Learn the Who, What and When of managing.
The WWW method boils down effective project management tips to the Who, What and When of a job task and here we show you how to use that method to get the best out of your remote team.
Any project you run will need to center around answering the 3 W’s:
That is WHO is best qualified to do the task; WHAT exactly are they going to do and how are they going to do it; and WHEN are they going to complete it by? If you keep these three things in mind when you set up and manage the project then you won’t go far wrong.
Once you’ve decided on the above, the next step is to communicate it to your staff. Make sure that you delegate the project with measurable deliverables.
That means clear communication to your remote worker or team about what is expected: if you need the “About Us” section of a web site up and running by the end of the week then make sure they understand that; if you need 3 blog posts by Wednesday then this also includes clearly measurable goals.
This is a much better approach than “Try to get most of this back to me ASAP”, which doesn’t really carry much punch or create any urgency!
The next step in our effective project management tips is often overlooked by the supervisor, but it is critical to a timely and effective outcome. The logging and reporting of the job, as well as the quality control aspect, is to be included as part of the task and needs to be delegated to somebody.
This might be a case of letting the person performing the job know that they need to keep you in the loop about exactly what’s happening with the job. But if a virtual team is needed on the project this may be more involved and it will need to be in the hands of a very responsible VA with some leadership and communication skills to report back about the team’s progress.
Finally, with the “when” part of effective project management tips it is sometimes a good idea to ask the VA how long a task will take, if you have no specific deadline yourself that you have to meet. A good little trick here is to add a little time to whatever their answer is, so if the job is not completed by the agreed date there can be no excuses.
Many project managers will choose to expand their skill set by pursuing an online project management degree or a PM certification. Before you decide to take this step however, you might want to touch base with us first to prepare you for further education. Here at Melbourne SEO Services, we have mastered the art of project management. Want to know more how we do it? Follow us at Facebook/SEOmastermind today.