Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

When issues escalate into crises, these five leadership competencies are essential for project leaders to both weather the immediate storm and confidently move toward the future. It is difficult to recover when both being blamed for the crisis and taking the wrong management steps.

1. Build an environment of trust. Given the importance of trust, this should already be in place and continued in a...

The execution phase of a project, while not immune to issues, can be as effortless as possible if you follow these principles:

1. Do the right amount of planning: too little and things "fall through the cracks", too much planning risks "analysis paralysis".
2. Get the right team: people that want to do the work, have the skills and have a supportive network.
3. Exercise key soft skills: delegation,...

Always do the right thing. It demonstrates integrity and ethics. You want to be known for this type of behavior - it builds trust, makes it easier for you to lead and negotiate, and creates project success.

What is the "right thing"? Here are some examples:

• When requesting an initial project budget, don't guess. Use your best estimating skills to get it right so the organization doesn't suffer...

Following these five tips will go a long way in assuring successful project delivery.

1. Rather than skip risk management, scale and tailor a process to your project needs. Completing the exercise will help you more easily identify responses when unidentified risks occur later in the project.
2. Document your process in a robust risk management plan. Frequently this document, once completed, is...

A project management fable: A payroll improvement project was presented to an organization as a fait accompli. Only senior management had input into the selection and decision making for the project. Rather than allow the project manager to focus on the project, the project sponsor assigned him to track software bugs.

When it came time to roll out training to the thousands affected by the...

Projects can be stressful for all concerned, especially around holidays. Here are 5 tips for project leaders to reduce stress for everyone involved:

1. Clarity is the #1 stress reducer. Be sure everyone knows the vision for the outcomes, the plan, and their roles and responsibilities at all times.
2. Have high expectations, but don't expect perfection. Acknowledge progress and accomplishment.
3. ...

Does the team put together the perfect plan with your facilitation? Even so, project execution is more than just checking progress and writing status reports. Here is where your leadership is most needed. These are some items for a project execution checklist to ensure you are leading:

• Manage team conflict. Stop negative conflict quickly and encourage collaboration for positive conflict (i.e....

These six tips will help you achieve success with teams and begin to form high performing teams:

1. Know the team. Check-in frequently with everyone and schedule time for 1:1 meetings to learn more about each team member.
2. Provide clarity. Teams work best when there is clarity of purpose, plan, and responsibilities. Let them know how they will be measured.
3. Give acknowledgment, recognition, and...

"To say 'I don't have time' is like saying 'I don't want to'" - Lau-Tzu

Set a good example for the team by effectively managing your own time with these five tips:

1. Instead of a "to do" list, create a prioritized list of major goals and steps for the year and month. This means you will need a personal, strategic plan. Have a "value-added" list for tasks to be done with discretionary or waiting...

Feeling a larger team is needed may be a sign that you need to work on expanding the capacity of the team, not just grow the team in size. When a team member asks directly or indirectly about expanding their responsibilities, consider these four alternatives:

1. If team member performance is a concern, discuss it with them. Individual improvements expand team capacity.
2. If team member performance...