In the course of human interaction conflict is inevitable. Add the pressures and transient nature of a consulting engagement and the opportunities for conflict increase significantly. In my experience there are two factors that contribute to the mismanagement of conflict: (1) Most people are deeply afraid of conflict and generally fail to address it head
There’s no getting around it: when you’re managing a group of people, you will inevitably find yourself in the midst of conflict of one type or another. As project manager, you are expected to have the ability to resolve the conflict as quickly and efficiently as possible, and to make sure that the project does
There are a lot of moving parts in the world of finance project management including time constraints, pressure from stakeholders, and changing goals and goal posts. These pitfalls can derail your project timeline and budget, impacting your results, so you’ll want to devise a plan to avoid them right off the bat. Pitfall 1: Taking
In your job search as a project manager, you may have noticed that some of the best opportunities are labeled as consulting. Lucky you, you’ve landed an interview for one of these roles. In preparation, you have polished your resume, honed your interviewing skills, researched the company, assimilated the knowledge and expertise of your financial
When you consider that approximately 63% of project managers claim that lack of communication is one of the biggest challenges they face, this creates a breeding ground for potential conflicts. Increasingly, project managers are dealing with a number of difficulties: longer hours, managing remote team members alongside of on-site contributors, rapidly approaching deadlines and greater
As a new finance project manager, you’ve decided to implement an open-door policy. Your subordinates should feel free to come to you with questions anytime. After all, open and honest communication is the best path to business success. It isn’t long before your staff takes advantage of your largesse. They come to you constantly with
Conflict is inevitable, and all of us have gotten to a place where we are stopped because someone’s anger, insecurity, inability to listen or hostility keeps us from moving forward. This is frightening – it can threaten the deliverables of a project and, in some cases, can endanger our employment. When I look at the
Whether you are just beginning your career or have already been established for some time, becoming involved in a professional organization can be a great way to build a network, increase your knowledge base, and develop skills relevant in the field. Here are some of the top professional organizations for Finance Project Managers/Business Analysts. Professional
Getting busy and important people to stop what they are doing to give you the valuable information you need to complete a project is hard. Heck, getting anyone to do something for you is hard… Years ago, I struggled with getting my recruiters to connect with our consultants out of the field after we had
Last week, we discussed some of the unwritten rules project managers face in a new environment. In the second part of this series, we’ll tackle two more rules of engagement: gaining stakeholder cooperation and consensus, and driving project goals when they conflict with existing processes. Gaining Stakeholder Cooperation Often, consulting project managers can be perceived
