Project management is among a top skill to master in any business; especially one wanting to grow.
Why?
Because without project management, business owners will unnecessarily run into common issues:
You often get derailed by "the unexpected.”
It’s inevitable.
You get interrupted an unexpected number of times daily. Those interruptions come at unexpected times. They each take an unexpected amount of time with which to deal.
That’s why it’s "the unexpected."
These interruptions kill your flow, destroy your focus, and force you to work on the urgent instead of the important.
So how do you deter, prevent, and deal with the problems these unexpected interruptions incur?
Are you second-guessing your next great idea? Are you downplaying the value you could provide to others? Are you upset that you found a competitor in the market who seems to be offering everything you want to (and seems to be finding great success doing it)?
It might be time to step back and realize a few important things.
There's a lesson in this judgment I'm about pass.
It's a lesson I learned early in my management career. It's also a lesson I learned the hard way… by not thinking... by screwing up.
Yesterday, news broke that United CEO Scott Kirby backtracked on an unpopular plan to incentivize employees with big bonuses chosen by lottery. In the boardroom, the plan may have sounded excellent. Instead of giving everyone a paltry $300 per quarter, why not pool the money and give one lucky individual $100k in travel, cars, or other luxury items? But in the words of Frank Shirley:
Oh, the dreaded performance review process.
You either hate it, or you hate it. Am I right?
It’s not that you think they’re unnecessary… After all. Even if you don’t give performance reviews now, somewhere in the back of your mind, you know you should.
It’s that they take time out of work, cause unnecessary stress, and don’t seem to be very effective at changing employee behavior. And isn’t changing behavior for the better the whole point?
So, should we just ditch them all together? My answer to that is a resounding “NO!”
When done properly, performance reviews can be a welcome source of feedback for your employees. They can lead to deeper discussions about responsibilities, career goals, and organizational improvements.
So instead of throwing them out, let’s implement 3 simple tips to get them right.
Losing critical employees can be a huge source of concern for any business owner. Whether your star employees quit or simply go on vacation, business continuity is a must. This article reviews a simple method for maintaining your best employees’ expertise even if someone leaves your company.
In addition to removing “single points of failure” in your organization, this process can be used to onboard new hires and create a transition plan for employees moving from one set of responsibilities to another.
Your employees can feel free to go on vacation while, at the same time, be in a position to delegate their complex work to promising employees and receive different perspectives on new creative ways to solve problems.
If there’s one thing I learned from projects, it’s this…
They’re on track until they’re not.
And once they get off track, there’s no going back. They either spiral out of control or get stuck, the last 10% effort taking longer than the first 90% combined.
You see, project management is theoretically easy. Start your project, define your project, launch your project, control your project, and close your project. Five easy steps with volumes of books written about each, explored and experienced by hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of project leads and project managers worldwide.
In practice, however, it’s one of the most challenging aspects of business.
Why?