“You do not write your life with words...You write it with actions. What you think is not important. It is only important what you do.” (*)
Patrick Ness
What you do adds upGetting promoted? Hopefully not to your level of incompetence!
Want to get promoted? Most do.
What's needed: a personal track record; as Ness would say: a record of what you do.
- Personal performance over time
- An accumulation of experience
- Demonstration of wisdom
Hopefully, you recognize the linkage of the last two: wisdom derives from experience, but wisdom only derives from the experiences of both success and failure
“By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.”
Confucius
Laurie Harvey has an idea on this: KPIs for success , meaning KPIs for personal success as a project manager. In her essay, Harvey makes one big point up front:
When performance is lacking, everyone knows it; when performance is on par, it may not be noticed .... until it is.
KPIs for success
So, what's par for the PM? What goes into the personal track record?
Harvey looks at these as instrumental to a winning track record, stuff that will get noticed over time
- Delivery according to expectations
- Budget acumen
- Process improvements
- Relationships and communication
- Risk management
- Customer orientation
Harvey's list is all good stuff; all project oriented. If you're going for a big promotion, my advice: Add to Harvey's list your competence with the business side. A good place to start is the Balanced Scorecard -- Measures that Drive Performance. But that's another story.
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(*) Another way to express Ness' idea: Be consequential!
But consequential actions could be writing (consequential writing is an action, in spite of Ness').
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