I recently interviewed Mary Ann Bender of Allstate and Betsy
Ballentine – Project Manager at Russell Martin & Associates, to talk about
the ins and outs of leadership in today’s competitive business landscape. Both
women are speaking at next week’s ProjectWorld & World Congress for Business
Analysts conference - the premiere conference brand that delivers executive
level program quality with an enhanced focus on collaboration between project management
and business analysis disciplines.
Here’s what Mary Ann and Betsy had to say:
IIR: What is the
biggest challenge facing project leaders today? How can they be overcome?
Bender: Budget
continues to be a challenge in some cases; however, based on my experience the
biggest challenge is the fear of availability issues or business impact due to
the project or changes to the environment.
So, have a good change management process in place, clear and
customized communication per business area, do a presentation of success
measurements to officers and directors helping them understand how the project
is helping the company and the businesses and if the project has cost savings,
those must be presented too. Divide the metrics and reports per business
unit and make it as a healthy competition between them.
Ballentine: Multi-tasking
is the biggest challenge. Constantly changing focus means that project
managers are never getting any velocity on their projects. New
highly-matrixed, job-sharing times demand leaner, more resilient tools. Get REAL!
Mary Ann and Betsy
will be speaking at PW&WCBA in Seattle,
WA taking place September 22-24th. The 2014 program is designed with courses
for all training levels, a robust agenda, and most importantly tangible lessons
which you can begin implementing the day you return to your office, making you
even more valuable to your organization. PW&WCBA offers attendees 36
PDU/CDUs - that's more than half of the required credits necessary to maintain
your certification in just one place.
To learn more or
register for the event, click here: http://bit.ly/1r4E6sC
