Project Managers are Superheroes

You are a superhero. 

Do you believe that?

Of course, we could get into the nuance of what ‘being a superhero’ can mean for a real human person in the 21st century—and trust me, I love nuance. Often nuance is where I find the insight I need to move forward. “The devil’s in the details,” as they say. 

But in short, here’s what I mean: I love being a project manager because it gives me the superpower to take an idea and turn it into reality. 

I know, I know. The skills required for good project leadership are not superhuman. BUT there are many very different types of skills required. Being good at all of them—PLUS applying them in the right combination at the right time—is challenging. So when I am doing all the parts of my job well, I know I am doing something pretty special. Pretty super. 

This is why I am highly motivated to do two things: 

I want to lead more effective projects.

I recently learned from Bent Flyvbjerg and Dan Gardner’s book “How Big Things Get Done” that among the world’s largest projects (think national construction projects, the Olympics, etc), only 0.5% of them finish on time, on budget, and achieve all the benefits they set out to achieve. That’s a truly abysmal record, especially if you assume most of these projects are pretty important.

Flyvbjerg and Gardner have inspired me to become a project manager who blows that statistic out of the water and leads projects that achieve their goals consistently. I want to be able to sit down with a team and their big, important idea, and I want to have confidence that we can execute on the vision with a predictable investment of time and resources.

I want to help other project leaders grow alongside me.

In addition to rocking my own projects, I want to help project leaders like you do the same. I want to help you master both the basic and advanced project leadership skills that help projects achieve all their intended benefits—that help more big, important ideas become reality. And I want you to feel proud and inspired along the way that what you’re doing has tremendous impact and value.

In my first project management role, I knew I had the talent and the drive required, but I didn’t excel at the skills. Time, practice, and mentorship got me to the level of confidence I have today. I am certain these factors can take both you and me to the next level of project leadership tomorrow.

Will you come with me on this journey? Will you let me be one of your mentors as you learn and perfect project leadership skills?

Will you let me help you on your way to embracing your superpowers?