All of us have had a time in their life they dealt with it, some of us have managed it.

What am I referring to….? I’m referring to Projects.

Projects can be big and corporate, like achieving multimillion € cost savings, or they can be smaller and private, like organizing your own wedding abroad. I’ve been fortunate enough to be in both situations and learned that there are 3 factors critical to success for a project, anywhere and anytime:

Communicate openly

First of all, whatever you are going to do, wherever you are going to execute the project, make sure you communicate openly and in a transparent way. This is key at any phase during the project, whether it’s at the start during the preparation phase when you are selecting the steering committee, or during the implementation phase when you are reporting on progress. Be crystal clear on what you are going to deliver, by when you will reach the targeted milestones and be specific about what support is needed and by who.

Oh, and one more thing, if you don’t know the answer to whatever comes at you, be bold and stand out from the crowd. Speak up that you don’t know the specifics (yet) or ask for support. Not a lot of people will do that, because it feels like ‘loss of face’. 

Getting it done

After you ensure that you are communicating openly, you want to make sure that you are getting it done. This is the second critical success factor. Whatever it is that you promised to deliver, make sure you deliver. Communication alone is not enough, you want to ‘walk the talk’. As a project manager you embody the project, so be an example for your project, your project team and your project stakeholders.

In order to make progress during a project, it has to be crystal clear on what the project will deliver (end state), what are the milestones to get to that end state and what are the daily and weekly steps that need to be done to achieve those milestones. By cutting the elephant into pieces, from a monthly to a weekly or daily level, and focusing upon getting it done that day, you will surely build a successful project.

Build a complementary project team

The third and last factor critical for success is to build a complementary project team. Depending on the project objective, you want to select your team to ensure that their personalities and strengths complement each other. In particular, this applies when you are the project manager. Think about your development areas that might be a hurdle towards this objective. Expand your project team with people who have your development area as their strength and enjoy doing those things. Think for example about the balance between project team members who are ‘addicted to action’ and good at ‘managing the big picture’. Or you can think about someone who is energized by doing analysis, rather than making the slides and presenting them (which is more my thing).

When you are able to implement these 3 factors on the project that you are working or leading, you will set yourself and your project up for success.