CATEGORY | Negotiation

Underpaid Project Manager - How To Get A Raise Or Promotion
Career Planning

Underpaid Project Manager? Here’s How I Got A 43% Raise In 24 Months

Let’s be honest. Even if we love project management, we still want to get paid. Not only that, but we want to be paid what we’re worth. While many of us manage projects – even difficult, challenging ones – our salary does not always line up with our skill level. Some of us grind away at our job for years on end while feeling like we should be getting more. Despite growing immensely in skill and experience, we simply don’t ever seem to get that big raise or jump up the ladder like we think we deserve. It can be frustrating to work at an organization for while, having far surpassed the skill-level we had when hired, only to find out a new-hire for a similar position is making a heck of a lot more money right off the bat. What gives? If you’re an underpaid Project Manager looking to get a raise, then stick around. In this article, I’ll be talking about how I got a 43% increase in pay over a 24 month period and what I did to get there!

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Working For Difficult Clients As A Project Manager - Avoid These 5 Things
Project Management

Working For Difficult Clients As A Project Manager: Avoid These 5 Things

The Clients you work for as a Project Manager are like chocolates in a box – some of them suck. Such is life! We don’t always get to work for Clients that are nice, reasonable or even people we like on an individual basis. This is made ten times worse when we consider that Clients control most of the cards on the table – including payment! On projects like these, we need to work even harder as Project Managers to manage not only the work, but the Client too. In this article, we’re talking about working for difficult Clients as a Project Manager, along with 5 things to avoid at all costs.

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While most people appreciate others who communicate directly, many of us find it difficult to actually do ourselves. Information is exchanged efficiently, there are fewer misinterpretations and most comments are honest, so why is it that we feel uncomfortable speaking directly with others? This is especially important at work when we depend on others to perform our duties, and they rely on us, too. It's highly beneficial to adopt this communication style regardless of position or line of work - it's essential to living! In this article, we'll discuss some simple tips for being direct in the workplace, without being a jerk.
Project Manager Soft Skills

Being Direct In The Workplace, Without Being A Jerk: 10 Simple Steps

While most people appreciate others who communicate directly, many of us find it difficult to actually do ourselves. Information is exchanged efficiently, there are fewer misinterpretations and most comments are honest, so why is it that we feel uncomfortable speaking directly with others? This is especially important at work when we depend on others to perform our duties, and they rely on us, too. It’s highly beneficial to adopt this communication style regardless of position or line of work – it’s essential to living! In this article, we’ll discuss some simple tips for being direct in the workplace, without being

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Managing Egos At Work: How To Decipher The Hidden Messages. Plus, Learn About Freud's Concept Of The Id, Ego & Superego!
Project Manager Soft Skills

Managing Egos At Work: How To Decipher The Hidden Messages

Most people have more than one version of themselves inside. We have our rational minds – the part of us that’s calm, logical and conscious of reality, and then we have our ego – the self-preserving, survival-based irrational mind that is mostly based in emotion (feelings) rather than fact. Emotions like anger, frustration, disdain, jealousy and fear are just a few of the feelings that can trigger our ego to jump in and take over. While social pressures and societal standards incentivize us to be on our best behavior, our egos can still flare up in public, around others and yes, even at work. Humans have egos in part for survival purposes, but in current times, it doesn’t feel that way. We go to work to perform our duties and take home our pay, but that doesn’t stop us from being humans as we do it. Today, we discuss managing egos at work, specifically by deciphering the hidden meaning behind what egos are really saying.

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Importance Of Negotiation In Project Management
Construction Process

Importance Of Negotiation In Project Management, With Examples

Life is full of negotiations. If we look closely enough, we can find strands of negotiating in nearly every situation we find ourselves in. Whether it be choosing a restaurant, debating opinions with friends or convincing a kid to eat their vegetables, we can find ourselves in a negotiation without even realizing it. In the world of project management, contracts and big-picture discussions come to mind when the word “negotiate” arises. This is not where a project manager’s negotiation skills end, though. I guarantee that every project manager is involved with at least one negotiation per day, even if it isn’t seen as one. So why is it such a necessary skill for PMs? In this article, we’ll discuss the importance of negotiation in project management!

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Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important In Project Management
Project Management

Why Is Emotional Intelligence Important In Project Management?

Everybody knows about IQ – the “Intelligence Quotient” – which measures our problem-solving capabilities, reasoning and overall cognitive intelligence. But in recent years, there’s been a buzz around ‘EQ’, or Emotional Quotient, which measures our overall Emotional Intelligence. More specifically, our emotional intelligence represents our abilities to control and convey our emotions, as well as to empathize with other people, nurture our relationships and make conscientious judgements. While emotional intelligence seems at home in a therapy or counseling session, it’s just as important as IQ in business, too. So why is emotional intelligence important in project management? Let’s look into it.

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It's a jungle out there. A concrete jungle, that is. While humans have evolved way past all other animals in a cognitive sense, we still need to navigate many of the situations that animals encounter in the wild. While many animals are categorized as predators or prey, people can also act in a predatory fashion and see other people as their 'prey'. Except in the human world, the predatory person doesn't eat their prey - they try to manipulate or take advantage of them instead. Predatory people don't see EVERYONE as prey though - they instinctively pick people they think they can exploit for their own gain. Overly nice people are one of the main groups people try and exploit, for reasons we'll discuss. Nice people aren't off the hook, though. Many times, they're not taken advantage of by just predators, but by everyone - and they ask for it! The workplace is one of the main places nice people get taken advantage of, and it affects workload, promotions, salary, reputation and more. In this article, we will discuss how to stop being too nice at work using twelve simple techniques.
Project Manager Soft Skills

How To Stop Being Too Nice At Work: 12 Simple, Quick Techniques

It’s a jungle out there. A concrete jungle, that is. While humans have evolved way past all other animals in a cognitive sense, we still need to navigate many of the situations that animals encounter in the wild. While many animals are categorized as predators or prey, people can also act in a predatory fashion and see other people as their ‘prey’. Except in the human world, the predatory person doesn’t eat their prey – they try to manipulate or take advantage of them instead. Predatory people don’t see EVERYONE as prey though – they instinctively pick people they think they can exploit for their own gain. Overly nice people are one of the main groups people try and exploit, for reasons we’ll discuss. Nice people aren’t off the hook, though. Many times, they’re not taken advantage of by just predators, but by everyone – and they ask for it! The workplace is one of the main places nice people get taken advantage of, and it affects workload, promotions, salary, reputation and more. In this article, we will discuss how to stop being too nice at work using twelve simple techniques.

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DIFFERENT PERSONALITIES: 5 TYPES AND HOW TO MANAGE THEM
Project Management

Different Personalities: Work With These Five Types

We’ve all heard the saying, and we all cringe every time we do. Who even came up with these expressions? Regardless of how corny the expression is, it’s true. In project management, you’ll need to work with many different personalities: people you may not see eye-to-eye with, people you don’t care for, and even people you can’t stand! I’ve been there many times, and it gets easier. By easier, I mean your focus will remain centered around the overall results, and less on the individual actions happening around you. You can have all the skills in the world, but knowing how to approach and work with different personalities will make managing a project team a much easier process.

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