Renewing your passion as a project manager

It’s easy to succumb to the pressure of a steady parade of project challenges and forget the plusses of being a project manager. To regain your project manager passion, consider the contributions a project manager makes:

Driving your business’s success. Projects don’t succeed without project managers and businesses don’t move forward without successful projects. For every new product, customer success story, or happy-dance stock price move for your business, you know projects are behind those successes. Project managers are the on-the-ground tacticians of a business and drive its ongoing viability.

Nurturing your team members. As a project manager, you make a significant difference in the lives of your team members. I have had to protect my team members from business challenges on every project I’ve managed! Poorly thought out changes, management probes, oversold benefits, and priority squabbles are a few examples where you have to step in to protect your team. That way, your team can complete their tasks and advance the project. Plus, you can develop your team members by mentoring them and assigning skill-building tasks.

Satisfying and supporting consumers. Your role in bringing projects to life can affect consumers in significant ways. Project end-products fulfill not only your business’s needs, but also your customers’ needs. Keep in mind that your projects provide new ways of producing work, servicing products, and supporting the community. Your efforts as a project manager move the economy forward!

Growing yourself. Your project management role can be a vehicle for personal growth. I’ve learned something from every project I’ve worked on, like the inner workings of an industry to new technology to best practices for leading people. By definition, a project creates a unique product or result, so learning comes with the territory. Use your projects to take advantage of exposure to new business areas, new technologies and new or enhanced skills. Step outside your comfort zone to learn even more. 

Promoting fun. Curt W. Coffman and Kathie Sorensen, PhD authored the book Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast. When you create a positive project culture where fun is promoted, you will realize better results. And that reinforces your purpose as a project manager to: create new outcomes, support the business, and provide opportunities for people. 

To learn more, search for “project management” (or any topic that interests you) in the LinkedIn Learning library.