Lead Successful Projects

Are you struggling to juggle multiple projects? Do you often lose control of your budget? Does communicating your progress to the rest of your team cause you undue stress? Project management is an essential skill for anyone who needs to get things done in any organisation, and is absolutely critical for anyone leading strategic change. In Lead Successful Projects, the Penguin Business Expert guide, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez introduces a simplified but strategic approach to project management developed over the last 20 years coaching executives, managers and MBAs. Learn how to break down your project into manageable elements, define smart goals and meet them in this concise and practical guide to project success.

The one primer you need to launch, lead, and sponsor successful projects. We're now living in the project economy. The number of projects initiated in all sectors has skyrocketed, and project management skills have become essential for every leader and manager. Still, project failure rates remain extremely high. Why? Leaders oversee too many projects and have too little visibility into them. Project managers struggle to translate their hands-on, technical knowledge up to senior management. The result? Worthy projects are starved of time and resources and fail to deliver benefits, while too much investment goes into the wrong projects. To compete in the project economy, you need to close this gap. The HBR Project Management Handbook shows you how. In this comprehensive guide, project management expert Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez presents a new and simple framework that will increase any project's likelihood of success. Packed with case studies from many industries worldwide, it will teach you how to manage your organization's projects, strategic programs, and agile initiatives more effectively and push the best ones ahead to completion. Timeless yet forward-looking, this book will help you win in the project-driven world. In the HBR Project Management Handbook you'll find: Everything you need to know about project management in practical, nontechnical language A definitive taxonomy of project types, from product launches to digital transformations to megaprojects A road map for becoming an effective project leader and executive sponsor A new, simple, and universal project framework, the Project Canvas, that breaks down any project into essential building blocks that can be easily understood by all project stakeholders Original concepts and exclusive case studies from public- and private-sector organizations worldwide You'll learn: A common language for project managers and executives to run successful projects across your organization When to use agile, traditional, or hybrid methods in your projects The twelve principles of successful projects, including purpose, agility, and a focus on outcomes Techniques for selecting and advancing the best projects and managing a strategic and balanced project portfolio How today's projects will help address some of the most pressing global trends, including automation, sustainability, diversity, and crisis management Why project management needed to be reinvented and what the future holds HBR Handbooks provide ambitious professionals with the frameworks, advice, and tools they need to excel in their careers. With step-by-step guidance, time-honed best practices, and real-life stories, each comprehensive volume helps you to stand out from the pack—whatever your role.

Keys to Running Successful Research Projects: All the Things They Never Teach You provides a step-by-step guide for the management of a successful research project or program. Through the use of illustrative case studies, the book covers all aspects of management that should be included during researcher training, helping researchers overcome the many challenges they face in their day-to-day management of people, time and resources. Links throughout provide more detailed information from gold standard sources on every topic. It is a must-have reference for postdocs, research managers and administrators in colleges, universities, hospitals and research institutes. In addition, it is an ideal resource for those working in grant and contract funding groups in the life sciences and medical fields. Covers the nuts and bolts of research management in the life sciences, medical and health fields Provides simple solutions to issues that come up on the job Ensures that hard-fought for money is spent wisely and well

Imagine a world in which most projects - personal, social, corporate, organizational and governmental - are successfully accomplished. That is the purpose and the reason for writing this book. There is work to be done. Only a select few projects deliver their purpose, meet their expected goals, achieve sustainable benefits, satisfy most stakeholders, meet their deadlines and stay within their original financial budget. So what is the secret? What can we learn from the thousands of failed projects? And how can we develop a framework or tool that guarantees, or at least significantly increases the chance of, project success? In fact, every aspect of our lives is becoming a set of projects. The speed of change witnessed in the past decade has radically affected the way we organize and manage our companies and work. Many of the traditional activities in organizations will soon be carried out by automation and robots. In this new landscape, projects are becoming an essential model to create value. In short, we are witnessing the rise of the project economy. Leading projects thinker Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez explains the tremendous consequences that this unnoticed disruption is having on our lives and the reasons behind it. He also looks at how leading companies, governments, schools, and universities have already embraced projects as the way to deliver on their strategy and ambitions. Ultimately, this book explains how individuals and companies can develop the competencies required to transform and thrive in the new digital and project-driven economy.

The one primer you need to develop your leadership skills. Put aside all the overhyped new frameworks, the listicles, the "10 best things you need to succeed as a leader today." The critical leadership practices--the ones that will allow a leader to make the biggest impact over time--are well established. They're about how you create a vision and inspire others to follow it. How you make difficult strategic choices. How you lead innovation. How you get results. These fundamental skills are even more important today as organizations and teams become increasingly networked, virtual, agile, fast-moving, and socially conscious. In this comprehensive handbook, strategy and change experts Ron Ashkenas and Brook Manville distill proven ideas and frameworks about leadership from Harvard Business Review, interviews with senior executives, and their own experience in the field--all to help rising leaders stand out and have a big impact. In the HBR Leader's Handbook you'll find: Concise explanations of proven leadership frameworks from Harvard Business Review contributors such as Clayton M. Christensen and Michael E. Porter In-depth case studies of senior leaders such as Jim Wolfensohn at the World Bank, Paula Kerger at PBS, Darren Walker at the Ford Foundation, and Jim Smith at Thomson Reuters Step-by-step guidance to help you understand and start implementing six core leadership practices: building a unifying vision, developing a strategy, getting great people on board, focusing on results, innovating for the future, and leading yourself

Project management is not easy--it is a complicated, multilayered matter, whether you manage projects for your entire company, for a department or just your own projects. And using a management software program isn't enough, as many project managers painfully learn. This book takes you through 10 steps that, if you follow them correctly, will lead to successful project management.

A field guide for the unique challenges of data science leadership, filled with transformative insights, personal experiences, and industry examples. In How To Lead in Data Science you will learn: Best practices for leading projects while balancing complex trade-offs Specifying, prioritizing, and planning projects from vague requirements Navigating structural challenges in your organization Working through project failures with positivity and tenacity Growing your team with coaching, mentoring, and advising Crafting technology roadmaps and championing successful projects Driving diversity, inclusion, and belonging within teams Architecting a long-term business strategy and data roadmap as an executive Delivering a data-driven culture and structuring productive data science organizations How to Lead in Data Science is full of techniques for leading data science at every seniority level—from heading up a single project to overseeing a whole company's data strategy. Authors Jike Chong and Yue Cathy Chang share hard-won advice that they've developed building data teams for LinkedIn, Acorns, Yiren Digital, large asset-management firms, Fortune 50 companies, and more. You'll find advice on plotting your long-term career advancement, as well as quick wins you can put into practice right away. Carefully crafted assessments and interview scenarios encourage introspection, reveal personal blind spots, and highlight development areas. About the technology Lead your data science teams and projects to success! To make a consistent, meaningful impact as a data science leader, you must articulate technology roadmaps, plan effective project strategies, support diversity, and create a positive environment for professional growth. This book delivers the wisdom and practical skills you need to thrive as a data science leader at all levels, from team member to the C-suite. About the book How to Lead in Data Science shares unique leadership techniques from high-performance data teams. It’s filled with best practices for balancing project trade-offs and producing exceptional results, even when beginning with vague requirements or unclear expectations. You’ll find a clearly presented modern leadership framework based on current case studies, with insights reaching all the way to Aristotle and Confucius. As you read, you’ll build practical skills to grow and improve your team, your company’s data culture, and yourself. What's inside How to coach and mentor team members Navigate an organization’s structural challenges Secure commitments from other teams and partners Stay current with the technology landscape Advance your career About the reader For data science practitioners at all levels. About the author Dr. Jike Chong and Yue Cathy Chang build, lead, and grow high-performing data teams across industries in public and private companies, such as Acorns, LinkedIn, large asset-management firms, and Fortune 50 companies. Table of Contents 1 What makes a successful data scientist? PART 1 THE TECH LEAD: CULTIVATING LEADERSHIP 2 Capabilities for leading projects 3 Virtues for leading projects PART 2 THE MANAGER: NURTURING A TEAM 4 Capabilities for leading people 5 Virtues for leading people PART 3 THE DIRECTOR: GOVERNING A FUNCTION 6 Capabilities for leading a function 7 Virtues for leading a function PART 4 THE EXECUTIVE: INSPIRING AN INDUSTRY 8 Capabilities for leading a company 9 Virtues for leading a company PART 5 THE LOOP AND THE FUTURE 10 Landscape, organization, opportunity, and practice 11 Leading in data science and a future outlook