L&A SPEAKS

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If you have a full workload now, you can naturally expect it to increase with the start of any new project. You can choose to work longer hours to take on the extra tasks, but is that sustainable or efficient? Over time you may notice a decrease in productivity and efficiency. Since the day-to-day demands of your business will not decrease, we’ve got to figure out ways to manage your and your employee’s workload while completing a successful project. 

LOOK AT WAYS TO REDUCE WORKLOADS

• Chances are that your employees are already working hard to meet the deadlines, asking them to work more or longer to contribute to a new project may by overwhelming.  Instead, think about smart ways to reduce certain activities temporarily until the needed cycles for their participation in the project have completed. 

• You can consider gathering feedback from your staff for ways to reduce the workload, consider it as a brainstorming session where everyone is free to voice their ideas and opinions.  With this approach you may even identify redundant or non-value-added tasks or come up with creative ways to simplify some tasks. 

SET AND MANAGE REASONABLE EXPECTATIONS

• At the beginning of every project, senior project managers tend to set expectations and project delivery timelines but are they realistic?  It’s important that you set the expectations just right, making estimates based on average or past experiences. 

• Make sure your project team fully understands the goals and objectives, inquire about their concerns and discuss them as quickly as possible. Maintaining a healthy resource balance also enforces a fair work environment.

• Work in sprints! Working in short intervals and stopping for breaks gets more done in the long-term.

GET HELP

• It’s alright to admit when you’re out of your capacity.  Although it’s great if your employees want to be available for all of the needs of your project, for longevity of your business relationship with them the project should not significantly affect their life outside of work. Setting healthy boundaries is needed to ensure that none of the members are overly burdened as your project is being completed. 

• After thinking about the capacity boundaries for your staff and your project capacity needs, think about whether project help is needed. Hiring a project manager isn’t always necessary, but it could be the right decision for your company. Especially consider using professionals for larger and complicated projects. 

• Professional project managers have years of experience and understand how to set expectations, budgets, and deadlines and meet them. 

REWARD YOURSELF!!

• #1 top tip for successful project management is to offer incentives and rewards to yourself and your team. It’s important to celebrate when milestones or key deliverables are accomplished because everyone on the team feels better when they are recognized. Even small rewards make a large impact.

• Come up with creative ways to celebrate completed milestones within the project with bonus time off. For example, you can offer a Friday afternoon off or a floating holiday. 

• Additionally, you can include other team events or wellness initiatives such as virtual happy hours, coffee shop gift cards, workplace workouts, or even allowing pets to the workplace.  Each of these can have massive benefits to company morale and energy levels.