Jaeger Consultants Ltd

12/02/201909/02/2022

Dealing with Impostor Syndrome

I used to think I was the only one who would feel like an impostor in meetings of “big” people. This nagging feeling that you are not good enough and all those around you are the real deal, they are so much better than you. This goes hand-in-hand with the fear of being found out and publicly expelled or exposed.

Then one day while sitting in the Leadership Institute Master Class it really hit me – not just head knowledge, it sunk in: there are many who feel like I do and we all keep quiet. Someone openly confessed he used to suffer from it and explained on how he is working on overcoming it. Then several people confirmed they are suffering from it too. Yes the imposter syndrome is real and we need to learn to overcome it!

A friend of mine suggested to me at one point I should write down all my achievements and read through them when I feel down and outright useless, a failure. She had seen through it, knew I am an achiever, not a failure and seen all those things I had achieved. My immediate reaction was to tone down what she said, and say that my achievements are not all so noteworthy after all. This is a typical reaction to protect yourself, just in case “they find out I am the imposter”. But she insisted and pointed out the things I had just told her, she made me see that these are big achievements and not little things.

I started out writing them in lists, but somehow reading through it was not that effective for me. It felt like a litany reading the always in the same order. Then I got the idea of using an old chocolate treat tin and write the achievements on little note papers. One on each paper.

When I feel down or feel useless, the big failure, I just start pulling out papers at random and reading them. Man that works! It has never failed to make me gain confidence again. Sometimes I literally had to read through all the papers, before the reality hits that this is what I have achieved and I can do great things, but it always does.

There is just something reading your achievements randomly that makes me feel good about myself again. And 90% of the time I then remember some recent achievements that I have not written down yet.

Another thing that has helped me is having an accountability partner. With one of my LIMC (PMI Leadership Institute Master Class) class mates we set short term, mid term and long term goals and meet every 2-3 months virtually to update each other. I look forward to these meetings and it is great fun celebrating each others achievements. At the same time we encourage each other and give each other ideas about those goals we missed out on.

Main take home for everyone from this is that you are somebody, you are NOT and impostor and you have achieved a lot. Document it and celebrate your small victories. They do add up to quite a lot!

05/02/201909/02/2022

Career Options for Project Managers

Just a few thoughts on the possibilities that are open to project managers.

First of all you need to realize that, no matter what level in the corporate structure you are on, you ARE a Leader. As a project manager you do have a lot of responsibility and you do make a lot of decision and influence people – in other words you are a Leader. Hence from where you are you can influence a lot of things. You do not need to be at a certain level of authority to be a Leader, but can lead from behind, whichever position you are in. It is about a lifestyle of Leadership – not bossing people around, but living by example.

The career of a project manager can be as diverse as you make it and as interesting as you make it. You are the one who leads to your destiny. As a project manager it is important to also take charge of your career and not be a victim.

The 2 main options are of course:

Do I want to be employed
Do I want to freelance / be self employed

In my opinion it is good for all of us to work in formal employment for a while, while we learn the ropes and understand the full responsibilities of an independent project manager. Then the decision if you branch out into self employment, into taking project contracts or stay in formal employment really depends on individual preferences. You need to decide if you prefer the stability of a regular paycheck combined with the ease of not having to do all the administrative work, that comes with being self employed or having your own company. However others will say that in self employment the sky is the limit and you can earn as much as you are willing to put work into it. As you get older you might realize also that your options of being employed are thinning out, once you are in the mid 40s you will realize that some employers will be reluctant to employ someone as “old” as you are. You might find it easier to get contracts for project duration.

However there are many other options for project managers:

Be a “normal” project manager who simply manages projects – which is a BIG responsibility
Be a Head of Projects who manages a team of project managers or even leads a Project Management Office (PMO)
Establish a Project Management Office (PMO) – which can have different functions – see my article to the topic
Become a Senior Manager / C suite Member who influences strategy and internal processes
Be a Compliance Officer for project compliance
Be an independent Project Manager who works on contract – usually these tend to manage mega projects
Be a Project Management Consultant, who manages projects for other companies
Be a Project Management Process Consultant, who helps companies set up their project management methodology or department
Be Project Management Trainer / Speaker / Author etc.
Be a Project Management Coach or Mentor
Be a Change Management Consultant
Etc – I am sure there are more options

I think project management is an exciting career which never needs to be boring and everyone can find his niche. Some might find it right away, others might need to do a bit of trial and error until they find the place they enjoy most.

Project management is needed in all sectors, and I mean in all sectors. I met a project manager, when I did my PMP training, who managed bible translation projects!

Why don’t you share with all of us, what you have done in your project management career and where your niche is.

29/01/201909/02/2022

Communication overload in Project Management

We are living in a day and age where we get information from all over. Every day there are new channels of information:

New Apps
New Software
New Collaboration Tools
Etc.

You can get so lost in all this and never be able to concentrate on anything. That’s where you need to organize yourself and structure your approach. If you don’t you risk drowning in this flood of information. In addition to that many of us have gotten addicted to social media updates to a certain level. This definitely diverts our attention, think of the times you have sat in a meeting and someone is physically present, but their mind & eyes are fixed on their phone. Think of how irritating it is. Now realize it is just as irritating to others if you do it.

In order to survive in this world of over-information you need to:

Decide what tool to use for what – it should be 1 tool for a group you work with, so that all the information is in the same place
If you are in a team / group that works together, decide which tool to use. It should only be one. You can be the person to push for this even if you are not the team leader
Set out the rules – what can be done and what can’t be done? What can you post, what can’t you post? Frequency? Timings? etc
Control yourself
1. Did you actually know that all the alerts on your phone can be set on silent?
1. Did you know, that just because a message comes in, you do not need to open it there and then?
1. Did you know that you do not need to respond to every message immediately? Just because someone is asking for a document or answer, does not mean you need to drop everything and do it right now.
1. Sit down and analyze what kind of requests you need to respond to:
  1. Immediately
  1. Within 1-2 hours
  1. Same day
  1. Within 24 hours
  1. After 48 hours or more
Focus on what you are doing and stop looking on your phone all the time
Put your phone away, put it in your bag, when you are having a meeting
Social Media info is not going away, just because you have not read it immediately. You can check it after work or during a break if you must

If you work on the above points, you can get yourself to focus more on your work and safe time. Think about it.

22/01/201905/02/2019

What do Nursing and Project Management have in common?

Have you ever thought about what Nursing and Project Management have in common? This actually helped me embrace Project Management when I found myself being forced into Project Management and was not ready to move into a new profession.

Right out of High School I trained as a Nurse and worked in the medical field for over 20 years. Then suddenly I couldn’t find a job in the Healthcare Sector and the Healthcare Software Company I was working for closed down. One of the shareholders offered me a job in his IT Company and my journey into the scary world of IT began. I actually asked my future boss what he thinks I could do in his company, since I am a Nurse and Medical Administrator. He told me I know my customer service and customers are the same in all industries. So I unknowingly my journey into Project Management. First I was given all the serious client complaints to sort out and automatically I ended up sorting issues on one of the Mega Projects. One day suddenly the Managing Director called me into his office and told me he wants me to do project management. That was a really scary thought….., especially in the IT world, that was so different from the medical world I came from. I told him I don’t know anything about it and think it is better if he employs someone who is trained. So I thought I got away with it, since I was left alone for 6 months. However the next time I was summoned, I was told in no uncertain terms I have to do project management or I would be laid off. With a heavy heart I took up project management. First I read as much as I could online and at the same time learned what I could from my Data Infrastructure Team on the technical side. I took a course in MS Project, which only proofed to me that I still did not know much about Project Management. So I looked for training. The only reason I took the PMP training, was that it was cheaper than the other trainings like Prince 2 – I didn’t know the difference at the time – and my employer was more likely to pay for it.
This decision opened up an entire new world for me.

But the decisive moment came when I sat for the first day in the PMP training. The trainer was doing the initial introduction of what project management is and was talking about project planning. Suddenly everything sounded so familiar:

Goals, Risks, Planning, Monitoring – those were all terminologies I was familiar with. As Nurses, when you do proper Client Care Planning, you look at all these, define them and plan your care accordingly. That’s when It clicked in my mind and I realized that I can do project management. Thanks to this AHA moment I was able to embrace a new profession in my late 40s and also realized that I had been doing project management all my life. Somehow I always ended up managing one project or other.

22/01/201909/02/2022

Getting started with my Ramblings

Hi everyone,

here I am trying to find my place n the world of blogs. I am completely new to this and will be trying out different things.

I am a Project Manager, Program Manager, PMO Manager, Project Compliance Officer, Project Process Development Specialist, Change Manager, Trainer & Mentor and want to share my experience and my lessons learned. I do publish regular articles in both ProjectManagement.com and KiGospaces and am now venturing into blogging.

For now I want to write a blog every Tuesday. Then we take ti from there and see how it goes.