Top Tips For Efficient Project Management

Project management seems a little scary for first timers. For those who have never been in charge of a large group of people, for those who have, in the past, chosen to "fly under the radar" and stay out of trouble by assigning themselves few major responsibilities, there's a lot of intimidation going on the first time they manage a project. Here are three tips to make the process a little less frightening.

Hire Good People and Get Out of Their Way

The very best project managers, the very best editors and producers make their living by just hiring skilled, talented people and getting out of the way. This is the one thing that any project manager should have if they want to take the project on in the first place: final say on hiring and firing. If the higher-ups won't budge on anything else, the ability to hire and fire is something that a project manager absolutely must have to do their job correctly. The best project managers work in more of a custodial duty, keeping everyone on track, giving a little advice here and there and keeping everyone on the same page. Micromanaging every word the writer writes and every scrap of code the programmer comes up with is only going to slow the project down and demoralize the team.

Have a Clear Goal in Mind

Whether putting together a magazine or a piece of software or an apartment building, the fact remains that there needs to be a clear goal in mind before taking any steps towards it. When working solo, artists and creators are free to experiment and do what they please and see if something eventually comes of all that experimentation. When working with a financier's money, when working on a deadline, when working with other people, a clear goal has to be kept in mind, and the entire team has to share that same goal, and there's no point arguing or debating that goal. Those who don't like the project are free to leave and be replaced. There absolutely must be a clear goal in mind and everyone needs to be briefed on it. The team can't be brought in to just kind of putz around all day until something takes shape.

Be Willing to Walk Away

There's a thin line between a project manager throwing a temper tantrum when he doesn't get his way, and a project manager being realistic and saying "This isn't what I signed on for" and leaving the project. Being willing to walk away is one of the most useful tools in a project manager's arsenal. The difference is walking away from a self-created mess versus walking away from a project that has become unmanageable because of meddling superiors. On the sea, the captain goes down with his ship. In business, the project manager really has no obligation to a project that was sunk by notes and meddling from superiors. Don't feel married to a project that's more trouble than it's worth.

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