Previous Chapter: Part 3 - The Projects
As a manager, keeping track of projects is very important, but keeping track of the people working on the projects might even be more important than that. Where would projects be without the “human capital”? So keeping people happy and motivated is key for the success of projects. And believe it or not, but most people like their manager to talk to them, make them feel like he is there for them and can help them if needed.
Strangely, if you ask managers what motivates them in their jobs, the answers vary from “good atmosphere”, “good collaboration and communication with colleagues” to “interesting and challenging work”. Money comes in around the fourth or the fifth place. However, if you ask managers what they think motivates their staff “money” is the number one answer. Now why do they believe that their staff is motivated differently from themselves? By the way, I’m not making this up. This test has been done by a company that provides business courses in Holland. The moral of this story is that as a manager you can motivate your people by using the techniques that you would like from your manager. Money really isn’t everything.
Now besides motivating staff, as a manager you also like to keep track of who is working on what, until when, etc. You’ll need to have an overall resource planning too.
By Ronny Gabriels, Functional Analyst and ex-.net Solution Architect