Manage Yourself for Project Success
by Karen Foo
Why Manage Yourself?
If you walk along the “self-enrichment” section of the bookstore you will be bombarded with books on “How to manage your time effectively”. As a project manager, this might leave you with the impression that developing and managing the project schedule was the most important tasks for you. If your project did not work it was probably because you did not manage the timeline well enough, did not keep track of the project schedule or there was insufficient time to complete everything. When it comes to project management, you won’t be able to manage your time unless you learn to manage yourself. Those who scaled to the peak of Everest did not conquer the mountain. They conquered themselves. In other words, a project manager should manage himself before he manages the project!
However, most people get daunted with the thought of self-management. They might get the impression that managing themselves would mean imposing strict daily schedules and fixed regimens. The truth is often the contrary. The reason why you have to manage yourself is not so much to restrict you from succumbing to the distractions around you. Rather it provides you with a sense of direction and structure into your life. It does not force you to compromise on flexibility. Self-management enables you to feel more organized and in control in your projects.
What then, distinguishes the great project managers from the rest?
- Are they smarter?
- Do they have a flair for their craft that others don’t?
- Or do they have a management or business degree?
Traits of Great Project Managers
Whether you aspire to perform better in your next massive project or merely become a better self-manager, you would be glad to know that the craft of great project managers can be learned. Great project managers can come from different backgrounds, including you and me. What sets them apart is that they practice something differently that others don’t. These traits are described below:
1.More psychology than technical.
If you have been spending a lot of time on countless textbooks on management instead of looking within and understanding yourself as a project manager, you have only been working on a very minor aspect of your management skills. Having the right system will only increase your odds of success by a small portion. Whereas what you think and how you react will account for most of your success.
Have you ever wondered what differentiates the champion in the Olympics from the one who came in second place? Does the champion train longer hours? Does the champion eat and recover better? Does the champion have the best training facilities that others don’t? In fact, every athlete that qualifies into the finals has a world-class coach, same level of fitness and sponsored with the best equipment from the best companies. But what differentiates them in the end is their level of mental preparation. The one who ends up on the top of the podium would be the one that is best at suppressing his or her negative thoughts that would have hit other athletes down onto their knees.
Most project managers fall into the trap of micro-managing every single aspect of the team and the minor details of the project except for themselves. Bear in mind that having the right system is different from having a consistent system, which I am about to share with you in my 3rd point. As much as it is important to focus on the details as part of management, it is equally important to understand the kind of manager that you are. Ask yourself whether you are a risk taker or a conservative individual. The qualities that you have will not only determine your success, it will also determine the kind of projects that you should or should not should take up. Before you undertake your next assignment, go ahead to understand yourself before you understand the task.
2.Focus on the task and the results will come.
Ask any project managers of their main motivation for working on the project, the common refrain is that they are just doing their job to earn a living. Sure, there is nothing wrong with that. Focusing on the rewards may provide some people with that extra boost of motivation. However, if you want to become phenomenal at your craft, you would have to focus on being as good as possible instead of focusing on how much you are going to earn or achieve. In other words, you should throw away the numbers, awards and accolades and focus on self-mastery. Focus on being the best project manager that you can be and everything else that follow. Top athletes in the world don’t put their focus on training for the perfect physique to impress others. They put their entire focus on becoming the best athlete they can be, and everything, including the gold medal, becomes secondary. Having put your focus not on the rewards but on your skills, you will eliminate the fear and anxiety that block most managers to reach greater height.
3.Consistency is the best policy
The great project manager sticks to consistent and deliberate practice every hour of every day in order to make effective and good quality decisions in a split second. Contrast this with many others who procrastinate and take days to end up making lousy decisions. The best athletes in the world practice the same moves over and over again until they becomes embedded into their subconscious minds. The practices become their second nature while others struggle to keep up with their seemingly effortless pace. Likewise, getting consistent results in your project would require the consistent application of tools and methods to continue the cycle of improving your craft.
Besides yourself, you also need your team members to practice and perform consistency. It is important to have a consistent system for training new project team members. This will ensure that they are able to effectively apply the management tools that are provided to them. Have you ever wondered why McDonald’s is able to deliver the same looking burger with the same taste in every country that they open a branch in? The founder, Ray Kroc, is able to implement a consistent operations system and training program to ensure a consistent customer experience. Every burger on a customer’s tray in the United States, Japan or even China is of the exact same quality as that placed on a customer’s tray in Singapore. Even without the CEO being there, the business is able to run itself as a result of having a system that delivers consistent quality.
Concluding Remarks
Leonardo da Vinci once said “One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself”. Once you learn to look within yourself and be the best you that you can be, only then you will be able to reap the rewards of your effort and take up the next project with absolute confidence.
You are the CEO of your life. Start managing yourself today!
About the author
Karen Foo is a professional speaker and trainer actively involved in public speaking events held in Singapore and Malaysia. She frequently share her experience to help businesses motivate, challenge, and inspire the Gen-Y. She has been featured on Channel News Asia and various print media for her investing experience and academic achievements. She is also been the contest judge for various public speaking contests held in Singapore.
Karen graduated from a polytechnic and is currently pursuing a BBA degree with specialization in Banking and Finance from the Nanyang Technological University.