5 Mistakes Every Project Manager Should Avoid

Hello guys, and thank you for joining me for today's video. Today I'm going to be talking about the 5 mistakes that every project manager should avoid. And if you're new to this channel, please like and subscribe. It would help me out a lot. My name's Helena and I have been a project manager and coaching project managers, Scrum Masters, and product owners for the past 10 years. And over the years, I have worked on a lot of projects and have also mentored a lot of project managers and Scrum Masters as well. So here are the 5 mistakes that I have observed that, you know, new and seasoned project managers should avoid. So mistake number 1 is failing to understand the purpose of the project. So the purpose of the project is the key driver for engaging the team members and the organization and motivating them to support the project. The purpose of the project goes beyond the deliverables and the timelines and the deadlines. The purpose transcends the project team, if you will. So it is your job as the leader of the project to communicate and to motivate each team member. For example, let's say that you have a project and it is to create a new banking application out for the European market. One team member may be really excited about the financial aspects of the innovation, while another team member may be really thrilled about coding in a new language, while another one may be really thrilled about offering a new product to a new customer segment. You have to really understand what the purpose of your project is, and the best person to help you do so is the project sponsor. The project sponsor is the person who will be accountable for the project. It is important that you have a solid relationship with the sponsor, and if you can't answer some simple questions from your team, it's not going to make you look good. So for example, if a team member came to you and asked, what is the targeted implementation date for the software? Why are we doing this software? What is the purpose? Who is the target market? And if you get stumbled by some of these questions, then you're not going to look really good as a project manager. So pro tip is before the kickoff of the project, reach out to your sponsor and ask as many why questions as needed in order for you to understand why this project needs to be initiated. Is it for a regulatory purpose? Is it to increase sales? Is it to make customers happier? You have to have these conversations with the sponsor before the project kickoff. During the project, plan regular checkpoints to confirm that the project goals are aligned with the organizational strategy. All right, now let's move on to mistake number 2, and that's accepting unrealistic planning. Failure to properly plan a project carefully can lead to rework, It is therefore crucial to determine what is in and out of scope of the project, the type of methodologies you're going to use, and the expected deliverables. For example, if you will deploy a new platform, you'll get a plan from the platform provider, but it's important not to blindly trust this plan as the platform provider might have underestimated the time it is needed to complete the network equipment or to get ahold of the necessary experts to carry out the implementation. So what you need to do is to ask a lot of what-if questions. So what if this risk arise? What will we do? What if this issue arise? What are we gonna do then? So during the planning process, really make sure that you account for risk and issues that may occur, and this will allow you to be better prepared. You also want to talk to many experts and get their opinions And you also want to check with your team in order to see if they have identified any issues that could set your project back. Mistake number 3 is truly not connecting with your team. So if you're a new project manager, it's easy to just get into the grind of things and not pay a lot of attention to your team. But if there's a conflict that arised, let's say between 2 team members and you didn't see it. It could derail your project and it could mean that the team members are not being as effective and productive as they could be. Also, in this day and age, with the rise of hybrid and remote teams, it is essential for you to keep a tab on team members and make sure that conflicts are resolved in a structured manner as soon as possible. So you wanna spend informal time with your team members at work To learn more about them, to really get to know them from a human level. This will allow you to understand their constraints and motivations in life. You also want to create an environment where they can come to you if there are any issues that arise. Let's move on to mistake number 4. And mistake number 4 is equating constant check-ins with lack of trust. With an increasing number of projects, a decreasing pool of human resources, and ever-increasing business constraints, It's likely that stakeholders of your project may be remote, abroad, or have other priorities. I remember once from experience that I was managing a project where the teams were located in 2 separate offices, and they were also allowed to work from home. And I didn't schedule regular check-in meetings with everyone on the team. It was more on demand. I thought that if they had any problems, they would come to me. I was also thinking that If I didn't have the regular check-in meetings, this would give the team more time to work. So this would be good and more beneficial for the whole team. This turned out to be a huge mistake because one day when I was speaking with the project sponsor, we actually uncovered a lot of issues. The team were actually not really clear about the requirements and the development team were stuck on how to move forward. So. Always define when, how, and how often you and your team are going to meet for your project status meetings. You want to identify the ground rules of these meetings, especially, especially if you have a remote team. Also keep in mind that there will be different personalities on your project teams, and some people may be too shy to speak up. All right, now let's move on to mistake number 5, which is neglecting your professional development. Talk to HR or your project sponsor about what training opportunities are available at your company. What about taking a project certification like the PMP or the CSM? Do you have an alumni network at your university that you can reach out to and communicate to? Is there a webinar that you can join to keep up with the latest knowledge in the industry? Always have an appointment with yourself at least once a week to talk about How you can become better at your job. What do you need to learn to get yourself to that next level? So I know that this could seem like a lot of work, especially when you are 100% dedicated to your project, but don't neglect you. It's really important that you still keep your training at the top of mind and think about how you can get to that next level in your career. So this wraps up this video on the 5 mistakes that every project manager should avoid. Thank you so much for joining me, and please like and subscribe.