A worldwide career in project management was the starting point for this book. The book takes the view that while methodologies and tools are now an indispensible part of what is needed to successfully manage projects, there is a tendency, sometimes more than just a tendency, to squeeze out the essential management skills needed to cope today.
All the unexpected and unplannable events that are an everyday part of modern project work, somehow leave the modern project manager to use management skills beyond where the tools and methodologies stop. I liken this to an aircraft automatic pilot system which cuts out when it receives input it can no longer understand or process, and leaves the human pilot to sort out the mess and get the aircraft back to straight and level safe flight.
I wanted to write a frank and intelligent yet very readable and entertaining book about the management techniques and skills a project manager needs when that happens in the life of a project. Over 40 years of working in many different kinds of project and within many different cultures, I developed a keen sense of how to be first and foremost a manager of projects, people and resources, especially when the going became turbulent.
Key staff suddenly leaving without warning, private staff relationships, and even sabotage all came along to cause severe disruption to smooth project progress. And no plan or methodology will tell you how to manage these kinds of upsets and deal with their consequences. And as time went on I realised that the key to successfully ‘flying’ out of danger was to apply basic management and leadership skills.
So this book was born and I am as convinced now as I ever was that it will be a huge help to those project managers who want to get back in touch with the basic skills which first fascinated them, and perhaps those who realise that their education and training has somehow skipped something fundamental and crucial.
To all those who are fortunate enough to be or are about to become a project manager, this book is just for you.
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