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The Art of Setting Expectations as a Project Manager

Harvard Business Review

Managing the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders is one of the most challenging jobs of a project manager. In this article, the author suggests five strategies for managing expectations effectively.

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Project Managers, Unlock the Power of Timeboxing

Harvard Business Review

Modern work is inherently project-based and collaborative. We are all project managers to some extent. From film directors and restaurant owners to lawyers and accountants, many professions involve managing projects. You’re probably already timeboxing, at least a little.

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When Confidence Helps Project Managers — and When It Gets Them into Trouble

Harvard Business Review

There’s a popular fallacy that encourages big-project managers to forge ahead as quickly as they can, on the basis that the payoffs will likely be bigger than they imagine.

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The Leap from Project Manager to CEO Is Hard — But Not Impossible

Harvard Business Review

Project managers who aspire to be CEOs are often surprised to learn that their skills, while highly valuable, do not directly align with those needed for positions of executive leadership. Why isn’t successful management of high-stakes projects and organizational resources sufficient to ascend to the top ranks of the business?

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What the Next Generation of Project Management Will Look Like

Harvard Business Review

Traditional project management skills, such as project governance or project management methodology, aren’t sufficient to meet changing organizational needs.

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How Project Managers Can Better Navigate Setbacks

Harvard Business Review

Setbacks are common on projects — but project managers hold four key tools to understand why they happen and how to help their teams move past them. First, understand the neuroscience behind setbacks to encourage people to learn and grow. Second, openly acknowledge that a setback has occurred to prevent backsliding.

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Project Managers Should Think Like Startup Founders

Harvard Business Review

Most project managers focus on planning and execution. But large projects rarely go in a straight line, and often that planning doesn’t take into account key assumptions, and the execution goes far in the wrong direction before the need for changes are recognized.