PM: Competency Development – Think Wax on, Wax off

Over the past several weeks we’ve covered a number of topics Project Managers would do well to master, including:

• Project Management: A People-Oriented Profession
• Addressing Conflicting Priorities
• Time Management
• Meeting Management
• Email Management
• Owning the Narrative

Note: Click on the links above to drill into any of the topic areas…

Some may wonder: “Where is the PM-specific guidance I am seeking?“. To that, I’d ask readers to recall the movie Karate Kid, when the kid (Daniel LaRusso) went to the karate master (Mr. Miyagi) for karate training. The initial exercises prescribed by the master “seemingly” had NOTHING to do with karate.

For example, the kid was assigned the undesirable chore of waxing Mr. Miyagi’s car. This included Mr. Miyagi prescribing a specific circular hand motion he wanted the kid performing, to apply and buff the wax. The exercise was designed to create muscle memory in the kid in support of various karate maneuvers. As disgruntled as the kid was, for many moons, he ultimately stuck to it and became a master himself.

To this point, we are presently covering foundational competencies that must ABSOLUTELY be mastered in order to perform as a highly effective project manager.

As such, if you’ve been following this blog seeking PM-specific guidance thinking the topics shared are trivial, in the grand scheme of things, I strongly urge you to reconsider.

To develop a PM skill-set and/or career one must build on a solid foundation (the fundamentals). Given that, the prior posts (referenced above) are recommended for PM’s as the “wax on / wax off” process to bolster mastery of these important, foundational competencies.

I’m now considering the next “super-exciting” topic to be shared in my quest to provide the best possible guidance to those aspiring to be highly effective (and highly paid) project managers. On that note, if you should have a topic you’d like covered, please let me know and I will seriously consider it!

In the meantime, if you are looking to improve PM competencies in yourself, or organization, please reach out so that we can chat about how I can help. And, if you find this content useful, feel free to follow this blog, to receive an email as new articles are published.