Thanks for the comments on the original post.\u00a0 For a wonderful discussion on what to give at the end of the project, scroll down and see the Strappy Sundresses and Thongs as Project Thank You Gifts post below.\u00a0 If you want to know about how to ask for the secret and totally forbidden appreciation you may crave on a day to day basis read on here.\u00a0 As an actual project manager you may be familiar with what I am calling Project Management “Superman” or “Wonder Woman” syndrome.\u00a0 Why yes, you as an excellent project manager need to keep that motivated buzz going and as one of you most important tools you know how to give people strokes (5 positive to 1 negative, yes it’s actually been analyzed what is optimal) to keep everyone above and below motivated.\u00a0\u00a0 You keep all the dishes flying in mid air and catch them when they are coming down.. sometimes.\u00a0 Yet what is it you usually hear from your team above and below?\u00a0 Yeah that’s right, more problems (and yes it’s good for them to go to you that’s healthy, that means you trained them right).\u00a0\u00a0 However, you will burn out and fade away if that is what your hear, I don’t care how many books and consultants keep telling you that you can do it all and fix everything and get better and better.\u00a0 YOU need that 5 to 1 praise to criticism ratio too.\u00a0 It’s just reality.\u00a0 You need to be “fed” too.\u00a0 Otherwise soon you will be consulting or writing books or starting your own company.\u00a0 Anything but project management.\u00a0 So how do you get these all important strokes to keep you going?\u00a0 The only thing I’ve tried that actually worked was to start educating people by asking for it.\u00a0 Yes do something radical and directly ask for it.\u00a0 Keep reinforcing it.\u00a0 When people come with criticism after criticism remind them of that optimal ratio.\u00a0 Ask what is going right as well as wrong.\u00a0 Now my disclaimer is that I myself never had the guts to do this until I was out of project management.\u00a0\u00a0 So you can argue rightly that I never addressed this as a project manager.\u00a0 That was because it sadly didn’t even occur to me I deserved that appreciation and\/or was in a position to really get it until I was not directly project managing as a project manager but instead doing it as a line manager.\u00a0 However, I did start to get it when I asked for it, and it’s the best offering I can give to those who hold the title of project manager and hope to not burn out soon.\u00a0 You need it as well as everyone else.\u00a0 Appreciation, the Final Frontier.\u00a0 Go where no project manager has gone before and get it.\u00a0 Here’s to you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thanks for the comments on the original post.\u00a0 For a wonderful discussion on what to give at the end of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6,9,1],"tags":[195,39,64,52,167,116,38],"class_list":["post-748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","category-communications","category-risk-management","category-miscellaneous","tag-accountability","tag-best-practices","tag-communication","tag-conflict","tag-continuous-improvement","tag-dysfuncitonal-corporate-culture","tag-project-management"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13879,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/748\/revisions\/13879"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}