As a project manager within a retail environment, you may have already witnessed both the good and bad reputations that can come with the territory.
To avoid falling into the latter, we have some top tips on what you can do to ensure your reputation as a project manager remains pristine, and has you recommended all around the company.
Be organised
Rule one of building a good reputation as a project manager is to prove that you’re organised and ready to take on the tasks that lie ahead.
While being promoted or hired into the position might suggest that you’re already ready for this, it doesn’t mean that you’ve proved yourself quite yet.
Get your coloured pens out and start co-ordinating everything – from you to do list to your diary to your shopping list, as it’s these details that can be the true making or breaking of both a project and the project manager.
Read up
Secondly, there’s a definite correlation between a successful project manager and one that reads up on their subject.
Any literature you can find on your career choice will undoubtedly prove useful, and will show you’re team that you’re serious about leading them to head many successful projects rather than drifting along with the hope that it won’t all go wrong.
Some great reads you may want to try include; The Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time by Jeff Sutherland, Project Management for Non-Project Managers by Jack Ferraro and Making Things Happen: Mastering Project Management by Scott Berkun.
Communicate
With all that information stored up in your mind, it would seem almost cruel to keep it to yourself. Educate your team on the methods you learn and speak to them about how you can implement the best parts within your company.
Aside from passing on relevant information you have learnt, you should communicate everything to your team to help the project run smoothly. This will also get word around that you’re an effective project manager – exactly what you need as you step into the position!
Review
You might be bored of us banging on about how important reviewing a project is, but we’ll continue to shout it from the rooftops to help project managers improve on each project.
This is especially important when you’re working on building a good reputation as a project manager who is new to the position.
Take that extra bit of time at the close of each project to call a meeting and ask the team to talk through how everything went, and any issues that could have been avoided. This won’t just create an air of professionalism around how you run projects, but it will make the team feel as though their work has been valued – which they might not feel if you brush it under the carpet once the project is over.
Do you need help building a good reputation as a project manager? Get in touch with us to see how we can help.
