- Welcome back, to the very first episode
of the PM Perspective Channel.
I know, I had a couple of videos out there.
They've been out there a few years.
This isn't exactly the first episode,
but I'm calling it the first episode,
because, this is the first regular episode
that I'll be putting out there.
I'm just celebrating the moment.
Before we get into today's topic, I just wanna remind you
that, for the remainder of March and for April,
our topic of discussion is going to be all about
how to get a project management job.
If you have never had a project management job before,
and you're out there looking for your very first one,
then, I've got lots of stuff this month
that will be relevant for you.
That you'll find interesting.
And, if you have a project management job,
but, you're maybe looking for that next opportunity,
there's gonna be plenty of great stuff for you as well.
If you're in either one of those situations,
there's a lot of really great information,
that I'll be sharing with you over the next few weeks.
Today's topic is, I think is apropos,
it's answering the question:
"Is project management right for me?"
It is a little more geared towards the person who
is looking to break into project management,
who hasn't had that job before.
But I wanna cover today is, we'll start with talking about
some of the typical reasons people say
they wanna get into project management.
I'll talk about a little bit why some
of those typical reasons are problematic,
and then, we'll get into, I'll list of a number traits
that I think are very important for a person to be
very successful at project management.
It's probably true that just about anybody can get into
project management, but, I would say that, in my travels,
I run across a lot of project managers who,
they get into the field, they do it as a full time job,
they get to a certain point, and then, they sort of plateau.
And I think that for many of those people the reasons are
because, they don't exhibit a lot of the traits
that I'm about to talk about today.
They don't enjoy, or they are not passionate about,
the kinds of things that would take
their career to the next level.
There's a bit of a pet peeves of mine,
I get approached by people all the time,
who are looking to get into project management,
and, they will give me some reasons,
like:
"I really think is a good thing for me because,
"I'm really well organized, and I can organize other people.
"I like to help people stay on schedule, you know,
"like, I'll nag them and I'll make sure
"they finish their tasks on time.
"I'm really great working with vendors, if there's problems,
"I'm the first one to get on the phone, and solve problems,
"and I'm good at solving problems over all, so,
"I think project management would be a great job for me."
I typically would say that to them what,
"You might be right."
But, those are all very surface level type things, that,
you probably have observed project managers doing before.
But in order to really be passionate about
that sort of stuff and to be good at it,
there's some underlying traits that we need to talk about.
I find that a lot of people will approach
project management sort of with this idea that,
"Well, you know, anyone could do it."
And I said it earlier, I think anyone could get into it,
but I don't think just anyone could get really good at it.
I tend to think of project management
as a similar thing to maybe, an artist,
right, a project manager and an artist.
You look at a sculpture that somebody does,
and you're in awe of how amazing the sculpture looks.
Or maybe, you see an artist, and she's amazing with
acrylic painting, or drawing, or whatever her medium is.
A lot of people will look at the art, and they'll say,
"Wow, I could never do that!"
They appreciate the skill that goes into it.
They don't say, "Well, I've got a pencil, I could
"probably do the same thing."
And yet, people tend to do that about project management.
They'll say, "Well, I can make a schedule,
"I could be a project manager."
And, I have to have the conversation with them to say,
"Yeah, but, there's probably a little more to it,
"than you're thinking."
And in order to get really good, and to become
a senior project manager, or even to go beyond that,
into the executive level of project delivery,
you kind of have to be passionate about certain things.
You have to be wired a certain way,
in order to be truly successful.
Let's talk about some of those traits.
First and foremost, the most important,
if you remember any of them today,
this is the one I want you to remember.
The most important trait a person has to have to be
very successful as a project manager is,
they have to have a genuine interest in people.
I'm gonna hone in on one of the words
I used there, "genuine."
The only way you're gonna get people to do things for you,
and that's kind of what a project manager does,
they bring a lot of people together to achieve a goal.
And they have no formal authority.
So, in order for a project manager to be really good
at getting people to all align on the same objective,
which is not an easy thing, to agree to how
something is going to be done, and then,
to go do it, and do it well, a project manager
has to have a lot of what I call
goodwill currency with those people.
They have to have a lot of, influence on those people.
Because, when the chips are down, and you need people
maybe, to stay late or to work a little faster,
or to work a little harder, or to solve a problem,
you need those people to view you as a leader
that they don't mind following,
that they don't mind staying a little late,
or going above and beyond for.
The only way you're gonna do that,
is to demonstrate to them, that you care about them.
Having a genuine interest in people,
actually wanting to understand what their day job is.
Many of those people working on your project is something
they're doing off the side of their desk,
they have a day job, they have a family,
they've so many other things going on in their life,
other than your project.
The more interested you are in those things,
the more interest that you show,
the more people are likely to believe,
that you see them as a human being,
that you appreciate them,
and they're more willing to work hard for you.
If you demonstrate that genuine interest.
I spent a lot of time on that one.
I think it's very important though,
if you're the kind of person who just doesn't like people,
or would rather, you know, like, send emails,
than go and talk to people,
if interaction makes you uncomfortable,
then maybe you might wanna think about another career.
Because, people is what project management is all about.
Another trait that I think is very important is,
this is where people are gonna be thinking,
"Ew, I don't know if I like this!"
Project managers have to genuinely enjoy politics.
And, right now, I know there's people out there
who are recoiling at what I just said.
"Politics, oh my goodness!"
A lot of people will say to me,
"No, Jason, politics, I don't go for that stuff.
"I leave politics out of the equation.
"I leave it on the wayside,
"and I just focus on the task at hand."
And you can tell what I think about that, right?
(laughs)
But, to me, politics is not a bad word,
politics is just acknowledging the fact,
that every human being comes to the table
with their own set of objectives.
Everybody wants something, out of whatever it is,
that you're doing, and that something
it's a little different depending on who that person is.
Let's just acknowledge that everyone here is a human being,
they all have their own objectives,
let's figure our what those objectives are,
and if at all possible, we can find a way to navigate
through this, and deliver our project in a way
that allows everyone to get most of what they're after,
then, why the hell not?
That's good politics.
Politics doesn't have to be evil,
it's just the realization that everyone sitting around
the table has their own set of objectives.
Figure out what they are, and you'll be successful.
If you hate politics, and you wish everyone
would just take their own personal desires,
and set them aside, you're probably gonna struggle
as a project manager, and you most certainly won't get
to become a senior project manager,
and to start to manage some of those larger projects.
Another trait that I think is very important
for project managers is, they need to be healthy skeptic.
If being skeptical was beaten out of you at a very young age
and you just accept what people tell you at face value?
Then you're gonna have a really hard time
doing a good job as a project manager.
And, when I say skeptical, I don't just mean,
when your project team says,
"Oh, everything's great, we're green."
That you're skeptical about that.
Of course you should be, that's the most obvious place
where a project manager should be skeptical.
You need to find evidence to back up what people
are telling you is true about the project.
But, I am also suggesting that you need to be skeptical
when your executive sponsor comes to you and says,
"I want you to build this scope,
"for this amount of money, within this timeframe."
Be skeptical about those three things.
More often than not, those three things,
were not derived from some deep analysis.
Those items were picked out of the sky.
The price they wanna pay.
The time they think it should take.
You need to be skeptical that those
three things actually work together.
When ever somebody comes to me,
an executive or even a client and says,
"I want this for this much money and this much time."
My response is always, "We'll see,
"I'll take it away, we'll analyze it,
and I'll let you know whether or not we can do that.
Being skeptical about all of those things,
it's just to me, good project management.
I find that the majority of the project managers out there,
they've had the skepticism beaten right out of them.
They feel like, "Well, this person is an executive,
"they're 10 levels above me in the organization,
"when they tell me to do a thing,
"I've just gotta go do it."
If that's how you feel, and that healthy skepticism
is no longer there within you,
then, you're probably gonna struggle as a project manager.
Cause what will happen is, you'll say,
"Yes ma'am," or "sir."
You'll go away and do whatever it is they asked you to do.
You won't achieve your objective,
because those things were unrealistic to begin with,
and nobody is gonna to be thanking you for it,
and you're gonna feel like you were set up.
So, healthy skepticism, very important
for a project manager to have.
Going sort of hand in hand with that, is,
having a keen interest in the "why" and "how".
Not so much in the "what".
A lot of project managers,
the very first thing they'll say is,
"What do you want me to build, and, by when?"
Those are the two things, "what" and "when".
I tend to say, "You know what?
"If those are your fist questions,
"let's just put those aside."
A lot of people feel like, "Oh, I'm a real go getter.
"What do you want, and when do you want it by?
"I'll make it happen for you."
Good on you for having that attitude, but,
let's put those two things aside for a minute.
I would much rather have a PM sitting in front of me,
who is asking, "But, why do you want this?
"And, how do you think we should do it?"
"Why" and "how" are much more important questions.
When we're kids we ask "why" a lot.
And our parents at some point probably got
totally fed up with us and said,
"Stop asking me why, It's just because, just go do."
And we carry that forward in life,
and many of us stop asking, "Why?"
And we stop asking, "How?"
It's just, "What?" And, "By when?"
We feel like we're being good foot soldiers by saying,
"What, and, by when?"
And, we're not supposed to be foot soldiers,
we're supposed to be leaders, right?
Focusing on "why" and "how", if that's a natural
tendency for you, if it hasn't been beaten out of you,
then, I think you're gonna have,
an awesome time as a project manager, because,
that's exactly what everybody really needs from you.
Also, I think a project manager always has to be playing
scenarios and considering possibilities in their heads.
One of the things that I find people say to me a lot is,
"You know, Jason, the whole organization keeps changing,
"they change their mind about what they want,
"we're changing how we're doing things
"right in the middle of the project,
"I mean, if we could just stop all this change,
"and we could just execute our plan,
"everything would be just so much better."
And I think about those people, and I think,
"I am so sorry, that you feel that way, because,
that is life, we live in a constantly changing world."
A lot of people, who don't have a lot of experience
with project management, are just getting into it,
they have this vision in their head, that,
"This is what I'm gonna do, I'm gonna create a project plan,
"and we're gonna get the project team
"to execute against that plan,
"and we're gonna deliver on time and on budget,
"and then, we're all gonna celebrate."
That's a great dream.
In my 23 years of delivering projects,
I have never actually had that happen.
There's a famous quote, and I forget who is attributed--
it's attributed to many different people, but,
the quote goes a little something like this,
that "No plan survives contact with the enemy."
And, what that basically means is,
you can make all the plans you want,
but the very moment you engage the enemy,
you have to change your plans.
Because, they're not gonna behave in the way
that you anticipated, everything is going to be different.
A successful project manager, actually,
is okay with that ever changing landscape.
They don't lament the fact that people
can't make up their mind, that the things keep changing.
"If they would just stop changing for a while,
"then we could get this done."
If they're more of the kind of person that goes,
"Hah, c'est la vie, so it changed."
And they're okay with that, they're no stressed by that,
then, they're gonna make an awesome project manager.
I build my plans, and part of the course
that I'm putting together, one of the major points
that I make is, the process of coming up with a plan,
the team building around that,
is actually the more important thing
than the actual plan itself.
Because, the plan, is totally gonna need to change,
on day one, when you start executing it.
I guarantee it.
So, a person who's okay with that, is gonna do
very, very well as a project manager.
The final thing I would say here, is,
a project manager has to be able
to trust themselves to make a decision.
And, often you'll have to make a decision
with very little information.
I'm not going to put it that way.
You'll have to make a decision
before you have all of the information.
Everything's not gonna be perfectly lined up for you
every time you have to make a call.
And if you wanna become a more senior project manager,
if that's were you wanna head,
you have to be able to get as much information
that's available to you in the moment,
and then make the call, and be comfortable with that,
and live with the fact that you're
not always going to get it right.
If you're paralyzed by fear, and you always
have to be right, if you always have to be right,
and you're a perfectionist, project management
might not be for you, if you're okay with making a mistake
because you understand that making a decision,
the best informed decision you possibly could make
is more important than being right all the time,
then, you're probably gonna be okay.
So, anyways, I'm gonna stop here.
I think I've given you enough food for thought.
What I want you to do with it, is,
think about the things that I mentioned,
ask yourself, "Is this really, me?"
And if you think it is, and you say,
"Yeah, absolutely, I'm that kind of person,
"I ask how, and why all the time,
"and I haven't had that skepticism beaten out of me,
"and I love politics."
Then, great!
Then, I'm really exited for you to go on the rest
of this journey with me, cause we got lots
of really great stuff for you.
If this video has given you pause, and you're thinking,
"Ah, maybe not for me."
Then, that's also good, because,
I see a lot of people, get into project management
as a profession, they get to a certain level,
probably they do finally make it to PM,
like they go from junior PM to PM, and then,
they just sort of plateau, and they get very frustrated,
and they're like, "Well, I've been a PM for 15 years,
"why am I not getting the bigger projects?"
And chances are, it's because some of these stuff.
They're just not passionate about people,
they keep lamenting the fact that the world is changing,
and that's why they're not getting the bigger projects.
Cause, they're just not comfortable enough
to be able to take it to the next level.
So, think about those things.
I hope you find this information useful.
If you did, and you think other project managers
might find it useful too, then,
what I'll like to ask you to do
is to interact with the video a little bit,
that will allow you to present this video
to more project managers.
Take a little trip bellow the video here, and tell me.
Did you like the information?
Give me a thumbs up.
If you didn't, it didn't work for you,
then fine, thumbs down.
Either way, fine by me.
Leave me a comment, in the comment section.
Tell me, did this sort of clinch it for you?
Did you go, "Yeah, totally, you've made me even
"more exited about project management than I was before!"
Awesome! I wanna hear that.
Or even if, maybe, this video has maybe
potentially stopped you from making a bit of a mistake.
Let me know.
I really would like to hear that too.
That's the whole reason why I'm doing this video.
And if you haven't already, please,
hit the subscribe button, and next to that button,
you see a little bell icon, if you wanna be notified
when the next video comes out,
go ahead and click that as well.
The next video that I have for you,
which will be coming out next Friday,
is all about, compensation for project managers.
What are project managers, getting paid these days.
Thank you, for sticking with me on the very first episode.
I hope you enjoyed it, and I look forward
to seeing you in the next video.