>>Hi, I’m Devin Deen, Content Director here at ProjectManager.com.
[Music Intro]
>>Hi, today we’re going to talk about how to manage tasks daily, without being a pain
in the neck with your project teams.
Ok.
So quickly, the first thing you want to do at the beginning at any week is have a look
at that project schedule.
You’re probably looking at it daily anyway, but basically break it out and have a look
at what’s do in that day and especially in that week.
Next off, get the team together, ideally if you can do a daily stand up or 15 minute huddle,
that’s a great way to keep on track with what your project team is doing and not be
too intrusive to their day.
The trick about managing the tasks daily for your team is just to kind of do it in a way
that doesn’t look like you’re micromanaging, or overshadowing them, or overbearing them
in their project.
A great way to do that, like I said, is in that 15 minute huddle.
If you set that up at the start of the project, everyone’s used to it.
You do a standup so don’t get comfortable in your chair, everyone has to stand up and
that way it forces the meeting to go quickly and get it over quickly.
Start and end on time, 15 minutes in and out.
Do go walkabout.
My rule of thumb is that you always get what you inspect not what you expect.
So if you live your life as a project manager, huddled behind a computer screen, sending
out e-mails, and checking project schedules, and things like that, and doing status reports
you never actually get what’s expected by the rest of the stakeholders and the project,
the people looking for the benefits of that project.
You need to go on a walkabout, get out from your desk, walk around, talk to your team
members, do it at the water cooler, the coffee station.
Really just do a little bit of a check in, it’s also good to have that human touch
with that.
You’re also sort of spreading your enthusiasm to the project team and that also helps them
stay on top of their task on a daily basis, go walkabout.
If you’re working in a virtual project team, where you’ve got team members spread all
around the world, or all around different departments, and different offices, get connected,
get on the phone.
Don’t send the e-mail to say, hey just seeing how you’re doing on that project, it’s
very, very more of an informal way of doing that.
They can just blow that e-mail off, they don’t have to answer it, they could lie to you.
Not offensively, not trying to mislead you, but basically trying to get you of their back.
Oh it’s going great, e-mail back, done.
Don’t do that.
Talk to them, make some phone calls.
I find the best time to make phone calls are 5-10 minutes before the top of the hour and
5-10 minutes after the bottom of the hour.
Usually if team members are in project meetings, those project meetings will 9 times out of
10 end a little bit early.
So you’ve got that 5-10 minute window close to the top of the hour or right after the
bottom of the hour where they’re going to be engaged and not really engaged into the
next bit of work that they’re doing.
Okay so those are good times to ring them, definitely get connected.
Video conference is also good, basically you want that synchronized communication happening
because you can perhaps pick up on body language, or the tone in their voice to understand if
some of their tasks might not be going so well.
OK?
Do that on a daily basis, do that ring around.
Lastly, little bit of drudgery, but review the timesheets.
Looking at the timesheets and how the team is using those time sheets, and what they’re
putting in the comments, and the hours that they’re doing on different tasks can give
you an indication on a daily basis on how those tasks are doing.
Give you the tool to manage them daily and manage that project team.
Remember, project managers inspect their teams on ongoing basis.
You don’t do it one off it, on a Monday or Tuesday, you’re doing it all the time.
You’re always checking in, always doing your communications, to make sure that those
tasks are being managed on a daily basis.
The best way to do it is to make sure your team doesn’t really realize that they’re
being managed.
So do it in a way that is coming across as very friendly, very informal, and if you do
think that you pick up on something that might not be happening to your expectation maybe
that’s the time to have that one on one with that person.
I’ve given you a couple of tips and techniques to use to manage those tasks daily for your
project team.
It’s now up to you to put those into practice.
Use our software to apply these techniques on your project.
Come sign up and join us on ProjectManager.com.