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5 Ways To Lead Projects More Effectively

Business Management Daily.

Project management training, advice and wise counsel can be found anywhere.

Far less is written about leading projects.

This short article won’t put much of a dent in that balance but it will illuminate five key lessons I have learned from personal experience and through coaching and observing others.

These lessons can help your projects be more effective, achieve better results and allow you to perhaps get a bit more sleep at night.

KEEP THE BIG PICTURE PERSPECTIVE
Why is the organization embarking on this project? Do you know the answer to this with crystal clarity? And do those involved in the project’s implementation know it as well?

If your answer is as firm as the Jell-O in your grandmother’s refrigerator, you have a problem. If you don’t know the purpose and value of the project, you can’t lead it successfully. If your team doesn’t know with equal clarity, their focus will waver and their energy will drop.

You not only must know the purpose of the project, but how it will make a difference to your customers and team. As a leader, you must have this clear perspective. Without that picture, it will be hard for you to lead the team as challenges, obstacles and diversions arrive.

Keep the big picture in your mind at all times. If you don’t have that picture, it is time to go get it.

BEWARE THE 50 PERCENT FALLACY
Often times, in an effort to put the right people with the right skills and background on the project team, people are assigned to a team at 50 percent of their time. (I’ve seen everything from 90 percent to 5 percent listed on project documentation.)

This doesn’t work.

Well, let me tell you what it does do (and therefore why it doesn’t really work).

Most people, when attached to a project at a portion of their time, are not really released from their regular job. Or if they are, no one talks to them about clear expectations on what they aren’t supposed to do in their current role while they work on the project.

This leads to one of two outcomes:

People trying to do all of both jobs (and either getting burned out, stressed out, sick or doing neither very well).
People so confused that they can’t focus well enough to do either job well.

Partial assignments can work but only if two things exist: the expectations of the person, the project manager and their regular supervisor are all mutual and specific, and the partial assignments are very short term in nature.

Especially on big projects, I seldom see either of these things being the case.
As a leader, recognize that it is better to have a smaller team completely focused on the project and work hard to create teams in this way.

UNDERSTAND THE PRESSURES AND CHALLENGES OF SCOPE CREEP
Scope creep will happen. Once you are into the project, little things will be learned and everyone will want to add them into the project. Taken as individual decisions, each one might make sense. Taken in total, they can completely derail a project.

As the leader, you must lead the team through these decisions.

How do you do it?

Recognize that the pressures to add to the project are normal and understandable. No one is “wrong” for suggesting them.
Take each on its own merits, gaining insight as broadly as possible before adding to the scope or not.

Make all the decisions and have all of the conversation about those decisions based on the big picture purpose of your project. It all starts there.

YOU HAVE TOOLS, USE THEM
Leading a project, in the end, is leading. So use what you already know as the toolkit for leading a project. If you have project management training, of course you should use those tools too. They are valuable and helpful. If you don’t have the skills and tools you need, definitely go get them. They will allow you to navigate the challenges of the project’s journey.
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CHANGE YOUR TITLE OR AT LEAST YOUR ACTIONS
Your title might be project manager. Fine, wear it proudly. But remember too that you have a project to lead, not just manage. When you remember that, you will look at the work a little differently. And that difference may make all the difference in your results (and maintain your sanity).
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Business Management Daily has been providing sound business news, insight and advice since 1937.

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