Let’s take a look at the seven key principles employed by most effective project communicators: Caution In organizations with standard project reports, don’t assume these meet the information needs of your individual stakeholders. Be willing to adjust to better meet their needs.
Why Communicating Can Be Tough
Before we review key principles and best practices, let’s make sure we understand why we cannot take communications for granted. On one hand, we know instinctively that there are many factors that impact the communications process—primarily because we live it every waking minute. On the other hand, many of us don’t seem to incorporate this… Continue reading Why Communicating Can Be Tough
The Importance of Project Communications
Project communications are not only important for the obvious reason—keeping individual stakeholders properly and consistently informed on the status, progress, and impact of the project—they are a determinant factor to the overall success of the project. Why is this? Here are a few key reasons:
What Are Project Communications?
The communications of a project include all means and manners by which the project interacts with all its stakeholders. This not only includes the standard, formal communication items such as It can also include organizational change management communications, such as Although the nature of your individual project (number and type of stakeholders, location of stakeholders,… Continue reading What Are Project Communications?
Introduction
Communication is the fuel that drives project success, and the mishandling of it is a top-five reason why projects struggle. You’ve likely heard this mantra before, but what does this really mean, why is it true, and more importantly, how do we handle our project communications effectively? We answer these questions, review what we mean… Continue reading Introduction
Power of Servant Leadership Approach
Although we discussed numerous project leadership keys in the previous section, it really boils down to a simple, practical mindset that drives the thoughts, words, and actions of an effective project leader. It is a mindset of “service first” and not “me first.” Personally, I had served as a project manager for many years before… Continue reading Power of Servant Leadership Approach
12 Keys to Better Project Leadership
In the modern world of projects, project leaders cannot rely on position power or traditional, autocratic leadership approaches to get the job done. To guide a group of unfamiliar project stakeholders and project team members to accomplish something that has not been done before, you must rely on a different set of skills and leadership… Continue reading 12 Keys to Better Project Leadership
Where Is Leadership Needed on a Project?
There are three key points to know about leading a project: To clarify this idea, let’s take a look at project areas where leadership is needed and who could provide it in Table 16.1. Please note that for agile projects, the reference to “Team leader(s)” in Table 16.1 would include the Scrum Master and Product Owner roles. TABLE… Continue reading Where Is Leadership Needed on a Project?
More Than Managing
The process of leading a project is more than managing the project. The process of leading a project entails the approach utilized to guide the people involved (team, stakeholders, organization) toward the accomplishment of the project’s objectives. This process involves your mindset and leverages key skills such as dedication, interpersonal skills, adaptability, and customer orientation.… Continue reading More Than Managing
Introduction
Leading a project when most introductory project management won’t go near it? Quite simply, a person “manages” processes but “leads” people…and people accomplish projects. Although the skill set for effective project management consists of the project management fundamentals discussed so far in (along with general business management, communication, and technical skills “The Project Manager”), they… Continue reading Introduction