A Project Manager’s Guide to Successful Meetings

Love them or hate them, the running of project meetings is a big part of any project manager’s role. You might find this a worrying idea at first but there are some simple tips which can help you run successful and productive meetings. 　Here are some of the best ones to get you started.

Turn Up On Time

You weren’t thinking of sauntering in a few minutes late, were you? I am sure that you weren’t but you definitely can’t forget the importance of your presence at these meetings and the image you need to give out. Apart from these points, getting there a bit early will mean that you can settle down and think about the meeting before it all kicks off. I like to get there about 10 minutes early to check out the conferencing facilities and anything else which might need to be sorted. If the meeting room is far away I would build in some extra contingency to ensure I don’t turn up late.

Know What You Want

Not every meeting can result in ground shaking results but you should at least know what you want before each one starts. This is a very important point when you get to the sharp end of the project but it is equally worth bearing in mind at any stage. You might simply want to get to the end of the meeting with any problems in some cases and this is fine provided that you have the objective clear in your head. If you enter that meeting room without knowing what you are after then you are leaving yourself open to running into problems. Sometimes all you will have to do it think clearly for a few minutes before leaving your office but this thinking time could make all the difference.

Get Clear Action Items

Most meetings end up with action items being drawn up. However, it isn’t always clear who needs to do what and by when. I usually ask one of my team members to note down the action items and to run through them at the end of the meeting. These then get added to the minutes and then onto the agenda for the next project meeting. By doing this you will probably always have a list of outstanding action points on your agendas. This might look a bit messy but it is a good way of keeping on top of everything which needs done instead of running the risk of forgetting what people have agreed to do.

Get People Involved

A lot of stakeholders don’t really like going to project meetings. There are different reasons for this apathy but it is fair to say that in a lot of cases they just don’t feel as though they have much chance of getting involved. If you are going to go to the bother of inviting people and they make the effort of turning up then you should be sure to get them involved. Some stakeholders are simply quieter than others when it comes to making their feelings known but you need to make it clear that everyone is entitled to make their voice heard. Going round the table and asking people for their individual opinions on a one by one basis might seem a bit too much like being in school but it can work. 　Some people only need one opportunity to get involved for them to feel more confident about participating and speaking up in the future.

Enjoy Them

After those previous points it might seem a bit weird to say that you should try to enjoy the meeting. However, what else can you do? You are going to run a lot of project meetings in your career and if you don’t find a way of enjoying them then they could turn into your worst nightmare. I suppose that we each need to find our own ways of enjoying these meetings. I like to try and get a bit of fun into them and I always encourage presentations and anything which is a break from just sitting around and talking. You shouldn’t be afraid of trying new things and looking for interesting ways to get more out of the experience. The people who are your stakeholders will largely define how formal or informal you can be but in my experience no one really has any problems with a more laid back approach as long as you are serious about the issues which you need to be serious about.

Top 5 Strengths of a Successful Project Manager

The project manager role is one which requires a good variety of skills. This means that it is a great type of job if you want to learn new things and practice skills which you might not get to try out in other positions.

Clearly some of the strengths you need are more important than others, and here are the top 5.

1. Ability to See the Big Picture

If there is one person in the team who needs to see the big picture at all times it is the project manager. Others can get caught up in the fine details but you always need to know what the end objective is. The fact that you are involved from the start and get to see all of the high level documentation means that this should actually be easier than it might sound. However, when the going gets tough it can be easy to focus too much on the details and forget about the overall project goals.

2. Lots of Enthusiasm

Every project goes through tough spells when people’s spirits and energy levels dip a little. If you are lucky you will have some lively team members who help keep things bubbling along but ultimately it is your job to do this. An enthusiastic project manager can make sure that the team members enjoy their days at work and get more done as well. I guess that you might fall into one of two camps; a naturally enthusiastic person or one who needs to find a way of getting into this frame of mind. Personally I have always found that I get excited by a new project. However, sometimes my enthusiasm wanes after a while and I need to get back my positive frame of mind. A team day out works for me but I guess that everyone needs to find their own way of doing this.

3. Clear Thinking

It is easy to get muddled in a long or especially complex project. This is nothing to be ashamed of but I think it is how we react to this situation which most matters. As the project leader you need to be sure that you can clear your mind of all confusion and show the way forward to the rest of your team. There is no real trick in doing this as far as I am concerned; it is simply about taking the time to think things through and get the most suitable answer. Over time you will get used to doing this and even the most complicated situation is unlikely to phase you the way it might in the early days of your career.

4. Patience

This might seem like a bit of a strange strength to mention at first glance. However, a lot of projects are long, drawn out affairs and you won’t want to lose your patience while you are part of the way through it. If you are an impatient sort of a person then splitting the piece of work into different sub-projects might help you stay focused and under control while you are ticking off one milestone after another. Another idea I have seen project managers use it so run different projects at the same time. If you can do this then you will always have something to work on so you run less risk of becoming impatient. As long as you don’t get confused between the different pieces of work it could be a decent solution for you if you think that a lack of patience could be a problem at some point in your work.

5. Leadership

The most important person in the project is the person leading it but they can’t do everything on their own no matter how hard they try. Your team will play a huge part in the success of the work so you need to be sure that they are fully focused and ready to get stuck in. The leadership skills you will need are hard to define as what you need to do will vary from one project to another. Sometimes you might need to give technical assistance while in other cases it will be more a case of encouraging and pushing on your team members. Being a leader means knowing what to do and when to do it. This might sound like a daunting prospect but once you get into the habit of doing the job then it should become easier for you do it.

5 Tips for Better Project Communication

Communication is one of the most important elements in any project. If you are going to become a successful project manager then this is something you will need to get right. It may be a new part of the role to you but it is something which can be learned easily enough with a bit of thought and common sense. The following tips should help you get started.

Keep It Clear

The most important point about any type of communication is that it needs to be clear and easy to understand. This is especially true in projects, as you could be dealing with complex or technical issues a lot of the time. You are possibly the one person in the project who understands all of the issues but you need to remember that putting things in simpler terms will make sure that other people get to understand the issues better as well. Using graphs and charts is a good idea if you want to get point across as simply as possible, while the use of technical words and project jargon should be avoided at all costs.

Know Your Audience

When you are dealing with project communication you need to tailor your words to meet different audience as different times. You could be sending out updates or documents to senior managers, IT staff, project team members of end business users. All of these people will be looking for different things from your communication and you need to be careful not to confuse matters but using inappropriate language. The words you use most naturally will probably depend upon your own working background. For example, I came to my first project role from a purely business background, so I was less comfortable using the technical language IT staff will use. This is certainly something you can work on over time.

Make It Regular

Issuing an update every now and then might keep stakeholders and team members off your back but it won’t give them the level of knowledge they need. In order to work effectively your communication strategy needs to be consistent and ongoing. This will ensure that no one is left wondering whether they are missing out on something or not. Even better is the idea of fixing in advance the dates in which you will give out your updates. For instance, if you mark it in your diary for every second Friday or whatever then you will find that it soon becomes a habit and that you do it without even thinking about it. If you find that stakeholders get onto you asking when the next update is due then you probably need to make them more regular than you are doing at the moment. You might even find that you are asked at some point to make them less regular or less detailed.

Encourage Feedback

In my first ever job I remember being told at a training course that communication is a two way thing. A lot of water has passed under the bridge since that day but the piece of advice is as relevant as ever. You can send out all the updates and project documents that you want but if you don’t let others come back to you with feedback or questions then you will only be completing half of the task. There probably won’t be any response to your communications but the recipients need to know that the chance to give you feedback is there if they want to use it. In fact, you can learn a lot from the comments which others come to you with. All you need to do is listen.

Be Honest

There can be a huge temptation to tell little lies at times. Maybe a milestone has slipped but you are 100% confident that you can make it up before the next project meeting. We are all only human and it is completely natural that we are tempted to make our lives that bit easier by not giving out the full facts some of the time. However, as the project manager you need to give out an example of honesty and good behavioral values. This means being honest at all times, even when that could result in some awkward questions being asked of you. Once your stakeholders and team members realize that they can trust you to be honest at all times they will be a lot happier about taking your communications at face value without questioning everything in them.