Any company can tout that they offer great project management. Keeping targets on track and attaining goals are important, but there’s more to project management than hitting targets. For results that truly transform an organization, project management should be exceptional, and exceptional project management means meeting these four requirements.
It Means Setting Goals Together
With any project, there are concrete requirements that need to be considered. Strategic partners on projects need to establish factors such as budgets, deadlines, and mandates, but intangible concepts need to be considered as well. Exceptional project management means determining what your vision of a successful project looks like, and working together to set goals, such as detailing a desired end result, setting up specific metrics to hit, and defining the KPIs you want to use to gauge how successful a strategy is.
It Means Listening and Asking the Right Questions
Good project managers will listen to your needs. Exceptional project managers not only listen to what you have to say, but they also use their intimate knowledge of your industry to ask questions that push beyond broad statements and goals—knowledge that enables them to get to critical information that supports your mission’s success. Rather than saying, “Success would be coming in under budget,” exceptional project management asks questions such as, “How will you come in under budget?” or, “How can we use the data you already have to streamline your processes?” in order to inspire more vivid goals.
It Means Walking In Your Shoes
A partner offering exceptional project management understands how you do business, appreciates what processes are essentual to your daily operations, and knows what data, mandates, and requirements matter to you. Further, they strive to cultivate meaningful work and meaningful relationships with you based on an intimate understanding of your organization. When project managers walk in their clients’ shoes, it draws them closer to the client and strengthens those relationships, enabling both groups to pursue and achieve increasingly ambitious goals.
It Means Living Our Values
Many organizations have their core values listed on their website. However, companies that offer exceptional project management work hard to show their values don’t just live on a webpage, but in the work that they do for their clients. When values such as going beyond the minimum to aid clients’ achievements are lived, it becomes second nature and is ingrained in the way a person operates. At MDC, for instance, one of our values is to be so good that our customers cannot imagine doing business without us. That’s why our project teams constantly go above and beyond to leave clients with satisfied with not only the work we’ve done together, but also in the relationship that has formed.
MDC goes beyond simply keeping things moving for our clients. By committing to deliver exceptional project management, we make a significant positive impact on our clients. If you’d like to experience the MDC difference, contact us today.
