Effective team meetings

We all learn best by observing. In corporate world too, the best way to learning something is by observing someone who is proficient at it. I have learnt a few things about project management by observing project managers who consistently produced good results, even under very challenging situations. Here are some of the characteristics I have observed of good project managers.

What I have observed about good project managers is that they are very effective at running productive team meetings. Good project manager don't just go round the room asking participants what they have been working on. They focus on certain things that make status gathering meetings very effective. Some of the things that they focus on are:

• Current status of work against the plan: Good project managers always talk about status of work with respect to the plan
• Plan forward: They focus a lot of energy in planning forward. They understand that a plan is not a static document, but needs to be revised (and refined) frequently as we progress.
• Risks: Good project managers focus on risks to the plan, and how to mitigate the risks 
• Action plan for resolving issues - Good managers don't focus just on issues, but spend time brainstorming resolutions

One characteristic of good project managers is that they are forward looking and focus on planning for future and mitigating future risks, instead of spending too much time on analyzing why issues came into being and who is to be blamed for the issues.