Did you know, Santa is not just a person who comes with Christmas Gifts, but he is also a perfect project manager. Dive in to learn Project Management Lessons from Santa Himself.
As the day becomes shorter and nights become sparkling and you start hiding in sweaters, you realize that the best part of the year has arrived at the doorstep. Yes, the season of holidays, discounts, and of course sweets is here. Talking about Christmas without Santa Clause is surely not possible, and if we look at Santa from the lens of Project Management, we realize that Santa is the best project manager and each one of us can learn a lot from him.
You might be thinking, for God’s Sake, don’t talk about work during vacation. Yes, we know that you have entered your vacation mood, and it’s not easy as you have to make a Christmas gifts shopping plan, deal with your travel plans and how can we forget the most important activity organized by almost all the offices. ‘The Secret Santa…’ but managing so many tasks is not something new for a project manager. Moreover, according to the survey done by MetLife,
December is the most stressful time of the year for 42% of project managers. So, to help you in preparing your work-life New Year Resolution, let us put in front of you the example of a perfect project manager, Santa.
What Makes Santa the Best Project Manager?
Yes, we know Santa is not real, but he is surely a most popular, overworked mythical project manager. Santa needs to follow the traditional, complex web of logistics, to make sure not a single delivery goes off-target. He also needs to motivate his large team of reindeer and elves and fulfil the expectations of all the wishers.
For a project manager, the Christmas holidays are paradoxically full of contradictions. It might be enjoyable, happy, and thrilling. It can also be exhausting, annoying, and time-consuming. But you can overcome the difficulties and have a great time doing it if you have some trust and follow a few straightforward guidelines. You can accomplish it if Santa can! Take a sip of some eggnog, turn on some festive music, and enjoy yourself!
So, in Christmas 2022, let’s learn Project Management Lessons from the Best Project Manager, Santa
Scheduling
This quality of Santa might have gone unnoticed to most of us, but it is one of the most challenging and important qualities that Santa has, which has made him an undisputed hero of Christmas for ages now. He with his team has to deliver gifts to millions of children all over the globe that also in one night, his time starts from Christmas Eve till the sunrise. Imagine if children wake up on Christmas morning and don’t find their Christmas gifts, it would be considered as a project management disaster. So, scheduling is a very important part of Santa’s Christmas Project.
- Team Management
As we know, Santa is a team player and has a team of reindeer and elves. Delivering so many Christmas gifts all around the world is not at all a smooth task, and completing the task without any interference is a perfect example of smooth coordination within his team. He keeps his team motivated throughout this stressful work and achieves all his targets. Santa and his team prove that how great team management can do wonders.
- Budgeting
One of the most important aspects that can make or break the achievements of a project manager. Irrespective of what the inflation rate is and how much there is a rise in the price of raw materials, Santa makes sure to deliver Christmas gifts as per the requests of the children without running out of money or breaking a bank, this makes him a budgeting wizard that every company looks for.
- Managing Stakeholders
Santa puts up a perfect example of how to successfully manage Stakeholders. Because of his successful track record, he has the trust of all of his stakeholders in him, millions of people worldwide believe that Santa can deliver their Christmas gifts to each person on time and within the budget without a single error, irrespective of any situation or other disruptive factors. Santa’s constant achievements and stakeholder management skills have made him the favourite project manager of the stakeholders.
- Crisis Management
Undoubtedly, Santa is a Crisis Management Expert and he has proved his issues management capabilities under pressure time and again. Be it a snowstorm, earthquake, or war, Santa has always arrived with his Christmas gifts during Christmas. One of the best examples that are very much popular is the story of Christmas Day from the early 90’s when the Christmas celebration and Christmas Eve were almost cancelled because of the weather crisis, but Santa still managed to deliver all the Christmas presents with the help of Rudolph, a reindeer with red nose known as Santa’s guiding light.
Ho! Ho! Ho!!! Christmas Holidays
All the above-mentioned qualities of Santa, make him the Ultimate Project Manager of all time. These project management lessons will surely help you in becoming a successful project manager, but you are not Santa, so you will require various Project Management Certifications to present yourself as a perfect candidate to take this job. Because of his 100% success rate as a project manager, Santa can’t come to teach these lessons to the project management aspirants. So, Santa has assigned this job to us, ProThoughts Solutions. We have taken the responsibility to help project management aspirants become successful project managers like Santa through various Project Management Certifications, some of the popular ones are PMP Certification, DASSM Certification, SAFe Certification, other Agile Certifications, PgMP, etc. Unlike Santa, ProThoughts has its doors open for Project Management Certifications aspirants throughout the year and has an online as well as offline presence. You can schedule a free call with a ProThoughts consultant for more details. Through this call, you will get a lot of information regarding trending project management courses, their duration, fees & so on. So look no further & climb the career ladder with a certificate the in project management domain.
Merry Christmas!
Happy New Year 2023!!!
From ProThoughts Solutions
