Quick Project Management tip: “respect the chain”

This weekend I worked on a national event where I was in charge of the playing of advertisements on the big replay screen (I used to work for an ad agency so I have a soft spot for ads).It was quite a stressful weekend but I did learn some things that I will now share with you. As an Entrepreneur projects are our lives, each business venture we take up can be considered a new project as well any services we choose to provide. Project management is extremely important. Last week I mentioned some of this in my effective administration post. I want to dig a little deeper now.There will come a time, primarily depending on the size of the project when you will be forced to work with others. Established businesses often ask of your ability to work well with others, are you a team player things of that nature and trust me they wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important. Why is it important? Well if you don’t work well with others in a team effort then there will be chaos and the project will be a failure!

But back to my point. Normally when working in a team the work is split up amongst the constituents of the group, each person being put in charge of a particular topic, aspect, department, you name it.

What is important to remember here is that you must not undermine the authority of each other. Never cross over into the territory of another group member and start giving orders to the persons he is in charge of. If you recognise something fundamentally wrong with the approach he is taking then address it to him directly. This is the best way to keep everything in order. Persons do not take well to their authority being undermined, and there may be good reason (more times than not) why he is doing it in that particular way.

This is really just a quick lesson in team work. Trust each other’s capabilities and respect each other’s work and authority over the people they are in charge of. When there are too many chief’s in one tribe there can only be chaos. A clearly defined chain of command should be established and adhered to.

Hope you found this somewhat informative. Thanks for reading