Top Tips For Managing A Project Team

When managing a project, it’s easy to get bogged down in the details of the task in hand and to forget about the team working for you. Being task-oriented at the expense of the people will lead to inefficient use of time and resources – and will be a serious risk to the success of your project.

Learning project management standards such as PRINCE2 will teach you how to balance your priorities and ensure success. We provide PRINCE2 Foundation Training and PRINCE2 Practitioner Training courses at our central Brighton training centre.

Here are our 7 top tips on how to work with your team to ensure project success.

square-peg-round-hole

Don’t put a square peg in a round hole!

Match the staff to the project

Make sure the people you have for your project are the most suitable for the job. It’s a simple tip but surprisingly often overlooked. Your most hard-working member of staff may always seem like the right person but no amount of hard work can make someone creative if the task demands it. Balancing expertise, talent and personality is
tough – but essential.

If you need to give any training, do this before you start or include it as part of your project plan.

Give them background…and a vision

By explaining the background to the project – past successes and even failures – you will be laying the groundwork for ensuring their faith in the project. You need their buy-in for the project to succeed, so make sure they are confident that it’s a valid objective based on what’s gone before.

Simply giving your team the background behind a project doesn’t automatically lead to understanding of the outcomes and benefits. As well as, of course, outlining what specific objectives you need to achieve, let them know the long-term benefits to the organisation – and to them. Be as specific as you can about how their hard work will pay off. Read the rest of “Top Tips For Managing A Project Team”

What to look for in a Project Manager

What separates the good from the not-so-good when it comes to a Project Manager? Well, an industry recognised title such as PRINCE2 Practitioner certainly helps. Our PRINCE2 training courses have high pass rates and low clase sizes so that you get the most out of your course. Plus you get to spend a week in Brighton!

Here we give some tips on what, in our opinion, makes the difference between a good and a bad Project Manager. To be the best you need to have all these traits and skills.

What Does a Project Manager Do?

To illustrate what makes a project manager good we should firstly define the role and responsibilities.

A Project Manager is responsible for:

  • Planning
  • Managing resources
  • Monitoring and controlling progress
  • Ensuring that work is completed within an agreed time scale
tim-campbell-apprentice-winner

Winner of the first Apprentice, Tim Campbell is a shining example of a great project manager.

And, at the end of the day, the project manager is accountable for delivering the final project which meets the agreed specification.

Defining ‘Good’

In our experience, a good Project Manager is somebody who can consistently deliver project success. Success is recognised by meeting the clients’ business needs to an agreed level of quality, timescale and budget. And remember, a client can be internal or external to an organisation.

Wondering what makes a ‘bad’ project manager? Well, anybody who uses the phrases in this ‘S**t project managers say’ video needs to rethink their management strategy.

Personality Traits

Find these four personality traits in a person and you are well on your way to employing a good Project Manager. Display these four qualities to put yourself next in line for promotion.

  1. Leadership  – a good Project Manager needs to take charge of their projects. They are likely to naturally take the lead and manage others around them. A good PM also aims for clarity of authority levels within their projects.
  2. Good logical and analytical skills – to do the job effectively a PM must be able to plan and assess progress and foresee problems ard risks.
  3. A people person – successful PMs are generally easy to get on with. They are able to be empathetic and diplomatic, resolving issues between interested parties. They focus on building positive relationships and, at the same time, commanding respect.
  4. A completer/finisher – this is an essential quality. PMs must feel duty-bound to drive the project to a successful closure. This is often an inbuilt desire to achieve personal success rather than simply for the benefit of the organisation. Read the rest of “What to look for in a Project Manager”

Managing Risk

Risky Business

Risk can either be an opportunity or a stumbling block; nothing is guaranteed but either way it is going to have an effect on your project’s goals and is an essential part of business. Without risks businesses wouldn’t grow or venture into new markets, which in an ever-changing environment could wind up costing them the business itself.

Taking risks is scary, but when guided by a professional who has undergone PRINCE2 Training and knows how to use risk management techniques, looking for potential benefits at every possible opportunity. To be able to do this an individual must be able to use a set of processes and principles to be able to identify, record, analyse and control risks, knowing what best courses of action to take in different situations.

There are a number of things to take into account when coming up with a risk assessment strategy to ensure that your business’s future isn’t completely left to chance, but an extremely calculated risk. Or as calculated as it can be. This is why we are going to look at some of these principles to help you manage risk and help you make your own risk management strategy:

Learn more about PRINCE2 with our previous post on the Seven PRINCE2 PrinciplesRead the rest of “Managing Risk”

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