Personal Effectiveness for Project Managers: Feel more confident, have more impact, get more done, and stay in control

Project Management is a professional discipline.
For me, this means that you need to be able to do more than recite the processes and techniques. You need to be able to do it well, do it confidently, and inspire the trust of the people around you.
And therefore, it isn’t enough to be skilled in the methodology. You need to cultivate a personal effectiveness, and that is what this ebook is all about.
In it, I have tackled six of the biggest challenges that project managers face, in being effective in their role:
Personal Time Management
This means getting your work done, so the team around you feel you’re in control. It’s about doing what you say you’ll do, when you say it. And for this, I have a simple process that derives from the fundamentals of project management.
Feeling Overwhelmed by Your Project?
We all have the feeling, from time-to-time, that it’s all a bit too much. The stress of feeling we can’t cope with it all is about your mental state, rather than the objective reality of your situation – although that can, of course, contribute to how you’re feeling. So in this chapter, you’ll find a simple approach to seizing back control and overcoming overwhelm.
Resilience when Things get Tough
But what about longer-term stress, and coping with the pressures of a project? That’s what this chapter is all about. I’ll show you how to build your resilience to prepare you for tough times, and respond resiliently, when tough times hit you.
Three Project Leadership Challenges
This is a sort of bonus chapter. In it, I tackle three tough challenges a project leader can face when things get tough. We’ll look at solutions to resistance, time pressure, and stress.
Confidence: What You Need to Know to be a Confident Project Manager
To win the confidence of your stakeholders, you need to show confidence yourself. So, this chapter gives you everything you’ll need, in four parts: the impact of lack of confidence, why it happens, mindset: learning to feel confident, and behaviors: how to convey confidence.
Gravitas: How to be a Project Manager of Substance
The last chapter is my personal favorite. You want your words to carry weight… You want people to listen to you… You want to speak with authority… You want to be trusted… You even want to be sought out for you opinions, insights and advice. You need gravitas, and I’ll show you how to get it.