Posted at 21:29h in Project Management Process by admin 0 Comments
From time to time, especially when things are sliding down the proverbial tubes, youve no doubt asked yourself why you ever became a project manager. My guesses as to why you might have entered the profession:
You stumbled into project management.
You pursued project management on purpose, because you thought it was lucrative or secure.
Project management was an available option and better than what you were doing at the time.
You like herding cats; that is, you like enabling a team to reach a goal using your organizational and relational skills.
Most likely, it was some combination of factors that got you into the project field and keeps you here.
But then comes the other question: now that youre here, are you content being a project manager? Not happy or thrilled necessarilythey call it work for a reasonbut at least content, enjoying the job enough so that, all other things being equal, you have a smile on your face in the morning?
When it comes to your contentedness level, there are twofactors:
Stuff thats outside your control, such as your fundamental personality type.
Stuff thats within your control, such as how you deal with the advantages and pitfalls of said personality type.
I ran across an article the other day claiming that certain personalities are unsuited for project management and, lo and behold, there was my Myers-Briggs type, right there in that no-way-could-he/she-succeed category. And yet, Ive been successfully managing projects since Noah built the ark. (Well, it was Noah, Jr., in 1997, but still
)
Its crucial to remember that your personality type reflects your preferences for interacting with the world, its not a stone box you can never break out of. If you want to manage projects, you can, whatever sort of personality you have.
What you must do is fill your toolkit with the right coping skills, skills that will enable you to adapt yourself to the demands of project management.
Ill be writing more about this in future posts (unless I feel like writing about something else).