Success Starts With Motivation

I am often surprised during my project management training workshops, webinars and consulting engagements, to find that there is generally very little real interest in keeping a project on schedule and within budget. 

This is most likely because most project managers and their client and  executive management have become so used to seeing all projects delivered late and over budget, that getting projects in on-time and within budget is not seen as even achievable.

This mindset is untenable.  Unless we at least strive to manage within our budget and schedule, and work to constantly improve our skills and processes to achieve that goal, then we will never break the cycle of bringing in projects late and over budget.

Success in this area all starts with one key ingredient - and that is motivation.  Only once we are fully motivated to do everything in our power to bring in our project successfully, can we succeed.

But unfortunately it is not just the project manager who has to be so motivated.  All project stakeholders, from our clients, to our management and project team have to be similarly motivated and therein lies the challenge.  But we can certainly set the goal and expectation of delivering on time and within budget, make this goal very visible and reinforce it through our plans and actions and through a myriad of project management best practices such as Change Management, Risk Management and establishing Contingency Reserves.

Motivation is only one of four ingredients in the formula for success, albeit a key and very necessary ingredient.  In my next post, I will share the formula and remaining ingredients.

If you are interested in learning some good project management best practices and techniques for keeping your project on schedule and within budget, sign up for our recorded APM03 webinar "How To Keep Your Project On Schedule And Within Budget" at www.alphapm.com/webinars.  Our next AlphaPM Project Management Webinar Program starts Tuesday September 4, so this webinar will also be available live at 12 noon EST on Tuesday September 18, 2012.