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Unconventional Tips for Project Managers

Posted: Tue 23 Feb 2016 9:03 pm
by dhaughey
What’s your unconventional tip for project managers?

What I’m looking for is not the usual textbook suggestions, but something you do, that’s not in any textbook. Large or small, let’s share.

I’ll kick off with this valuable tip that has stood me in good stead with my customers.

Always mark new documents you share with your customer as draft. Why? I found early on in my career that there’s a big difference between a document marked as draft and one that’s not. My customers assumed that the documents, not marked draft were closed for discussion. They became unhappy that I was imposing my will upon them. As soon as I added the word draft they changed. The word draft says this has yet to be decided. There's still time to change your mind and make updates.

It’s a small thing that makes a big difference.

How about you? What’s your unconventional tip for project managers?

Re: Unconventional Tips for Project Managers

Posted: Tue 01 Mar 2016 11:13 pm
by stonesfan
I've always found using the phrase:

"I've listened to what you have just said"

Can assist in pacifying those stakeholders who feel their opinions are not being taken seriously.

Re: Unconventional Tips for Project Managers

Posted: Mon 23 May 2016 1:12 pm
by sebi21
Hi there,

This is my first of hopefully many posts. :-) Excited to be here.

Ok the most unconventional... I got rid of the phrase "Next Steps" or even "Next Step" because for me that implies something in the future. In other words: It's good to have a next step written down but for me that souded always like "let's do this tomorrow".

So I don't write "Next Step" anymore, I write "Current Step" in the project communication to make clear that somebody is actually working on that step actually right now.

I find this unconventional but it has a big psychological impact for me.

What do you think about that?

Best regards,
Sebastian

Re: Unconventional Tips for Project Managers

Posted: Wed 01 Jun 2016 8:04 am
by jayashree
Prioritizing the person in front of us or giving them importance can definitely help in creating a positive impact as a Project Manager.

Re: Unconventional Tips for Project Managers

Posted: Thu 02 Jun 2016 10:30 am
by fashihah
hi there...
In my opinion, the unconventional tip for project management is managing the time efficiently by making tomorrow's list before today ends. Anything did not finish today will be pushing it tomorrow and become the priority task to be dive into first.

Re: Unconventional Tips for Project Managers

Posted: Wed 08 Feb 2017 4:45 pm
by dhaughey
Write 'live minutes' for your conference calls. This helps people in remote locations follow the topics being discussed and see the actions they have been assigned. The minutes are available immediately the call finishes and don't become a chore to be completed later.

My team really like this approach. I am starting to use 'live minutes' on other projects with great success.

Tools: Skype for Business and Evernote.

Duncan