Writing Business Bids and Proposals For Dummies

Chapter 14

Leading Proposal Teams Effectively

IN THIS CHAPTER

Taking the lead before you get started

Managing your team through the entire proposal process

Being an effective leader from afar

Even if you’re a sole proprietor or lone proposal writer, your role as a proposal professional is a lot more than just writing a good proposal. For every proposal project, someone has to

• Coordinate the efforts of a number of people with differing levels of expertise and experience
• Massage the substantial egos of specialists and bosses (who sometimes have conflicting agendas)
• Motivate busy people with other priorities to drop everything to contribute to your project
• Troubleshoot problems under stressful time constraints and scrutiny
• Ensure the consistency, accuracy, and timeliness of the proposal

Most proposal professionals do all these things while performing the majority of the writing, editing, revising, and publishing work. And sometimes these issues are compounded by a challenge of the globally connected economy: virtual teams and transglobal customers. With all of this on your plate, you may think that to be a proposal professional you have to be some kind of superhero. You don’t, but you do have to be a leader — oftentimes even when you’re not the anointed leader.

This chapter helps you meet the challenges of proposal leadership — from leading pre-proposal efforts, to guiding a team of proposal professionals and project contributors, both local and remote.

Leading Long Before ...