Project Management is not Micromanagement Silly

Extremism in any shape and form is unacceptable and dangerous. And it applies to project management too.

Most often Project Managers (PMs) are so caught up with their project tasks and activities that they lose sight of the larger goal and end up controlling and dictating every action taken by their teams.

Sure, managing multiple projects with a large number of team members who are quite diverse and dispersed is an uphill task. And so is monitoring their work and progress. But this does not necessitate that every project activity have our stamp of approval.

It is indeed important that as PMs we ensure

• Project works are completed on time and with quality
• Continuous and timely monitoring mechanism are put in place
• We are on top of approaching deadlines and milestones
• Timely updates are delivered to us and the stakeholders
• Foresight of any looming delays

Because these activities are integral to project delivery and success.  But in the right dosage!

But it is NOT OK to

• Be the “Do it ALL yourself” guy
• Be obsessively controlling of every activity
• Be on a fault finding mission
• Immerse yourself in every other person’s tasks
• Refuse help and guidance from experienced members of the team
• Lose focus of the bigger picture and drown in the least important of activities
• Be unable to delegate tasks

The list is endless and I can go on and on…

These traits spell disaster. Simply put they certify that you are a MICROMANAGER!

And if you aren’t aware –

   “Micromanagement is just plain bad management”

Micromanagement is bad news for everyone involved i.e. your team, your business, your company, your clients & stakeholders. But most importantly YOU!

Here is what Micromanagement costs all individuals and businesses alike:

• Absolute loss of trust and confidence of your team members
• Team members no longer wish to contribute
• Loss of commitment and productivity
• Highly demotivated team members
• Stressful team environment
• Deliverables that are low on quality and missed deadlines
• Delays due to the greatest bottle-neck which is YOU
• Little to no timely decision making
• Disrupted operations
• Loss of stakeholder and customer confidence
• Loss of revenue and business

& the winner – End of your career!

If you have been at the receiving end of such traits or unfortunately possess any of such traits then here is what you must practice and remember for the greater good –

Learn the Art of Delegation – the more you delegate, the more you have time for important things – both personal and professional.

It is ok to let go where needed – identify every single step that needs your approval and remove as much as required and possible. Processes are meant to remove bottlenecks not create them.

Be realistic in your approach towards perfection – A timely good enough delivery is far more acceptable than your delayed best. Timeliness is a cherished trait!

Invite Feedback & Listen – It is very crucial to be a good listener given that fact that you are at the driver’s seat. Take constructive feedback in the right spirit and make necessary changes as applicable.

Empower teams to make their own decisions – Once you have assigned tasks to your people leave it up to them to complete and see their tasks through.

Show you care – It is important that the team knows that your care just as much about them as for the end goal.

Give Opportunity – Invite team members to contribute, share their experience and wisdom. A simple innovation can lead to great results.

Be the Coach and Mentor – Where needed show them ‘how to fish’ rather than server every meal! Let them find their own path to success. Teach them how to play; you cannot always step in to play for them.

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5 Signs Your Company Desperately Needs A Project Management Software

Project Management is an integral activity across company operations. When dealt adeptly it surely helps companies grow, add more clients and expand their market footprint. There are multiple moving parts in play as the business grows which become difficult to manage with time.

Project management software is a great way to contain the challenges associated with growth and change.

Few of the most common and evident issues that organizations face are listed below. And if your team, business unit or company is facing them too then it is time you get the right project management tool in place when there is still time.

1. Silo Business Processes, Silo Teams, Silo Tools!

The industry synonym for Project Management tool has been Excel sheets for a long time and continues to be so even to this day for many organizations.  Excel spreadsheet in itself is a good option for maintaining lists but fails to match the operational speed and needs of a highly mobile and digital workforce.

And they cannot provide some of the relevant project management aspects such as task and time management and real time data & feedback sharing.

 

Another issue that most companies face is their business units working in silos and restricted by their silo processes. This adds a humongous ask from the team members in terms of keeping the individual tools in sync. Easily translated – manual intensive and repetitive work!

Not only this, modern teams hate to have to manage multiple tools for each single activity. This leads to loss of precious productive efforts in maintaining those tools rather than on revenue generating activities.

Imagine if

• you have to update your tasks in one tool
• time spent on those tasks in another
• account and billing team then bringing the above 2 items into their billing tool
• finally re-entering consolidated data into a place where all project data is managed.

Sure shot recipe for human errors, expensive delays, loss of customer confidence and business decline!

And add to it useless administrative efforts that can be easily done away with.

Phew! I don’t want to be in a place like this! Do you?

2. Breakdown of Communication and Collaboration!

Communication is the easiest aspect of our lives in today’s world. Yet we fail to reap its benefits!

Businesses, relationships and lives are lost and saved with timely and rightful communication.

Businesses have outgrown themselves in a lot of ways and have breached the great geographical divide a long time ago and rightfully so. In its wake, they have connected people across continents but have failed in maintaining the right communication lines.  

Running operations with team from different time zones, diverse beliefs, faith and languages pose interesting challenges –

• Difficulty in maintaining the same understanding among the team
• Lack of clarity around the right communication medium
• Misunderstood instructions
• Inability to offer the team the right feedback at the right time  
• Unable to provide the right info when needed 

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Things Lack in Business without Project Management Tool

Project Management today has long past the days of management through shoulder taps, paper trails and excel sheet sharing.

Today’s workforce, workplace and work itself has become highly mobile and digital. There are no 9×5 desk jobs. This has made timely communication and collaboration a challenge.

It’s the age of try fast, fail fast, retry and succeed fast!

Add time management, execution, delivery and stress in the mix and you will find yourself running from pillar to post to keep your business, your team etc. afloat.

Project Management tools have not only become a “must have” but also the right investment for your business.

Let us take a quick look on what Organizations without the right project collaboration tool fail to achieve for their business.

Project Planning Made Easy

We always run multiple projects simultaneously and keeping track of each activity, task and resources across projects is an uphill task. It involves lot of manual efforts and is inefficient.

Without a smart interface we are highly likely to miss the big picture, the key connections and interdependencies among activities and resources.

Not only that, task assignment & prioritization are crucial for smoother project execution.

If not done correctly it throws the team into commotion and confusion.

Lack of absolute transparency and clarity of roles and responsibilities is a huge de-motivator and stalls progress.

Efficient Task Management

Projects consist numerous tasks. And task execution needs adequate information, communication and collaboration for timely completion.

Using emails, spreadsheet, docs to manage all these for numerous projects leads to wasteful efforts and time with a direct impact on your project schedule.

This is where a project management tool is very useful. Assign tasks to your team, reply to tasks and monitor who’s doing what and when at one place.

Share notes, update and review documents and receive feedback instantly.

A project management tool will help with:

• Single collaborative platform for YOU and your Customers, Sponsors, Stakeholders and teams – Be Smart, Communicate smarter – Anytime, Anywhere!
• Quicker & accurate decision making driven by real-time granular data
• Unbridled clarity around business directives and organization goals
• Real time monitoring of key deliverables and milestones
• Highly coordinated project planning and execution
• Centralized collaboration among a geographical diverse workforce

Seamless Team Workflow

Seamless team work is very hard to achieve by managing your team through traditional methods.

But using a Project Management tool, you can see which team/resource is working on which task/project and which resources are available or overloaded.

At the same time, you can see who is underutilized and over utilized for efficient workload management. 

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