Attention - Project Managers: Want to MOVE UP in the corporate ladder?

Attention - Project Managers: Want to MOVE UP in the corporate ladder?

Do you aspire to get promoted quickly? Want to reach faster at the senior levels in the company hierarchy? Are you committed to learn the skills needed to be seen amongst the senior management? And expect really fat compensation.

Do you think it is possible? Are you willing to invest time, energy and money to learn the skills? Because most people are not willing to put the required effort to learn what it takes. Let us understand better those project Managers who get selected for the senior management role and paid heavy compensation.

Let us understand two things very clearly. One, PM role is hub of activities in a project for all stakeholders. A good PM can save significant project money for the sponsor, and vice versa. So, this role is a leadership role expecting PM to be really good in connecting various stakeholders to channelize all the efforts and investments to create the expected project outcome. Two, PM has to be good in his or her leadership abilities, along with PM experience and the industry experience.

Now, practically it is found, that most PM’s come with experience in the industry and with project management experience, but lack significantly in their leadership abilities, and this is a single most important reason they do not realise their potential. It is also a fact that most people are not born leaders and there is a huge vacuum for people with leadership abilities. We never study this subject of leadership formally during our graduation, even in studies like engineering or management it is not covered. The result is, that most professionals are skilled in their respective crafts, but never learn to become leaders.

Let us understand briefly what are these leadership skills and how can you learn and apply fast in your workplace? We must appreciate that Leadership is a behavioural skill, which can be learnt best with the help of a coach or a guide. Here are some of the most important leadership skills.

1 - Having a clear vision of the future: The first step towards becoming a leader is to have a crystal clear vision of the future that you want to achieve. It could be a position in an organization or in the industry and so on. The target vision should be exciting enough and realistically achievable. You need to remain focussed on the future vision all the time while taking any decision or any action. Your weekly and monthly goals should flow from that vision and take action in the present.

2 - Emotional Awareness: Most people fail miserably in handling their emotions. We never learn formally in any education institute or even outside or as a social norm how to handle emotions of frustrations, anger, hatred, jealousy or retaliation. We remain confined to learning a marketable skill like engineering, accounting, marketing etc. But fail to learn this important life skill. It is such a vast topic that not much can be covered in the article, but all I can say is that it is life transforming skill. The only way to learn this skill is, first being aware, then practicing consciously and take actions to become more proficient in managing our emotions.

3 - Taking 100% responsibility: This is a simple concept, not a skill and most of us lack the awareness to take responsibility. I wonder why I was not aware of this simple and powerful principle to produce results. When we are in an uncomfortable situation, we find an easy way to blame others. It does not help anyone and the unpleasant situation continues or even worsens mostly.

4 - Managing Energy: Our personal power is with us and this is what gives us strength or energy to drive our lives. It is like electrical energy for electrical bulb, or Wi-Fi energy for internet. Same way, for human beings, it is called ‘Prana’ or human energy. It goes down or goes up, depending on several things that we do in our lives, but mostly we are not aware of. When our energy is high, we feel happy, excited and motivated. We feel good in taking action or feel like living life better. When the energy is low, we feel sad or tired. Learning to manage our energy is another important skill that has to be learnt.

5 - Using Imagination: We all have faculties of Intelligence and Imagination. The first one is well known and we over exploit, our analytical skills come from intelligence, generally measured by IQ. Whereas, the other important skill of Imagination is highly under-exploited and even lesser known. Imagination faculty gives us creativity, emotional maturity and other skills of looking possibilities and problem solving. We do not learn this much and do not try to grow.

All above skills can be learnt easily with conscious practice and guidance. Do let me know if anyone wants to learn more about the subject.

Your thoughts and observations?

If you are working in a project, and want to rise fast in you workplace? Join our Whatsapp group: https://lnkd.in/gjae8DM

?????????? ??????????, Project Management & Leadership Coach

Trainer for Leadership, PMP, ITIL, CISA & S/w Engg.

(Delivered programs Dell, Accenture, EY, Citibank etc.)

https://www.ashok-goyal.com/services.html

https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/leadershipcoachashokgoyal

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkbj7kDU8Ct8tcjrfRjIyuQ

#leadershipdevelopment, #careercoach, #coaching, #leadership, #successcoach, #ashokgoyal, #pmptraining #projectmanagementtraining #capm #pmp #projectmanagers #itil4 #pmpexam #itil4, #cisa