Project management is one of those tasks that some people just love. For the rest of, it’s a task that we dread. We’re not all cut out for management and leadership… or are we? Is it possible that we can learn how to become excellent project managers?
In this article you’ll discover the 3 essential skills that you need to become a master at project management.
Patience
Anyone who has worked in the public sector will know that patience is hard to muster up but essential to working with other people. Shop workers, waiters and customer support teams should be your inspiration. Learn from them and develop endless patience.
As a project manager you’re going to be dealing with a lot of people – some of which you’re bound to not like at all. It’s your job to be patient, teach and guide your team so that your project will be a success.
Try not to get angry, just take a deep breath and explain what needs doing as simply as possible. Create set timelines that everyone knows they need to meet so you don’t get impatient if people are working too slowly. Remember, you are part of a team now, even if you’re the manager.
Wisdom
You need wisdom and knowledge for project management. Believe in yourself! If your manager has put you in charge of a project, they must be confident that you have the wisdom and knowledge to do it. If not, you have some research to do.
People in your team and those taking part in the project will come to you with questions, ideas and problems. It’s your job to guide them and know what the right course of action is. If you don’t have any experience with project management before then you really should get advice from someone that has.
There are many books that will tell you how to successfully take charge of a project and guide those around you to the desired outcome – it’s a good idea to learn from these, but at the end of the day, it’s the experiences you have of project management yourself that you can learn from. Those will guide you.
Organisation
Last but certainly not least is organisation. Any project, no matter how many people are involved, needs to be organised. Unorganised projects will lose work, lose time and eventually make costly mistakes. Stay on top of everything and make sure you’re aware of all that is happening.
To do this, you can either come up with a humungous spreadsheet where everything is recorded, or you can use specialist project management software. I’ve used many in my time, my favourite is www.scanmarket.com – go check out their project management services!
