PMcrunch

Fresh perspectives on the world of project management

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Entries Tagged as 'Soft Skills'

Preparing for a Tumultuous Future

September 23rd, 2008 · No Comments

The title of this post might seem funny to many given that we seem to be living in a tumultuous present. How could things become more tumultuous? Well that’s just many predict is coming our way for the world of work. How might that impact project management work?

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Tags: Soft Skills

Transparency and Leadership in Tough Times

September 17th, 2008 · No Comments

There is no doubt about it we are in tough economic times. The current woes on Wall Street are only the most recent evidence of our collective economic difficulties. So the big question is how do project and program mangers cope with these difficult times. Many fear the loss of jobs and extended time away from work. This includes team members, it can include stake holders, it can include the project and program managers themselves. It is this fear that is one of the important keys to coping with difficult times.

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Tags: Soft Skills

Leaders Beat the Worry Habit

September 8th, 2008 · No Comments

All professionals - Project Managers, Program Managers, Executives, leaders of all kinds -  worry at times, and some more than others.  Worrying a lot or a little is actually a controllable habit.  Worrying a lot is little more than trading your peace of mind and taking a negative view of the future.  The urge to […]

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Tags: Soft Skills

Project Managers and Program Managers: What Color of Glasses?

August 30th, 2008 · No Comments

As leaders, Project Managers and Program Managers need to communicate clearly. Communication is a tricky thing, and among other things, it is influenced greatly but what we see in the world, and what we see is shaped by what I call the “color or your glasses”.

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Tags: Soft Skills

Talent Management and Learning For Project and Program Success

August 29th, 2008 · No Comments

In today’s fast-paced environment, human resources and talent management are of prime importance and concern in virtually all organizations.  The pace of change makes matching job skills with assignments very challenging.  Many organizations have responded with a "learning function" within the organization.  Let’s look at how this trend and how you can ensure the strong project […]

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Tags: Project Management Process · Soft Skills

Leaders Ask the Right Questions When Projects and Programs Get Stuck

August 25th, 2008 · No Comments

As leaders and project managers or program managers, we are subject to the ups and downs of what we could call the “project or program work cycle”. While sometimes things seems to be flowing forward and progressing well, like a well-oiled machine, at other times it seems that no matter what we do, progress is slow and difficult. I leadership positions, this experience is inevitable, as everything is not “black and white”. How can we handle these situations?

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Tags: Soft Skills

How To Ensure Ethical Dilemmas Are Being Addressed

August 18th, 2008 · No Comments

As Project Managers, it is our charge to maintain high ethical standards. Strong ethical standards are a key ingredient of great leadership. The responsibility of ethics leads me to think about 2 immediate dilemmas or challenges:

Do we ask ourselves whether or not we are doing the right thing?
Do our team members and stakeholders ask themselves that same eithical question?
These 2 questions cover the basics of ethics, but there is a broader organization challenge we must consider to ensure these ethical questions are being handled.

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Tags: Soft Skills

Is There a “Stop Standard” on Your Projects?

August 11th, 2008 · No Comments

Many executives, project portfolio managers, and program managers make good choices about investing in new projects and ideas. Yet it’s also critical to set up a measurement, preferably from the start, for when to potentially stop investing resources in each project. This would be a sort of “stop standard” for any given project.

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Tags: Project Management Process · Soft Skills

Successful Delegation Includes Responsibility, Authority, and Empowerment

August 1st, 2008 · No Comments

Successful delegation requires granting both responsibility and authority. These two, combined properly, constitute “empowerment”. However, these two are often not properly executed by the project manager or program leader, and the blame is often placed on the delegate, not on the leader! We, as project and program leaders, need to look at ourselves in the mirror and ask if we are delegating properly.

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Tags: Soft Skills

Projectization and Non-Project Managers

July 30th, 2008 · 1 Comment

Professional Project Management is becoming more pervasive. Like “Electrification” occurred during the era of proliferation of electricity, “projectization” is occuring throughout the workforce and organizations. Most of the emphasis I have seen is on professional project management. However, most people will not be professional project managers, but rather will be team members, support personnel, subject matter experts, department managers, C-level executives, and the like. This post explores what is being said about this broader workforce in a projectized world.

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Tags: Project Management Process · Soft Skills