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I can speak from what i have observed and these are a few observations that i have made over the course of my career. In this post i try to highlight the key points for every successful project manager. These are basic common sense statements but rarely practiced by project managers. The points listed below are just my personal views and may not necessarily work for all but hey there is no harm to try and judge for yourself if they work or not.

Expect the unexpected: On every project, as a project manager you need to be resilient and prepared for any and every thing to go in a different direction. Often midway of a project someone will realize there has been a blunder and there needs to be a change. Embrace this and move on as its never too late to fix a problem then just dealing with the symptoms.

Broaden your horizon: Experienced project managers often fall into this trap of ” Been there done that” We think we have seen and experienced the project life cycle. Incorrect we see what we want to see and think what we want to think. Hence we really see what we think. Its important to see what others see and think what others think as that will make you see more together on a project. God that was tricky!!!

Be your customer’s friend: I don’t mean sucking up, i mean be friends. In life every human has a friend be it a pet or a human. In project management the same translation should apply you need to work with a customer on the basis of trust. A customer is not worth if the only reason they want you is because they need an entity to blame. Friends often tell you if you suck or don’t. A client who is a friend will tell you their concerns over the life of a project. Constant feedback will allow you to shape the project in the right direction.

Build relationships with strangers: Start your project by building relationships among team members. It’s the team that makes or breaks a project. If the team wants you to succeed they will go the extra mile. It’s those last min actions on a project that makes you a winner.

Learn and implement on a project: Often in most Projects, there is a post project implementation review. Don’t wait to implement learning’s on the next project but do it for the current project. Say for some reason there are multiple vendors working on a project and the team is not communicating. Call it a shop stopper and put actions in place for the current project of how this can be resolved. Don’t note this in a risk register and state this is a risk and its being monitored.

Be the key player in co-ordination: Often Project Managers depend on having a co-coordinator to co-ordinate tasks on a project. STOP. There is more to this. If you cannot handle co-ordination then why be a project manager. If you cannot remind your team about tasks they may have forgotten then what’s the point. It’s you they look at as a major player in the project. Co-ordinate effectively and you will see that your team co-ordinates with you.

Be the sound box and the tree: Allow people to say what they want to say to you not at the back of you. If they have a complaint they should not feel intermediated to bring it up. Your customers expect their queries to be answered and so does your team. Treat every project as a startup business. In a startup the team is small and the communication is flat structured keep it that way.

Put your team first: Often project Managers are more bothered to stand up in a steering meeting and talk about all the good stuff and dread talking about the bad. How many times have we spoken in these meeting about the good work done by individuals on the team? How many times have you seen the Business Owner walk up to individuals in the team and tell them what a brilliant job they are doing? Rarely hence as a Project Manager put your team first because it’s the team that makes you succeed. It’s a challenge. There are some things we can do for the whole team; it comes down to taking care of each team member as the individuals.

Keep all concerned people in the loop: At the start of the project identify the key players that will add value in providing feedback on your project. Keep these individuals in the loop and constantly let them know what decisions are being made on the project. Ask them if they see any major loopholes. This allows individuals from around the business to constantly provide feedback.

I hope this post is in some way useful should you have any additional feedback it would be great to hear back.