Rosemary Hossenlopp, MBA PMP © 2007 All Rights Reserved
We discussed in Part One how to be hired by clients and loved by your bosses. Now we talk about what makes you thrive in your project management position.
A Personal Vision Statement Formula
Your personal vision statement will consist of what you are known for and what atmosphere you like to work in. These are your values. Values define:
• how you like to work
• where you like to work
• who you like to work with
You don’t always get to choice about these issues. But when your project environment is aligned with your preferences; you thrive.
A Personal Vision Statement Clarifies Your Values
You thrive on some projects. What makes these projects great for you? Take time to identify what made you really enjoy that project. Why? There is a big payoff. Knowing what makes you a great project manager accelerates your move into situations that are right for you. Here are some ideas on to identify your values and fast track your career plan.
Freedom: This could be flexibility to implement your ideas. It could also be the capability to work autonomously. It could be flexible hours to take care of your kids or work out or support other life priorities.
Stability: Some of you like to really, really, well understand every aspect of your company and be known as the subject matter expert. Then there are those of us who have wandering feet. We move around in industries or organizations. It’s a ton of fun to be challenged to come up to speed fast on new projects.
Opportunities: You may have the typical project manager mentality and have a short attention span and always be seeking out new projects. Others of you may not like changing projects as often as changing your socks.
Location: Some of you love large cities and others of you hate large cities. Also what makes you and your family happy? You might be thinking that you are creating your project management career plan, but your family is a vital part of your world that needs to be considered.
Business model: You may enjoy the stability and the loyalty of working for someone else. Or you might like the rewards of working for yourself as a contractor or a consultant since you are confident in your ability to usually end up with another position.
Take a moment to identify the characteristics that you look for in how you work, who you want to work with and where you want to work. Don’t keep reading until you write down some thoughts.
Identify Your Project Management Values
Aligning your job to your values makes you passionate about the work of project management. People see your enthusiasm. Managers hire you for your energy.
Now I Know Why I’m Not Happy
In the short term you may not be able to align your project management job and your values. You may be forced to travel when you would rather be sitting by the fire with your family. You may be stuck with a boss micro-managing you when you would like to work independently.
The value of this exercise is recognizing how you like to work. You identified what you want to be recognized for and what environment you want to work in. This opens your eyes to see how to carve out opportunities that align with your values or to recognize how you need to take a risk and get a new job.
Remember that a career plan is your potential future, not the present. It is annoying in the short-term to put up with circumstances we don’t like. It is also uncomfortable taking risk to move ourselves forward to a potential.
Next we talk about how make your career plan work. What are the factors that you need to create a project environment that will get you well paid and loving your project management job.
