How to define if project management career is a right choice for you? Let’s be realistic and review these criteria to determine it.
Many people are hesitating whether project management is something that they could do too; or whether this is something that they’re willing to do further on in their life.
I’m gonna give you some tools or criteria I would say that you can utilize in order to define whether project management is something for you. Now, to define if you can be a good project manager first of all I would like you to do some manual work. Take a piece of paper or open a notepad, allocate nine lines there and a place for a checkbox. We are going to review the nine criteria and to define whether this is something that is applicable to you; and if it is so put a check box next to it.
#1: You are not afraid of responsibility
That is really important, because project managers are the most responsible people in the world. As project managers you are going to take over the responsibility on a project; on delivering the goals and results; responsibility for the team; for the stakeholders; and sometimes for the clients.
As of that, it is extremely important to be not afraid of taking responsibility. Actually all this starts from your personal life and from yourself. If you are not afraid of responsibility in your private life, you can do the same on projects.
That is also important because projects are delivered by people and for people. This is not a one-man show. You are going to work on projects with the team; with stakeholders; with customers; with clients. There are going to be a lot of people who will work towards delivering the goals of the project.
That is why it is important to understand that everything on a project is shareable. This means that you are going to share responsibility; you are going to share fails; and obviously you are going to share wins with others.
#3: You are patient when you collaborate with people
On projects as a project manager you are going to be the point of contact for a lot of people. Should this be clients; customers; stakeholders; users; team or your colleagues, everybody is going to reach out to you at the first place.
Therefore, you need to be patient to be able to work with people; to explain things to them; to be able to train them, as sometimes you might need to repeat the same things several times. Thus, patience is the key.
#4: You can motivate others
Motivation is a vital part and obviously motivation starts from yourself. If you take action, if you show your motivation to others, then you can be able to motivate them too. Obviously, there is a lot of techniques and methodologies on how to motivate people which you can exploit from the professional perspective; but the key here is to be motivated yourself in order to be able to motivate others. You need to make people want to work on a project and to deliver results.
#5 & 6: You pay attention to details and you like to get to the core of the problem
Details are the key. Starting from getting requirements about the project,
resolving issues or verifying the project scope. You will need to pay attention to details all the time.
Getting back to the core of the problem, it is also really important. On projects we do not want to cure the symptoms if the problem happens. We need to define what was the reason that has caused this problem. Also, we want to find out the core of this problem and to eliminate it once, so that the same problem is not going to repeat on a project anymore.
#7: You have organized something in your life and you liked the process
Obviously, as project managers we are focused on project goals; we are eager to get things done; we are eager to hit those goals, to get results and to deliver the project. However, hitting the goals happens once in a while and there is a lot of work that you need to undertake and execute before you are able to hit the goal.
It is a long working process. That is why if you are not able to enjoy this process, it is going to be a nightmare. Therefore, you need to love the process of delivering results.
#8: You can learn the lessons
The next criteria in our list relates to fails and mistakes on projects. Meaning that you can acknowledge mistakes, learn the lessons without losing motivation. This is an interesting one.
If someone tells me there is a project manager with no fails behind, I would consider this is either a fake, or this person doesn’t have enough experience. What I’m talking about is that making mistakes is natural we are doing mistakes all the time.
Just imagine, you are trying to walk the first time; you are doing your baby steps. Can you imagine the baby who makes the first steps haven’t fallen at all? I doubt. Here is the same. If you are starting off in project management you’re certainly going to have mistakes. It is the same in every career.
That is why it is important not to be afraid of making mistakes. It is okay to make mistakes, it is okay to have fails. However, the key here is to acknowledge those mistakes. You need to understand that you have made a mistake.
Also, to understand what was the reason of this mistake. To learn the lessons and to improve yourself further; and not to make the same mistake again.
#9: You like to get things done
Final, but one of the most important criteria. You like to get things done. As you know, project managers are about getting things done. It is really important, you need to want to deliver results, to hit the goals. To do this you need to get things done, you need to take action and to do the damn thing.
Now you know the whole list of criteria that I use in order to define whether a person is a good fit for a project manager’s role. If you have put at least five ticks next to those nine criteria, congratulations! Project management can be a good choice for you.
However, if you are still hesitating whether project management is for you; or maybe you still do not know what a project is and who project managers are; I’m inviting you to my free training.