Management

5 questions with consultant Derek Preece about Improving project management skills

Your practice is looking for leaders within its ranks. Will you step up?

Derek Preece of BSM Consulting specializes in multiple aspects of ophthalmology management, including team building and employee motivation. Here, he reveals tips on how to advance your career by volunteering for, and successfully navigating, in-house projects.

Q. When assigned to be the manager of a project, how can a staffer establish herself as a leader among her peers?

A. First, it’s important the administrator announce to other staff members the assignment they are giving to that person. If an administrator says to a technician manager, ‘I want you to take on this project,’ and let’s assume the project involves the front desk and the techs, etc., for that person to go to the front desk and say ‘I’m in charge of this project and I need your help with it,’ that doesn’t work very well. It’s incumbent upon the administrator to make very clear to the other employees that she has been given the assignment and outline the parameters of their responsibility and authority. People will be much more willing to cooperate with that person if the overall boss of the practice says they need to do that.

Q. What are some of the things a project manager can take to give the impression that she/he is a leader?

A. The first thing I would do is get the participants in the project together in some form of a meeting and lay out what needs to be done. I like to get ideas from the participants about how each person can participate and add value to it rather than just demanding or assigning various parts of the project. It’s much better to get the participants engaged. They’ll be much more willing to put forth extra effort if they’re engaged in helping decide responsibilities and the time table for completion, within the restrictions of what the manager has been given.

If the manager has a well-organized meeting to lay out the basics of the project and gets the participants to share their thoughts and suggestions, that’s a good start. Every major project has a number of different parts to it. Sometimes those parts must be sequential.

Once that meeting is held, the project manager needs to put together a work plan that documents the parts of the project, who is responsible for each part and when they should have those particular parts done.

Q. What organizational skills should a project manager be able to display?

A. Number one, good planning skills. Number two, good delegation skills. Number three, a willingness and ability to engage others in the project. Number four, the willingness to hear feedback and adjust assignments and workflow as needed. No major project goes exactly as it was planned at the beginning. Managers need to be able to hear when an aspect of the project isn’t working or can’t be completed within the time given. They need to be able to figure out alternative methods of getting the work accomplished. They need to be light on their feet in adjusting things.

Q. What are some ways staffers can begin to develop leadership skills before they’re even chosen for a project management role to demonstrate their capabilities?

A. Get some practice by volunteering for small projects, for instance, something that only takes a day or two. Use this as an opportunity to work on your delegation skills and your listening skills. If I were a technician and I wanted to learn to manage projects so I could eventually be a manager of technicians, I would volunteer for small projects and get experience doing that to prepare me to take on bigger and bigger projects. It would also make me more visible to managers.

It is also helpful to do some reading on project management. It’s always helpful to gain some additional knowledge from what others have written in books and articles. They can also look into online courses on project management. It’s a matter of learning as much as you can about how to get things done. I don’t follow everything I read exactly, I extract the things that make sense to me, and follow those.

Learning about project management is helpful, but real learning comes from doing.

Q. What are some of the projects where ophthalmic professionals can make their mark as the project manager?

A. EHR implementation, that’s the huge one right now. It’s a multiplicity of little projects. Other projects include any kind of implementation of computer systems: EHR, a new practice management system, implementing a new phone system, or opening a second office location or moving. They could be charged with helping change the way any process is done within the practice. For example, a technician might be involved in documenting the steps of a work-up needed for different categories of patients based on their diseases.

Q. Once staff have successfully managed a big project, how can they leverage the experience to springboard to professional development?

A. Regardless of the project and the motivation, it’s really important during the project to make clear progress reports to the person who has assigned to project. If it’s a long-term project, that might mean an update every month. If it’s a shorter-term project, maybe it’s every couple of days. The reports can be verbal, although in some cases, it’s better to make it a short written report because then you have better documentation. An e-mail is usually fine. At the conclusion of the project, it’s really important for the person who managed the project to report back to their superior to report on the overall success of the project and the key learnings obtained. Otherwise, there may be no recognition among management or doctors that it was actually completed successfully. It’s important to deliver this final report, which can naturally lead into a request for additional responsibilities.

Don’t expect a raise for managing a single project, such as moving locations or helping to design a new office. However, for a huge project, such as implementing EHR, it’s not uncommon to receive a bonus. If a person’s responsibilities in that area continue after the project is completed, then a raise may be warranted.

If you’re dubbed the super-user for EHR, it may warrant a bonus for the implementation and a raise for the on-going additional responsibilities. In order to get a pay raise or a bonus that final report on the project is really important. Once you submit that, then it’s time to consider the discussion for a bonus or a raise. OP