The goal of every project manager is to complete projects within the given deadline and not to fall behind schedule. To achieve this in the long term and sustainably, the daily project business and the tasks implemented there are the keys to success.
“Successful people are simply those with successful habits.”
Brian Tracy, author and speaker
Habits are among the foundations for daily success as a project manager. We’ll show you 6 habits that successful project managers have incorporated into their daily work routine.
1. Consider the strength of the team
Effective and agile project managers often have strong leadership and soft skills to get the best performance out of all team members.
Soft skills such as problem-solving, flexibility or adaptability, interpersonal skills, and communication help you as a project manager make the entire team better.
This also includes having confidence in the strengths of project members and the ability to pass on responsibility to your colleagues. Because, as we all know, a team accomplishes more than a single person.
2. Adapt quickly to new situations
One of the strengths of good project managers is their ability to adapt to a new situation and thus steer the project team back in the right direction. This is because, especially in the project business, it is commonplace to constantly have to react to new challenges and changes.
Adaptability means knowing when and how to course-correct. Without having an overview of what is going on, it can be difficult to determine the best course of action. To be adaptable and stay that way, you need to be up to date on everything in your project.
This is where project management tools and project time tracking tools come in handy to help you gain an overview of day-to-day project operations.
3. Learn from other project managers
This habit is about leveraging your network and connecting with project managers from different companies and learning from them. Ask about their methods, successes, and failures while offering your expertise and approaches to help them advance in their profession yourself.
4. As a project manager – be proactive
A good PM thinks ahead and anticipates obstacles before they arise. As a proactive manager, you’ll ensure that actions are taken that not only reduce the risk of future problems but also minimize the impact when problems do occur.
5. Communication
Daily communication is one of the key factors that are essential in successful project teams. In this regard, your goal must be to be the communication leader within the project team. After all, you are the person who holds the team together and has direct contact with every project member.
Be the initiator who actively reaches out to team members and models the communication that should take place within the project team. Involve each member in meetings by asking specific questions of the person.
Be transparent with your team about what you have accomplished, where you currently stand, and what still needs to be done. By doing so, you will promote motivation, team spirit, and cohesion among the entire team and you will achieve your project goal more effectively.
6. Record the working hours of you and your team
In areas of time planning, project managers are already fit. However, in their daily work, the most important thing is to keep track of the working hours and the tasks processed in them by the employees. We are talking about time tracking here, ideally, project time tracking.
Regardless of whether you use a project time tracking system or not, it’s important to know how long you’ve worked on different projects when you’re doing them.
Even if logging and regularly maintaining work hours is not a favorite activity of project members, very important insights can often be gained.
At the end of the day or week, each employee and the project manager knows which tasks were worked on in which projects.
The working hours can be evaluated accordingly and made directly available to the customer. This way you can make your projects more effective in a sustainable way.
Many tools make it easier for you to enter your working hours in your projects, for example, through automation and an easy-to-use interface.
Make it a habit as a PM to log the working hours of you and your project team to work more successfully.
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