What If You Feel Lonely as a PM

If you’re feeling lonely or isolated as a project manager, you aren’t alone (pun intended.) Overcoming that feeling is a balance between professional effectiveness and personal relationships. You also have to be intentional and apply some practical steps. Here are a few things you can do:

• Leverage the decision-making process. Decision-making and resolving issues are often done alone in your office. But there’s an opportunity to connect and interact with others in the decision-making process. You need to consult with key stakeholders. You have to collect information and then analyze it with your team and/or sponsor. This big picture view of decision-making will remind you that other people contribute to the process – you don’t have to handle decisions completely on your own.
• Be a part of your team. As project manager, you don’t have to stand apart from the team. Yes, you do need to be impartial and not favor one team member over another. But you can work closely with team members. Develop strong relationships with the team and figure out how you can help them grow. Collaborate with them in a supportive way when that will help get tasks done. Invite them to collaborate with you on project management tasks. (That will save you time, allow you to delegate if you’re behind on your work, and help you overcome that feeling of being disconnected.)
• Take pride in the products you’re producing. As project manager, you contribute to products that help your organization. You might not get attention while products are being produced, which is a good thing. It means you’ve earned independence! The lack of attention might make you feel left out, ignored. Do some soul searching. Do you feel isolated when you think about the products you’re working on? If so, you need to get feedback or validation. Schedule a progress review with your sponsor and/or key stakeholders.
• Work on your team environment. Work doesn’t always have to be toil. Include short social events in your project environment. This not only helps the team work better together, but it can also address the disconnected feeling. Virtual coffees, lunches as a team, or small award ceremonies when milestones are reached. You’ll feel more connected as you improve team dynamics.
• Network with other project managers. There is no need to deal with everything alone! You aren’t the only project manager, and not the only one feeling isolated at times. Find a mentor. Talk to other project managers. You’re bound to find people who understand what you’re going through.

If you have tips, anecdotes, or questions about building connections, share with us in the comments. And if you’re looking for a community of project managers, join one or more of the project management-related groups on LinkedIn.

Coming Up

Do you have questions about careers in project management? Will I like being a project manager? What skills do I need? What about education? How do I get experience? Are certifications worth it and what do I need to do to earn them? What are the possible career paths? Chris Croft and Bonnie Biafore co-authored the course How to Launch a Career in Project Management to answer all these questions – and many more. For this Office Hours event, we want you to watch the course FIRST. Then, if you still have questions, join Chris Croft and me on Wednesday, Oct 11, 2023 at 9am MT for this live Office Hours event to ask questions we didn’t answer.

No excuses! Here’s a link to watch the course for free: https://tinyurl.com/how-to-launch-career-in-PM

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This article belongs to the Bonnie’s Project Pointers newsletter series, which has more than 47,000 subscribers. This newsletter is 100% written by a human (no aliens or AIs involved). If you like this article, you can subscribe to receive notifications when a new article posts.

Want to learn more about the topics I talk about in these newsletters? Watch my courses in the LinkedIn Learning Library and tune into my LinkedIn Office Hours live broadcasts.

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