With the semester ending early on campuses and brothers taking classes from home, many SigEps have asked how to keep brothers connected. To meet that need, we’re adding content on SigEp’s Instagram page and holding twice-weekly meetups. These are intended to help you and your members develop now while getting you ready to hit the ground running when in-person classes resume.
Matt Fournier, Arkansas ’18, works in project management and planning at a Fortune 100 company. As a recent graduate who’s gotten his feet wet in the professional world, he shared some insights from his role to help brothers implement project management tips in our careers and daily lives. These tips can help you plan, prioritize and communicate what’s important to you.
1. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
Without a systematic way to organize your thoughts, notes and schedule, it’s nearly impossible to succeed in managing any project. Career and personal projects can stretch over months and years, and it’s impossible to remember everything that happens without a strong system. Find a method of organization that works for you and stick with it.
2. Prioritize.
In life, you can’t always anticipate what will happen next. When things come at you, you have to have a way to prioritize so you can be effective. Matt recommends the urgent-important matrix: Immediately do the things that are urgent and important, plan to do the things that are important but not urgent, delegate items that are urgent but not important, and eliminate things that are neither.
3. Communicate.
There are soft and hard communication skills, and you need to use and be aware of both. Soft skills include public speaking, conversation and finding common ground with those around you. Hard skills are more measurable competencies like data analytics, software skills and critical thinking, which come in handy when presenting your needs and opinions. Make sure to integrate a full range of communication to be a successful project manager in your life and your career.
Leave a Reply