I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
Managing people (without authority)
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Hello Reader, Most project managers don’t actually manage “their” team. We manage people who report to someone else. Welcome to matrix life! If you’ve ever tried to:
…you know the plan is only half the job. Most of what I seem to spend my days doing is negotiating, trying to get the right people to show up, slotting my work around other people's priorities because their manager told them something different etc etc. I know you know what I'm talking about! I’ve pulled together my best articles on managing project teams, from matrix management and capacity planning to mentoring, facilitation, and making meetings less painful. Team management in projects is mostly about influence, clarity, and calm. (And occasionally snacks.) If the people side of delivery is taking more energy than the tasks themselves, this collection will help: Because in the end, most projects don’t fail. They wobble because people are like the Weebles I had as a child (did you have those? We're going back to the 70s and 80s here). And we do our best to prop everyone up again and keep going! Have a lovely week. best wishes, Elizabeth P.S. Here are a few other things to be aware of this week: ⭐ The PM PrepCast Exam Simulator is on special offer as today marks 30 days before the start of the updated PMP exam, and it's been fully updated and aligned to the 8th Edition. Use code EXAMSIMJUN26 for a $50 discount until 12 June ⭐ If you want to go to the APM Women in PM Conference in October, get your ticket now while they still have early bird pricing open. ⭐ Coursera is offering 50% off annual subscriptions until 17 June -- great if you want to do one of the AI courses or the IBM or Google Project Management courses. |
Calling all Rebel Project Managers!
I help project professionals get more done with less stress. Having been a project manager for over 20 years, I share tried-and-tested tips that work in the real world, every Tuesday. Join our community of over 15,000 project professionals (and accidental project managers too!).
Hello Reader, I've been asked more than once by project managers who are quietly worried about it: what do you do when your RAG status doesn’t tell the full story? The traffic light is green. Technically everything is on track. And yet you have this nagging feeling that something’s not quite right, a dependency that’s wobbling, a sponsor who’s gone quiet, a team that’s delivering but only just, and they're not as proactive as they used to be. RAG is a simple tool for a complicated job, and...
Hello Reader, Let’s talk about your schedule. Is it: A) Calm, realistic and under controlB) Optimistic but technically possibleC) Held together with hope and conditional formatting No judgement. (At least, not much!) Scheduling is one of those core PM skills that looks simple… until you’re actually doing it. I’ve pulled together my best articles on project scheduling into one place, from estimating and building timelines through to managing slippage and dealing with reality when it hits....
Hello Reader, So you’ve just started a new project, and you’re not sure what you’re supposed to create. Do you need a project charter? Or will a Terms of Reference (ToR) do the job? The challenge is that neither document has a single universal definition, so if you join a new company and find they use ToRs instead of Charters, then it can be hard to know what they are actually looking for as part of project governance. And don’t get me started on how Project Initiation Documents fit in! Let’s...