UTurn^TV

The following blog is taken from a Project Management website owned by a friend of mine.  He is the best Project Manager I have ever worked with and is the only one I know that can bring in an IT project on time and on budget.  Whilst Ian focuses on ensuring efficiency within the project management tasks it is great to see that he also recognises the need to ensure that the emotional needs of staff need to be taken into consideration too.

The constant focus on hard tasks, deadlines and outcomes above all else is often a recipe for creating unhappy staff.  The best managers take an holistic approach to their teams and make sure they check in on the ‘happiness monitor’ on a regular basis.

You can visit Ian’s site at P M Advice.  I hope you enjoy his blog as much as I did and as always I would love to hear your thoughts.

Push, Push … and SNAP!

I work with so many programmes and projects that run to tight deadlines and suffer from mistakes that cost the programme days even weeks of delays. Why is it so hard for managers to understand that constant over working of staff will result in mistakes, in re-work, in lost time due to having to fix the mistakes. Management must recognise that driving staff to do excessive hours only works for short a period, in my experience, about two weeks, then mistakes start happening that cost more time than that perceived to be saved by pushing on.

So, remember as a professional project manager, you are only as good as the team around you, so it is your job to manage their hours to avoid over working and the impact of mistakes. This month I have witnessed a massive push to hit a, made up, deadline that has resulted in mistakes and problems causing over 3 weeks worth of delays. Added to this is the personal impact on each individual that will last longer, as sickness lost further time and damaged personal relationships outside the office are also damaged.

Remember a happy team, works far more effectively than an unhappy worn out team.

Posted in: Business Coaching,Management Training
Tags:compassion management,management skills,Management Training,project management,staff management