1.
Accelerating your project manager career
Richard Tulley
Director of Programme & Project Management
Programme Director | Mentor | Coach | APM Fellow | D & I Ally
Experience, Reflection, Insight

2.
Accelerating your project manager career
Slido
Principles and Mind-set
Action

3.
Principles and Mind-set
1) Don’t break the link between personal and professional development
2) A positive mind-set makes all the difference
3) It is a journey
4) Seek support, take support
5) Don’t confuse training with development
6) Look beyond your work-place
7) Other peoples’ perceptions are important
8) Knowledge and experience won’t take you all the way
9) The intelligence that matters
10)Focus on fulfilment

4.
personal and professional development
knowledge
experience
competence
leadership
insight
professional relationships
professional networks
ethics
team work
Professional
personal relationships
balance
mindfulness
fulfilment
well being
values
security
Personal
self-awareness
communication
empathy
active listening
coaching and mentoring

5.
6th July 2021
Wimbledon
Exits in 4th Round with breathing difficulties
11th September 2021
U.S. Open Champion
First qualifier ever to do so
Wins the match after an injury enforced time out
it’s 90% between your ears
"Golf is a game of inches.
The most important are the six inches
between your ears“
Arnold Palmer
Your mind-set will make the difference…
o Be positive
o Be brave
o Be pro-active
Believe in potential

6.
your development journey
Are you taking control, or trusting in fate?
Slido
o It needs to be planned
o It needs to have a destination
o You need to have a purpose
o You have to take ownership
o It is not a quick fix

7.
seek support, take support … and say “thank you”
o Line manager
o Colleagues
o Role models
o Shadowing
o Build your network
o Join the APM (and engage)
o Get a mentor
o Get a coach

8.
training is not development
until knowledge is practically applied in your work-place, it is called theory
competence … proficiency … expertise …
becoming an effective project manager
o come with the practical application of knowledge
o are enhanced over time through experience
o get refined through feedback, or ‘trial and error’

9.
look beyond your work-place
o Performance in your role is the primary
focus of your development
o Your objectives ‘flow down’
organisational imperatives
o Your development needs are based on
‘gaps’ in how you map to your role
description
o Development is professional more than
personal
o Build your network
o Join the APM (and engage)
o Get a mentor
o Get a coach

10.
perceptions are important
Professional judgements are made, based on…
o Performance
o Potential
o Perception
o Develop your professional profile
o Listen more than talk
o Contribute with conviction
o Think in the moment about the picture you paint
o Be authentic
X

11.
Project Manager
Project Leader
Programme Director
Senior Project Manager / Programme Manager
Knowledge and Experience are not enough …
Projects are delivered by people …
With people …
For people
behaviours

12.
the intelligence that matters
Emotional Intelligence
o The ability to recognise, understand, use, and manage
our own emotions in positive ways.
o Being aware of our emotions and the impact (positive
or negative) that they have on others.
o Also concerned with regulating our emotions.
o And about recognising, understanding, and influencing
the emotions of others.
Harvard Business School:
o EQ counts for twice as much as IQ and technical
skills combined in determining who will be
successful.
o 2003 Harvard Business Review also reported
that 80% of competencies that differentiate top
performers from others are in the domain of EQ.
o Your IQ might get you through school or university,
it may even land you a job.
o But your EQ will get you through life, it will
be the difference that makes your career successful,
or otherwise.
o EI helps us better understand what motivates
ourselves, as well as what motivates others.

13.
focus on fulfilment
Is this you??
o I am waking up to a list of things that I have to do
o I am heading off to where I need to be
o I am working with the people that I need to work with
o I am keeping one eye on the clock
Is there an alternative reality??
o I am waking up to a list of things that I want to do
o I am heading off to where I want to be
o I am around people that support me and I feel like I belong
here
o Crikey, is that the time??
fulfilment is personal…
what might it include??
company values
supportive
growth
role models
flexible working
close to home
valued
respected
variety security
inclusive
listened to
social responsibility

14.
Principles and Mind-set
1) Don’t break the link between personal and professional development
2) A positive mind-set makes all the difference
3) It is a journey
4) Seek support, take support
5) Don’t confuse training with development
6) Look beyond your work-place
7) Other peoples’ perceptions are important
8) Knowledge and experience won’t take you all the way
9) The intelligence that matters
10)Focus on fulfilment
??

15.
Taking Action
1) Know where you are going
2) Understand why
3) Reflection
4) Create Secure Foundations
5) Develop Self-Awareness
6) Insightful Feedback
7) Coaching and Mentoring (“get” and/or “be”)
8) Be candid and objective about your Development Needs
9) Back yourself, stretch yourself
10) Stay on the journey

16.
know where you are going
You are on a journey
o If you don’t make a decision about your destination,
you will end up where you are heading
Purpose, Intent
Set clear Goals…
You can’t always be precise, that doesn’t necessarily matter
You can always change your mind
You just need enough clarity of purpose to be confident that every step you take is…
 Taken with intent … and
 Taking you towards your destination
Write your goals down… Tell people about them

17.
understand why
Understanding why?? …
Is more important than knowing where
explore why… you want to get there
why is it important to you?? how will it feel to you??
can you visualise what will it look like?? how will it be different to now??
how will it benefit you?? how will it benefit people around you??
how will things change for you?? what will you be doing??
write your reasons down… tell people why
Motivations
Fulfilment

18.
mirror, signal, manoeuvre
You are not starting from here …
o Experience
o Achievement
o Learning
o Connections
Reflection
Reflect on your career and your formulative years …
Think about you, on your best day
write down your strengths, your achievements, what you’ve learnt, the people you have
influenced … how far you have come
Do this regularly

19.
mirror, signal, manoeuvre
The very next step that you take towards your goals or objectives
will land in your current work-place, in your current role.
How far that step takes you will depend on whether you start to
take steps on a secure foundation…
o Whether your mind is open; and
o You are moving forward with purpose, in a positive mindset.
o What will prevent that, is self-doubt or lack of confidence in
your current role, or some other interference in your
professional ‘here and now’.
A simple test, two questions
1) Do I fully understand what is expected of me in my current role??
2) Do I know how to do what is expected of me in my current role??
One or more “no”?
Don’t pass go

20.
develop self-awareness
Whatever your situation is …
If you only do one thing …
Develop your self-awareness
Active Listening
Observation Asking good, open questions
Reflection
Insightful feedback
Coaching, Mentoring
× not self-conscious
Being self-aware is about having the ability to both recognise and better understand moods and
emotions and about understanding what drives those moods and emotions, and how that affects others.

21.
feedback
Once a year, every year … like your appraisal
Insightful feedback is an absolutely critical enabler of your
personal and professional development.
o You get feedback every day …
You can see it (if you’re paying attention)
You can hear it (if you listen closely enough)
This is about self-awareness and, more widely, emotional
intelligence.
o These signals really matter, pay attention to body language,
listen really carefully to tone and pace, identify differences in
engagement.
Look for signals In the moment
On reflection
SMART Feedback Unsolicited feedback is gold dust
Act upon your feedback

22.
develop self-awareness
Whatever your situation is …
If you only do one thing …
Develop your self-awareness
Active Listening
Observation Asking good, open questions
Reflection
Insightful feedback
Coaching, Mentoring
× not self-conscious
Being self-aware is about having the ability to both recognise and better understand moods and
emotions and about understanding what drives those moods and emotions, and how that affects others.
Coaching & Mentoring

23.
development opportunities
you are here
To reach your goals things have to change
You (definitely, always)
Needs
Opportunities
o Be objective
o Be candid
o Be clear
organisational objectives
your “fit” to your role description
feedback from your performance appraisal
the requirements of your role
your goals need to feature in
your professional objectives

24.
back yourself, stretch yourself
say Yes
to opportunities that bring something new and stretch you
Believe in potential

25.
stay on the journey
take and retain ownership …
it is your journey
you will need support,
guidance and encouragement
on the way…
you have already covered a lot of ground
celebrate your successes
you need to be clear about
where you are going
you need to stick with it

26.
Accelerating your project manager career
Principles and Mind-set
Action
Slido
1) Don’t break the link between personal
and professional development
2) A positive mind-set makes all the
difference
3) It is a journey
4) Seek support, take support
5) Don’t confuse training with development
6) Look beyond your work-place
7) Other peoples’ perceptions are important
8) Knowledge and experience won’t take you
all the way
9) The intelligence that matters
10) Focus on fulfilment
1) Know where you are going
2) Understand why
3) Reflection
4) Create Secure Foundations
5) Develop Self-Awareness
6) Insightful Feedback
7) Coaching and Mentoring
8) Be candid and objective about your
Development Needs
9) Back yourself, stretch yourself
10) Stay on the journey

27.
You can’t go back and change the beginning
but you can start where you are and change the
ending
C.S. Lewis
(British author and lay theologian)
Richard Tulley
Director of Programme & Project Management
Programme Director | Mentor | Coach | APM Fellow | D & I Ally
Linked In
Web: The Project Mentor Space
https://www.projectmentor.space
Every day is an opportunity to grow