Questions

• What are your strengths, talents, and abilities? Think about all your good qualities, things you are proud of, and past successes. These might include your personal characteristics, people skills, knowledge, or ability to handle specific tasks and situations. Write down everything you can think of.

• How can you make better use of your strengths and talents in your current role?

• What is your hidden potential, and what are some ways in which you could make use of it?

• How can you become a role model for others to follow?

My story

We all have different backgrounds, aspirations, and experiences, and we all have different stories to tell. Let me share my story with you.

A number of years ago I was, like many other project managers, working hard on a project that seemed to be getting increasingly complex, with tighter and tighter deadlines. I was stressed and overworked, and I was not leveraging my capabilities in the best possible way. I spent most of my time planning and tracking tasks and dealing with urgent issues. There was not much time left for being proactive, thinking ahead, or spending quality time with team members or stakeholders. I was under a lot of pressure and did not feel that I had anyone to delegate to. But more importantly, I was not enjoying myself, and I was not always in control of the project.

A number of things made me change.

The defining moment was a coaching session in which I discussed my issues with stress and managing my workload. Within just one hour, I realized that one of my core beliefs was that project management is inherently stressful (and painful), and there is nothing I can do about it. At that stage in my career I had been managing projects for well over ten years, and my experiences told me that project management was a very demanding and stressful job. Period.

Recognizing that project management does not have to be stressful was a true eureka moment for me. I instantly understood that my belief was subjective, not the objective truth, and that I had the power to challenge it and change it. What a shift that was! Understanding that my belief was not necessarily true allowed me to start working with it and to slowly dissolve it and become more effective and valuable in my job.

When you realize that you have the power to change your beliefs and remove a limiting factor that has been constraining you, you have an “aha!” moment. You feel relieved and empowered.

Today I have the audacity to challenge most people’s beliefs, as they are just that: beliefs. They are true only because we believe in them. When we replace them with more empowering thoughts, our worldview can change in a split second.

My eureka moment made me pause, take a step back, and do less. I did this to regain my energy and to free up time to collect my thoughts. And then something magical happened. New ideas started to pop up, and I began to see patterns and connections that I had not noticed before. I looked at the bigger picture and started to understand how I could leverage my strengths and work more effectively. I gave myself the opportunity to be more proactive and to work smarter.

I took a closer look at myself as a project manager and the values that were driving my work. I examined my own worth, and I explored my boundaries. Why was it so important for me to work long hours and to micromanage my team? Was there a better way to get things done? I had to acknowledge that it was not the hours I put in that mattered, but the quality of my work. I realized that in order to produce better-quality work, I would have to change the way I spent my time.

One of the changes I made that had a significant impact was delegating more. I recognized that I could not do everything by myself and that I needed to get better at asking for help and support. I got a project administrator on board to help with lower-level task tracking and administrative work. It was essential work, but it was not essential that I did it.

Delegating more freed me up to spend time with the team and key stakeholders, listening to their ideas and concerns and looking at what we could do better. I started focusing more on picturing the end state of the project and proactively reducing the risks associated with the road to getting there.

Today, I put as much emphasis on people as I do on tasks. I listen, I build strong relationships, and I trust others. I manage and lead people in a way that complements their individual needs, as opposed to micromanaging everyone across the board.

I often take a step back, observe the project, and ask the following questions:

• What is the core problem we are here to solve?

• How clear are the project’s goal and vision?

• What can I do to make everyone on the team understand it and buy into it?

• What could get in our way of achieving the end goal? What have we not yet thought of?

• How do I know that what we are building is what the users need?

• What can we do to improve the way we test and verify requirements?

• How has the project progressed to date, and what issues have come up (e.g., people, quality, scope, stakeholders, communication)?

• What can we do to improve the way we work?

• How motivated and committed is the team?

• What can I do to inspire people and use everyone’s potential better?

• Who are my key stakeholders, and how close am I to them?

• Who do I need to spend more quality time with?

• How effectively am I spending my own time?

• What can I do differently to optimize the way I work?

Previously, I probably spent up to 75 percent of my time focusing on tasks and as little as 25 percent on people. Most of my time was spent firefighting and making up for the fact that we had not analyzed the problem and the end goal properly.

When I started delegating, my focus shifted. I spent more time liaising with the team and the stakeholders and ensuring that high-level and strategic tasks were executed smoothly. I was moving toward taking on the role of change manager in addition to my role as project manager. This shift enabled me to become more effective and to leverage my strengths better.