Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

Last week we looked at 4 Steps to Diligently Delegate.  There are five very common barriers to enacting a successful delegation. Good project managers understand what these are and avoid the pitfalls.

1.  The project manager may have a personal interest in the task. While you may have a personal interest, your job now is to manage and grow the team. Don't let your personal interests...

In addition to good planning up front, execution of any project can be effortless if you develop the critical soft skills needed to succeed.  Let's consider delegation.  Unfortunately, new project managers often lack confidence or fear loss of control, leading to lower levels of delegation. Even more unfortunately, loss of control is what normally happens when project managers fail to...

The best way to predict the future is to create it.

- Peter Drucker

Rather than wait for your project management future, if you are planning to pursue a career, get started now and create it.  Here are five tips you can use to predict the high quality of that future:

1. Have a clear vision for every project and the team, and communicate it to all stakeholders.  Add to this clarity of...

Whether you are a project manager or a scrum master, if you are leading an agile project, there are some critical things to keep in mind.  Some of these we have covered in past articles and some of them are new. Here are seven tips for agile project managers.  Repetition helps to build retention, so even if these seem old, think of them as new :)

1. Respect client deliverables. ...

COVID-19 has brought about a lot of change; however, some things remain constant.  In a more competitive environment, with constant change and fewer available resources, the skill of project management is now as important as ever. Projects must be more successful and deliver on their promised value to help organizations realize their strategies.  One of the unique benefits of...

Holding the project team and others accountable for completing their work is an important skill for a project manager.  It is especially important for agile and other less traditional project management methods where the team is largely self-organizing and self-managing.

To help the agile and other project managers remember how to best hold people accountable, I like to think of the 4Cs:...

Conflict resolution is a skill that transcends roles. So regardless of the type of team I am managing, my response would be the same.

Tip #1: Set the rules and boundaries.  As a leader, you define the standards for conduct and enforce them. Part of your resource plan should also include time for team building.

First, it is important to establish the team as a safe space where open and...

Stress, burnout, and physical exhaustion impact project managers at one time or another. You need to believe that you can get a handle on what stresses you, and diffuse this stress in ways that maintain your physical and emotional health.  Pressure may be a part of life, but it is essential to find ways to de-stress and not let it get the best of you.

Stress comes from our habits or our...

Julia couldn't be more frustrated! There were less than three months to finish the project, and yet everything was going wrong. And to top it all, the budget to complete the work was nearly exhausted.

Julia's problem boils down to ineffective project management. She may have failed to complete the steps necessary to prepare for project success.  She may have also failed to create a proper...

Expectancy theory tells us that people are motivated to choose their actions by examining the result and expected outcomes of each behavior. In other words, people will gravitate toward the results they perceive as most desirable and use rational thinking in decision-making.  Use these tips to use expectancy theory to the advantage of your project:

1. Know the wants and desires of the team...