Do you feel like there's not enough money, there's not much opportunity for advancement in your current job, and it's time to think about the next level in your career?
Do you have desires and goals that you've been meaning to achieve for a long time, but haven't started yet?
You probably tried it for a day or two and then stopped, - it started to seem too complicated and big.
Now I'm going to tell you about a key skill that will help you. It's called Project Management.
I know you've heard it.
I also know you're not exactly sure what it is.
You think you know how it's done.
You will understand why it is important to own it, regardless of whether you are a student, a father, a mother, single, or working something that does not satisfy you at all and it is time to change it!
There is a right way and a wrong way to achieve your big goals. You can achieve them either way. The difference is the cost.
If you put your ideas into the framework of a project, the probability of success increases 10 times.
When you become a Project Manager, the first challenge is can your son explain to his grandfather what you do?
Everything significant that you see around you was realized thanks to a set Project. Look around - every building, every different car that you see on the road, even the road itself, was first an idea, then an idea with a plan, and then someone started working on that plan. And the fact that you see things completed means that the idea with a plan has become a project that a group of people have implemented.
Project Management is a skill that has long been kept a secret. It's as if only people in power had access to the various techniques and practices that can take almost any grand idea from point A to realization.
That's why, as a child of the 90s, I never heard the term in school, nor did I even encounter it at university.
This shouldn't surprise you, it's already a world-wide secret that the education system as we know it from school is designed to create slaves - highly specialized workers who do the same thing day after day, adding value to the domain of someone smarter than them. Who probably didn't go to school.
If you are interested in the topic of new education, you will soon see my article on this topic. Let's get back to the question of why it is important to know more about how and why Project Management is done.
Why Project Management is one of the most highly valued skills today and how to apply it in your life.
Let's consider the following topics:
- What are the things that we can identify as a project in your personal life?
- Why an idea has to become a project to see it realized.
- How to act as a Project manager at work without being one officially, and outperform your colleagues
- And finally, I will make you think about whether your next career growth could be as a Project Manager and how to achieve it.
If you want to find out directly how, write to me
What are the things that we can identify as a project in your personal life?
Here are a few examples that you didn't call projects, or didn't manage them according to their standards. You've probably implemented some of them, and successfully.
The price may have been high - turbulent emotions, arguments with the other 'participants', moments of despair, hesitation, procrastination.
- Candidate your student exam
- Your move to another apartment/city
- Starting a job, or finding a new one
- The family gathering you organized
- Renovations in your home
- Your wedding
- The birth of your first child
The list could go on for a long time. All of them are significant in your life, some more than others, and their realization should have brought you pleasure from what you achieved.
But what if on your wedding day you were so exhausted from the nerves and emotions of the past weeks that you didn't have enough emotional strength to fully enjoy the unique moment.
Or maybe you passed your college entrance exam, received a new smartphone as a prize (they took my laptop), the pressure was too great, you got nervous tics, you started drinking a dangerously large amount of coffee, and it seemed like it wasn't worth it.
No, this is not to belittle your achievement! I want to show you that if you master the skills to incorporate your desires into a project, you will achieve significant things at a much lower cost.
Why worry so much about whether everything is ready for the wedding day that is approaching, instead of simply anticipating one of your most beautiful days with trepidation? And why not have time from now to plan your next big project - like the birth of your first child, for example, or your new family home with your significant other.
And successfully managing two or more projects at the same time is part of the skill I'm telling you about.
I've heard advice like this so many times: 'First, try to finish one thing and then think about the other...'. Usually, it's told to us by the people closest to us to protect us from disappointment. And they're probably not super achievers.
You turn 30 and it's much harder to think about your own home, because it's harder to decide to start a business, because you're taking care of your partner and children, and you're a bit behind with fitness. And no matter how noble it may seem to do things one by one, the modern person wants to have at least a few significant things in a pile.
How good it would be if they came in beautiful and exciting rapid succession. That way you would have time to give your children that upbringing and love that no one else can bless them with.
Why an idea has to become a project to see it realized.
At the risk of sounding negative, it's very likely that you've tried one of the examples listed and failed. Or it's just an idea, a dream, a pipe dream, still far from being realized.
You may have said things to yourself like, 'I have too much on my mind right now to even think about this'; 'it's more complicated than I thought'; 'how do those people do it, they really annoy me'.
I had a season a while ago where I read a dozen books on achieving goals (which are great), wasn't achieving the things I wanted, and wondered why the systems weren't working. And then a bunch of logical excuses for the failures.
The practical solution is to understand that the chances of realizing an idea by incorporating it into a project framework increase 10 times. Not 2, not 5 - 10 times.
Project management is a highly valued skill that is good to have.
The first and best benefit is that you will stop repeating the mantras that every loser lives by:
- It's all in my head
- that's why you didn't even start
- I'm starting, I'm pumped
- You've taken chaotic actions, the deadline is approaching and you've realized you're late
- **This really broke me **- An unforeseen risk has arisen, and you've abandoned things 'for now'
- They don't understand anything, and they only get in the way
- The people you are dealing with have entered into a sharp emotional argument with you, with arguments that you have not been able to refute in black and white
- No money
- You've run out of money, you've taken out a loan, and that money is gone, now you're wondering whether to start a new project 'another job' or try to push the first one through
- I'm going crazy, I'm telling you
- Several different groups of people (the plumber, the carpenter, and the plasterer) have poured into your head at the same time, and you don't know how to control the chaos
- There is time
- The initial enthusiasm has subsided, and for now you have 'parked' the work. You hang out every day for a long coffee with friends, secretly looking for a way to 'get your bearings' again
- This was really hard
- You've reached 30% progress, you think you're at 50%, only to realize that you still have an overwhelming amount of work left to do, and you have no idea where or how to get help
- If I survive after this, it'll be good
- Stress has reached the ceiling, you don't know if you control the chaos or it controls you, you've come too far to give up, you feel like crying, there's no time, it's others' fault
- **They're just hanging around - **Because of things 'outside your control' you're already late with the deadline
If you see yourself in even 1 of the 10 situations above, I've been there.
I had to become a Project Manager to realize that instead of being a failure, I could be an achiever.
I learned the tactics to deal with each of the above problems:
- Write down the steps and tasks to the goal, arrange them in an obvious sequence, stick them on the wall
- Write down how long each task takes - once according to you or someone who has done it, and once in the worst case. You have 2 totals of the 2 options. The middle of the difference between the two is your deadline.
- Ask yourself - what is the worst that could happen? Give it a rating from 1 to 5 for the likelihood of it happening and another for the consequences if it happens. Multiply the two numbers and if you get a number over 10, make an emergency plan
- Regularly monitor and report progress. “We hope to God that everyone else will submit data.”
- Do your research - Write down the due dates of your expenses. If you don't see enough income by the due dates, revise your plan, and think about where you can best find more money now! “Prepare your work in the field, and then build your house” Prov 24:27
- Review your plan every day. It's called monitoring. Sit in front of the board/monitor and watch. You'll see problems early enough.
- Record victories - actions taken - 1 point, results achieved - 2 points. Score more 1-pointers, don't shoot from far.
- Talk to your team at least once a week, report to them, share difficulties and challenges with as many people as possible. You are the Manager, some problems will be seen only by you.
- Stop and do a black and white analysis - where did you start, where did you get to. Revise the plan, there is no perfect plan
- Annoy people. Get your own. If they start to dislike you, tell them - "don't hate the Project Manager, hate your job"
In fact, this is the simplified official version of how to manage a project successfully. If you want to learn more and become a Project Manager, write to me, I will help you
If I haven't sparked an insight in you yet, let's talk about it.
How to act as a Project manager at work without being one officially, and outperform your colleagues
Why is it important? Very simple - it will launch you into a career.
Here is my story:
I worked in a large Operations Center of a large technology company. I started at the lowest level, and rose to supervisor and team lead 2 times, in 2 different departments. After each breakthrough, I was disappointed by how insignificantly different the pay was at the upper level. Despite this, I enjoyed my job, and was constantly proactive and full of ideas. I never stopped thinking about how to solve the problems of my team and even other teams we interacted with.
The time came and the need to buy new software for my team's work to become more efficient, the old one was already too old. For the project, we were given a Project Manager, part of the so-called PMO - Project Management Office, who was supposed to manage and successfully complete the project. I was the main expert in the project, only I and my team knew what we needed and what wouldn't work.
After 2 months of meetings, presentations with vendors, and the daily question from me - 'What's the next step', we had gotten nowhere, reviewed 5 options, collected several offers.
Along with the presentations I gave at meetings, I drew diagrams, wrote technical documentation, initiated more meetings, and actively participated in planning. I was determined to solve the problem my team was having with the old program we were using.
If I needed to talk to someone - I went to talk, if I needed to write an email - I wrote it, if I needed to give a presentation - I prepared it and presented it. I negotiated with the companies we were researching and calculated budgets. I didn't wait, I acted every day towards the goal.
I could already see that things might not happen, and from the beginning I had suggested a plan B: hire a programmer to touch the old software and maintain it so that it wouldn't fall apart.
I opened the list of ads to find the one for the programmer to share with my network, just to make things happen faster. Don't you want to, I saw another ad - IT Project Manager at my company. A short conversation with the hiring manager followed. He knew me well, we had worked together before.
He had seen my determination to act, to find a way, and to make things happen. I ran.
They chose me over candidates with experience and knowledge that I didn't have at the time.
My wife and I were expecting our second child, and it was clear that we needed a higher salary. I was amazed by the offer. At the time, I had no idea what field it was in or how much it paid.
During these 2 months, I watched as the Project Manager I was working with didn't have the same desire to get the job done. I said to myself, 'I could do this many times better.' And that's when it dawned on me - in the few years as a team lead, I had turned the game around, and I was constantly thinking about what new initiative (I didn't call it a project back then) I could launch and solve more problems for the team, the department, and the business. And I brought quite a few of them to a successful conclusion, and after the events described, I realized that all of these were projects.
I later realized that these projects would have gone much more smoothly if I had known how to manage a “textbook” project.
The lesson is that I didn't think or wait for the opportunity to come, but acted as a Project Manager at my workplace without being one. This opened the door for me and God was quick to bless me.
No matter where you are in life right now, you can
- To apply Project Management skills and add value to your business and personal life
- You can get a promotion because you have become better at the dynamics of daily work and you are the one who solves the big problems effectively.
- You can start a career as a Project Manager, this will open many more doors for you
Even if your current job is a passion, project management skills will take you to another level of efficiency. You will achieve more, at a lower cost, and impress. Follow me to learn more
If you are already thinking about taking a step up in your career?
All sorts of reasons start to run through your head as to why you shouldn't do it.
- You've watched everyone around you mention "today, being an IT person...", but you have little experience with computers, and you believe that "IT requires math."
- You know you can do more, and you need more, but you're fine anyway, it's still fun with your colleagues
- The thought of changing jobs brings with it immense uncertainty and fear, "what if I don't pass the probationary period..."
- The last time you studied intensively was for your matriculation exams, it brought you so much stress that you don't want to go through the same thing again.
- Your loved ones tell you, you'd better stay at your job, you have bills and rent to pay, children to support, etc.
- You've become so close to your team that they're like family to you and the separation seems terrible.
- The head of the department has mentioned potential opportunities that you are excited about, even though you know that there is really nothing new under the sun... and there is more than half a year until then.
- You've heard things like "Programmers are hard to work with"
They sound ridiculous to you now, but in real life they really do oppress you.
The first thing that will happen when you decide to make a change is a great rush of enthusiasm. The second is a great rush of fear.
This is normal, this is how your brain works.
The brain is unique, powerful, and fickle. It starts working as soon as you wake up and keeps working throughout the day.
Have you ever wondered why you have mutually exclusive ideas in your head? When your thoughts are in conflict with themselves?
You are not alone and you are not crazy.
Part of it works to protect you from danger and uncertainty, simply so you can survive. So this part (it's called the amygdala, whatever..), will take out and stick it on your forehead every reason why not to do it, and it will refuse to take action. The more you don't take action towards change, the more you train this part of the brain and it starts to dominate all your behavior.
When you imagine a future that's different from today, you experience uncertainty because you don't know how to create and manage that different future. That's when the part of the brain that wants to avoid risk comes into play. It tries to protect you from unknown situations. When you see a future that's challenging, the amygdala immediately tries to pull the trigger on the process.
That was the bad side.
The good news is that there's another part of your brain called the pre-frontal cortex (relax). It works in contrast to the amygdala, and it's activated when you start to see a significantly better future for yourself. New findings show that our brains have a unique ability to change - it's called neuroplasticity. In the past, this wasn't the case - scientists thought our brains remained static as we entered adulthood.
Your brain grows and develops according to how you train it - what information you plant in it.
Are you thinking about a much better future, or are you thinking about the problems?
You need to talk to someone who will tell you that there is a way, that the risks are ridiculous in the face of growth, that you can do more than you are now. If you don't deliberately work on your vision, by default you will strengthen the other part of your brain that keeps you stuck. You can change simply by starting to think about what you want to achieve.
But you are alone and you need encouragement.
And here's the best part: The same neurons in your head that fire when you take action towards your goal, progress, and vision are the same ones that fire when you imagine (see) your dream future.
This explains why it's so hard to take even one step. Start with your thoughts - this way you will unlock more energy that will initiate action. The fastest way is to talk to someone who will support you, and who has already been through this. Write to me
In one story from the Bible, the prophet Elijah managed to walk 1 day when he was running from his fears, lay down and wanted to die in his despair. But he traveled 40 days and 40 nights to the mountain of God “…in the strength of that food..” which God gave him, understand food for the brain. 1 Kings 19:8
One meeting, one kind word, one good article, and you will gain the power to act.
You will never make a change if you don't give the right food to your brain.
Follow me for more.