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RUNNING HEAD: SUCCESSFUL ON THIS PROJECT

So what is it going to take to be successful on this project? Toni Cunningham INF338: Leadership & Comm Skills for Project Managers (CMM1225A) Instructor: Richard Reilly July 10, 2012

SUCCESSFUL ON THIS PROJECT So what is it going to take to be successful on this project?

Lets pretend for a minute, you have graduated, gotten your dream position in a big company and it happens the management team has finally noticed, you have shown your leadership skills and you are ready to lead the team. They have chosen you to head a project team of twelve staff members, two from every team, they have given you your budget and told you what they needed you to fix or change. What do you do? How do you get started? That is what the paper will show you how to start, stall and stop when you are the leader of a project. First things first, do you understand clearly what is expected of you? Do you know what the outcome of expectation looks like? If so, still schedule a meeting with the upper management to clear up or should I say have what is expected of you made really clear before you get started "Why are we doing this project?" Figure out who the customers of the project are, and people who have a stake in the outcome in any way ("stakeholders") and ask them as well (Smith, & Imbrie, 2007). Briefly speak to all the supervisors to help you select the members of the team, understand their positions, what they do within the company and try to learn their strengths and their weaknesses. If the supervisor immediately come up with two names ask them why those two were selected, you do not want the bosses favorites just because they are the bosses favorite. Then and only then will you be able to determine who should be on your team. Armed with your understanding of the project's objectives, communi-cate to the functional managers what you and the project have been asked to do they have to see why they should give resources to a new effort!

SUCCESSFUL ON THIS PROJECT Now that the team has been established and it is now meeting time, start off very lightly, let the teammates introduce themselves, telling how long they have been with the organization, what they do in the organization and how many projects teams they have been a part of since joining the organization. This should do a lot to remove the first stage

jitters and allow you all to understand that you are in it together. Do not interrupt except to bring up successes that you may have heard of that the teammate did not mention and then on to creating the teams purpose statement and listing the teams goals. That is the Initiation stage, not lets get started (Smith, & Imbrie, 2007). To come up with a purpose statement takes time, that is where you as the leader describes what the project is about, what completion look like to upper management, accepting everything they say as how they see things not necessarily how things are but a teammates perception has a lot to do with how others may see things. Let everyone ask the whys and how comes and try to explain to them what upper management and the stakeholders stated to you and try to make them see the big picture, why the change must happen and why they were selected to make it happen. All this happens during the Plan out stage (Smith, & Imbrie, 2007). During the Getting done and Deliver it and finish up stages you will do just that following any steps regardless what they are but to follow them from start to finish lets you know what is to happen next. So as you go through the steps always look back to see what has been done and what success you and the team have achieved and always know how much of the budget went into those successes so that you know what is left in your budget. You should have regular breaks for these kinds of checks, that way you will never

SUCCESSFUL ON THIS PROJECT get ahead of yourself and you will never accidently skip something as long as you are following the steps that you and the team have established. A Project manager is a very exciting position because it differs from everyone in

the organization everyone else has to do what they do over and over, day after day, without change. I found this definition online it is clear and very precise: A Project is a temporary, unique and progressive attempt or endeavor made to produce some kind of a tangible or intangible result. It is executed for a fixed period of time and within certain requirements and limitations such as cost, quality and performance (MyManagementGuide.com, 2010-2012) When you take on a Project you are either implementing something new or changing a companies routine process. Isnt that wonderful, nothing is repetitive so exciting, you can never get bored with what you do because you are never doing the same thing twice. Let us not forget that conflict that might come up within the team, I know I made it all sound wonderful but there will times that conflict may come up. So how are you to handle this part of the game? Bargaining, Voting, Problem Solving, Research and Third-Party mediation are what we have learned to use to solve conflict. If bargaining is a fair exchange than this solution could work and so could problem solving when you use the what if scenario for all the issues on table. Voting is said to be the democratic way of handling issues but I have been advised not to use this tactic because it could lead the team to the wrong solution, and then there is Research which is a safe way to reconcile differences because the issues can be deeply examined and the solution could be verified for its validity, but this could take extra time that the team may not have if they are under time restraints.

SUCCESSFUL ON THIS PROJECT If all else fails we could use a outside person or what is known as a Third-Party mediator who could be neutral in the situation and could see both sides for what they are worth they would be able to help the team find a solution that works for all and if the

mediator is a person of higher authority if the need for clarification is needed they can give that thus supplying a solution faster and because it is a directive from above no feelings should be hurt and all egos remain intact. But in my experience good old honest, clear and even sometime concise COMMUNICATION goes a long way when disputes, disagreements or pure mutiny breaks out within a team. See the way I see it regardless of what tactic is used when conflict arises there must be communication to make anyone of the tactics really work. (Buchbinder & Shanks, 2007). A success team takes the whole team from start to finish and if you decide that you want to be a good team leader then be apart of the team not over the team The leader that walks the walks has the most followers and is the one who always wins. When people brag about their leaders, you can believe those leaders are walking the walk (Thompson, 2009).

Reference

SUCCESSFUL ON THIS PROJECT Buchbinder, S. B. & Shanks, N. H. (2007). Introduction to health care management. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. ISBN: 9780763734732 Smith, K.A., & Imbrie, P.K. (2007). Teamwork and project management. (3rd ed.) Boston, MA: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 978-0-07-310367-9 Thompson, L.A. (2009, March). Leadership model for professionals Lance A. Thompson, Thompson Management Consulting Services, LLC, lancephx@aol.com COPYRIGHT 2009 Institute of Management Accountants. COPYRIGHT 2009 Gale, Cengage Learning

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