Project management is an important aspect of most businesses in the 21st century. The first important aspect of project management is being proactive. A proactive person is one who takes the initiative to ensure that the systems are working as they should; rather than wait for the systems to fail and then find ways of correcting the situation (Silver, 2019). Consequently, a good project manager should actively engage in good decision making, finding amicable ways of problem-solving, team building, and practicing business-mindedness.
Secondly, a good business manager will strive to minimize conflicts during projects using integrative decision making. They ought to engage the team members in the decision-making process by incorporating their ideas and expectations (Ross, 1996). By doing so, the workers become eager to participate in the project to achieve the agreed objective of the project.
Thirdly, project managers ought to develop active listening skills. Active listening involves keenly listening to what a person says, repeating what they said to them to ensure you have understood them, and then proceeding to act on their ideas. A person feels valued when his/her ideas are considered and not appreciated when his/her ideas are discarded.
Fourthly, a good project manager will promote synergy during the implementation of projects. Synergy entails encouraging teamwork rather than individual performance. A team can complete in an hour the work that an individual can accomplish in 5 hours.
According to Stephen Covey, good team managers plan for projects with the end in mind. This translates into being visionary leaders (Silver, 2019). A leader should know what he/she wants to accomplish at the end of a project and communicate this goal to the members working on the project to enlist their full support.
The sixth important idea is the focus on continuous improvement. Project managers ought to be monitoring and evaluation to assess progress and ways to improve future projects. In achieving continuous improvement, project managers should be wise enough to discard ideas that did not work in past projects and embrace the methods that worked well.
The seventh essential part of project management is the ability to plan projects sequentially based on the urgency of the various tasks involved. Sequential planning helps to ensure every aspect of the project is covered and that the set standards are met within the set timelines (Ross, 1996). It is such good organization that Covey refers to as handling first things first.
The eighth important idea in project management is to seize opportunities to grow oneself as a project manager. Project managers have an obligation to learning new trends in their field and improve their leadership skills. The application of these eight habits will help project managers to be better leaders and enhance the value of the projects that they oversee.
References
Ross, D. (1996). Applying Covey’s Seven Habits to a Project Management Career. Project Management Institute. Retrieved from http://www.welchco.com/02/14/01/60/96/04/0105.HTM on 29th October 2019.
Silver, F. (2019). 7 traits of effective managers. Hearst Newspapers LLC. Retrieved from https://work.chron.com/7-traits-effective-project-managers-11512.html on 29th October 2019.