Top 5 Ways Project Managers Stay Sane
I asked 30 + project managers:
"How do you keep sane and deliver successful projects?"
Everyone mentioned these 5 things...
1 - Begin with the end in mind.
2 - Clearly understand your goals.
3 - Be realistic on timing and expectations.
4 - Manage risks with honest conversations.
5 - Don't pretend to know everything.
Over the past decade, I've helped dozens of companies better understand Adobe technology and project delivery. Along the way I've had the opportunity to see a lot of what works and a lot of what doesn't. My goal is simply to share with YOU what I've learned. And I hope that gives you back a little sanity in your day.
💡 What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments and let's have a conversation about it.
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Transcript:
I asked 30 project managers. How do you keep saying and deliver successful projects?
Okay. So the answers may seem intuitive, but I think they give a very clear insight into some of the things that are top of mine for project managers when they're delivering projects.
So the question is how do you keep sane and deliver successful projects?
Out of all the answers. Five things really stood out that are pretty common amongst everyone that I spoke with.
Number one. Begin with the end in mind. Which makes a lot of sense and is intuitive enough, but I think that really articulates working backwards from the goal to realize what success looks like and starting at the beginning and having an accurate plan to get there.
Number two. Clearly understand your goals. I think this is more of an adaptation to number one, but again, this also makes a lot of sense to have clear cut goals and expectations to deliver on and making sure that everyone on the team clearly understands and rallies around those.
Number three, be realistic on timing and expectations.
I know from past experience, this one is tough.
Being able to have every single person on the team understand timing and expectations is I think one of the most critical success factors of completing a project. If everyone has different interpretations of time and then ultimately expectations, that's where conflict and risk can occur.
Number four, manage risk with honest conversations. For me, this is one of the superpowers of project managers, their ability to have these very difficult and honest conversations with different stakeholders of a project is extremely difficult. And to do this without ego; with the best outcome in mind is even harder.
And lastly, number five. Don't pretend to know everything.
I think this is what separates good project managers from great project managers.
Because honestly we don't know everything. And that's why we work together as a team to achieve success.
Thank you to all the project managers that allowed me to ask you these questions in your honest feedback.