Are you a successful business leader? One of the biggest mistakes within many organisations is allowing senior managers to base business decisions purely on ‘gut feel’. The worst offenders commence and then stop projects on a whim, with no sound business reasoning behind the decision. They are time-wasters and inefficient. Not the sort of person you want work with, or for.

Don’t get me wrong – gut feelings are not all bad, as long as they can be supported with good quality market data. Visionaries including, in my opinion Steve Jobs, are often inspired to pursue ideas based on gut feeling, but the next step is to collect and analyse market and financial data, not to start the project!

So what’s the answer to employing quality decision-makers? It’s not rocket science, it’s ensuring they have good project management skills. These are some of the most sought after skills in the global job market today. PRINCE2 is the industry standard project management qualification which employers look for when hiring and promoting staff.

Our PRINCE2 Training courses have impressive pass rates thanks to our excellent trainers, guaranteed small class sizes and comprehensive pre-course material all covered in the price. We run both PRINCE2 Practitioner Training and PRINCE2 Foundation Training in Brighton but can also come to your premises to train if that is favourable.

Project management qualifications are not just a ‘nice to have’, they are essential in today’s competitive market place. And effective project management is required at all levels, from new graduate recruits to long-standing executive managers. It’s what makes the difference between the winners and the losers.

Efficiencies and the profitability of a company is dependent on having these
skills at the top of an organisation. High- level managers who don’t understand or under-value the importance of following consistent and effective processes to meet business goals are failing to meet their management responsibilities.

However, it is not necessary for every manager within an organisation to possess project management skills, but everyone should have a basic understanding, and be willing act on senior project managers’ recommendations.

Perhaps surprisingly, many traditionally successful companies are starting to fall behind their start-up competitors because industry newcomers are making good use of quality market data in their decision-making process.

Rather than relying on the opinion of employees or the CEO’s nephew, they research the market, produce a specification and budget, make the right decisions first time and have more successful projects. They know their target market and tailor products and services appropriately. For example, a new mobile phone will have just the right amount of features for the price point.

Meanwhile, traditional market leaders often develop feature-heavy, expensive white elephants that prospective customers cannot afford to buy. Why pay for 30 expensive features when all you really need is 10 of them?  Feature-heavy products become expensive to maintain and the company has to sell them cheaper to stay in the game.

Some companies then make the mistake of trying to recoup their investment by adding more features to increase the value of the offering and therefore justify a higher price. The problem is that if those feature sets are not based on market needs and value to the customer, the organisation ends up with an even more expensive white elephant to maintain.

So again, the answer lies in excellent project management.

A good leader involves their team in the decision-making process. Surely that’s a good thing? WelI, yes and no. Consultation and involvement empowers employees, facilitates good communication and encourages team support. But business decisions should not be based purely on ideas and opinions, even if the employee is an expert in their field, or a business manager.

You need a plan, a budget and a timescale. You need joined-up thinking to ensure that another part of the business is not creating the same service, product or system. Or worst, that what you think is a great idea has been previously mothballed because it was unsuccessful. So think communication, integration and resource management.

Good quality project and product management with effective and flexible processes and procedures is essential in today’s fast-moving business environment.  Highly skilled project managers are in great demand.  It saves time, improves profits and make for a good leader.

If you want to know what to look for, or how to be, a good project manager read What to Look for in a Project Manager.

Image by Victor1558 on Flickr

Similar posts you may like:

1. What to look for in a Project Manager
2. The Philosophy of Project Management
3. Where to Start With Improving Project Management
4. How to Avoid Project Management Failure
5. What is a Project? Defining Projects and Project Managers

Tags

Decision making, Making decisions, prince2, prince2 training, project management decisions, project management skills, project responsibility, Team building