Professional Development and Skills – Page 3

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success. Three key focuses are Business/Entrepreneurship, Career Discussions and Professional Development and Skills. There are many ways to be the boss whether you’ve started your own business or you’re working in an organization. Being the boss can be a daunting task for many people but there are keys to mastering it. The following contributed post is entitled, Beating Confidence Troubles When You’re The Boss.

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Do you own your own business? Maybe you’re a manager at a branch owned by someone else? Either way, there’s a good chance you feel unsure of yourself from time to time. You’ve got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, and a lot of power in your hands, and it can be hard to manage the both of them at once!

Which is why it’s key to remember that being the boss doesn’t automatically mean you feel confident enough to be one! You’re allowed to doubt yourself, and feel awkward about the decisions you make; you’re only human, after all. But because of that, we’ve listed a few tips for you below, to make sure you start feeling a bit more secure in your role. You’re doing a lot of hard work, and you deserve to have the confidence to show for it.

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There’s Advice Out There

And it’s more accessible than you may realise! After all, we have the internet to thank for instant connectivity, and that means you can go in search of a business leadership podcast with little to no trouble at all.

When you’re a burgeoning business leader, in search of information that’s going to put the pep back in your step, listening to the words of corporate founders and various self made people might just be the key.

And advice for someone like you exists in quite a few forms. You might want to make it your mission to soak up as many different types of medium as you can find, just to be sure you’re getting as much influence and advice as possible. You never know where you’re going to find the one piece of advice that’ll change your life, but we do have a good place for you to start!

Manage Your Expectations

Of course, you’re going to need to manage your expectations. You’re going to need to stay down to earth with what you’re thinking of achieving, or what projects you know you’re going to be able to take on. It’s very unlikely that you’re going to be able to turn around an organisation in the next 3 to 6 months, so don’t put that kind of stress on your shoulders from the get go.

Instead, aim a little lower, for something you know you can achieve. Bringing more skills into the business? Check. Cutting down costs? Check. And on and on the list can go, creating a very workable step by step guide for you to follow. Now doesn’t that sound easier?

Focus Your Network

And finally, be sure to focus your network on people like you. Try to reach out and connect with fellow managers, or first time entrepreneurs, to remind yourself you’re not alone. Use sites like LinkedIn to make a search like this easier. It might be a small point, but it’s a very important one to remember!

As the boss, you don’t have to keep second guessing yourself. You can learn confidence!

The first principle of my blog is Creating Ecosystems of Success and a key focus is Professional Development and Skills. No matter what kind of organization you’re in, a key skill to have is project management. The ability to effectively manage projects will assure that your operations continue to run smoothly it will likely assure that you’ll advance in your career. The following contributed post is entitled, Five Stages Of Project Management.

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When it comes to getting your project just right, there are a few phases that you will need to be aware of. Project management isn’t just about managing people – it is about all of the details too. You use tools, skills, people, and techniques in your specialty to bring the project to life.

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Here are the five stages of project management.

Initiation

The start of the project can often be messy, but the goals will now be defined at a broad level. There will be a lot of research to decide if the project is actually possible. There will be some feasibility testing done here too.

All of the critical decisions makers like stakeholders and board members will do their own due diligence to decide if the project will go ahead too. If everything seems to be okay, then there will be a project initiation document drawn up that will outline the purpose and requirements.

Project Planning

Many project managers find this to be an enjoyable stage. Developing a roadmap for critical players to follow. There are a few options that project managers will consider the best goal setting methods. SMART and CLEAR. Here is a breakdown:

SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely
CLEAR – Collaborative, Limited, Emotional, Appreciable, Refinable

The full scope of the project is now clear. The roles and responsibilities are noted, and everyone will not be accountable for their parts. The scope statement, Work Breakdown Schedule, Milestones, TimeLine, Communication Plan, Risk Management Plan will all need to be written up.

Execution

The deliverables are now developed and completed. These will be a lot happening in this phase, many meetings, status updates, performance updates. There are a lot of moving parts in this phase. Here are a few:

Develop a team: if you need to hire in contractors here is where you will do it. Depending on the project, you’ll need designers, government contractors like Salt3, extra assistants, and other skilled workers.

● Resources being assigned
● Execute the project management plans
● Procurement if required
● Tracking
● Status meetings
● Continuous updates of the project status

The execution phase and the performance phases will begin to overlap.

Performance

This will have been running for a short while by now, and it is time to take note of the progression and the performance. This phase will have a heavy focus on the KPIs that were outlined in the first stages. There are several ways to check on project performance, here are a few:

● Quality deliverables
● Project Performance
● Effort and Cost tracking
● Project Objectives

There may be some minor (or major) adjustments to the schedules, and some movement of the resources were required to keep things on track.

Closure

This phase is pretty much what it says on the tin. Contractors who have been hired will now be terminated. The key players in completion will be recognised and celebrated in most cases. There will be an evaluation about what went well, what didn’t, and where there is room for improvement for further projects. A project manager will now also create a plan for the company to follow, a final budget and final report too.