If we are passionate about our profession, we will want to learn and grow. Many professions require continuing education. Organizations – and good resource managers in these organizations – often seek growth opportunities for employees in the form training and new challenging assignments.
The same applies to project managers. We can learn and get certified, attend classes and workshops, or travel to conferences that are focused on specific technologies or industry concepts.
The key is to keep improving on an ongoing basis. While some of the above mentioned things may not always be possible for us, we can still improve our skills as project managers and manage every project we manage.
What other than new training opportunities, expensive conferences and networking events, how can we make improvements to the projects we manage on a regular basis? I have compiled a list of three key methods that I believe we can use to conduct ourselves and manage our projects so that we are learning and hopefully improving our project performance in a PM position on every new engagement.
1. Ask for customer feedback
Asking for feedback from customers on a project can be a painful way to get feedback if we are worried about our performance. However, the truth is that feedback is valuable and we can learn from it. We can improve,Ai at the very least if we care about what we do. Sit down with your client at each phase, milestone, or key deliverable and ask how they feel. If they are happy, ask them what they like best. If they are unhappy, find out why. We can learn from the customer’s feedback, both positive and negative, about our performance.
2. Conduct lessons learned
Learn from your mistakes. It can be difficult to get everyone together at project’s end to discuss the positives and negatives. But it is necessary. The lessons learned from this discussion are invaluable for our next project assignment. Only by getting good feedback from customers about what went well and what didn’t, can we improve every project. We’re more likely to repeat the same mistakes with our next customer and use the same unsuccessful behaviors and practices that caused previous customers concern or left them unhappy with the project’s outcome or team performance.
3. Quality should conduct periodic audits
If your organization is well-organized, you can ask quality control to perform an audit of the project. Ask them to review the schedule to ensure that all dates and deliverables are met. It is easy to get overwhelmed and miss something. This person can meet with the client to get valuable feedback. These audits have been part of all government contracts and projects I have managed. I have also tried to incorporate modified versions into private sector projects.
Summary
These practices are not required to be incorporated into every project we manage. However, it is important to do so at least once a month. This will help us grow as project managers, and hopefully keep us from getting stuck in a rut. Even though it can be difficult to hear, I want to know where I am going wrong. It’s a great thing if it helps us become better project managers and increases our project success rates.
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