Do you know how many minutes you and your team waste every day? I'm not talking about those "Oops, how did I end up on Facebook again?" occasions; I'm talking about the time wasted on inefficient work: Scouring through email looking for documents Accidentally using outdated information, causing necessary rework Waiting for someone to send you the information you need Answering "Can I ask you a quick question?" desk interruptions It's estimated that 25% of the average worker's day is wasted on inefficient work. That's huge. If you work an 8-hour day, that's 2 hours wasted every day. ...10 hours per week. ...520 hours per year. Do the math and you're paying the average worker for 65 days (over three months of work!) of "info gathering" every year. For every employee in your company. Shocked yet? Read more on the challenges teams and managers are facing in today's workforce in the infographic below: New work management tools are helping teams cut out these inefficiencies, so we can stop spending so much time on "info gathering" and start putting our time into actually getting work done. Whether you're a manager or a team member, it's time to help your company perform better. Try our work management tool free for the next two weeks, and challenge your team to get more done every day. Start a free 2-week trial of Wrike for your team now You can share this infographic on your blog. Copy and paste this embed code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike
You've come to that point in your management career: work isn't getting done fast enough and your team's emotional well-being is dwindling. Your own stress levels are climbing as pressure from higher-ups increases. You're trying to help your team, but no matter how hard they work, nothing is getting done and they're wilting more every day. Your team is facing a productivity crisis. That means it's time to step back and take a look at the processes, tools, and management techniques that could be bottlenecking their progress. Read through this list of advice to help you identify productivity weaknesses for your team — every tip includes a hyperlinked article with more detailed advice to help your team break the cycle. Work Processes That Promote Productivity Create a system of accountability for your team. Public accountability triggers the willpower to work harder and better. Set standards for communication. What information is important to communicate? When should people give updates? Where should they share them? If you make your communication expectations clear, you'll mitigate the communication issues that so often bottleneck projects. Collaborate! It's true what they say: two heads are better than one. Don't miss out on the benefits of collaboration within your team. Improve the way you run meetings. Eliminate excessive meetings, only invite people who need to be involved, create a goal-oriented agenda, and end every meeting with "next steps." And ask the right questions during meetings, so that your time together isn't wasted. Encourage breaks. Lead by example and take them yourself. You can't run continually for 8 hours, and neither can your brain. Stopping for a 15-minute break from all work (not "stop doing X to go work on Y") gives your mind time to relax, so you can shake off the sluggishness and jump back into your day with full force. Read this article on the science behind the benefits of taking breaks at work. Use better work management and productivity monitoring software. Check out how Wrike increases team productivity for our users. Essential Productivity Trainings for Your Team Members Develop training and incentives for every employee, not just upper management. In our study on productivity, 77% of people said they were motivated by a sense of responsibility. Try giving more project ownership to the team members who ask for it. Host a workshop on the top productivity killers to help them identify what takes the most time away from their day (and subtly show them how they could be contributing to their teammates' slow progress). Learn about the science behind procrastination, and share the knowledge with your team. Understanding what makes the brain tick can help your team readjust those unproductive, "I don't want to do this," thoughts. Host a workshop to teach them how to build better work habits. Download this "Productive Work Habits" eBook for your own education, and pass it along to your team after the workshop. Share these six tips your team members can use to change their mindsets when they're stuck in an unproductive funk at work. Mindsets make a huge difference in productivity. Management Skills to Enable Your Team's Productivity Ask what you can do to improve your management. You could be hindering team productivity without realizing it. Make sure you're asking the right questions, sharing the right resources, and providing proper support. Avoid micromanaging. According to a study in the book My Way or the Highway, 71% of employees felt micromanagement was hindering their performance. Micromanagement obstructs the powerful motivators that come with the feeling of "I accomplished something great today." As a manager, it can be tempting to grip the reigns tightly, but it's important to trust your team and allow them to make judgement calls for the projects they own. Set attainable goals. Assigning one large project with a deadline two months out is overwhelming. Breaking large projects up into smaller steps shows clear progress and keeps people motivated as they advance toward the final product. Read about the power of "Small Wins" in this study by Teresa Amabile. Help your team members constantly prioritize and re-prioritize. As to-do lists get longer, it becomes difficult for employees to concentrate on one task without feeling overwhelmed by the mountain of work they haven't started yet. Make sure you constantly communicate the top team priorities, so everyone knows where to focus their energy. Provide constructive, meaningful feedback on a regular basis. This will develop a culture of trust and personal growth, so your employees take pride in improving their performance. Praise a job well done every time — for the large tasks and the small tasks. A study by Mindflash showed that while employers thought high wages were the best incentive, many employees felt that being fully appreciated for the work they'd done was far more important. Little Things That Make a Big Difference in Productivity Inspire your team with visual motivators. Post these motivational posters around the office to share quick productivity tips with your team and remind them that they're doing great. Invest in office cocoons (or something similar). Distractions are one of the biggest productivity inhibitors; lunch deliveries, coworkers walking past your desk, and job candidates being escorted to a meeting catch your eye and break your flow. Creating comfortable spaces for people to tuck away can help them stay focused in the office. Put real effort into creating a good work environment and company culture. Our productivity survey showed that 57% of people are motivated by a good mood — so make sure your team is happy. One way to check in on team happiness is by evaluating how they feel about respect in your workplace. Do they feel respected in their position? Can they respect their fellow team members and management? Employees who say no are far more likely to feel stressed and unable to focus on work. A team that plays together, stays together! When your team knows one another, they'll be more comfortable collaborating and sharing ideas — which leads to better, faster outcomes. Make time for bonding with this list of team-building activities that are actually enjoyable. Productivity is a Process, Not a State of Being "Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort." — Paul J. Meyer As a manager, you have the power to help your team achieve more. Use the resources above and around you, such as integrated project management, to help your team overcome roadblocks to their productivity. If you have any other resources or tips that have helped increase your team's productivity, please share them in the comments below. We'd love additions to the list!
The larger a company, the more difficult it becomes to keep track of every project. That's where Wrike Enterprise comes in, with features optimized for companies with thousands of workers, projects, and tasks. But what sets the Enterprise version apart from other Wrike plans? We recently hosted a webinar to show everyone exactly what Wrike Enterprise can do for your organization, and how to take advantage of all of its features. If you missed it, don't fret! We recorded it just for you, and we're giving it to you here along with a short summary. We know that sometimes reading help pages isn't enough. So if you're a visual learner, this webinar gives you an in-depth look at every Wrike Enterprise feature and shows how it works in the real world. By watching, you'll discover: — Analytics: how to gather actionable insights from your projects — Folder Permissions: how to restrict or open up access to information — Branded Email Notifications: how to reinforce your brand on notifications with your logo — User Groups: how to easily @mention multiple people and draw them into discussions — Custom Calendars: how to clear up scheduling confusion and make more accurate project plans Every unique Enterprise feature smooths your project management and gives you clear visibility into the team's actions. And we have created an Enterprise PDF document describing all of our Enterprise features. Save it in your Wrike account or bookmark it on your computer for reference when you want to jog your memory about specific Enterprise benefits. There are a lot of awesome features in Wrike Enterprise to take your projects and your company to the next level. Check out the video, PDF, or our help pages for more complete details!
When you're a small- or medium-sized business, you typically have less manpower to get all your work done. This means you need all your employees to be as productive as possible to make sure you meet all your quarterly goals. Here are some tips and tools to write into office law to help your employees make the most of every day without spending a fortune: Tips for Creating a Culture of Productivity 1. Have a mandatory meeting-free day It's all too easy for employees at companies of any size to get bogged down by a day full of meetings — which means you have no time to complete tangible work. Make it company policy to have one mandatory meeting-free day across every team, so all your employees have at least eight hours per week to really focus on what needs to get done. And make sure "No Meetings" really means NO meetings: no gatherings in the conference room, around desks, or on Skype, and no one-on-ones. 2. End meetings on the right note Productivity coach Errette Dunn suggests ending every meeting with one question: "Who will do what by when?" Asking this ensures that everyone leaves the meeting knowing exactly what to do next, so you won't have to reiterate what you just discussed at a later time. 3. Always break big goals into bite-sized pieces It has been shown by Harvard researchers Theresa Amabile and Steven Kramer that workers are more motivated by several small accomplishments than one big accomplishment. Whenever you kickoff a big project, make sure you've broken every to-do down into "small wins." Ideally, no task should take longer than one work day to complete. 4. Regularly review lessons learned To continually improve your processes and make work more efficient, make sure every team is regularly reviewing lessons learned on their projects. Share what worked, what didn't, and decide how you will implement that knowledge for future work. 5. Train your employees in the GTD methodology The acclaimed "Getting Things Done" productivity methodology created by David Allen is a great way for your employees to organize their incoming work and daily to-dos. The principles of GTD help workers prioritize what should be done today, defer what can wait until tomorrow, and maintain focus on the task at hand. 6. Keep creative juices flowing with side projects When you hire team members because they are inspired, creative, and innovative, you want them to keep that spark alive. Allow them a set amount of time for "unnecessary" creation every week. This work on creative side projects for the business will help them keep their creative juices flowing. 7. Embrace work naps A quick 15-minute snooze can be far more effective than a third cup of coffee or another candy bar. Let your workers take quick naps. If you have a spare meeting room, maybe set up a small couch and a timer, so people have a place to retreat and recharge. Boosting Productivity with Betters Tools & Setups 8. Invest in technology that makes knowledge accessible There is nothing more obstructive to productivity than not being able to access the files or information you need right when you need it. To break through the information silos and end the chain of "Can you send me the latest version of this document?" messages, invest in a work management software like Wrike, or document management software like Box or Google Drive. Better technology will help your team complete work faster, with fewer roadblocks between steps. 9. Cut out email for internal communication Email is one of those tools that easily sucks us in and eats up hours of our day, without us even realizing it. To make sure your team is getting all important work-related messages without the temptation of going down the email rabbit hole, set the standard to use a different tool to communicate internally. Rely on a communication app like Google Hangouts or Skype to send critical messages to team members. If someone tries to send an email, tell them they need to move their message to your preferred communication method. 10. Delegate repetitive tasks to the robots with automation technology Never assign a human to do a machine's job! In today's quickly-growing field of automation, you can remove a lot of your team's busy work. Apps like Zapier and IFTTT help you connect all your tools to automate work, and there are a plethora of automation software options for marketing, sales, development, and more. 11. Set up your office space for success Add color or posters to the walls to inspire creativity and focus. Pay attention to the direction the monitors in the office are facing. If employees work facing a popular walkway, it can be distracting. Make sure people who need a quiet space to get work done have access to that space. 12. Buy productivity gadgets for the office There are tons of new productivity toys to help workers focus in the way that suits them. Let them pick which gadgets will help them focus and feel happier at work: standing desks, productivity time tracking, elliptical desks, noise-canceling headphones, smart cushions to monitor posture, and more. 13. Stock the office with healthy snacks Soda and candy may seem like an easy, cheap option for keeping a pantry of snacks for the office. But high-sugar foods cause crashes and ruin productivity. Spend the few extra dollars to stock healthier snacks like vegetables, nuts, low-sugar smoothies, and complex carbs that won't send your workers on a roller coaster of sugar highs and lows. What tips & tools do you use to help your employees stay productive? Share your best productivity tips and tools for small businesses in the comments!
If you love organization (and I know all you Wrikers do), then you'll probably enjoy Pinterest. Users organize cool images, articles, and more into boards of related information. Our recent "11 Ways to Use Social Media to find PM Resources" blog post tells you HOW to find great project management resources on the social media site, but now we're taking it a step further. Here's a list of our favorite project management-related Pinterest boards to check out when we want to find new PM strategies, awesome infographics, project management images or PM humor on those days that just need a laugh. General Project Management Boards Sadiq Somjee's "Project Management" boardCheck it out for: Pins about PM methodologies, personality traits that make great project managers, and strategies for running your projects well. As well as a little bit of humor and (my favorite) Calvin & Hobbes. Sylwia Zolkiewska's "Project Management" boardCheck it out for: Advice about effective PM methodologies, motivating your employees, and tips for being a better project manager. PQC International's "The Wonders of Project Management" boardCheck it out for: As the the self-proclaimed board hosting the "Wonders of PM", you'll find articles about stress-free PM, terminology you need to know (similar to our own post), and the Batman & Robin of PM! Project Management Resources Dr.Talaat Refaat's "Project Management" boardCheck it out for: Links to great resources such as articles about the qualities of a successful leader, eBooks about creative project management, and videos about turning obstacles into opportunities. Oh, and links to a few coffee cups for sale featuring PM humor. (Any office birthdays coming up?) Moheet Nagrath's "Project Management@Fast Learning" boardCheck it out if: If you're a new or accidental project manager, this board helps you pick up the basics quickly and easily. Pins help you answer questions like: "What IS project management, anyway?" PMP® (Project Management Professional) Insights The PMP® Exam's "PMP Insights" boardCheck it out for: Wisdom direct from the brains behind the PMP exam. You'll find digestible insights into high-level PM ideas. I also suggest you look at their other boards for more educational information (e.g. podcasts, quizzes), lessons learned, and details regarding the PMP exam. Project Management + Change Management Lesley's "Project Management/Change Management" boardCheck it out if: You're trying to create a change in your organization, but you don't have a solid plan, or you're battling employee resistance and bad project management. Project Management + Risk Management Bonita Tompkin's "Project Management" boardCheck it out for: Articles, books, images, and videos about managing the risks that come with every project you start. Project Management + Strategic Planning Julia C's "Leadership, Strategic Execution & Project Management" boardCheck it out: The best project managers know that projects start long before the first task is created. Take a look if you have a new project coming up and need help improving your goal-setting, planning, and kick-off. Project Management + Time Management Daniel Sommer's "Productivity - Project Management - Time Management" boardCheck it out for: Advice on how to stop wasting time and start increasing your productivity. Also includes a link to ambient background sounds that makes you feel like you're sitting in your favorite coffee house. Time for a little in-office escape! Project Management Templates & Charts Kim Huang's "Project Management" boardCheck it out for: Templates for management presentations — everything from business analytics to marketing overviews to change management steps. BONUS: A Little PM Humor Marta María de León's "Project Manager" boardCheck it out if: You're having one of those days where you just want to lay your head on the desk and sigh heavily. These images might be so relatable that you'll have no choice but to laugh and perk up again. Did we leave out any of your favorite PM boards? Drop us a link in the comments! Also, check out Wrike's Project Management Pinterest boards for more inspiration and education.
For some time, one of our highest-volume requests has been: "We need more folder colors!" Today, we have brought a rainbow of colors to everyone's workspace. Make your workspace easier to navigate by color-coding your most important folders so they'll catch your eye immediately as you scan your folder tree. From red to purple to sea foam green, you can now color coordinate all your folders to brighten up your workspace and delight your inner child. How to pick your new folder colors: It couldn't be easier: right-click any folder to go to the color selector and then have fun making your decision! You'll see the new color appear to the left of your folder name. You can also select the silhouette icon instead of a color. And if you want even more color in your life, check out our two Wrike Party Themes to decorate your workspace! You can activate them in the Wrike Labs.
As a creative digital marketing agency, Rotterdam-based Pixelfarm has been using Wrike for over a year to manage daily project work ranging from Facebook campaigns to website/mobile apps to creative pitches. Because some projects require a quick turnaround, Pixelfarm chose Wrike as their main project management tool. The efficient and fast workflow in Wrike allows them to switch, assign, and track tasks for a project and easily keep track of the time spent working. But Pixelfarm wanted to utilize Wrike further by integrating budgeting and account management to get an even more efficient workflow. Integrating BARN with Wrike Previously, Pixelfarm had been using Google Drive to create and log project estimates and then Dropbox to store customer files. They then wanted to combine these two services with the task management capabilities of Wrike. “We had all these different tools and platforms but unfortunately there was no perfect integration for our needs," says Stephan de Graaf, Digital Strategist at Pixelfarm. "Using the API from Wrike, Dropbox, and Google Drive we had a chance to offer our clients a great experience, cut back on the hours spent managing projects, and gain more time to do work." They developed their own platform called BARN: a system where the agency’s clients can log in to find their latest project files and track progress. But more importantly, it allows Pixelfarm to automatically generate projects in Wrike based on their project planning. It also creates project summaries using Wrike's time tracker which records time spent, and therefore overall costs. Now Pixelfarm spends less time creating and assigning projects. By integrating Wrike financial management into BARN, their workflow is much smoother. This is how it works: An account manager begins by creating new project estimates in BARN. A Google spreadsheet is generated based on a chosen template, and the account manager fills out task names, descriptions, responsible staff, time estimated, and predicted costs. Once a client approves the project plan and budget, the account manager clicks "Convert to Project" in BARN. By calling up Wrike's API, BARN immediately generates a project folder and pre-filled tasks in Wrike using the information stored in the Google spreadsheet. It also automatically creates a Dropbox folder for client deliverables. For the duration of the project, team members use Wrike's timer feature to track the time they spend on this new project. BARN automatically stores that information in the original Google spreadsheet. Once a project is completed, the PM clicks "Close Project" in BARN. This marks the Wrike task as complete, collects the timer information, calculates the project cost for the client, and creates an end report. It keeps these reports in a spreadsheet so Pixelfarm can gain insight into their overall performance. BARN then sends a notification to the financial administrators so they know the project is ready to be invoiced. With their BARN platform successfully integrating Wrike, Google Drive, and Dropbox, Pixelfarm has custom-built an efficient way to track project budgets and keep their clients up to date. Future Plans “Of course this is just the first step,” says de Graaf. "The way we set up BARN right now allows for a whole new way of working. For example, we’re already using an online service for invoicing and they have an API, so we can quite easily implement automatic invoicing. That would mean that when we close a project, an invoice is automatically generated and sent off to the client. Integrating bug tracking, implementing Google Analytics’ API to generate campaign statistics, and creating a mobile app for our clients are also high on our list of priorities.” BARN has been a way to add more value to Pixelfarm's core services and products. By integrating Wrike's useful API, they have been able to build a tool perfect for their team. We're pleased to be the connecting tissue between all the vital organs, helping this team provide great service for their clients.
Productivity is often times an internal struggle: The Lazy You vs. The Motivated You. The Lazy You says, "It's not due today, let's wait a few more hours to get started." The Motivated You says, "The faster you get this out of the way, the faster you can move on to something even more interesting!" For serial procrastinators, your lazy side can be extremely detrimental. Procrastinating leads to high stress levels, last-minute scrambles, and sometimes, missed deadlines. Improving your productivity is about learning how to fight back against your lazy impulses. And sometimes you'll have to pull a few tricks out of your sleeve to win. Try out these slightly strange suggestions and see if they help engage The Motivated You: 1. Talk to Yourself Musing out loud is a perfectly acceptable activity for the mentally stable worker. It can help build your self-confidence and calm your brain, and studies have indicated that talking to yourself can improve task performance. When you need to buckle down, encourage yourself with a little pep talk. "I start my day by asking these questions: 1) What would be the most fun to do? 2) What will make me the most money? 3) What will make me money right away? — If possible, I will start with the activity that gets all 3 taken care of first." —Sophie Mihalko, Facilitator of Consciousness, SophieMihalko.com Two things to remember when tricking yourself into being productive with private speech: 1. Switch up your pronouns. Address yourself in third person, or use "you" instead of "I" (e.g. "You did great today!"). Studies show it helps achieve better results. 2. Speak in positives. Negative words lead to negative mindsets — and that's not going to convince you to get more done. 2. Set Up Competitions: You vs. You This works especially well for competitive spirits, but can also work for the non-competitive. Challenge yourself to beat a personal record at work, or get things done faster than you expect. Got a boring task ahead? Give yourself an hour and race against your own procrastination. It might just keep you on track, so you don't feel tempted to check your social media accounts mid-task. "If I allot myself an hour to do something I'll see how fast I can get it done." —Jazmin Truesdale, CEO, Mino Enterprises Racing against the clock is one idea for self-competition, but that's not the only way you can compete against yourself: treat yourself to your favorite coffee drink when you finish a challenging task, or turn off your phone (nooo!) until you're done with a project. Share some of your other ideas in the comments! 3. Schedule Future Emails on Sunday... and CC Yourself If you're someone who starts work on Sunday to get a jumpstart on your week, you might actually be undermining your motivation. Completing several little tasks makes you feel accomplished and helps encourage your sense of "Don't stop now!" By doing all that work on Sunday, you've robbed yourself of little mood boosters throughout the week. But we're not suggesting you stop scheduling emails on Sunday — in fact, it's a pretty smart productivity trick if you can make it work for you. Instead, take this tip from Orun Bhuiyan at SEOcial: CC yourself on those emails so they show up in your inbox once they're sent. Seeing your own email will be a nice reminder of what you've already gotten done this week, and can give you that motivational nudge you need to keep up the good work. "Every Sunday I'll schedule emails to go out Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday morning (I CC myself so I can remember what I sent). It's amazing how watching my past-self email people invigorates my drive and motivates me to work, but it does. It's a tremendous boost when I'm having a rough day." —Orun Bhuiyan, Co-founder & Marketing Technologist, SEOcial 4. Smile at the Mirror "No matter what you do, always start your day at work with a smile. (I have tried it. When you frown and enter your workplace, nothing goes right.)" —Yuimi Vashum, Outreach Manager, WiseCalvin.com You've probably heard this one before: smiling, even when you don't want to smile, is actually beneficial for your mood. For all you naysayers who say, "But it's not real happiness! It's not the same!" True, it's not the same. But just because it is a different type of happiness doesn't mean it can't be helpful. In an interview with Harvard psychology professor Daniel Gilbert on the psychology of happiness, he says: "Let’s be careful with terms. Nylon is real; it’s just not natural. Synthetic happiness is perfectly real; it’s just man-made." So when you're tired, bored, or just fighting off The Lazy You, take a break to go smile at yourself in the mirror. Channel your inner 3-year-old and make funny faces at yourself. Do a little jig. Laugh at how absolutely ridiculous you feel — and if someone walks in on you in the middle of your "Thriller" reenactment, convince them to take the next two minutes and join the fun! You'll go back to work feeling rejuvenated, motivated, and a little bit closer to your new bathroom buddy. Be Weird, Be You, Be Productive No single productivity tip works for every person who tries it out; that's why we spend so much time talking about different options. So let us know, have you ever used any of these tips to be more productive? If these aren't your cup of tea, what productivity tips have worked well for you? Share your weirdest method in the comments!
We're honored to announce that Wrike has been named as one of the first Google Apps Authorized Technology Partners. This will enhance our presence in the Google Apps Marketplace. In addition, as Authorized Technology Partners, we'll receive a range of product/technical, marketing, sales, program, relationship, and support benefits from Google. These benefits will ultimately help us provide more value to our mobile users. We're looking forward to working with Google on two fronts: to drive richer product integrations with Google Apps services that create value for our users, and to reach new potential users through the Google Apps Marketplace and other joint go-to-market efforts. We talked to two customers to ask them about how Wrike’s integration with Google Apps has positively affected their workflow: Crescent Sock Company, the oldest operating hosiery mill in the U.S., has been knitting socks for over a century. Using Wrike integrated with Gmail and Google Drive has virtually eliminated the previous hassle of e-mailing dozens of attachments to other team members. Now they just attach the Google Doc to the task. “We’ve had many opportunities to collectively create project plans in a few short hours with Wrike when it previously took several e-mails and days waiting for responses to accomplish similar tasks,” says George Ervin, Business Tech Consultant at Crescent Sock Company. Imaginamos, a web and software development company in Bogotá, Colombia, uses Wrike's integration with Gmail to manage multiple simultaneous projects with ease. "Without leaving our inbox, we can create and assign Wrike tasks directly from email,” says Simon Borrero, Director of Business and Strategy at Imaginamos. "In this way, we can make sure every message is addressed and nothing gets left behind." As a Google Apps Authorized Technology Partner, we’re looking forward to hearing more stories like this, and enabling more organizations to efficiently leverage email and file storage with work management.
As a marketer, it's your responsibility to send the right people to your sales team and "lego" of the bad ones. You must learn as much as possible about your audience, so you can connect to people's needs on a more personal level and share your solution. Unfortunately, getting to that point can be tricky; the required market research and figuring out what is marketing performance for your product is time-consuming and painful to maintain. Use our five tips to help you easily build ideal buyer personas, so you can make sure your marketing materials attract the right audience. A lot of the work can be done just by walking around the office! Like this infographic? You can share it on your blog with this embed code: Infographic brought to you by Wrike Apply the Power of Marketing Ops to Your Business If you’re ready to sharpen your marketing efforts and attain better results, download our free guide, 5 Steps to Transforming Marketing Operations for Maximum Growth. You'll find tips on delivering an exceptional customer experience, selecting the right tools to support your marketing efforts, and the key metrics you should use to fuel your success.
Project managers have their work cut out for them — they must manage all the various project stakeholders and keep the project on track by successfully juggling and directing their roles and responsibilities. It's easy to get bogged down by office politics, looming deadlines, and last-minute project changes. As a project manager, focusing on professional development and cultivating important skill sets can be vital to work success. These five project management skills are frequently forgotten, but equally important for project managers if they want to do the best they can for their project and their team. Important Project Management Skills to Work On 1. Horizontal Management Skills Project managers are typically the link between the project team, the sponsors, and the people who will be affected by the outcome. These people are not always under a project manager's direct jurisdiction. That means you need horizontal management skills to get people who work laterally or above you in the company hierarchy to go along with the project plan. Learn the best way to work with these people in your company in order to make project communications run smoothly. 2. A Good Sense of Humor Your sense of humor is your armor when "what you wanted to happen" becomes "what actually happens". Things are definitely not always going to go exactly as planned, so when the project schedule starts to stray, rely on your sense of humor to keep you sane. If you don't, you're going to spend many long, stressful nights crying, biting your nails, and pacing the office floor. Learn to smile at unexpected project change, and you'll be better off for it. 3. Change Management Skills Project management is not just managing the project, it's also managing the people involved. Change management skills help you manage the emotional and psychological side of people during your project. If you know what makes people tick, then you can apply that knowledge to encourage and inspire better work habits in your colleagues. 4. Expectation Management Skills Try to dig deep into what your clients expect from a project before getting started. Ask project teams what roadblocks they have hit in similar, past projects. Take this feedback into account when finalizing the project plan. If you manage all your project stakeholders' expectations, and ensure they have realistic expectations for the project outcome from the get-go, then you are less likely to face disappointment in the final outcome. 5. Management Soft Skills You've read about the best soft skills and traits for managers before — and (no surprise) they still apply to project managers. Your job will be infinitely easier if you work on being: a good listener, trusting and trustworthy, an open communicator, willing to keep learning, good at delegating, etc. Management soft skills are not something you can perfect, they are something you continually work to improve. What project management skills do you think are most important? Whether you're a client facing project manager yourself, or someone who interacts with project managers regularly, you probably have your own opinion. What management skill do you think project managers can't succeed without? We asked our community of project managers about their #1 piece of advice for new project managers on LinkedIn. Check out what they had to say, and add your own ideas to the conversation by joining our PM 2.0 LinkedIn group.
As a vendor of project management and collaboration software, we talk to a lot of project managers. And we've heard all too often that despite every obvious intention for a project to be successful, the reality is that sometimes things fall apart. My belief is that the more you are prepared to fail, the better suited you are to prevent it from occurring at all. So I asked project managers to share their stories on project failure and the reasons behind the big flop. Now I'm sharing their lessons with you, so that we're all clearly aware of what we're up against each time a new project begins. Here's what they attributed to the top reasons projects fail: 1. Poor communication "There has been one thing that consistently shows up on every project gone bad — poor communication. The other factors vary, but communication issues are always at the core of failed projects." —Tom Atkins, Founder, Quarry House Everyone knows how vital it is to proactively share information and knowledge during a project if you want to succeed; yet poor communication continues to trip teams up time and time again. If you and your team haven't set aside any time to focus on improving your communication skills recently, don't wait until the next project disaster to convince you that it's necessary. And who better to learn from than the champions of team communication — professional athletes. Take a few minutes to read this fun article and pick up some communication tips for your team: How to Communicate Like Super Bowl Champions 2. Underestimated timelines When you underestimate the timeline for a project, the result is more than just a missed deadline on the calendar. Workers have to be paid for more time, so your estimated budget goes over. Sales teams were relying on your timely product release, and now they've lost big deals. It's important to accurately predict your timeline — and Jazmin Truesdale does that with excellent risk management: "Projects fail due to underestimated time. Now, when I create projects I estimate 3-5 situations that could delay the project and how to deal with those situations and allot time for whichever would take the longest time to recover. Now 75% of my projects finish ahead of schedule." —Jazmin Truesdale, CEO, Mino Enterprises If you need help managing risk in your projects, start with our risk management guide: Project Risk Assessment (Ultimate Guide to Project Risk, Part 1) 3. Failure to hammer out the nitty gritty details "The nitty gritty is what is going to make you or break you. [Projects] start out strong and start to break down as we get closer to the deadline." —Jennifer Mansfield, Head of Customer Support, Qgiv Are you a big-picture thinker, or do you have a detail-oriented mind? Usually we only excel at one or the other, but if you want your projects to be successful, you need both. (I know, not your favorite answer.) If you're still missing part of the picture, then start reviewing past projects to see where your common oversights have been, and take those lessons learned to plan more accurately in the future. If the idea of recording lessons learned during your projects sounds daunting, use these tips and templates to help you get started: Why You Need to Record Your Project Management Lessons Learned: Tips & Templates 4. Unhelpful teams and technology just complicate things We're talking about teams and tools that cannot deliver on the expectations. Stop the madness! Fix your broken processes quickly — even if you eat the cost from ending a contract early. Trevor Ewen told me about a client project gone wrong when his consulting firm was charged with breathing life into a failing project: "In an effort to preserve an existing vendor relationship, we were forced to work with that vendor. In reality, we would've been much better off telling [the client] to pay the vendor to walk away. It was a win-lose. They delivered a broken product: we were required to fix it." —Trevor Ewen, Senior Software Engineer, Neosavvy Keeping yourself locked in with teams that create more problems means you're going to spend extra time and money hiring additional teams to fix their mistakes. Bail early, before they create more problems than they're worth. And the same goes with technology. If the tools you're using to run your team and projects are making work harder, then find a new solution immediately. There are many types of tools your team can use to make work easier: project management, document management, content management, portfolio management, client relationship management... the list goes on. 5. Management not paying enough attention As the project manager, you are the symbolic parent and champion of progress. And just like a child, projects need regular health checkups to make sure everything is growing as it should be. It's important to check in frequently with your team and offer your assistance when things are slowing down. Trevor Ewen's unfortunate failed project struggled without proper support from the project manager: "He was shirking his duties to better plan for a product release. This persisted for months, and with a remote team, it's never a good idea to put your head in the sand." —Trevor Ewen, Senior Software Engineer, Neosavvy To learn more about how to be a present manager and leader, read this article: 7 Leadership & Mindset Tips for Extreme Project Managers Do you have a similar story to share? Have you worked on a project that failed to live up to expectations? Share your experience and the reasons you think your project went wrong in the comments. The more we know and learn, the more we can plan to succeed. Thanks for passing on your knowledge! Related Reads: 5 Reasons Why Your Team Isn't Getting Stuff Done Lessons Learned from Project Failure at Denver International Airport How to Combat the 4 Main Sources of Scope Creep