying any significant attention to meetings of any nature. Your team looks up to you for guidance, delegation and future projections, ill-planned meetings are just differently of letting your team down and reconfirming their worse fear
Who said you absolutely need to conduct a gathering, with no real meeting scope or agenda in mind? Gather your team only and if you need unanimous brainstorming and interactive exchange of ideas.
3. Don’t ignore small achievements within the face of huge ones
Being recognized motivates them at their job. Remember, your team may be a network of humans performing from the sweat of their brow to satisfy awry deadlines, fix pesky annoying bugs and switch in tedious deliverable one after another.
Sure, they are going home at the top of the day to refuel on sleep, food and family, but does one really think a pat on their back from the boss isn’t something which will work wonders in boosting their confidence to return to figure subsequent day and work around the clock with equally unflinching dedication? So, regardless of how small the achievement is or how ordinary of a task is completed, confirm you applaud your team, recognize their diligence and allow them to know, you appreciate the quantity of effort they put in frying not just the larger fish but the smaller ones too.
4. Don’t escape the feedback ritual
Meaningless paperwork and awkward meetings between manager and subordinate who suddenly appear to be strangers, Instigate an on-going system of feedback where you give regular input to your team members on their performance. Nobody works 7 hours each day, 5 days every week, simply to urge a paycheck, unless in fact , they’re working during a factory with fixed methodologies that need little to no monitoring on behalf of a manager. Sit together with your team members individually, assess their work and tell them what you think that of their work process. Your team thrives on your words and what you think that of them. Your feedback, be it constructive Or supportive empathy, is that the force that drives them to raised outcomes.
5. Don’t steer from automating your management workflow
Project management methodology.
If you think that you’ll manage multiple projects, track time, monitor project budget and estimates and assess team performance all by the trouble of two mortal hands and one brain, re-evaluate. A task management tool will help streamline the entire executive also because the technical glut which otherwise becomes an enormous mishmash of to-dos, emails, due dates, reminders and meeting invitations that either stray or become a pain within the head to manage.
6. Don’t prioritize urgency over importance
Who suggests creating 3 categories to put your high priority tasks in: Must Do, Should Do, Nice to try to. As a project manager, you’ve got a never-ending list of fires to place out, tasks to require care of and plans to execute. And while you juggle of these and plan to please everyone, you unintentionally run a high risk of mismanagement, unhappy clients or stakeholders, and patchy communication. To effectively break down your urgent tasks, make use of the Action Priority Matrix. This matrix helps simplify your decision for you because to form use of the matrix you’ve got to assess your tasks based totally on their impact and therefore the effort needed to pursue them.
7. Don’t overlook project risks as petty issues
“In the business world, the rear-view mirror is usually clearer than the windshield” – Warren Buffet
Identifying risks, unseen roadblocks and formulating mitigation plans may be a vital component of project management. Every project is susceptible to one or more sorts of vulnerability, which will address jeopardize the integrity of the whole project if left unattended. Keeping a solid repository of risks helps give everyone on the team a transparent and transparent idea of how healthy and stable a project is. Use a risk management tool to assist you practice fast and adroit risk assessment, reporting and mitigation.
8. Don’t levy extra load to an understaffed team
The last don’t on our list of don’ts of project management is levying overwhelming workload on the project team. Excessive amount of work on their plates. This could come as no surprise to you but the greater the extent of stressed employees, the greater is your turnover rate, drop by productivity and ultimately a failure to deliver.
Avoid cramping your team members with huge anvils of labor on top of already existing tasks. You would possibly want to expand your team to divide the workload just in case of a faster, finer workflow.
It is much more convenient to recruit your team wisely before the project kicks off.
Evaluate and assess which member possesses the skill set needed to urge a particular job done. And calculate a solid estimate of sufficient resources which will be needed at each stage of the project. This manner you get to form maximum use of your resources and every member delivers to the simplest of his/her role.
