Project Management

keep you supplied with more of the information you need than
formal, rigorous, and stiff team meetings. Finally, avoid the trap
of believing that because you’ve been put “in charge” of a proj-
ect you’ve risen above your peers and friendships no longer
matter. Big mistake!

The Value of Introspection and Self-Awareness to

“The Soft Side”

As mentioned above, you’ll have to take charge of some of your
growth and development as a project manager. This is particu-
larly true in the areas of beliefs, values, and some personality
traits—the softest of the soft skills. Some project managers
make the mistake of believing that simply because they’re con-
stantly surrounded by others they’ll receive continuous feed-
back on their performance and behavior. This is simply not
true.
Why not? Consider the groups of project players who sur-
round you in the course of executing your project and the likeli-
hood of getting high-quality feedback from that group.

Project Team Members—Although we’ve said that you don’t
have formal authority over team members, there remains the
sense that you have some control over their destiny. So, the

The Role of the Project Manager 45

Eight Key Tips for Success as a Project Manager

Many people ask me this:“If you could list a few key tips for

good project management, what would they be”? Here’s how I answer

that question...

1. Care about everything; dwell on nothing.


2. Don’t wait to be told to do something.


3. Develop a keen understanding of human nature.


4. Learn the who, when, and how of relying on others.


5. Consider technology, people, and business when making decisions.


6. Learn how to make decisions with ambiguous, imperfect, or incom-
   plete information.


7. Never stop developing your social skills.
   8.Appreciate the value of being politically savvy.

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