Are you looking to become a project manager in 2024?
Project managers, to simplify, are responsible for overseeing a project within the organization—from planning, organizing, to executing it to its completion.
A lot of soft skills are involved in becoming a successful project manager. You’ll need to hone your ability to juggle multiple tasks, interact with staff to the C-level, and maintain a degree of flexibility with the variability of projects. All while sticking with the budget and the deadlines.
If you want to improve your skills as a project manager, here are five ways you can become a better project manager in 2024.
1) Bring the best out of your team members
As a project manager, you should be able to use all the resources you have available to succeed in the project. This would entail fitting the right person with the right task to ensure the success of the project.
Bringing the best out of your team can benefit the organisation and allow productivity to truly flourish. Here are some simple ways on how to put this into action:
- Direct in a clear and simple manner – don’t overcomplicate things or provide poor, haphazard outlines.
- Inspire your team – act as a role model that your team looks up to, and be someone that encourages them in times of trouble
- Create a growth plan – the employees and team members must have a clear idea of what the goal is, and what they are striving for.
- Praise and reward team members – appreciate your team’s work ethic and integrity to empower them to produce better, consistent results
As the person of authority, you should set aside some time to know more about your team member’s strengths and weaknesses and harness them the best way possible. Tapping into these strengths will help bring the project closer to success.
2) Use the right project management tools
Tech is everywhere, and it plays a pivotal role in influencing project management. These project management tools and programs helped evolve and shape its dynamic landscape, leading to the eruption of various features that make structuring projects a much more simple and streamlined process.
From the organization of files to giving feedback, to simply dragging and dropping tasks to respective team members and back again—these tools help order the chaos that can delay the processes of individuals, and inevitably, the project as a whole.
They assist even at the early stages; for example, when an online project management Gantt chart solution helps you plan and schedule all your activities ahead.
Some notable project management tools to consider include Trello and Monday—but you can find many great tools online that would suit the needs of the project best.
3) Improve your skillset by undergoing courses and training
It’s vital to undergo training to become a successful project manager. Being under the mentorship of someone who understands the challenges of working as a PM can help give you insights and true to life examples of what it’s like on the field.
You don’t have to possess technical prowess to become a crucial member of the team. There are many skills that you can improve on as a project manager. Some of these include:
- Goal setting
- Governance
- Forecasting
- Budgeting
- Using performance metric tools
- Boosting morale
- Risk management
- Task delegation
While many of these skills can be learned and honed as you perform project management-related duties, you can also supplement your learning with training from experts.
Another good way to stay ahead of the curve is by enrolling in online project management courses with providers like Monarch. Courses can help you digest relevant project management material made by experts to give you a leg up in dealing with projects. On top of that, it also is accessible to anyone, making it a more convenient choice if you don’t personally know any project managers you can tap for mentorship opportunities.
4) Leave open communication lines
As the project overseer, you’ll need to keep communication lines open among you and your team members. Arguably, this isn’t easy to do, as over 88% of remote workers face miscommunication and leadership issues with their team members. As a project manager, seeing that project’s wheels keep turning is a skill that is not as easy as it sounds. That’s on top of keeping relevant stakeholders and clients in the loop at all times as well.
A successful project manager is someone that all members of the team can turn to when they need direction. Project managers should be able to delegate proper tasks in the most efficient pay possible, while also divulging any new development that may arise as the project runs its course.
5) Set realistic goals
A project manager that commands with an iron fist with unrealistic deadlines rarely bodes well for any team. Not only does this authoritative leadership style tarnish employee morale, but it also runs the risk of the project delivering unfinished or low-quality output.
As a project manager, your duty influences the entire branch of people under your wing. You’d need to settle these deadlines in advance to allow your employee some breathing room to think on the best angle of approach for the project. A good project manager can settle and deal with priorities with their subordinates, and still have the capacity to do it as workload and resources increase.