Mike Clayton

A project manager is a professional. And, like any professional, if you take your profession, your career and yourself seriously, you’ll undertake Continuing Professional Development (CPD). What is a PDU? If you hold...

Influence and persuasion start with confidence. If the people around you don’t detect that you are confident in yourself and what you are saying, then neither will they be. This means conveying confidence is an...

If you’re like every other project manager I have met, there’s a good chance you spend a lot of your time in meetings. And I shan’t rehearse all the arguments about why that time is valuable and how poor meeting...

When you work with clients, sometimes you find yourself facing a tough conversation you’d really rather not have. You can feel your muscles tensing and sweat beads rising on your forehead and palms. This won’t be...

One of the biggest changes in project management in the last few years has been the rise of virtual teams. First, it was multinational corporations that had to grasp the challenge of coordinating people in different...

Entrepreneurs are committed, energetic, can-do people. That description can also fit your typical project manager, which makes sense because launching a business is a project. I’ve done it a few times, so I know. I...

Project Managers are among the most positive of people. Armed with our methods and tools, our boundless optimism and our can-do attitude, it sometimes feels like we can do anything. Yet the fact is, there are...

Servant leader. That sounds pretty much like a contradiction in terms, but it is a profoundly important idea. Indeed, I’d argue that servant leadership the single most valuable approach to leadership. And it’s an...

Intuition is an important part of decision making. There’s a reason why we use phrases like “listen to your gut” or “let your heart speak.” Both our gut and our heart have complex networks of nerve cells....

Have you noticed how some people seem to be lucky in life, or lucky at work? Have you ever wondered how that happens, why some people have good fortune? My dictionary defines luck as, “Events beyond our control that...

“A bruise is a lesson… and each lesson makes us better” – Arya Stark Project managers can get pretty bruised by the lessons projects throw at us. But we deserve a little time off too. And, if you’re like me,...

What has Zen got to do with the art of Project Management? Arguably, more than it has to do with motorcycle maintenance! But then, I don’t own a motorbike, and neither do I know how to maintain one. But I do know how...

Hard power is familiar to us all. It’s the use of force. And economic power, in all of its forms of reward and penalty, is equally common. But how can you effectively collaborate with others and get people to do what...

They say the ability to speak truth to power is a sign of real professional maturity. If that’s the case (and I think it is), then the ultimate is knowing how to say no to your boss, without causing offence. Because...

If you ever want to innovate, create or change something, there is one thing you need to be ready for: resistance. Because when people experience change, resistance is a natural reaction. And since managing change is a...

Outsiders don’t realize it, but project management is a creative discipline. The nature of our work means we are constantly discovering new problems to solve. So, this means that among a long list of other skills, you...

Bringing stakeholders along with us is one of the keys to a successful project. But to influence people, you first need to understand them. That goes the same for managing your stakeholders. The tools we use are called...

There’s no getting around negotiating. You need to negotiate scope choices with stakeholders, resources and budget with sponsors and role allocations with team members, to give just three examples. In fact, arguably,...

When it comes to personal productivity, people expect managers to be super-efficient work machines. And many of us are, I’m sure. But what if you’re not? What if you haven’t got that easy efficiency and simple...

Nothing ever goes as planned. And I think there are two big reasons for this. First, the universe is no respecter of your plans. Randomness and the unforeseen constantly vie to kick them from behind and disrupt your...

“We’re project managers: we’re not politicians.” I find myself saying this quite a lot during training workshops and seminars, as participants over-interpret the brief I present them with. I want them to focus...