Project Hero Blog - Weekly Best Practices and Tips

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.
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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...

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...

"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...

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...

Improving your leadership skills will help you, as well as the team, grow and advance in your careers.

1. Coach and mentor, rather than direct. Give trust to the team to get the job done, remove obstacles for them, and empower them to solve problems.
2. Create a culture of learning and continuous...

Improving your project management skills will help your professional and personal growth, and increase your value to your organization. Here are 5 tips for improving your project management skills:

1. Adopt a mindset of continuous improvement. Learn from past successes and mistakes and make changes...

Here are five common mistakes project managers make, and tips on how to avoid them:

1. React to variance: One week of variation, unless huge, is not going to make or break a project. Better: Look for trends, and don't forget that being under budget and time has consequences as well.
2. Insufficient...

Studies have shown that roughly 20% of projects fail due to poor communications. Whether you are discussing risk management or just having a meeting, having strong communication skills is critical for project managers. Here are 5 tips for improving those skills:

1. Know your audience. Do a thorough...

As we've learned from projects like healthcare.gov, Agile isn't always the best method to follow for software development. If we look at its strengths and weaknesses, Agile is not especially well-suited in its pure form for projects with fixed deadlines and fixed scope. It also exhibits...

The primary goal of risk management is to navigate the uncertainty found in any initiative. As the development of the risk management process begins, here are four more general principles to keep in mind to guide decision-making:

1. Timebox risk assessments. Because all uncertainty is not...

The primary goal of risk management is to navigate the uncertainty found in any initiative. As the development of the risk management process begins, here are four general principles to keep in mind to guide decision-making:

1. The organization and initiative stakeholders have attitudes toward...