Lesson 5: Perpetual optimism is a force multiplier
General Colin Powell
Lesson 5 in the Colin Powell Leadership series is something that I was fortunate enough to witness and experience at my PMI meeting last week; that is Optimism.
It's Just Better to Be Happy
There is something really pervasive about good feeling and recognition. You know when you hear ‘good job’ and you feel slightly lighter, or when you see someone deserving get something they really need? Its the basis for the success of shows like Extreme Makeover and American Idol. When good things happen to good people, it somehow lightens up the whole group.
And leave it to my favorite branch of the Armed Services (the Army as if you didn’t know already) to come up with a term that describes that phenomena – the intangibles that gives a of group a people a boost, speeds them up, makes them happier, more effective and better.
“A force multiplier refers to a factor that dramatically increases (hence “multiplies”) the effectiveness of an item or group.” wikipedia
I wish I knew the term this week because I was definatly feeling force multiplication at the PMIWDC PM of the Year awards. I mean, a standing room only crowd at the PM Tools session listened intently to our top three candidates, really grasping what they said. It was as if the crowd was thirsty for good information on what works. And as each presentation ended, I swear it just felt really…….good in that room.
PMI should probably do more of that, recognizing great PMs and letting them speak to all of us on what works. And indeed this was a new thing for our chapter, allowing the top three candidates for the PM of the Year award to give us their on the job lessons learned.
I won’t steal the Top Three candidate’s thunder on this blog by telling you everything they discussed, because we’ve (PMIWDC) got a webinar coming up with them and I believe a few articles from them, but it was good stuff like:
- Dwight Evans successfully leading his team to eliminate a backlog of 1.3 million immigration applications at DHS
- Djindo Lee who turned around a failing FAA project in one year
- Mike Landry, winner of the 2009 PM of the Year award, who engendered an enterprise wide organizational mind shift towards Project Management through the creation of PM Communities of Practice in the DoD
I’ve spent a lot of time describing how and why projects fail but I recently read some Authentic Happiness stuff that said what you focus on expands. There have been times when I’ve had to force myself to focus on the positive, and be very loud and verbal about it. In team meetings and with stakeholders, I’ve acknowledged the bad while highlighting the good. It’s not an attempt to pull the wool over peoples eyes. If that was the case, I wouldn’t give the bad news. But I’ve come to realize that dwelling on the bad does nada for me or my team, its just an energy drain. Finding the good in any situation is an energy boost. Like:
- Knowing your schedule is slightly behind, but for good reason
- Realizing a team member didn’t meet a deliverable, but understanding that team member’s motivations better, so you can give them work they will finish on time, next time
- Failing on a project but taking those lessons learned to knock the next one out of the park
So I’m shifting a bit – I’m going to look at what works and hope that my optimism multiplies the PM forces that be.
I dunno…it just feels better! 
