Significant Career Lesson From A Senior Project Manager At The Grupe Company
Rob, a Senior Project Manager, learned the hard way that strong organization is paramount to success, stating that "if you're not organized, it leads to mistakes, confusion, things missed". This lesson, learned early in their career when stakes were lower, allowed them to build a solid foundation for future success and avoid more significant errors as their responsibilities grew.
Project Management, Organization, Planning, Problem-Solving, Leadership
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Rob Toste
Senior Project Manager
The Grupe Company
California State University Stanislaus
N/A
Business Management & Admin, Entrepreneurship
Real Estate
Operations and Project Management
None Applicable
Video Highlights
1. Organization is crucial for success in project management. Being organized prevents mistakes, confusion, and missed tasks, leading to smoother project execution.
2. The importance of organization grows over time as project complexity and team dependence increase.
3. Learning to be organized early in one's career prevents larger, more costly mistakes later on. A strong foundation built through organization makes future processes flow much more efficiently
Transcript
What's one lesson you've learned that has proven significant in your career?
This relates to question number four: "What skills are most important for a job like mine?" I learned this lesson the hard way.
The most important skill, I've found, is organization. Asking the right questions develops over time; it's a skill that grows.
However, if you're not organized, it leads to mistakes, confusion, and missed tasks. You typically only make that mistake once.
The only way to avoid repeating that mistake is to be more organized, slow down, and think through the process. You need to plan.
If you lay a good foundation, everything else builds upon it. Once you are organized and have everything in order, all subsequent processes go much smoother.
When you're not organized, it's like building a house of cards. Projects can get out of hand, and you'll forget things. Certain tasks get missed because you didn't even plan for them, as you weren't organized.
Luckily, I learned this lesson early on when the stakes weren't as high and fewer people were dependent on me. While many people are dependent on me now, it's more so today than it was back then. The mistakes were relatively minor, but I learned that lesson early, so I didn't have to make a bigger mistake later.