Take On Your Most Important Project: Your Project Management Career
Have you ever been put in a situation where you are in charge of managing a project, yet you’ve had no formal project management training? If so, you’re not alone. This is more common than you know.
When I took on my first Program Manager role (over 15 years ago), I had no formal PM training and had not yet earned my Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, but with the support of mentors and colleagues, I decided to embrace the challenge and found that I love this type of work. The official definition of project management per The Standard for Project Management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools, and techniques to project activities to meet project requirements. Project management refers to guiding the project work to deliver the intended outcomes.” Although I began my career as a chemical engineer and subject matter expert in a very specific area of technology development, I found that I truly thrived in a role where I was leading a team of SMEs and guiding them to accomplish the project’s goals in a systematic way.
If you are managing and leading projects and have not received formal project management training, I encourage you to seek out opportunities to learn and grow in the following areas:
Building a “good” project schedule
Managing a project schedule
Understanding and documenting project requirements
Managing scope creep
Effective stakeholder engagement & communication
Risk management
Budget management (when applicable)
Project leadership and management by influence
Navigating complexity
Meeting management and best practices
Additional areas of understanding to consider:
A solid grasp of both waterfall (predictive) and agile project management methodologies
Understanding how your project ties to the organization’s strategy and goals
Engaging with your PMO and what to do if your organization doesn’t have a PMO
Note that the above list applies to anyone serving as a project manager (or project lead), whether you are new to the role or consider yourself a seasoned project manager. If you’ve read this list and found that there are multiple areas where you’d like to grow, don’t fear! I recommend the following:
Join PMI. Join the national and your local chapter so that you can network with fellow project management practitioners and continue to grow. PMI offers both meetings and training that cover a variety of topics of interest for project managers.
Seek out mentors. Seek out mentors within your organization or in your professional network. If you’ve noticed a project manager in your organization that is further along their PM journey and you admire their approach to project management, reach out to them to see if they wouldn’t mind taking you under their wing for informal mentoring.
Take project management training courses. There are many courses available for project managers at varying stages of their project management journey. Seek out courses on topics where you’d like to grow in order to improve your project’s success.
Consider working with a project management coach. If you’d like to fast-track your growth and improve your confidence as a project leader and ability to deliver successful projects, consider coaching. For a limited number of clients, I offer one-on-one Project Leadership Coaching to help you overcome challenges and support your professional leadership. Coaching sessions are tailored to your specific needs and goals and are centered around your actual work. A short list of benefits of coaching include:
Improve your project plan and control of your project schedule, scope, budget, quality, and risks
Increase stakeholder engagement through improved communication at all levels
Effectively implement industry best practices
If you’re interested in exploring Project Leadership Coaching and learning if it’s a good fit for you, check out my coaching services page and feel free to contact me for a discovery call. If you’d simply like to continue following my insights on strategy and project management, follow me on LinkedIn and join my email list.
Effective project management can be both challenging and fun. Enjoy the journey!