Don’t Forget About Your Personal Growth as a Project Manager

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Don’t Forget About Your Personal Growth as a Project ManagerAre you so focused on your projects that you’ve been ignoring your personal growth as a project manager? You have to be proactive about growing or you’ll stagnate. Pursue challenges, feedback, education, and experiences that will expand your capabilities. Here are some ideas for promoting your growth and improving your project delivery.

  • Exchange ideas with project peers. Managing projects isn’t just about good project management. Sound business analysis (BA) and organizational change management (CM) are also important. To expand your toolkit, ask your colleagues in those disciplines what led them to that vocation.  Find out what approaches they use to succeed. Or follow BA and CM follow on LinkedIn or other channels. 
  • Get a mentor. An experienced mentor can help in so many ways. You can talk with them candidly about your challenges and concerns. They can provide insights from their career and help come up with solutions to issues. They can also help you deal with the emotions of getting through “those” days. For junior project managers, a mentor who works in your industry can help you expand your PM skills and insights in your area of expertise. For experienced project managers, a mentor with a different industry background can help expand your skills by sharing their business experience in another industry.
  • Dig into your organization’s strategy. Strategy pushes change from the current state to new capabilities and market position. That change is created through projects! You can gain new and valuable insights as a project manager by connecting your project objectives to your organization’s strategic objectives. For experienced PMs, you’ll be enlightened when you participate in the design of projects to support strategy. Better yet, participate in the development of organizational strategy.
  • Attend association events. The Project Management Institute (PMI), International Association for Project Management (IAPM), International Project Management Association (IPMA) and the Association for Project Management (APM) all have meetings that provide valuable insights for project managers. You can gain new perspectives with an hour a month attending an association event.
  • Take advantage of educational opportunities. There are so many places to study new skills: the associations listed above, LinkedIn Learning, websites, podcasts, and more. Many of these opportunities are short (1 to 3 hours or even less) so you can grow without interfering with managing your projects.

If you’re guilty of neglecting your personal growth, take a moment now to set goals for including growth in your schedule. For example, set aside an hour this week to draft a plan – which activities you’ll start with, how you’ll initiate them, and when you will do them. 

Coming Up

Do you have questions about careers in project management? Will I like being a project manager? What skills do I need? What about education? How do I get experience? Are certifications worth it and what do I need to do to earn them? What are the possible career paths? Chris Croft and I co-authored the course How to Launch a Career in Project Management to answer all these questions – and many more. For this Office Hours event, we want you to watch the course FIRST. Then, if you still have questions, join us in this event to ask questions we didn’t answer.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 49,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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The Surprising Benefits of Dedicated Resources

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The Surprising Benefits of Dedicated ResourcesOperational employees who come and go from a project are a common challenge for project managers. Due to their day-to-day business responsibilities, project tasks can become “when time allows” activities — which makes managing a project schedule difficult. Not only do dedicated project team members avoid this situation, they also come with these other surprising benefits:

  • Improved project bottom line. Dedicated resources often complete their tasks faster, which could shorten your project timeline. Dedicated resource might cost more per hour, but fewer hours could reduce your labor cost. Completing a project faster also delivers business benefits sooner, such as increased revenues or reduced operational costs.

  • Reduced risk for the business. Operational personnel assigned to project tasks takes the most experienced eyes off the business. As a result, operational risks could be overlooked, resulting in business issues. On the project side, complex tasks require focus. And switching between project and operational issues shatters that focus. So, the quality of the project’s products could be affected.

  • Dedicated contractors have the right skills and reduce labor costs. Operational employees don’t necessarily have the best skillsets to create project deliverables. Consider contractors instead. Contractors with the right skills can improve and accelerate your project delivery. And because they join the project only for the time needed for their tasks, your project labor costs are less.

  • Operational knowledge is still available. Your dedicated team members can interview or shadow operational employees. That way, they can get first-hand knowledge of business operations and apply that knowledge to your project deliverables.

If you have used dedicated resources on your projects, have you received other unanticipated benefits? Or maybe you have questions about acquiring and using contractors. Either way, share with us in the comments section. 

For more about project resources, check out my Project Management Foundations course.

Coming Up

Do you have questions about careers in project management? Will I like being a project manager? What skills do I need? What about education? How do I get experience? Are certifications worth it and what do I need to do to earn them? What are the possible career paths? Chris Croft and I co-authored the course How to Launch a Career in Project Management to answer all these questions – and many more. For this Office Hours event, we want you to watch the course FIRST. Then, if you still have questions, join us in this event to ask questions we didn’t answer.

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 48,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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Analyzing the Feasibility of Aggressive Deadlines

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Analyzing the Feasibility of Aggressive DeadlinesBusiness pressures often lead sponsors to set aggressive deadlines. And meeting those deadlines may be exactly what your organization needs. It’s not an easy situation. As a project manager, your best survival strategy is to set stakeholders’ expectations for what it will take to deliver the project in that timeframe. Let’s look at how to analyze the feasibility of an aggressive project deadline and then communicate the results to your sponsor.

  • Determine whether mandatory overtime will help meet the project deadline. Analyze how long it took to complete past project tasks. This data can tell you a lot about whether an aggressive deadline is feasible. When regular work schedules won’t meet the deadline, mandatory overtime might be the answer. Determine what a reasonable amount of overtime is, given the type of work performed in your organization. Then, calculate how much closer that overtime gets you to the deadline. Share the benefits and what you consider a reasonable level of overtime with your sponsor. If your sponsor pushes for more overtime, talk about the risks that presents: errors, reduced productivity and/or increased absenteeism due to fatigue.
  • Determine the average percentage of work time operational personnel dedicate to projects. Many critical project team members also have daily responsibilities that are crucial to the organization’s day-to-day business. Projects are “extra work” they must handle without affecting their day-to-day responsibilities. Calculate how much closer you can get to the aggressive deadline with more time from operational personnel. One way to get more time is to find others to cover their operational duties. Or you can re-prioritize their day-to-day work. Meet with your sponsor and propose reasonable re-prioritizations or backfills for operational personnel and how much that helps reach the deadline. Important note: Talk to the people’s managers in advance to see if this approach is feasible. You don’t want them blindsided by a request from your project sponsor.
  • Investigate tools or specialist contractors that can help complete tasks earlier. It’s unlikely that you can deliver a project faster than before using the same people and tools. Look for different project- or product-related tools that might shorten your project schedule. Search for specialist contractors who can produce products faster. If you find feasible options, determine the effect they could have on your schedule. Talk to your sponsor about these options and potential outcomes. Involve your sponsor in the analysis process. They might have ideas on changes that could deliver in a shorter timeframe.
  • Determine if there are new, innovative approaches to completing tasks. If there are possibilities, talk to your sponsor about additional funding. You can use this funding to do research and/or proof-of-concept testing on different techniques. This might not only help achieve your current project deadline, but could be helpful for future projects as well.

Every project manager has a story to tell about aggressive deadlines. Share your experiences, successes, failures, and questions in the comments section.

For more about deadlines, check out my Project Management Foundations: Schedules course.

Coming Up

Do you have questions about careers in project management? Will I like being a project manager? What skills do I need? What about education? How do I get experience? Are certifications worth it and what do I need to do to earn them? What are the possible career paths? Chris Croft and Bonnie Biafore co-authored the course How to Launch a Career in Project Management to answer all these questions – and many more. For this Office Hours event, we want you to watch the course FIRST. Then, if you still have questions, join Chris Croft and me on Wednesday, Oct 11, 2023 at 9am MT for this live Office Hours event to ask questions we didn’t answer.

No excuses! Here’s a link to watch the course for free: https://tinyurl.com/how-to-launch-career-in-PM

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 48,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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What If You Feel Lonely as a PM

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What If You Feel Lonely as a PMIf you’re feeling lonely or isolated as a project manager, you aren’t alone (pun intended.) Overcoming that feeling is a balance between professional effectiveness and personal relationships. You also have to be intentional and apply some practical steps. Here are a few things you can do:

  • Leverage the decision-making process. Decision-making and resolving issues are often done alone in your office. But there’s an opportunity to connect and interact with others in the decision-making process. You need to consult with key stakeholders. You have to collect information and then analyze it with your team and/or sponsor. This big picture view of decision-making will remind you that other people contribute to the process – you don’t have to handle decisions completely on your own.
  • Be a part of your team. As project manager, you don’t have to stand apart from the team. Yes, you do need to be impartial and not favor one team member over another. But you can work closely with team members. Develop strong relationships with the team and figure out how you can help them grow. Collaborate with them in a supportive way when that will help get tasks done. Invite them to collaborate with you on project management tasks. (That will save you time, allow you to delegate if you’re behind on your work, and help you overcome that feeling of being disconnected.)
  • Take pride in the products you’re producing. As project manager, you contribute to products that help your organization. You might not get attention while products are being produced, which is a good thing. It means you’ve earned independence! The lack of attention might make you feel left out, ignored. Do some soul searching. Do you feel isolated when you think about the products you’re working on? If so, you need to get feedback or validation. Schedule a progress review with your sponsor and/or key stakeholders.
  • Work on your team environment. Work doesn’t always have to be toil. Include short social events in your project environment. This not only helps the team work better together, but it can also address the disconnected feeling. Virtual coffees, lunches as a team, or small award ceremonies when milestones are reached. You’ll feel more connected as you improve team dynamics.
  • Network with other project managers. There is no need to deal with everything alone! You aren’t the only project manager, and not the only one feeling isolated at times. Find a mentor. Talk to other project managers. You’re bound to find people who understand what you’re going through.

If you have tips, anecdotes, or questions about building connections, share with us in the comments. And if you’re looking for a community of project managers, join one or more of the project management-related groups on LinkedIn.

Coming Up

Do you have questions about careers in project management? Will I like being a project manager? What skills do I need? What about education? How do I get experience? Are certifications worth it and what do I need to do to earn them? What are the possible career paths? Chris Croft and Bonnie Biafore co-authored the course How to Launch a Career in Project Management to answer all these questions – and many more. For this Office Hours event, we want you to watch the course FIRST. Then, if you still have questions, join Chris Croft and me on Wednesday, Oct 11, 2023 at 9am MT for this live Office Hours event to ask questions we didn’t answer.

No excuses! Here’s a link to watch the course for free: https://tinyurl.com/how-to-launch-career-in-PM

_____________________________________________________________________

This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 47,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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