by Dharam CW2 | Jul 19, 2023 | General
Project management is a fulfilling career choice that may offer competitive pay and a wide range of job opportunities. As a result, project managers are constantly in demand: Qualified individuals are always needed to plan and provide work in every business.
Over the next ten years, demand for project managers is one of the roles which will expand faster than the need for workers in other roles. But on the other hand, organizations may face risks due to the talent gap.
Understanding PMOE
Projects are becoming an increasingly important component of business completion. The acceleration of business evolution, increasing emphasis on digital transformation, and ever-changing consumer expectations and competitor offers are here to stay. As a result, project management skills and talents are becoming increasingly important in organizations.
Organizations will not invest in training the people in those positions to accomplish that work if those roles are not recognized as contributing to project management. As a result, they will not foster an environment where employees may develop experience, and they will eventually find themselves unable to sustain the number of projects that must be delivered.
One of the reasons that technical roles are considered part of PMOE is the growing adoption of agile ways to deliver work. However, many organizations still see agile as a ‘project management free’ delivery method, where the self-organized nature of agile teams eliminates the need for project management. But, again, this thinking must change if there is any hope of closing the skills gap.
Organizations must assess their skill profiles for all roles and determine if project management competencies should be included. Even roles that do not entail daily project delivery or where employees are more frequent contributors than leaders are likely to benefit from project management skills and experience. Unless that is ‘built in’ to job profiles, hiring and development methods will remain the same, and the shortage will remain unaddressed.
Talent Gap Report 2021
Successful projects are a significant contributor to global economic growth. As more industries become projectized, the demand for qualified project managers will likely rise over the next decade.
The Talent Gap Report 2021
The Talent Gap Report 2021 has been released by the Project Management Institute. The headline is the scarcity of qualified candidates for project management-oriented employment (PMOE). As a result, around 25 million more employees will be required by 2030 than in 2019. To put this in context, there were 90 million workers in those positions in 2019, implying a 30% increase.
Simultaneously, 13 million existing project management-oriented employees will retire, with the vast majority nearing the top of the experience curve. This phenomenon implies that enterprises will lose significant knowledge and skill. And this will happen when they increase the need for that experience by introducing a large number of new project-related staff who must progress quickly. In developed economies, on the other hand, retirement is the primary source of job possibilities for younger workers.
The report’s most critical statement comes near the end: “Global demand for project management expertise is unlikely to be addressed by 2030 unless firms encourage a culture of continuous learning.” As a result, firms confront a huge growth in PMOE roles and an inability to address that requirement based on current business processes.
Addressing challenges of this magnitude demands a strategic approach backed by financial commitments and constant responsibility for performance. In some circumstances, it may also necessitate a transformation in how leaders understand their companies and roles.
3 Reasons For The Project management Talent Gap
Why and where is the Talent Gap?
There are three reasons for the project management talent gap:
- The number of positions requiring project management skills is increasing.
- Project managers are in high demand in emerging and developing companies.
- Project managers are retiring faster than young talent can replace them.
Upskill the people
Unless firms foster a culture of continuous learning, the worldwide need for project management skills is unlikely to be met by 2030. The most resilient firms will prioritize reimagined employee capability-building.
According to a McKinsey report, over 80% of business leaders consider skill building to be “very” or “very” vital to their organization’s growth, up from 59% before the pandemic. As a result, organizations will need to support new learning initiatives and seek partnerships to equip employees with the appropriate project management skills to develop their talent. These talents include power skills like teamwork and leadership; business acumen to develop well-rounded employees; and mastering new methods of working, such as growing use of tech-enhanced problem-solving tools.
Gaining a Competitive Advantage in the Talent Acquisition Race: The Front-Runners
According to PMI and PwC study, a cohort of 250 organizations face fewer challenges in attracting and retaining talent than their counterparts. Their project management offices (PMOs) are better connected with corporate strategy—three quarters have a C-suite presence, and 90% are seen as strategic partners by their executive leaders. As a result, they have an easier time recruiting people with important project skills. They are more successful at developing project managers. They are also twice as likely to have outperformed in revenue growth, customer acquisition, customer happiness, and environmental, sustainability, and governance (ESG) indicators.
Facilitating project-based organizations
The concept of stable operations is unlikely to exist at any scale by 2030, which is one of the most important factors driving the demand for more individuals in PMOE roles. The rapid growth of technology has resulted in much shorter lifecycles for both customer-facing and internal solutions. This trend is expected to continue as digital transformations drive organizations to the point where technology is vital in managing every business area.
Future of project management
Project management is being massively disrupted by management technology. As a result, forward-thinking professionals are questioning how to effectively prepare for the upcoming tidal wave of change caused by technological innovation.
Here are four skills that project managers of the future might need:
- Data Science
- Conflict resolution
- Entrepreneurship
- Resource management
Project Management’s Future in the Age of Advanced Technology
Because of emerging trends such as remote teams, digitalization, and automation, project management has changed dramatically in recent years. As a result, companies now rely significantly on technology to plan, execute, and monitor work. As an example:
- Big data and artificial intelligence for better risk forecasting
- Remote progress tracking using digitization technologies
- Automation software for more efficient execution
These innovations have improved firms’ management capacities and altered project management’s future. According to Gartner research, 80% of management duties will be automated by 2030, and future managers will need more technological abilities. They must be knowledgeable about cybersecurity, blockchains, machine learning, and robots, all of which are expected to play larger roles in management.
Future Trends of Project Management
Consider project management ten years ago: fewer tools, smaller teams, and more straightforward tasks. Since then, the project landscape has changed dramatically, with major trends such as:
- Blockchain
- Artificial intelligence
- Sustainability
- Remote teams
Future Trends of Project Management
Trend 1 – Blockchain
More companies use blockchain technologies for management, such as when conducting dispute investigations. The capacity of blockchain to automatically update data makes it ideal for reconciling records and transactions. One of the most significant contributions of blockchain to project management will be smart contracts, which are effectively self-executing contracts powered by computer code.
Smart contracts reduce the number of key functions within the project manager’s scope, such as checking on project milestones and assigning new ones, which speeds up management processes. As a result, quicker workflow assures project completion on time and improves a company’s overall performance.
Trend 2 – Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence quickly infiltrates project management systems, handling anything from predictive analysis to risk management. Because of its efficacy, AI is expected to contribute:
- $42.7 B (7.7%) to Egypt’s economy
- $135.2 B (12.4%) to Saudi Arabia’s economy
- $96.3 B (13.6%) to the UAE economy
The primary capacity of AI is to provide data insights for decision-making, which increases the agility of any given project. For example, assume a manager considers which product features to include; AI finds correlations and patterns in consumer data and then recommends which product features are more likely to sell. Such insights improve an organization’s competitiveness by avoiding commitment to poorly planned, hazardous ventures.
Trend 3 – Sustainability
Today, project sustainability is more crucial than ever. Governments and societies all around the world are demanding greener approaches throughout the life cycle of a project.
Green initiatives are cost-cutting methods from a business standpoint. For example, energy is required for project execution, and shifting to renewable sources reduces costs. In addition, this frees up resources for other essential areas, such as innovation and research. Meanwhile, sustainable practices improve a company’s brand and foster consumer loyalty.
Trend 4 – Remote Teams
Remote teams have been the norm since the advent of communication technology. As a result, businesses gain from a more diverse and borderless talent pool easily available through contracts. In addition, they spend less on office space, travel, and other administrative expenses.
As a result, it’s not unexpected that 65% of workers anticipate that workplaces will become entirely virtual over the next several years. In general, remote working arrangements enable businesses to extend their resources while increasing operational efficiency. As such, they are crucial in developing lean, competitive firms.
Skills Future Project Professionals Need
To stay up with modern project management trends, a fundamental understanding of ideas such as data science, conflict resolution, and entrepreneurship is required. For example, understanding data science may assist a manager in incorporating AI into more elements of the project life cycle.
Here’s a closer look at what these talents comprise and how they’ll stay up with future project management improvements.
4 Skills Future Project Professionals Need
Skill 1 – Data Science
Big data insights are essential management tools, particularly for large projects with extensive life cycles. Insights from previous projects show inefficiencies that guide the current project, such as the number of slack hours and their causes. Data analysis assesses progress and uncovers deviations early, such as changes in material costs and currency rates that exceed expectations. As a result, project managers must comprehend topics such as statistical inference and regression analysis.
Skill 2 – Conflict Resolution
Today’s projects are extremely complicated, with constantly changing deliverables. As a result, conflicts are never far away. These issues, if left unaddressed, can undermine the team’s performance, resulting in delays and missed deliverables. Managers must thus grasp the various aspects of conflict resolution, such as:
- A conducive work environment’s behavioral and organizational components
- Effective communication
- Effective contingency planning
Skill 3 – Entrepreneurship
Project managers are, in essence, CEOs. On the one hand, they manage project deliverables. Yet, simultaneously, they negotiate with shareholders and set goals based on estimates. As a result, being effective requires more than technical and administrative skills.
Entrepreneurial skills, such as strategic thinking and market insight, are also required of project leaders. Such skills are especially important when modifying deliverables, typical in agile projects like software development.
Skill 4 – Resource Management
Budgets and timeframes became tighter as projects became larger and more complicated. Today’s project managers must balance budgetary constraints, quality delivery, and achieving deadlines with limited resources. They are entrusted with creating a lean organization.
For optimal efficacy, a precise balance of resource allocation is required, as over-allocation to one activity inhibits the others. As a result, managers must understand resource management principles such as equilibrium shifts and flexibility.
Bridging the talent gap
The PMI Talent Gap report delves into a decade’s worth of project management-related job trends, costs, and global implications. PMI has completed its most recent study of the “projectized” businesses that leverage these talents better to understand talent and employment trends in project management. Using data from selected areas, the PMI Talent Gap report provides a birds-eye perspective of the most in-demand talents and the magnitude of the talent shortfall.
PMI data shows a continuing gap between the global demand for project management skills and talent availability. This data translates into many new career prospects in PMOE for job-seeking project professionals. However, the skill shortage is a significant issue for firms that rely on project leaders and changemakers. For example, by 2030, this skill gap is anticipated to affect every area, resulting in a potential global GDP loss of up to US$345.5 billion.
Here is a summary of the top three reasons for the skill gap, as identified by PMI research and explained in the report:
- An increase in the number of professions that need project management expertise.
- Economic growth drives demand for project managers in emerging and developing countries.
- The rate of labor-force retirement
Final Thoughts
Project management has a bright future. There is still a high demand for change agents. PM will transition from being viewed as an administrative function by some executives to the strategic partnership that it has the potential to be in every organization, not just those enlightened businesses with high levels of program management maturity.
For many years, the skills of project managers have migrated toward “soft” skills. However, given how the future of work is shaping, this will become much more important. Project managers will need to be team players. As a result, we’ll need to interact with people who have the skills that the technical companion lacks:
Skills That The Technical Companion Lacks
- Empathy
- Strategic thinking
- Fun
- Creativity
- Motivation and persuasion
- Thoughtful customer service
- Listening
Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Justin Buckwalter in YouTube
For any questions related to your Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting talktodharam.com
You can subscribe to the vCare Project Management YouTube Channel to catch future videos of our Q&A series and certification success stories: https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl
You can subscribe to and follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
by Dharam CW2 | May 19, 2023 | General
Emotional intelligence in the workplace is becoming increasingly important for leaders and project managers as remote work became more prevalent due to the pandemic. Success in project management and managing cross-functional remote teams is only possible with emotional intelligence.
Capterra Survey
According to a Capterra survey, emotionally intelligent project managers (PMs) are approximately 11% more successful at managing processes, engaging stakeholders, avoiding scope creep, and efficiently using resources than PMs who lack this skill.
Emotional Intelligence
What is Emotional Intelligence?
Emotional intelligence refers to our ability to recognize, control, and communicate emotions. People with high emotional intelligence understand how they feel, what their feelings imply, and how their feelings affect others. In interpersonal situations, it is also the ability to empathize with others. Emotional intelligence is about creating a positive work environment, which is critical to the success of any project.
As Per LiquidPlanner Study
According to a LiquidPlanner study, most project managers commit approximately 10% of their time to people-related activities. Top project managers dedicate 70% of their time to these activities. As a result, we can conclude that emotional intelligence is crucial for project success.
Importance of Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
Importance of Emotional Intelligence for Project Managers
- Emotional intelligence is essential for leading cohesive, high-performing teams.
- According to researchers and behavioral scientists, Emotional intelligence impacts how leaders communicate with their teams and how team members interact.
- Emotionally intelligent leaders and managers understand how to control their emotions and behavior at work, which includes providing safe environments for exchanging ideas and feedback, productive teamwork and performance, good morale, employee engagement, and job satisfaction. They manage workplace stress and conflict with care and educate their team members to do the same.
Characteristics of Emotional Intelligence
What can project managers do to help themselves develop and become more aware? First, let’s examine five abilities for raising emotional intelligence:
- Self-Awareness – The ability to sense, identify, and comprehend emotions is self-awareness. Unfortunately, many of us were taught to ignore our emotions in the past. However, it is critical to be aware of your feelings to make appropriate decisions and act accordingly. Those with high self-awareness are self-assured, authentic, open to feedback, and capable of maintaining perspective throughout all project phases.
Characteristics of Emotional Intelligence
- Self-Management – Self-management is the ability to reason well while understanding feelings. Many frequently react based on their frame of reference rather than selecting a response based on their current unique circumstances. Self-managers are deliberate in decision-making, taking the initiative, framing events appropriately, maintaining perspective, and responding quickly. They understand their feelings and why they have them and effectively manage their responses.
- Self-Motivation – Self-motivation is the ability to channel the power of your emotions toward a specific goal. When project teams have a purpose, these ‘P’s follow peace, passion, power, perspective, and potential leverage. Self-motivators who are influential are optimistic and have a positive attitude. They can delay gratification and assert themselves.
- Interpersonal Management – The capability to identify and respond properly to the emotions of others is referred to as interpersonal management. If you can connect with people and acknowledge their humanity, they will answer openly, leading to common trust.
- Leadership – An emotionally intelligent project manager inspires guides, challenges, and supports the team. Leadership is defined as the ability to create and communicate vision and passion for assisting individuals and organizations in reaching their full potential.
Tips for improving Emotional Intelligence
Tips for improving Emotional Intelligence
- Reflect internally – To become more emotionally aware, one must first understand their emotions and then regulate them in stressful situations. Next, they have to figure out what motivates them. Finally, authenticity is necessary to develop emotional intelligence by leading a successful project team and establishing meaningful relationships with stakeholders.
- Know the project team – Project managers are usually aware of the people they must contact when working on a project. However, understanding the project team, from team dynamics to personalities to dealing with conflict and stress, is just as important. To improve emotional intelligence, one must first get to know their team, communicate with them, and understand their emotions. It will also help the success of their project. This job becomes even more important for teams that operate in multiple locations and are diverse.
- Self-evolve – Along with other important leadership talents, project managers should work to improve their emotional intelligence regularly. Conditions surrounding a project frequently change; its scope may shift, the number of stakeholders may increase, and projects may eventually end.Every project is distinct, and no project manager can complete a project independently. Therefore, it is advantageous for project managers to consider what they learn during and after a project. For example, consider how a project team operated, what they witnessed during critical times with stakeholders, and their team’s performance.
- Employ interpersonal skills everywhere – Emotional intelligence can be helpful in almost any project management situation. For example, people may feel compelled to sign off on a strategy to minimize delays while managing scope changes or project risk. Following the resolution of such issues, an emotionally intelligent project manager would pursue people because they notice that this could lead to more severe problems in the future.
ABCD Trust model
ABCD Trust model
Better relationships will result in better outcomes. That is why developing trusted connections is critical to the success of your organization. When individuals trust one another, they may work efficiently together.
It is well known that low trust harms morale, productivity, and turnover. To prevent these traps, Ken Blanchard created the ABCD Trust Model to help executives understand the activities that affect creating trustworthy relationships.
Blanchard suggests four critical aspects for leaders to develop trust with people: Able, Believable, Connected, and Dependable.
- Able – The term able refers to the ability to demonstrate competence. Leaders demonstrate competence by possessing the necessary skills, education, credentials, and experience. They also exhibit their capacity to lead by accomplishing achievements. Able leaders can encourage people and collaborate with them to achieve goals.
- Believable – Being credible entails operating with honesty. Believable leaders adhere to a set of core beliefs. They know what they stand for and will not compromise their principles under pressure. Being credible also means maintaining promises and not lying or stretching the truth.
- Connected – Connected shows concern and care for others. This aspect fosters trust and contributes to a more engaged workplace atmosphere. Being linked entails attending to people’s needs and promoting their well-being. Leaders also build relationships by giving information not only about the organization but also about themselves. Employees are significantly more likely to provide their best effort when they feel linked to leaders.
- Dependable – Dependable means showing consistency and following through. It entails holding oneself and others accountable for commitments. A trustworthy leader will accept responsibility for their acts and help their followers face adversity.
7MTF Components
7MTF Components
The 7MTF model is composed of seven components. We all have all 7 in our personalities; as adults, 2 to 4 will be strong, some will be weak, and others will be ordinary. This mix of elements is one of the most significant variables in deciding our temperament – our emotional predisposition.
- The R – Regulator (formerly known as the Normal) – A person with a ‘strong R’ has a strong need for Order. They will be mature, responsible, calm, and emotionless. You may hear the words ‘should,’ ‘ought,’ and ‘logical’ in their language. They have high expectations of themselves and others, including those with whom they live and work.
- The G – GoGetter (formerly known as the Hustler) – A person with a ‘strong G’ has a strong desire for material success. This individual entails enjoying money and the things it can purchase. The G is quick, opportunistic, intelligent, enterprising, and charming. They are short-term in nature, expecting results immediately or very soon. Promising a G a large monetary reward next year is unlikely to pique their attention.
- The S – Socialiser (formerly known as the Mover) – The ‘strong S’ personality has a great need to communicate. This aspect implies talking about people, fun, events, what you did over the weekend, or anything related to life. Hence, their straightforward, friendly, and frequent grin immediately.
- The D – Doublechecker – The ‘strong D’ is characterized by a desire to look after others and ensure everyone is safe. When you encounter a strong D, expect someone obedient, loyal, and concerned with doing the right thing. One of their greatest assets is their ability to anticipate difficulties and hazards.
- The A – Artist – A person with a ‘strong A’ desires to create. “I want to be different,” is what they would say. These hardworking individuals are conscientious and do not wish to offend anyone. Seek for anything unusual about their attire, such as innovative earrings, cufflinks, a six-button jacket, or an all-black ensemble!
- The P – Politician – A solid handshake and direct eye contact indicate that the ‘strong P’ is determined to win. This person has a determination and strength that others may find challenging. The spoken word is the strong P’s stock in trade – look for status markers like the huge Mercedes in metallic blue.
- The E – Engineer – A person with a ‘strong E’ personality is driven to accomplish undertakings. The strong E has traits such as process, detail, and procedure. This individual can form a strategy and make it happen as soon as they see anything. The E is concerned with completion. So, unless you can assist, you should avoid getting in the way!
Wisdom – strive for mental stability and individual resilience – 10 Competencies
Wikipedia defines wisdom as the “ability to contemplate and act using knowledge, experience, understanding, common sense, and insight.” Psychologists have created a list of ten competencies that are typical therapies in their field and are referred to as wisdom. Self-awareness, self-control, and empathy are the three components of emotional intelligence (EI). Although the fourth component of EI is not formally mentioned among the ten competencies, social influence or influencing others may be considered a result of being highly effective in the other areas.
Ten Components of Emotional Intelligence
- Ability to change perspectives – In a bipolar environment, it is possible to remain trapped in one thought and dislike the other viewpoint with strong emotions, which may lead to violence. The ability to look for and identify more points of view implies a shift in viewpoint. Some of the therapies used to treat mental illnesses can help with this. Examples include role-playing, acting, visiting people in various countries, learning about diverse cultures, and brainstorming.
- Empathy is the ability to connect – Understanding people’s intentions, current state of mind, emotions, and mindsets is necessary for being heard, establishing trust, and influencing others. In addition, active listening techniques may help you focus outside yourself and view others as humans who vary from ourselves.
- Awareness & acceptance of own emotions (self-awareness) – Self-awareness leads to increased self-confidence and sincerity. It refers to mindfulness, or being aware of one’s feelings, and is required for self-control and emotional balance.
- Emotional balance, serenity (self-control) – Patience, serenity, and avoiding knee-jerk reactions make you more popular and respected and contribute to mental tranquility. Having a mentor can help you develop and fine-tune this skill.
- Knowledge about facts (know what, assimilation) and about problem-solving (know-how, accommodation) – Wisdom includes knowledge; therefore, it has two components.
- On the one hand, we have factual knowledge about a topic; on the other, we may be specialists in a (typically technical) area. This heuristic knowledge and assimilation are how we apply established systems to circumstances.
- On the other hand, when we encounter new situations or topics, we use accommodation to apply our problem-solving skills. We employ our epistemic intelligence and heuristics to do this.
- Contextualism (consider the situation, timeline, and social relevance) – Even though we have theories and may find similarities in new scenarios, each situation is unique and depends on the circumstances, the context in which the problem develops, and the societal importance. This capacity is achieved via awareness and avoiding picking a solution that works in another context without first examining the present dependencies of the situation.
- Relativism for values, tolerance for pluralism, diversity (which is hard if you are part of the same belief systems for most of your life, like nations and churches) – There are many truths (this is known as non-monism), and yours is only one of them. Others have the right to their realities, which are based on the cultures in which they live, their beliefs and experiences, and the facts to which they have access. Value relativism allows one to accept and appreciate the values of others.
- Orientation towards sustainability, willpower, and delay instant gratification (perspective of linear and circular time flow) – We can pursue long-term goals and make decisions with both short and long-term consequences in mind.
- Uncertainty tolerance, ability to strategize (imaging solutions for scenarios) – Accept that life is unpredictable and swim through it like a river, adapting to currents and waves as they come.
- Self-distance, humility – Do not believe you are the center of the universe, which will remain when you die. Avoid being a taker rather than a giver by avoiding jealousy, bragging, pride, and greed.
Final Thoughts
For today’s project managers, emotional intelligence is a critical concept. Many companies are looking for project managers with strong technical and soft skills. Emotional intelligence is crucial in project management because it enables project managers to improve communication and collaboration in the workplace. It is essential to mention that emotional intelligence can be imparted and nurtured. This aspect implies that as a project manager, one can better oneself by controlling feelings and emotions and developing positive behaviors to influence others at work. One will make better decisions about other people’s emotions, strengths, and weaknesses once they have recognized their thoughts.
Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Thomas Walenta in YouTube
For any questions related to your Project Management career, training, and certifications, you can book an obligation free 15 minutes session with me by visiting http://talktodharam.com/
You can subscribe to the vCare Project Management YouTube Channel to catch future videos of our Q&A series and certification success stories: https://bit.ly/2YF0wJl
You can subscribe to and follow my podcasts and interviews with Project Management Experts on YouTube at https://bit.ly/2NDY8wd
by DharamCW | Jun 12, 2022 | General
Two relevant quotes which quickly strike our minds when we think about the Entrepreneurial mindset are:
“Building a business is not rocket science; it’s about having a great idea and seeing it through with integrity.” Richard Branson
“At 211 degrees, water is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils. And with boiling water comes steam. And with steam, you can power a train.” S.L. Parker
Ideally, a project’s success is based on the critical success factors identified during the initial stages of the project, which would fall in various areas such as Process, Product, Project Management, Business, and Strategic. When the project can make a positive and long-standing impact on business value, a culture deeply imbibes into people’s minds. It creates an undeniable mark in the overall scheme of things.
Benefits and stakeholders’ satisfaction are the key factors that measure a project’s success. It’s also defined by the level of efficiency the project creates based on the set project objectives. Project success is based on the project success criteria and outcome. Typically, these criteria fall as Meeting the Scope identified, Deadlines and Milestones on time, Within the given budget, excellent satisfaction to the stakeholders, both internal and external, and with specified quality criteria.
Essentially, we all know that various tenets of project management contribute to success. Here, we will discuss how the entrepreneurial mindset would impact project success. Entrepreneurs have some unique characteristics such as being adaptive, decisive, risk-tolerant, persistent, able to handle failure, experimenting, building teams, etc.,
Mindset
One must believe that we can be malleable to unlock our growth as project managers or portfolio managers by transforming into an entrepreneurial mindset. We need to understand what mindset is, then understand the characteristics of an entrepreneurial mindset and how we can embark on that transformation journey from where we are to bring on project success in our project management career.
Mindset is an essential set of beliefs that provides a shape in terms of the view one has on the world and themselves. It influences how we think, act, feel and respond to a given situation. Typically, mindset falls into two categories as introduced by Carol S. Dweck, which we are all aware of: they are a) Fixed Mindset and b) Growth Mindset.
An entrepreneurial mindset is a growth mindset. Intelligence cannot be developed with a fixed mindset. A growth mindset is all about the belief that intelligence can be developed through personal effort, good learning strategies, and lots of mentoring and support from others. As introduced by Heider, the interpersonal process equation is a product of Ability, Motivation, and Environment.
An entrepreneurial mindset is a set of skills that allows people to recognize and capitalize on opportunities, overcome and learn from setbacks, and succeed amidst challenging backdrops. An entrepreneurial mentality is a method of thinking that helps achieve your business objectives. Entrepreneurs who learn from their mistakes and failures have a better chance of future success.
Entrepreneurs boost the economy by creating jobs and developing new products and services that benefit the entire world. A great entrepreneur must be able to think outside the box and come up with out-of-this-world ideas.
Entrepreneurial mindset and project management
7 Entrepreneurial Traits
Though there is a common belief that entrepreneurship cannot be taught, and they should be born, studies have proven that it’s a myth. Typically, entrepreneurs search, seize and exploit the opportunities while mitigating them through engagement, courage, and perseverance. The following are the entrepreneurial traits that are generally encompassed in an entrepreneur:
- Commitment and Determination
- Courage
- Obsession with opportunity
- Risk tolerance
- Creativity
- Motivation to excel
- Leadership
An entrepreneurial mindset fosters more value for projects. Your project teams are encouraged to solve business problems and develop creative and innovative ideas. When a leader allows the teams to be creative and innovative, they will be more productive and engaged in the project.
The journal “People’s confidence in innovation” indicates that confidence in innovation is a component of the entrepreneurial mindset. In several ways, confidence in innovation can be considered part of the entrepreneurial mindset.
- First, entrepreneurs have more confidence in innovation than non-entrepreneurs.
- Second, confidence in innovation is positively related to other aspects of the entrepreneurial mindset, most notably self-efficacy, opportunity alertness, risk propensity, and role-modelling.
- Third, according to (Nochian and Schtt’s 2012) study, entrepreneurs are not like other people. Instead, their network appears to be the source of their confidence. In the same way, highly networked owners or managers are highly confident in innovation.
- Fourth, their innovativeness appears to be a result of their confidence. The more confident entrepreneurs are, the more innovative they are.
Entrepreneurial mindset and Project success
Commitment & Determination
Commitment and Determination would encompass Decisiveness, Tenacity, Discipline, persistence in solving problems, willingness to sacrifice, and being completely immersed in the mission. In the context of project management, each of these characteristics would contribute to the project’s success. For example, it is being decisive in terms of critical path challenges and exhibiting tenacity for unblocking issues without giving excuses for the need of the project and solving problems. Being committed requires a lot of sacrifice and discipline to bring on consistency. When being disciplined, it would require more like a parenting skill which would always course correct in the larger interest of the project, though seen to be tough externally. Discipline is brought about by establishing an unalterable set of rules and regulations to follow for the project’s success.
Courage
The definition of courage is “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty” (Mish, 1994, 266). Courage could be implemented with excellent values through moral strength, fearless experimentation, unafraid of conflicts, no fear of failure, and intense curiosity amidst facing risk. A courageous project manager would tackle the controversies and conflicts in the project early. A fearless project manager could put his job on the line in the pursuit of doing The Right Thing for the project. Often, the project manager would not have the necessary support and face active resistance, which needs to be managed with resolve to move beyond personal discomfort through intense curiosity.
Obsession about opportunity
An entrepreneur constantly looks for opportunities for improvement. Similarly, project managers consistently look for opportunities for improvement daily by observing day-to-day activities seeking to do more, do better, and do differently. Obsession with opportunity would be recurring, which would preoccupy or intrude on the project manager’s mind. This obsession would naturally shape the opportunity and help focus on project needs. Obsession with opportunities drives business value through the project.
Risk Tolerance
Good project managers would tolerate risk while being calculated risk-taker and risk sharers, thereby minimizing the risks. He would exhibit the characteristic of an entrepreneur by showing the ability to manage stress/conflict and ambiguity. Especially when the project has larger integrations and frequent changes would increase the ambiguity and uncertainty proportionally. Generally, the unknowns which are in the project would cause ambiguity. The ability to understand those would help identify the risks involved. PMBOK defines these areas in terms of Risk tolerance, Risk appetite, and risk threshold. It guides the management of these effectively through appropriate processes involving planning, controlling, and appropriate level of communication.
Risk Tolerance
Project managers should learn how to maneuver ambiguity. As ambiguity would be sinusoidal over time, it would arise and settle. The project manager must manage risk/ambiguity and uncertainty by uncovering information, clarifying roles and responsibilities, establishing clear relationships, bringing clarity to the measurement of success, removing the vagueness, and understanding the cause and effect.
Creativity
So what is creativity? In “The Social Psychology of Creativity,” Amabile (1983) defines creativity as,
“A product or response will be judged as creative to the extent that (a) it is both a novel and appropriate, useful, correct or valuable response to the task at hand, and (b) the task is heuristic rather than algorithmic” (p. 33).
Creativity can be multiple things. It would always push your limits by being open-minded, lateral thinking, ability to conceptualize by going into details, and ability to adapt. Creativity can be unleashed in project setup during Brainstorming sessions, Root Cause Analysis, Force field analysis, Affinity Diagrams, SWOT Analysis, etc. Creativity can be fostered further by open communication and providing an environment for the resources involved. As a project manager, one needs to remove the mental blocks like “Always looking for the right answer,” “avoiding ambiguity,” “I’m not creative,” “Always looking for concrete answers,” and “That’s not my area,” etc., Encourage creative aspects through “Why not like that,” “Let’s explore more,” “what value it would bring in,” etc.,
Motivation to excel
There is a popular phrase. Projects don’t succeed; people do. Typically the project’s success is always attributed to the people. People tend to have a goal and result orientation and need a self-imposed drive to achieve the results. Typically entrepreneurs keep motivating themselves and others around them despite all odds. People involved in projects need interpersonal support, understanding of weaknesses, and guidance to overcome them. Essentially aspects like having a sense of humor and perspective on the value they are adding to the project would motivate them to do better. The project manager’s responsibility is to understand individuals and adopt appropriate motivations strategy based on their needs, desires, and goals. They reward the team and its members creatively by recognizing their strengths. Make the project goals and success factors visible to the entire team. They are clarifying how the performance will be validated as an exact measure.
Leadership
Leadership is one of the essential traits entrepreneurs have. They would be self-starters and have a strong internal locus of control. Locus of control is the degree to which people believe that they, as opposed to external forces (beyond their influence), have control over the outcome of events in their lives. The concept was developed by Julian B. Rotter in 1954 and has since become an aspect of personality psychology. Project managers with an Internal Locus of Control believe that every event in their life derives from factors under their control. These individuals tend to blame or praise themselves for whatever success or failure they experiment in life. They would have enormous patience, integrity, and reliability. They would build teams and more leaders. Key attributes of communicating with a project management mindset include empathy, clarity, authenticity, and flexibility.
Project leadership qualities and competencies
Successful projects come as an outcome of a well-coordinated team effort. Project managers as leaders know their team very well.
The entrepreneurial mindset’s key aspects of a project’s success
Being confident and open-minded is crucial for a project professional with an entrepreneurial mindset. It’s about being self-assured, optimistic, and never afraid to take risks. Every day, if you have an entrepreneurial mindset, you will be ready to take action to achieve your goals and acquire project success.
While some scholars have examined aspects of the entrepreneurial mindset and provided general insights into its attributes, qualities, and operations, the question remains how people tap into it.
- The cognitive aspect—how do entrepreneurs use mental models to think?
- The behavioral aspect—how do entrepreneurs engage or act for opportunities?
- The emotional aspects—what do entrepreneurs feel in entrepreneurship?
Project leadership qualities and competencies
When the project requires success, both project managers and project sponsors should take up the role of a project leader by demonstrating leadership talents, competencies, and entrepreneurial mindsets. The following are the most significant features of effective project management:
- Project management technical skills
- Product development and domain expertise
- Strategy and business acumen
- Leadership and change management skills
- Agility and adaptability
- Ethics and values
Conclusion
The entrepreneurial mindset is an important factor leading to project success. Many leading authors agree with this point of view and are researching to substantiate this grounded theory. This endeavor to bring out the factors associated with the project manager’s leadership style profoundly impacts project success.
Feel free to check out my discussion on this topic with Thomas Walenta in YouTube
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