Top 10 Expert Tips For New Project Managers

You have been given the title of project manager!!! Congratulations. It might have been an unexpected opportunity or an eagerly sought position, whatever be the case you are now about to assume the leadership role for both the project and people. “Project Manager” is an exciting career to start with, yet, it takes time to understand the nuances of the job. You can’t become an expert overnight. Make small steps at a time and start exploring the project management world.

After working faithfully for months or be it an overnight flip around, you are given a chance to lead projects. So, bonne chance!!!!

Here are the ten expert tips for new project managers

Expert tips for New project managers #1: Mindful listening and Active engaging

As a first tip, a project manager needs to practice mindful listening to soak everything up. Actively listening will help you to study your team and your stakeholders. All that great listening can happen only when you actively engage yourself with the team and stakeholders. The more you engage, you can study more of their strengths and weaknesses. If time constraint or the poor listening skills is blocking your way, then you need to work on them efficiently since “mindful listening” is the most important responsibility a manager should never neglect to look upon. Work on harnessing your ability to “Listen and engage” actively and increase the satisfaction of stakeholder and responsiveness of your project team.

Expert tips for New project managers # 2: Harness your problem-solving ability

Problems are an inevitable part of a project, and as a budding project manager, you need to wear your private investigator hat first. Sometimes you might experience small problems and sometimes large ones, using a systematic approach to solve them will allow you to tackle them efficiently. Do not start pouring your efforts to resolve the problem immediately, instead analyze it on the first note then move on step by step. The effective management steps in problem-solving are ‘Define the Problem, Determine the Causes, Generate Ideas and finally, Select the Best Solution and Take Action’. Be it a small problem that gets resolved quickly, or a large one pondering upon you for a longer time, apply this five-step process and find out the why-what-where-and-when of what caused the project to fail. Learn from your mistakes and don’t forget to implement it.

Expert tips for New project managers # 3: Know and master the project management tools

You are well aware of the fact that business has goals and objectives to achieve. They can accomplish these goals only when there is effective project management happening within the organizations. Project management involves many crucial steps to be performed such as planning, systematizing, Budget, etc. to enhance the level of success and growth of the project. In this process, not just effective project management skills and knowledge will work but also various project management tools and software. Apart from learning on how to use the new tools and software, also look for ways to optimize the platform and motivate your team members to participate fully. While exploring tools, if you feel any latest software may serve your needs better, try to embrace it rather than sticking to the old one. Such initiatives to explore new and latest project management tools always win you points.

Expert tips for New project managers # 4: Be an effective team player

Being a capable team player gives you an opportunity to learn how to optimize your team members’ expertise. Project managers need to keep in mind that we can never accomplish the overall objectives of a project in isolation. When a problem is brewing, it is better to take help from others than waiting too long. Utilizing each team member’s strengths to achieve the best results is what you need to be focusing. Leave the egos beyond and try to understand your team’s strengths. And when the project finishes successfully, you will love that feeling of success.

Expert tips for New project managers # 5: Know about your customer

It is essential to know about your team and your project, however another vital aspect that you need to concentrate on is knowing about your customer. Try to understand more about your customer as an individual also as an organization and their goals. As a project manager, they expect you to interact in the most appropriate and meaningful way, so knowing more stuff about your customer will come handy at that situation. Set up one on one sessions with your stakeholders to get their input and goals before kicking off with your projects. Make them understand what your project will achieve and get their buy-in on an outcome.

Expert tips for New project managers # 6: Initiate yourself to take full responsibility

Although it might sound little too early for you, it is still worth trying. One day, you will be the one who is taking all the decisions by yourself. When you and your team kick off an implementation, there will be significant risks and issues involved in your project. You need to tackle these challenges before they affect the critical path of the project. No need to rush but remember to catch the golden opportunities that you get once in a while and initiate yourself.

Expert tips for New project managers # 7: Effortlessly embrace the change

Change is the one that never changes. If change is definitely happening, fighting it won’t do any good. There will be many surprises coming on your way while leading a project. However, if you are flexible and adaptable, it is not going to be a big hurdle at all. Expand your knowledge circle with all the latest practices in Management and try to develop new capabilities. The business world is evolving and so does yours, things can change rapidly and if you are not ready to give up on old practices then you might be outdated soon. As a leader, lend a listening ear to new changes and start embracing it.

Expert tips for New project managers # 8: Hone your Leadership and Management skills

As a project manager, you need to manage people mostly. Proper documentation and all the PM process is essential; however, the most important skill a project manager must master is Leadership. You need to build trust among your team members which will help you to delegate the work wisely and lead effectively. You have gained a better theoretical knowledge of Leadership by exposing your self to books, knowledge banks, tech articles, etc. and that is all fine, but you need to keep in mind that real-life situations are way tougher than books. So, in addition to theoretical knowledge, expose your selves to real-life situations.

Expert tips for New project managers # 9: Know the limitations of your project team

As a new project manager, you might often fall trap for setting up and achieving unrealistic goals. You will be eager to implement all the knowledge that you have earned. But remember, your team is a bunch of humans, not robots. It is great to look for innovative methodologies and try using them; however, that will work well only if you know the limitations. You might end up Overcomplicating simple things even if you are backing up with the whole pedigree of PM tools, techniques, and strategies. Go for simple and streamlined work so that your attention gets devoted to planning, actual implementation, and overall scope and quality control, instead of waiting for the heavens to open up and rain down!

Expert tips for New project managers # 10: Take up a project management certification

Be it PMP or PRINCE2, getting certified makes sense in this dynamic project management profession. When you hone your skills by getting the credentials, it gives high value to your resume and attracts the companies. The position that you are sitting at now is not a rewarding job every day, and you need to work hard to get things done. Different Organisations address their projects and programs in their names and descriptors. However, gaining theoretical knowledge can help you to speak the business language confidently.

Nothing Beats hands-on experience for a project manager position:

Though the initial steps are tight, you will slowly get the hang of it. There are lots of things that you learn out of practical experience. Do not try to fake it instead learn it from a competent mentor or gain it from your salt and pepper of management years.

How can SKILLOGIC®’s project management course help you in your project management career?

SKILLOGIC® is a popular training provider specialized in all latest industry-specific courses in Project Management, IT Service and Architecture, IT Security And Governance, DevOps, Agile, Business Analytics, Quality Management, and Tools Training brings you a world-class education. Experts specially curate all the training courses, and the industries most excellent experienced trainers deliver the training requirements. SKILLOGIC® offers a globally acceptable certificate after the completion of each course and comprehensive support for career and skills enhancement from our specialized teams. Corporate Training, Classroom sessions, Workshop & Online Training are frequently conducted in all the major cities such as Pune, Bangalore, Chennai Mumbai, and Hyderabad.

SKILLOGIC®’s project management course is the most sought-after management course by many candidates which is evident from Google’s highest review rating of 4.9 for this course. This management certification has been a door opener for newly graduated candidates who are looking to jumpstart their career as well as management professionals who want to further advance in their career. Many Project managers have leveraged their credentials with SKILLOGIC®’s project management training. Both PRINCE2 and PMP® certifications talk about project management framework so pick the one that best suits you based on the industry that you are aiming to build a career on. With a strongly-held core value, SKILLOGIC® is defining a right path and a successful career for all the project management aspirants.