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EFFECTIVE PROJECT MANAGER

The power of you. Leave your mark

 

Susan Ksiezopolski, PMP®

What is your role in achieving project success? What makes you an effective project manager? Whether you realize it, acknowledge it or not, your attitude and not just your skills have an impact on project outcomes. Whether you are the project manager, project team member or project stakeholder you do have an impact on everyone around you. "You leave your Mark”.

Ever stop to consider how to increase your effectiveness as a project manager, and how to work your magic within your sphere of influence, within your world, to create positive project outcomes?

Your skills and abilities are important, however your attitude has a significantly greater impact on your team members, your stakeholders and ultimately your performance. The time and effort you spend on improving your personal and professional effectiveness pays dividends in the arena of project execution.

Emotional intelligence

This is where emotional intelligence (EI) comes in as a valuable tool for project managers that are willing to embrace their touchy feely side.

EI is about identifying, assessing and controlling your emotions and those of others.

It is about harnessing awareness.

Much has been written about the hard skills of project management, the technical competencies required to successfully execute quality projects and deliver the required scope on time and within budget. However in today’s complex multi dimensional project environment, effective project practitioners cannot survive by applying technical savvy alone.

To perform well a project manager needs to attend to the human element while executing projects.

To be an effective project manager you must capture the minds, but more importantly the hearts of your project teams. Touching the heart will motivate the team to succeed and will also keep your team inspired and motivated to reach the finish line. Technical skills are important as they support building credibility and driving execution. However, it is the application of interpersonal soft skills that will take the team to the next level and willingly have them go the extra mile to complete project deliverables. You must learn to tap into your own strengths, become aware of what motivates you and gain confidence in how you apply your soft skills. You must be learn what inspires you and stimulated you to take on challenges.

The “Power of You”, lies in your own emotional competencies, which include your ability to:

• Network and build connections to support you.
• Be flexible and be ready to adapt to change by re‐adjusting your trajectory as opportunities and challenges appear.
• Be self aware and in Socrates terms “Know yourself”, learn how to listen to your intuition to help guide decisions.

“Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Ralph Waldo Emerson

To leave your mark, you need to be prepared to ignite your own passion, to help maximize your own and your team’s potential. The “Power of You” lies in your ability to stimulate your inspiration and passion. Passion is contagious. It will in turn create enthusiasm and has the power to touch and motivate your project team’s hearts into action.

Susan Ksiezopolski is a project management professional (PMP) who enjoys sharing her passion and expertise for project management. She has consulting and provided advice to various public sector organizations in an international setting. Her real passion is the power of people and the impact they have in projects, as demonstrated in this article.

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