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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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Pat Finnegan November 27, 2019
10 Email Sins At Work To Avoid At All Costs! Do These Sound Familiar?
Project Manager Soft Skills

Email Etiquette In The Workplace: 10 Email Sins To Avoid At All Costs!

Emails are thoroughly engrained in the work culture of our modern society. On average, Americans spend several hours of their day on work-related email activities! That’s an incredible amount of time when you consider that email barely existed at work 25 years ago. Make no mistake – email is incredibly useful. The rate at which information is exchanged is unreal. With this great power comes great responsibility, though. Many people wield the power of email with reckless abandon, wreaking havoc in its’ path. In all seriousness, we’re talking about 10 email sins at work to avoid at all costs! Do any of these sound familiar?

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Pat Finnegan November 26, 2019
How To Not Be Annoying At Work - A Few Things To Keep In Mind
Workplace Experiences

How To Not Be Annoying At Work: A Few Things To Keep In Mind

The hustle, the deadlines, the frustrations…work is difficult enough as it is. When we add an annoying coworker to the mix, though, our work lives can become too much to bear. Nobody likes an annoying coworker, and they have the ability to bring down the entire operation if left to their own devices. Let’s not be hypocrites – judgement of others is easy, but introspection is not. If we expect peace and serenity while working, we must also make sure that we don’t become that annoying coworker ourselves! In this article, we’re talking about how to not be annoying at work, along with a few tips to keep in mind.

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Pat Finnegan November 4, 2019
Project Management

Managing Older Employees As A Younger Manager: Realities To Consider

As you become a manager in any industry, it’s inevitable that you’ll have to manage employees older than yourself. This is true for the vast majority of managers out there today. In many cases, people get promoted to a management position in their 30s or even in their 20s. The majority of their coworkers might be older than the manager in these instances! While managing an employee older than you requires a specific approach, it’s completely doable. In this article, we’re talking about managing older employees as a younger manager, along with some realities that go along with doing so.

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Pat Finnegan October 23, 2019
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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Pat Finnegan October 21, 2019
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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Pat Finnegan October 15, 2019
What Are The Signs Of A Toxic Work Environment
Workplace Experiences

What Are The Signs Of A Toxic Work Environment? Our Top 10

Does a typical workday feel like torture? Do you feel like your soul is being taken from you one day at a time? Melodramatics aside, a bad workplace environment can make our lives miserable. According to this article from Business Insider, Americans spend 90,000 hours at work over a lifetime and nearly 80% are dissatisfied with their jobs. If you’re working in a bad environment for a large portion of your career, it will have a negative impact on quality of life, happiness and stress levels. That’s no way to live! So what are the signs of a toxic work environment? In this article, we’ll talk about 10 things to watch out for.

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Pat Finnegan September 19, 2019
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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Pat Finnegan August 29, 2019
How Do You Transition A Project To A New Project Manager
Project Management

How Do You Transition A Project To A New Project Manager?

It happens all too often. Projects get reassigned. A project manager decides to leave the company. A P.M. on another project is leaving, so you get pulled off your project to go manage theirs. Does this sound familiar? While common in the industry, the project “hand off” is one of the most significant and impactful events on the project’s outcome, and a bad handoff can take a big bite out of the results. At this stage, there’s a logical question to ask: How do you transition a project to a new project manager? Like most things, a good project hand-off

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Pat Finnegan August 21, 2019
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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Pat Finnegan June 5, 2019

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Articles related to professionalism and etiquette in the workplace.

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