Sneak Peek! Be a Project Motivator: Unlock the Secrets of Strengths-Based Project Management

In this post I share the Introduction from my book Be a Project Motivator: Unlock the Secrets of Strengths-Based Project Management. Recent Amazon reviews say, "If you pick one book to read on project management this year, start here." and, "I’ve been around the project management industry for a long time and around project managers even longer. This book is what the industry needs."

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Introduction: An Accidental Project Manager

I never imagined myself growing up to be a project manager. When you think back to friends talking in school about what they dreamed of being when they grew up, do you remember anyone saying, “I want to be a project manager”? Probably not. Pilot, astronaut, doctor, nurse, or teacher, yes. Project man-ager? No!

When we are young, we don’t understand that to get things done, someone needs to coordinate the effort. Our first experi-ence of a project manager is probably one of our parents. One or both take on the task of juggling the demands of school, work, extracurricular activities, shopping, doctors’ and dentists’ ap-pointments, vacations, and so on. But we don’t really recognize the effort—and skill—that goes into that parental juggling until we are doing it ourselves.

I stumbled into project management quite by accident when the project manager on my project had to go home unexpectedly while we were on an overseas assignment. Rather than bringing someone new to the team, the company asked me to leverage my familiarity and established relationship with the client, my knowledge of the project, and my general ability to organize things—which might be recognized as prudence in the language of character strengths—to be the project manager.

I loved it! As a project manager, I felt that I had a better handle on all the components of the project—not just my little corner of it—I had more opportunity to interact with a variety of people on the project, and I loved being able to facilitate getting things done. I was hooked, and for the next twenty years I went from project to project. Working in investment banks, software houses, nonprofits, state government, education, and insurance and re- tirement services, I had found my niche. I am a project manager in mind and spirit.

What Is a Project Manager?

When I told a friend of mine—who I thought knew what I do— that I was writing a book for project managers who want to be- come project motivators, she asked, “What is a project manager?” For a moment I was at a loss as to how to answer. I had been ready with an explanation of motivation and its importance. I had my justification ready for why project managers want to be project motivators. But first, I had to go back to square one and answer the questions, “What are you? What do you do?” My first thought was to reach for the Project Management Institute (PMI) definition: “the person assigned by the performing organization to lead the team that is responsible for achieving the project objectives.”1 A Google search produced this definition on Wikipedia: “Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined finish; regardless of industry.”2 While not inaccurate, this does not come close to highlighting all the facets of being a project manager.

As project managers know, the role is complicated and is be- coming more so. If you are not convinced, write down all that a project manager does—it can seem quite overwhelming.

To start with, a project manager has the responsibility of build- ing and maintaining a plan that is achievable and delivers the desired goal. To accomplish that, a project manager organizes the team and stakeholders to meet the project objectives. More than that, a project manager interfaces with various stakeholder groups and the main point of contact on a project. It does not stop there, because a project manager is the main communica-tor on a project. Some say that the best project managers spend more than 90 percent of their time communicating.3 They rep- resent the customer to the project team and the project team to the customer; they represent the project to senior management and management to the team; they represent their employer or client to vendors and vendors to their employer or client. A proj-ect manager is the intermediary between every stakeholder group and all the other stakeholder groups.

For those who like imagery, a project manager is the spider at the center of a delicate web. He or she provides the glue that keeps the project together and the momentum to keep it moving forward. As a colleague of mine described us, project managers are the “keepers of the project flame.”

To achieve all of this, we need to be engaged and motivated, and we need to engage and motivate others. Without personal engagement and motivation, this role is overwhelming and objectionable. Without the ability to engage and motivate others, we cannot focus on getting things done because we are forever stuck herding unwilling cats in a direction they don’t want to go.

I believe that having the skills to engage ourselves and others is not just a nice added value but also essential for us to be effective and to enjoy our role. Being project motivators elevates us within the organizations for which we work, and it elevates the organizations themselves.

How Engagement and Motivation Make Things Happen

“OK,” my friend said. “I think I get it now, but what do you mean by motivation?”

Throughout this book, I talk about engagement and motiva-tion. Motivation is the impetus, drive, energy, and enthusiasm that causes someone to take action. Engagement creates that im-petus by connecting the individual to the overall goals, helping him or her to feel important to the success of the goals and that the goals themselves have merit. It is the way to hold people’s attention and keep them engrossed in the task. As project managers, we want to be project motivators. We want to provide the impetus and the incentive for our team members to take action and make things happen. There is lots of research that shows that lasting motivation does not come from the outside—so how does a project manager become a project motivator? The answer is by building engagement: by focusing on individuals, under- standing and appreciating their motivation, and stimulating those intrinsic motivators that we each have.

We bring forth the motivation from within. Engaged people are motivated people. Motivated people are energized people. En-ergized people make things happen.

What Is Strengths-Based Project Management?

After my friend confirmed she had a better understanding of project managers and she felt comfortable with the explanations of motivation and engagement, she asked, “So, what is strengths- based project management?” I was really excited by that question because at the heart of this book is the topic of character strengths and how they help us to see possibility. But before we dive into character strengths, there are some guiding principles that will help us on our way. Most important is the power of influence, the ways in which we can engage our teams through our actions, our behavior, our language, and our attitudes. Two ways we can exert influence and achieve the greatest benefit are by modeling a growth or learning mind-set—something that, as you will see later, we are well equipped to do using our high hope and love of learning—and by building appreciation. And this is where the concept of character strengths comes in. Originally conceived, researched, and developed by Martin Seligman and Christopher Peterson, the concept of character strengths helps us to recognize, appreciate, and cultivate the things that are best in ourselves and others. Focusing on these twenty--four strengths in the teams I have worked with has transformed relationships, increased in- novation, and changed culture. Seeing strengths and leveraging them has built engagement and created sustainable, energizing motivation.

Most of us—after all, it is human nature—spend a dispropor-tionate amount of time worrying about and trying to capture and reverse negatives rather than identifying and capitalizing on positives. This evolutionary style, known as negativity bias, is natural and sometimes hard to resist, and yet research shows that focusing on negatives narrows our gaze and our thinking, and that focusing on positives makes us more creative, more open to other positive ideas and experiences, and more likely to innovate and solve problems.4

In strengths--based project management, the goal is to reverse this natural trend and to build on the science of character strengths, as well as other tools from positive psychology and organizational development, to bring a strengths perspective to the role of project manager, and to elevate project managers to be project motivators. The magic starts when you work on un-derstanding and applying your own strengths. Once you can do that, you can develop your team to incorporate this same strengths--based perspective to engage more, create more, and en-joy work more—to be motivated. And you can do this even if all you have is your shining personality and your influence but no direct authority. And don’t worry: you will not ignore problems, weaknesses, or deficits. You will learn to take a new approach to solving them, an approach that research is showing is more effective in every sphere of life. As we proceed through the book, I will be pointing out examples of character strengths along the way, and you will see how the level of engagement and motivation rises. Look for these strengths in the book, because being a good strengths spotter is one of the keys to success as a project motivator, and you can never start practicing strengths spotting too soon!

The great news is that project managers have some real super- powers. As you will see later, as a group, we have more hope and love of learning than the average person on the street.5 With hope comes a drive forward, energy to make things happen, and a be- lief that they can and will happen. With our love of learning, we are ready to learn what we need to get there. We are not limited to what we know today; we passionately and enthusiastically pur- sue greater understanding and influence.

Who Are You, My Reader?

As I mentioned, my preliminary research shows that project man- agers as a group are curious and love to learn. I am writing this book for my tribe—project managers. If you are a project man- ager, want to be a project manager, have been project managed, or would like to contribute more to your teams, this book is for you!

Project managers live in a sort of twilight world. We don’t fit neatly into the category of leaders—yet—and we are not manag-ers in the sense that we don’t usually supervise the team we work with. We are of course team members, but our role is to ensure that other team members all deliver what they owe. Some interesting data from Andy Crowe’s book Alpha Project Managers6 re- veal that the top project managers and many stakeholders believe that hands--on project managers who also build the product are more useful and effective, and yet we typically don’t deliver products ourselves. So, although there may be something to be said for project managers who have a hand in the development of the product, that is not a very common model. Whether you build the product or not, this book is designed to empower you. It will lift you from being a manager of tasks to being a motivator of people. Much of what you will learn is from the field of positive psychology—or, as one colleague describes it, the science of peak performance—and specifically from the science of character strengths. The basic premise of this young field is that it is help- ful to start not from what ails us but rather from what makes us strong and build from there. As I promised earlier—and can- not stress enough—this does not mean that we turn a blind eye to things that are not working, to weaknesses, or to a lack of skills. However, if I ask you to think about the assessments you have received at work, the 360 reviews you have undergone, and the appraisals you have experienced, where has the focus been? Has it been on what you do well and how to develop from there, or has it been on “areas for improvement”? If you answer that it is the former, terrific. This book will help you see the same things in yourself and in others. If you answer, as I expect most of you will, that it is the latter—the deficits—then this book provides a new perspective and will help to restore the balance. Starting from what works helps us to build those strengths and to lift our weaknesses; instead of feeling deflated and somewhat over- whelmed, you and your associates will feel more positive and optimistic, even as you tackle a weakness or gap.

The process to become a project motivator is achieved in two ways: first, by providing a broad overview of ways to engage your- self and your teams going forward; second, by imparting an en-thusiasm not just for managing your projects and organizing tasks and people but also for leading the team and pulling great- ness out of each and every team member. Seeing colleagues through the lens of character strengths highlights hidden oppor-tunities. Imagine how it would feel if your manager could see you in terms of your strengths, and then think of what effect it will have when you can do that for others. In fact, there is a great deal of research that shows that teams whose strengths are rec-ognized by a manager—and, even better, who have a manager who encourages the use of those strengths—are more engaged, more satisfied with their manager, and much less likely to leave.7

A word on the “things to look out for” sections: Every course and book these days comes with a set of learning objectives. These are useful guides to let the participant or reader know what to expect and to be able to measure the impact of his or her participation or reading. Experience tells me, though, that what is prescribed at the start of a book is often not what we take away. Factoring in prior experience, personal bias, per-sonal character strengths, and personal effort, it is reasonable to think that I will have some idea of what you will learn from my book, but you may discover other nuggets. Nevertheless, at the start of each chapter I will provide a guide for what to expect and some suggested takeaways. However, you may see other things too, and that is great. I hope if you discover something more, you will let me know! Throughout these chapters there are questions to think about. Questions build a framework for us to identify and acquire valuable infor-mation. The sooner we start mining for gold, your gold, the better.

In the interests of transparency and where it seems appropri-ate to do so, I share my answers to the questions and exercises in this book on my website at https://projectmotivator.com/be-a-project-motivator-author-answers/. For some, it may be helpful to see how I tackle the ex-ercises; for others, it may not be helpful at all. It is your choice whether you make use of them.

This Book as a Project Manager’s Basic Tool: A Road Map to Hope

In Chapter 1, I explain why I believe that project managers need to take more ownership of team engagement—including their own engagement. I discuss the concept of the Platinum Rule and explore how project managers view themselves and how others view them.

Chapter 2 tells the start of Maggie’s story. Maggie is a project manager like us. The purpose of the story is to show how she works to build an effective and connected team. In this story, you will start to spot the magic!

In Chapter 3, we explore the project manager’s best friend— influence—what it is, how we get it, and why it is the most impor-tant tool we have.

Chapter 4 is where we start to look at how to build appreciation in a team. The focus is on Maggie and her experience and ap-plication of character strengths.

In Chapter 5, you will see how Maggie takes character strengths further and starts to build appreciation for and within her team. Of course, even the most positive thing can have a dark side, and in Chapter 6 we look at the possible downsides of character strengths, the ways that conflicts arise, and how appreciation and character strengths can help us into and out of difficult times.

Chapter 7 looks at other factors that contribute to conflict and tension. I discuss the importance of planning and learning styles and review some considerations for building good communication.

Chapter 8 brings it all together and shows how we can inject our team with energy and enthusiasm—motivation—by being strong, brave, hopeful, and curious. At this point you will under- stand how to be motivated and how to influence those around you to be motivated too. This doesn’t just mean you will be a better project manager—you will be having more fun too!

In Chapter 9, you will see Maggie’s implementation plan for using all her techniques for herself and her team. If you don’t like Maggie’s plan, build your own! The key is to have a plan to im-plement all the things you will learn. Without an implementa-tion plan, this book will just become another interesting read.

I have road tested everything in this book in many different teams and groups. I continue to use all these techniques today and, as a lifelong learner, I will continue to build on this foun-dation. I hope you will find the contents of this book helpful, en-joyable, and inspiring.

As you will gather from the acknowledgments, this book is the product of an amazing team of supporters. Most of all, it is the product of the work, feedback, curiosity, and encouragement of the many teams I have had the privilege to work with and hope to work with in the future. I would have little to share with- out them! I thank them for letting me keep the project flame for them on this and the many other projects I have worked on.

I invite you to share stories of how this work has helped you. Hearing stories of how you apply this work will help others learn more and will help you make this stick. And telling the world that you have this knowledge and skill set can be a great way to let people know that you have the capacity to be a “project motivator.”

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Ruth Pearce is a project manager, speaker, author and coach who specializes in bringing positive psychology and in particular the evidence-based Character Strengths to project managers and their teams. For information about speaking engagements check out Ruth's Events Page

1. Project Management Institute, A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute, 2017), 716.
2. Wikipedia, s.v. “Project Manager,” last modified May 10, 2018, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_manager.
3. Andy Crowe, Alpha Project Managers: What the Top 2% Know That Everyone Else Does Not (Kennesaw, GA: Velociteach, 2016), 83.
4. B. L. Fredrickson, “The Broaden- and -Build Theory of Positive Emotions,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 359, no. 1449 (2004): 1367–1377.
5. This information is based on my survey of the character strengths of project managers. More research is needed.
6. Crowe, Alpha Project Managers, 110–113.
7. Gallup, State of the American Manager, 2015 report (Washington, DC: Gallup, 2015), https://www.gallup.com/services/182138/state-american-manager.aspx.