How to Avoid 5 Top Lean Project Management Mistakes

It’s easy to make mistakes in any line of work. However, when you are a lean project manager, the whole project depends on you and your ability to avoid mistakes. This can be hard as there is a lot of stress involved with managing a project. You have to coordinate people, estimate everything, communicate a lot and all of that with patience and dedication to detail that can help your team be successful. Mistakes are bound to happen. But knowing where you can go wrong with your project and your steps is crucial in recognizing them as you start to make them and doing your best to fix them. This is why we recommend getting to know yourself and your history with projects as well as checking some of these common lean project management mistakes out:

#1 - Not Being Open to Change

Perhaps one of the most important things you’ll want to consider is how open to change you are. It doesn’t matter if you’ve planned everything down to the hour of how you’re going to approach a lean project, these plans will never normally stick.

“You need to make sure you’re open to change in the sense that can embrace it and adapt. Be the kind of person who grows and moves forward with their teams, rather than stagnating” says Kathleen Garcia, a business writer at Oxessays and Academized.

#2 - Not Optimizing Written Communication

Hand in hand with Mistake #1, written communication is such a key part of everyday life, yet it’s usually overlooked dramatically. From writing emails and reports to text messages and marketing content, not optimizing your written communication skills will be your demise as it is for so many lean project managers.

#3 - Settling for an Average Team

A lean project is only ever going to be as successful as the team involved makes it, which automatically displays how important it is to make sure you’ve got the right team and the right people in the right places.

Work together with your team and you’ll be able to enhance your team to produce the best results.

#4 - Not Being Approachable

We see this problem far too often, and it needs to come to a stop. Sometimes there's a gap between the lean project leader and other workers.

“If there’s a problem with construction, you need the team members to feel comfortable in approaching you and telling you about it so it can be addressed rather than trying to hide it. Work on your interpersonal skills and be a proactive and engaged member of the team rather than an outside figure” says Louis Smith, a Project manager at Big Assignments and PaperFellows.

#5 - Not Listening

So, when you are a lean project manager, you often feel like you know everything better than anyone else. You overwork yourself, avoid delegating and tend to every detail of the project yourself. However, this is a huge mistake and it’s very commonly made by lean project managers. You need to let down your guard and listen to your team. You hired them for a reason. They are the experts in their niches and they know what needs to be done the best. Listen to their ideas and their solutions and delegate tasks to skilled team members. Trust your team.

Conclusion

As you can see, there are plenty of common mistakes that lean project managers around the world continue to make, but now you’re aware of them you can be proactive in making sure you don’t make them. The more mindful you can be, the better off the success of your project will be.

About Author:

Ellie Coverdale is a technical writer and project manager at Essay Roo as well as at Australian help. She has been involved in huge tech research projects, which she has taken may valuable learning experiences, and she also teaches writing at Write my essays service.