My 3 P’s
Everyone has his or her motto. Sometimes we are so fast than we cannot reflect upon that, but I suggest you to be quite for a while and think about what are the main principles that keep you alive. What best practices have been repeated in your life that really became part of your professional toolkit?
Think about it because it is worth. My motto is Passion, Persistence and Patience. Those 3 Ps have been walking with me during my life. I need them to move forward. I strongly believe we have a mission in life, my mission is to be contagious in organizations about my positive attitude managing projects. But it is always challenging wherever you go. I’m a frequent traveler, and wherever I go, my 3 Ps work, taking into account their culture. Let me explain it to you a bit.
Passion: It is to believe in, passion is having enthusiasm with all you do. I’m not saying it is easy every day. I need to charge my batteries every day, doing exercise early in the morning, having breakfast with my lovely wife, reading positive things. Definitely I’m not listening the radio for more that five minutes, just to be updated with the news but not being focused on the bad news, that usually can destroy your day. I believe in my profession and then I defend it in front of executives and other project stakeholders. I like writing, and I keep my mind busy writing a bit every week. I’m smiling every day, just looking into the mirror and saying thank you. Believe in and enjoy it, you are GREAT.
Persistence: My father who passed away many years ago, taught me a lot of things but one of the most important was persistence. Every time in my life that I tried to achieve something it took me more than one try to achieve it. But when your objectives are clear, well defined, and achievable, the only thing you need is to insist, to be persistent and never give up. You can fail many times but if you fail many times, please insist again and again and again because it is not the end. I can share with you several examples in my professional life, about the projects and programs I managed. I needed to be a “mosquito” trying to infect people of positivism all the time. As an owner of a small consulting firm, I need to launch new projects every year and many times I failed, but I always spend some time learning from my failures; and preparing a new project charter again taking into account my lessons learned, the stakeholder’s feedback, asking questions. Be persistent, you can achieve much more than you believe because you are GREAT.
Patience: Even when patience has always a limit, you need to be patient. In some occasions I wanted to achieve some results too fast and everything takes time in life, and of course in project management. One of my never end issue has been, and still is, dealing with managers and executives in projects. You need to cultivate your patience being listened not heard and being understood. Managers and executives are busy people that usually understands management language. So be patient, learn the language management understand (objectives accomplished, results, results and better results, strategy and, goals accomplished, etc..). Talk more frequently to your executives and try to understand them. Show that you want them and you need them but also that you will be able to respect them. Be patient and you will succeed.
During my whole life I used and I’m still using my 3 Ps. Obviously from time to time, as a human being, I need an attitude check, but it is working for me, so what about you? Remember:
Passion: To believe in. I believe in project management.
Persistence: Never the first time I tried something I was very successful. I needed to try it several times.
Patience: Not all people follow your pace, be patient. It takes some time…
TODAY IS A GOOD DAY to start and TOMORROW WILL BE BETTER!
Alfonso Bucero, MSc, CPS, PMP, PMI-RMP, Pf MP, PMI Fellow