The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit

Randall Englund MBA, BSEE, NPDP, CBM, Alfonso Bucero CSE, MSc, PMP

• Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781567263602
• eBook ISBN: 9781567263824
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Food Industry
• Index: Business

Here Are the Tools to Achieve Project Management Success
Buy both The Complete Project Manager and The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit and save $18 at checkout by entering coupon code COMBO1.
This companion to The Complete Project Manager provides the tools you need to integrate key people, organizational, and technical skills. The core book establishes that success in any environment depends largely upon completing successful projects; this book gives you the means and methods to meet that goal. The hands-on, action-oriented tools in this book will help you develop a complete set of skills—the right set for you to excel in today's competitive environment.
The Complete Project Manager's Toolkit will enable you to implement the easy-to-understand, universal, powerful, and immediately applicable concepts presented in The Complete Project Manager. You may already be aware of what you need to do; this book supplies the how through:
• Assessments
• Checklists
• Exercises
• Examples of real people applying the concepts.
Use these tested methods to overcome environmental, personal, social, organizational, and business barriers to successful project management!
Although The Complete Project Manager can be used as a stand-alone book, it is designed to complement The Complete Project Manager: Integrating People, Organizational, and Technical Skills.

Chapter

1

LEADERSHIP AND
MANAGEMENT SKILLS

TOOLSET: LEADING YOURSELF CHECKLIST

Nothing will make a better impression on your leader than your ability to manage yourself. If your leader must continually expend energy managing you, then you will be perceived as someone who drains time and energy. If you manage yourself well, however, your boss will see you as someone who maximizes opportunities and leverages personal strengths. That will make you someone your leader turns to when the heat is on.

Table 1-1 suggests ways to lead yourself well.

TABLE 1-1: Leading Yourself

What to Do	How to Do It
Manage your emotions	It is especially critical to control your emotions because whatever you do affects many other people. Good leaders know when to display emotions and when to delay expressing them. The bottom line in managing your emotions is that you should put others first—not yourself. Ask yourself, what does the team need? What also makes me feel better?
Manage your time	Time management issues are especially tough for people in the middle. Time is valuable. Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything valuable with it. Instead of thinking about what you do and what you buy in terms of money, instead think about them in terms of time.
Manage your priorities	Get yourself to the point where you can manage your priorities and focus your time in this way: • 80% of the time, work where you are strongest. • 15% of the time, work where you are learning. • 5% of the time, work in other necessary areas. If you have people working for you, delegate to them tasks you are not good at but they are. The secret to making this shift is often discipline. Be ruthless in your judgment of what you should not do. Just because you like doing something does not mean it should stay on your to-do list. If a task is related to one of your strengths, do it. If it helps you grow, do it. If your leader says you must handle it personally, do it. Anything else is a candidate for your “stop doing” list.
Manage your energy	Some people have to ration their energy so that they don’t run out. Always make sure you have the energy to do tasks with focus and excellence. Even people with high energy can have that energy sucked right out of them under difficult circumstances. Leaders, especially those in the middle of an organization, often have to deal with the “ABC energy drain”: • Activity without direction: doing things that don’t seem to matter • Burden without action: not being able to do things that really matter • Conflict without resolution: not being able to deal with what’s the matter If you find that you are in an organization where you often must deal with these ABCs, then you will have to work extra hard to manage your energy well.
Manage your thinking	The greatest enemy of good thinking is busyness. And leaders in the middle are usually the busiest people in an organization. If you find that the pace of life is too demanding for you to stop and think during your workday, then get into the habit of jotting down three or four things that need good mental processing or planning that you cannot stop to think about. Then carve out some time later when you can give those items some good think-time. That may be 30 minutes at home the same day, or you may want to keep a running list for a whole week and then take a couple of hours on Saturday. Just don’t let the list get so long that it disheartens or intimidates you.

TOOLSET: DELEGATING EFFECTIVELY

Don’t take on tasks that someone else can do as well—or better—than you. Although a project manager cannot delegate everything in a project, delegating can make a project manager’s life easier. But many are hesitant to pass on responsibilities.

Don’t think of delegating as doing the other person a favor. Delegating some of your authority only makes your work easier. You will have more time to manage your project, monitor team members, and handle conflicts. Your organization will benefit, too, as output goes up and project work is completed more efficiently.

Communication is the key to delegating. Without communication, assignments are blurred, deadlines are vague, and results are, predictably, poor. If you want your team to excel as they take on added duties, talk to them, recognize them, and reward them.

To delegate effectively, follow these steps:

What To Do	How To Do It
Outline the purpose and importance of the project	Don’t expect your team members to ask enough questions to define the project. Be sure to explain the work clearly and thoroughly.
Provide the necessary authority	Make sure the team member you have chosen has the clout needed to complete the task. Otherwise, requests to others for help and information may be ignored because they don’t come from you.
Delegate for results	Set standards and make sure team members know they will be held accountable. When a pr...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• About the Authors
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: Leadership and Management Skills
• Chapter 2: The Role of Humor and Fun
• Chapter 3: Personal Skills
• Chapter 4: Project Management Skills
• Chapter 5: Environment Skills
• Chapter 6: Organization Skills
• Chapter 7: Negotiating Skills
• Chapter 8: Political Skills
• Chapter 9: Conflict Management Skills
• Chapter 10: Sales Skills
• Chapter 11: Change Management Skills
• Chapter 12: Market and Customer Knowledge
• Appendix
• References and Resources