How To Manage Projects With Excellence

Hey everybody, it's Brendan. I love this question. How do you manage projects so that you're happy with the outcome at the end? You know, maybe you're a leader of an organization and you're managing big projects all the time and you're trying to usher them forward so that you can only make a great contribution, but you can get a promotion and move up. Or maybe you're an individual contributor, creator, artist, and you have your own passionate projects that are commerce or not commerce, and you're just trying to make, make them rockin'. Or maybe you're just somebody who struggles to keep to a deadline, struggle with being effective as a human being in almost every area of your life. What do you do in all of those circumstances? I'm happy to take that question. I think the first thing before you do any project is a very, very simple question, and that is, do you truly have the desire to do it? You feel like you can effectively do it? Well, and I'll share this with you because here's the deal. I think most people are doing projects they shouldn't be doing. You know, as a high performance coach, I've spent so much time consulting, advising, coaching, Fortune 50 CEOs, extraordinary, successful people from hundreds of industries around the world, multi millionaires, people who are in the media all the time, people who have major responsibilities, their shoulders, and half the time I work with them. It's about clearing the decks. It's about, why did you even commit to doing this project? It's not something you truly even care about. Well, I felt obligated. I'm doing it as a favor. Well, I'm doing it because I think it might pay off one day and there's no real passion there. And the best way to do a project well is to not do it. If it doesn't matter to you, just stop. Just say no. Reject the projects that come your way, that don't really engage you. Because, look, life is too short for you to be spending your time doing things you don't care about. I mean, I think one of the number one reasons people get so frustrated with their lives and feel a lack of engagement is because they're doing a lot of busy work. But that busy work is not their life's work. And so they're off path, they're off purpose. And no wonder they can't complete projects, because those projects that they're doing, they really cultivate no passion, no creativity. There's no real deep desire there. And because that's not there, they don't do them. And now you feel guilty because you're not effective. No, it's not that you're not effective. It's that you're being ineffective at doing the wrong things. Once you're doing the right things, it's much easier to be effective. Passionate, engaged, enthusiastic. Excellent, those things. So, number one, is it a project that you even give a damn about? If not, get out or give somebody else the opportunity to manage it. Which brings me really to my second point. Should you be the person, Even if you are passionate about it and you do love and you want to be involved, should you be the person managing the project? See, there's a big difference between being an individual contributor to a project and being the person who. Who's responsible for it, who manages it. See, I've learned a lot of ways in my life I shouldn't be the manager. I don't like doing all that big coordination. I don't like the details, the tasks, the work plans. I want to be engaged, I want to contribute, but I don't want to manage the whole enterprise. So I find people to do those things. Even if I'm advising a startup, let me come in there, add my unique values and contributions, kick butt for you. But I don't want to be the person who's the COO of that startup. Does that make sense? So you got to be honest with yourself. Are you good at managing projects? Do you draw joy from it? Is it your natural ability, your talent? Have you developed those skills? Is that something you want? And if not, learn to be a key contributor, not the person who must manage it. Totally vital. Absolutely important. The third thing I say to do well in projects is if you are managing or you are contributing. The third thing is absolute clarity on what is the real outcome of this project. I mean, what's the end game at the very. If this was done completely and perfectly, how would we know it was a success? What elements would be there? What impact would it make? What metrics would be measuring success? Like, you really need to have a vision of for the project complete. How do you know when you cross the finish line? How do you know when you pass that part where it feels like a struggle and it sucks to hitting your first milestone and you're really on your way. If you don't have a vision for the project, it's pretty likely you're going to get distracted and derailed. Next piece is to. As you're thinking about this project and you want to do it well, you got to have the calendar in place. You have to have real deadlines, real steps, real completion dates, real people managing the parts of the project that matter. I mean, it's that detailed stuff that most people forget. And I know you're probably better than that. And you. Yeah, I got it, Brenda. I've got a schedule. When I work with people, it's like, no, you really need to plan things out to a very finite detail. Not to be a perfectionist, but to be able to kind of know all the moving parts, who's involved and when, who owns what piece, is contributing, what thing, who is ultimately responsible to keep this thing on track. What has to happen by what date, or everybody dies. You know, you have to have real clarity into that. And most people don't. So they're kind of moving towards something, but there's no real milestone. There's no real things that they're trying to accomplish. And that's why they keep feeling like they're distracted all the time, because it's easy to be distracted when you don't have clear purpose and deadlines. Last piece. Got to do a project well. Focus on these three things. Number one is distinction. How can you do that project different than anybody else in the world would? What's that unique strength to talent, ability, team perspective, system tool thing that you will bring to the project that makes it different, fun, unique, significant. Because if you're just going through the same motions you did, you're going to do this project. Exactly. You've done 100 projects before. Guess what? You're going to be bored with it. You're not going to bring any magic to it. It's not going to make a difference or really grow. It's just going to be another thing. You are ultimately being a cognitive, not a creator, not a contributor. And so you got to get out of that idea that you're going to do everything exactly the same and find what's unique that we could do here to make this thing magic? Second, how do we do it with excellence? I mean, how do we wow people with this thing? How do we bring a degree of excellence, keeping everything tight and pristine and perfect, like the things we actually like? How do we make it really, truly stand out with excellence, where people are impressed with the quality of it, the quality of the thinking, the quality of the experience, quality of the interaction? And then third, how do we do it at the highest level of service so that the people that the project is intended to help or support or benefit, that they really are served that every interaction point they have with it, they're like, wow, I feel like I've been taken care of. That you're thinking through their emotions, their feelings, their impressions all along the way of this project as it's delivered or ultimately completed. Because at the end of the day, every project has a purpose. And that purpose always involves people. To help people, support people, serve people, impress people, deliver some kind of service or promise to the people. So be thinking about the people, think about the service. Not just in terms of customer service, but service, humanity, heart, purpose, reason, the stuff that we all get and engage in. The things, the intangible things that make projects worthwhile in the first place. If you can look at projects through these lenses and do a greater job in all these areas in one way or another, you'll start to have this feeling that, you know, I've got to manage on this now. I've got to control on this. These things are turning out much better than they have before, frankly. You'll enjoy doing the projects more often. They'll engage you, they'll. They'll serve people better. You'll start to have more effect and impact. You'll start to inspire people more. You'll start to experience what we call the charge life. Hey guys, it's Brendan. Did you like this episode? If you did, you can do three things right now to continue your journey. First, you can subscribe right here to my channel, which I hope you will, so I can keep sending you videos on a weekly video basis to change your life. Second, you can get my brand new book for free by clicking the link right here. And third, you can also go to my website, sign up for my newsletter so I can send you free offers, free products, free programs, updates on my events, new podcasts, and everything else that we don't do on this channel here. If you'd like to do that, just go ahead and click any of these buttons you see right here. Look forward to seeing it on the next video. Until then, go out there every single day of your life. Live fully, love openly, and make your difference today.