Managing Projects (HBR 20-Minute Manager Series)

Managing Your Project

In the implementation phase, where you’re managing and monitoring your project against the plans and preparations you’ve made, you have to maintain a positive attitude to keep your team motivated. You also need to watch carefully for barriers, bottlenecks, and foul-ups. It can be a tough balancing act. You and your team will see progress in this phase—the work is actually being done. But the details can at times feel tedious, even overwhelming, and potential pitfalls are always lurking around the corner.

Let’s look at some ways to maximize the progress and ease the stress.

If you thought you could plan for everything, you should probably be locked up. You have to be aware, attuned to what’s happening, what’s changing—and ...