I’m writing today in response to a question that a reader recently sent me. Devin from Wisconsin has requested that I discuss some project management mistakes I made when I was a new P.M….
…and boy, are there plenty.
So in this post, I will do just that!
This email will be written from a construction management perspective specifically, but I assure you that PMs of all types, or anyone managing anything really – can pick up something here.
I should clarify that this particular list doesn’t include much in the way of managing project finances, because that’s such a dense topic that I plan to address it separately in the near future.
Of course, you can always get my help directly via a 1-on-1 zoom call if that’s of interest!
Let’s dive in, starting with Devin’s request:
“Hello Patrick, I was recently promoted to PM about 6-7 months back and I feel like I make mistakes constantly, even though I have experience and feel like I know what I should be doing. Is this common? Did you go through a time where you felt like you were making mistakes when you started out? What were they? Would love to hear more. Thank you
-Devin”
Thank you for the request, Devin!
I’m glad to answer both questions. One will be a very short answer, and the other will be covered with several specific items I struggled with.
To address your questio about whether or not mistakes in project management are common…yes! A resounding yes!
But as for the ones I made, I recommend getting comfortable…because there are many.
Let’s talk about six specific project management mistakes I’ve made as a new PM…and how to avoid them yourself!
1. Relying Too Much on Email
Documenting vital communication, information and updates in writing is of course a key practice for Project Managers – for a variety of reasons.
As everybody knows, email is the primary way we do this.
In fact, there is an art and a science to writing high quality work emails, both in terms of communicating effectively with them, and to document what’s important.
I don’t think there’s a Project Manager alive who won’t send at least one of these types of emails every single day!
So where’s the mistake?
The mistake I made earlier in my career, is relying on emails too much.
This can certainly come in the form of writing unstructured emails, or firing them off like flinging mud to a wall at random.
But even when we write clear, well articulated emails, we can still run into problems.
The mistake I made was thinking that if I documented something via email, I was covered no matter what might go wrong later.
If I gave direction or clarified a piece of information via email and someone else didn’t fall in line, or neglected to account for what I said, I thought that was good enough to be absolved from responsibility
“See? I wrote it right here!” – me, a few times.
This is what makes being a PM more difficult than many people think.
It isn’t enough to simply document something, wipe our hands and consider it a job well done.
We must make sure that whatever information we are documenting Is actually accounted for.
Whether that be giving direction, clarifying an important detail or anything else, that information is effectively useless if it doesn’t make its way into the project as it should.
Managers above us within our organization and clients alike, expect for us to see things through to their completion.
This includes following up with people to ensure that this important info is clearly communicated and understood, as well as providing further guidance as well
Although we might be in the clear by following this practice (i.e. covering our ass) SOMETIMES in some instances, it will come back to bite us and others. Trust me!
If whatever we are communicating negatively impacts our project’s budget, schedule or overall quality, it is considered our problem in the end, whether we documented it in email or not.
2. Being Too Positive
As a young PM, it is understandable that we approach our new position with passion, vigor, and of course, optimism.
In kind, it’s also understandable that we believe we can pull off our project against all odds.
Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low, ain’t no river wide enough, baby.
Did you cringe? I did.
As a young PM, I refused to ever think that me or my team couldn’t pull something off.
I was convinced to that with enough can-do attitude and positivity, we could do anything…
…and it is true that an ever-present positive attitude can take us far.
We can certainly do a lot with that, no matter what our position is.
But there is an unfortunate reality that all young project managers will come up against sooner rather than later: we cannot always pull off a miracle.
There are only so many hours in the day, so many resources available and only so much work that can be done in any given time.
Not to mention, there will always be surprises, unknown, and mistakes that pop-up along the way.
Thus, a big mistake I made as a young PM was being too positive.
With this comes the inability to see situations for what they truly are, and by extension, lacking willingness or foresight to communicate them to upper management, clients, and anyone else involved in the project.
Think about it like this: suppose you bring your car to a mechanic after it has a major issue.
The mechanic ensures us over and over again that the problem isn’t that bad, and that they can fix it within the budget they set upfront, in a certain amount of time that they promised, and then it’ll be as good as new.
But suddenly, our car has been in the shop for several days longer than planned.
When we finally get the mechanic on the phone, he or she mentions that it’s going to cost $1,000 more dollars to fix, it’s going to take two more weeks and it’ll forever make a weird noise.
Do we really care if the mechanic truly believed that he or she would be able to fix the car within a certain time and budget?
Of course not. We would have rather known upfront!
Even if it’s bad news, we at least aren’t blindsided when we hear about it early and we were able to make decision decisions from there.
That’s essentially what we are doing as a PM who is too optimistic.
It is much better to be honest and realistic with all parties involved, for those same reasons: knowing the truth early and planning accordingly.
Of course, this might involve uncomfortable conversations which no one likes to have…
But I assure you, it is better than the alternative.
Especially because bad news like this comes with a high interest rate; the longer we wait, the more we pay.
3. Letting Admin Work Slip
Let’s say you’re a PM on a busy project going through one of the busiest and most chaotic phases that it will have.
Things are going wrong. Additional attention and time is needed on certain tasks.
Between ourselves and our team, we are stretched to the max, trying to keep the project moving forward.
When there is more work to do than hours in the day to do it, guess what slips…the administrative work!
As a young PM, I found myself in this situation a few times.
I’ll use a few Construction examples, but the same philosophy applies to being a PM in any industry:
“Task ABC is extremely important right now, I’ll update the submittal log tomorrow.”
Which becomes next week.
Suddenly, it hasn’t been updated in two or three!
“I authorized The Best Damn Roofing Company to proceed on that extra work in a couple emails. I’ll get around to writing them a formal change order as soon as I can.”
Two months go by like nothing.
“I know I have a stack of invoices to review and approve on my desk, but they are certainly not as important as fixing this extremely critical issue that has popped up! They can wait for a couple of days.”
You blink and it’s two weeks later.
I think we all know what happens next…
Either our client, or our boss, or somebody suddenly needs to see one of those logs.
Or they ask for something important, of which those logs should be able to immediately clarify.
Perhaps a vendor calls and says they can’t allow any more orders until invoice 1234 is paid…
Of course, we’ve got a problem…all of that admin work has been burning a hole in our desk for the X amount of time!
As a young PM, I always thought that my superiors would be understanding of this, especially when projects are extremely busy or we are short staffed for a time
They weren’t.
It’s very easy to let administrative tasks slip during busy periods.
I’m not saying that we can walk on water, or turn water into wine either.
But what we can do if nothing else, is communicate to our bosses what our current workload is looking like and areas that we need help.
They may be able to pull resources from another project to help maintain these processes, or take a few items off our plate for a day or two while we catch them up.
But I promise you one thing, doing that is infinitely better than letting these admin tasks slip with the hopes that we will one day, or one week, finally stumble upon that elusive treasure that is known as “more time“.
We won’t!
4. Delegating…and Not Checking In
This next mistake I’ve made as a PM is like a cousin to the document-via-email mistake I mentioned before:
Delegating an item of work, or even an entire process to another team member, subcontractor, etc…and failing to check in with them regularly!
If you’re anything like the young PM version of me, your first instinct might be to respond with something like this when crap hits the fan:
“I clearly told so-and-so what they need to do, or what they’re responsible for! I shouldn’t have to tell them a million times! I’ve given them clear direction. What, do I need to babysit them???”
…and the short answer is…Yes. At least, sort of.
Whether we want to admit it or not, delegating tasks in this way and not checking in, is putting a massive amount of trust in somebody else to carry out our wishes, exactly the way we want them to be done, all while we essentially walk away.
There are of course, many reasons why this fails.
First, a team member or anyone else we delegate to might be completely overloaded themselves, and simply not be able to get to the work that we are asking them to do.
What does it say about us as managers if we also fail to check in on their workload and status?
Second, there could be a communication issue or a misunderstanding that takes place.
Perhaps a team member does not fully understand the urgency or timeframe surrounding what we’ve asked them to do.
Or maybe there are certain details that they don’t have experience in, which results in the work not being done as expected, even if well intended.
And third, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the fact that sometimes people get lazy, or completely drop the ball.
Once again, what does it say about us as managers if a team member drops the ball and we don’t know about it for days, weeks or even longer?
To a large degree, we are right to exclaim that it isn’t fair.
But neither is life.
And as a PM, we are put into the position where we are ultimately responsible for the projects outcome, along with being responsible for everyone who works on it.
Taking ownership to this level is not something a lot of people want to do, hence why being a PM is not necessarily all it’s cracked up to to be for some…
That is, of course, if we go into it with the expectation that we won’t need to keep a closer eye on everything and take this level of ownership.
So to recap, the mistake I made as a younger PM is thinking that delegating is enough.
If it doesn’t work out, “it’s that person‘s fault”.
In reality, it’s both of our faults.
5. Not Reviewing RFIs, Submittals, Change Orders & Subcontractor Docs Before Sending Them In
Once again, this is a more construction-specific example, but I have no doubt that there are parallels to this mistake I made in any field of project management.
When I was a young PM, especially working for a general contractor, I sort of viewed documents submitted by subcontractors as something that’s almost being passed through me.
I figured that as long as I was receiving them, submitting them to the client or their designers or whoever else in a timely manner, and of course, not making a mistake of failing to track them in a log…I was good.
In reality, it’s not so cut and dry.
Yes, it is true that the client’s designed team is ultimately responsible for approving these documents.
It is ultimately their responsibility to catch any mistakes or ensure that what’s being proposed is in compliance with the project documents.
But alas, we hurt ourselves in more ways than one if we fail to give these documents a proper review.
If nothing else, submitting documents for approval that have glaring issues will cost us time, because they absolutely will get rejected and will have to be revised/resubmitted.
The design team might not even be able to look at them for several days, and will immediately reject them when they spot a major mistake. Rightfully so.
Inevitably, it will take that subcontractor time to then remedy the error and submit them back to us revised. We will then send them in and the process starts all over…all while the clock keeps ticking down.
The reverse situation would be for us to do a precursory review of the documents to at least try and catch anything glaringly obvious that needs to be changed.
It goes without saying that the faster we do this, the sooner that subcontractor will turn over an updated document back to us to submit.
…and this more often than not, will lead to a quicker overall approval on the client end.
But even beyond a more complex type of document like a shop drawing or product information, the same can be said for something like an RFI or change order.
For instance, let’s suppose that the question a subcontractor is asking, or something they’re making a claim for, is extremely, obviously wrong.
It reflects poorly on us as contractors that we didn’t catch something like this, because we are effectively making this claim, or asking the same question ourselves when we submit it on behalf of a sub.
A client or their design team doesn’t see it as our subcontractor making a mistake that we aren’t involved in…
They see it as the “contractor “collectively making a mistake.
And guess what buddy? That’s us!
Believe me, I’m saying this is someone who has made this mistake more than once!
On a smaller scale, this can even be true for a change order that’s legitimate, or an RFI that cannot be easily answered.
For example, these documents might lack proper backup information to support them, or may not be formatted in such a way that they are in compliance with what the contract calls for.
These are easy things to catch, which once again, help the process run smoother and faster by extension.
But the short answer to this mistake that many young PM make, including myself, is to treat ourselves as the first line of defense.
We are the first filter that a subcontractors document must pass through for approval.
Although it might seem like we are doing something above beyond what’s expected of us at times, I promise you that it will ultimately make things run smoother and faster.
6. Not Prioritizing Our Own Needs
This list was originally going to be about the five project management mistakes I’ve already mentioned, but I figured that it’s worth repeating this one here too.
In fact, I recently posted a video on YouTube about construction management burnout, why it’s so common in this business and how to treat it.
The answer is multifaceted of course, and if you’re interested, I would encourage you to check that video out!
But the mistake portion is easy to understand:
As Project Managers, we often put so much of our time, energy and focus into our projects that we forget about something very important: ourselves.
As a young PM, this might’ve been the biggest mistake I made actually.
I was so eager to prove myself, so motivated to pull off my projects at all cost, and so focused on being as productive and effective as possible, that I essentially wrote off my own personal well-being for a while.
A late night or a Saturday morning spent doing work isn’t that big of a deal when it’s once in a while, especially if compensation (💰) is good.
The issue of course, comes when every night becomes a late night.
When we’re working at home into the evenings.
When we aren’t spending time with family, or tending to what we need to stay healthy and well.
Even if it’s as simple as time to decompress and do nothing!
By doing this, we are effectively absorbing any and all overflow from the project onto ourselves.
And it’s easy to rationalize why this is OK.
“As a PM, isn’t that my job?”
Let’s suppose that a group of people is crossing a desert on their donkeys. The main focus is to cross the desert as quickly as possible.
…and this group of people get so focused on accomplishing that, they forget about the well-being of their donkeys.
They ride into the night. They start early in the morning.
They don’t take the time to give their donkeys enough water, food, or a chance to rest.
When their donkey inevitably gets too tired to go on, the people are confused.
“I don’t get it,” they say. “Isn’t that the donkey’s job?!”
It doesn’t work like that.
We can’t make something from nothing.
We all have a limit.
Believe me, as a young PM, I reached that limit a couple of times.
This was compounded by the fact that I didn’t want to admit it to myself or anyone else.
To me, it felt like I was failing.
But what I was really failing at, is realizing that the mentality I carried was a sure-fire away to burn out.
This one is fairly self-explanatory so I won’t belabor the point, but one of the biggest mistakes I made in my early project management journey is exactly this: failing to prioritize my own well-being.
If it’s something you feel like you’re experiencing, I encourage you to check out the video where I go into detail about my own story as well.
Got A Question? Let Me Know!
To Devin and everyone else, I hope you found this email helpful!
If there’s a question you’d like to ask, I’m happy to feature it in an upcoming newsletter.
Just send me an email at pat@solvepmproblems.com with a brief description of your question, and I’ll get back to you on featuring it!
If you’re looking for 1-on-1 help sooner than that, you can always book a virtual coaching session with me to discuss what’s on your mind!
