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!).
(video) How to set career goals for the year and keep them!
|
Hello Reader, It's almost the end of the year! Have you prepped for your annual review yet, or started thinking about reviews for members of your team? I want to start 2025 strong, with more focus on balance. I have spent Q4 working bizarre hours on one project and I need to shift that around. What about you? It is a good time to be thinking about what you want to get out of 2025, even if you know that your plans and goals are likely to change. Is it training you're after? Is it a promotion? More visibility at work? “Better” projects, whatever that means for you? More balance like me? To help you think through what you could achieve next year (or ditch, because it's just as important to be realistic and factor in some self-care), download my free Career Planner.
This free fillable workbook will help give you clarity on your goals and where you want to go in your career over the coming months. If you'd prefer a bit of accountability time and have me walk you through it, you can watch a recording of the career planning/goal setting drop in webinar where we worked through objectives for the next 3-12 months and looked at what needed to be in place to make those ambitions a reality. And if you really want accountability, I have limited mentoring spots available for January, and my rates for an hour of 1:1 time will be going up to £95 (existing clients will keep their existing rates). Feel free to share the recording and the PDF with your team if you're doing annual reviews and professional development planning for 2025. Have a lovely week! Elizabeth P.S. Don't forget my free session on improving user adoption on software projects is happening on Thursday. Planisware is kindly hosting a discussion, and I'll be sharing the 4 P's of user adoption to help you go beyond the basics of doing some training and comms. |
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, 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: Negotiate resource availability Handle conflicting priorities Run a meeting that doesn’t derail Get alignment without formal authority …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...
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....