The term “Project management” is merely not about handling financial resources, but also technical resources, human resources, and marketing as well. The project management job role combines four-five tasks into a single one called “Project Manager”.
No matter whether you are working on a complex project or a simple one, with every task you take up, look for scope for improvement, which gradually improves your competency and skills. You will also gain an opportunity to learn something new with every project.
Investing in project managers will surely pay off in the long run and also improves the overall competency of the organization as well. If you are already a project manager, then enhancing your skills would help you to ace your career in the long run.
For a project manager, vision is a key component of leadership. According to an article in Forbes, vision encompasses the values, activities, and ideas that leaders are most passionate about and decide to pursue while setting realistic goals. Having vision inspires you and the people whose commitment you need, and helps in making a constructive change in the future that everybody can work towards in unison.
But if a vision is not communicated properly, then it is of no use. During the project, when the vision is properly understood and adopted by the team, only then its usefulness begins to emerge. As a project manager, it is your duty to share the vision and ensure the project is a success.
Bringing vision into the picture and developing its attributes can take a project manager towards excellence. So, how to bring to your projects?
5 Steps to Bring Vision to Your Projects
A clear vision is the pivot on which your project stands
- Clarity of Purpose:
A clear vision helps projects to thrive with an understanding of what needs to be done and who needs to do what. A detailed understanding of the goals and the process involved becomes very important as it becomes the strong base on which the project stands.
On many occasions, you might not be the one who designed the project. But, if you are given in charge of a project, then creating a vision for your team and anticipating challenges ahead becomes even more important.
- Developing an Action Plan for the Vision:
As a project manager, you need to have an action plan for the vision in order to have complete clarity about the project. For the long-term success of a project, it becomes extremely important to have a shared understanding of the goals to be achieved, the objectives, and the path charted. Emphasize the goals, commitment, and vision at regular intervals to the team, especially when there are any lapses.
- Transparent Communication:
If you are not being given the luxury of choosing your own team, then spend a day with your new team members and ensure everybody is up to date with the technical know-how which pertains to the project. Communicate your vision about the project with group members and all the stakeholders of the project to make sure everybody is working for the same cause.
Give your team the confidence to speak up if they have questions concerning the project. An open communication channel should be provided to the team and no questions should be dismissed as naive. You are like a captain of a football team and you should bring out the best in everybody to collectively achieve the goal.
- Flexibility:
A vision needs to be flexible enough to accommodate the change. This flexibility will be of help when there is a change in the market and the product or service has to align with changes happening outside of the immediate business environment. As a project manager learning from your own experience and learning from your senior project manager’s experience in handling a project will help you to successfully complete the project.
- Persistence:
Persistence matters just as much as inspiration. A project can be of any duration. It might be there for just six months or the duration might be to 3-4 years. It is in these times that persisting with the vision for the project becomes all the more important. Your team members might leave the project, stakeholders may not show the same passion as yours over a period of time and there are changes in the external business environment. As a project manager, you have to make sure the vision is instilled in your team time and again through your communications. This helps the project to stay on course even under dynamic circumstances.
Benefits of Having a Strong Vision for a Project:
A strong vision of the project will help you to mitigate any sort of confusion and gaps in understanding the project objectives.
The benefit of having a strong vision for a project can be enormous. A clear vision statement defines where actually your organization is heading and what strategic plans it can provide.
Typically, the benefits include:
- Roles and responsibilities assigned to the right people
- Keeping everyone accountable for any lapses in the project
- Better financial control and minimized overruns in a project
- Better resource management during difficult circumstances
- Ensures the team has the same passion and commitment toward the project as yours
Having a vision will help a project manager to a great degree to accomplish the successful completion of a project. Project management certifications like Online PMP Training Course, CAPM Certification Program, Prince2 Foundation and Practitioner Certification Training, and P3O sharpen the ability of project managers to come up with a sound vision for a project. This makes certified project managers in great demand all over the world. Now you know how important it is to bring the vision to your projects.
