Making a Modern Project Manager
SERIES ARTICLE
By Yasmina Khelifi
Paris, France
Continuous learning and improvements are critical skills for a modern leader. But sometimes, we are too hard on ourselves, and we focus on negative feedback. Learning to be kinder to yourself even if you make mistakes will help you listen to positive feedback and gain new perspectives.
You can make mistakes – so what?
When you make mistakes, please think of their impact on you, your team, and the project.
Acknowledge honestly that you made a mistake. You will help build a safe psychological culture and become a role model.
Investigate the root cause of the mistake.
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- Was it caused by a lack of knowledge?
- Was it caused by inattention?
- Was it caused by a lack of information or by overlooking information?
Tailor corrective action based on the impact, urgency, and root cause of the mistake.
Document this for your team or yourself.
But don’t beat yourself up for days about the mistake you made. It does not define you or detract from your qualities and strengths.
Accept positive feedback
I was at a conference recently and two people began to tell me good things about myself. I didn’t listen to them at all. I switched off my ears! I thought they wanted to please me. But in positive feedback, you can discover things you don’t know about yourself or new strengths.
Don’t interpret “It’s great” as mere politeness. Sometimes it is, but sometimes not.
It’s a good idea to keep in a folder or in a journal the positive feedback you receive. It might contradict some of your negative thoughts (“I’m not good at…”). By documenting positive feedback, you can create positive affirmations and boost your self-esteem.
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Editor’s note: This series of articles is by a project manager for Gen X, Y and Z project professionals. The author Yasmina Khelifi is a project manager with a large multinational telecom in France while also an active PM professional, authoring articles, interviews and a popular LinkedIn blog as well as a podcast with a global audience. Also active in PMI France for many years, she has been an international correspondent for the PMWJ since 2021. We are delighted that she has agreed to author a series of articles based on her personal experiences over the last decade.
How to cite this work: Khelifi, Y. (2025). Be Kinder to Yourself; Making a Modern Project Manager, series article, PM World Journal, Vol. XIV, Issue XI, November. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/pmwj158-Nov2025-Khelifi-Be-Kinder-to-Yourself-series-article.pdf
About the Author
Yasmina Khelifi
Paris, France
Yasmina Khelifi, PMP, PMI- ACP, PMI-PBA is an experienced project manager in the telecom industry. Along with her 20-year career at Orange S.A. (the large French multinational telecommunications corporation), she sharpened her global leadership skills, delivering projects with major manufacturers and SIM makers. Yasmina strives for building collaborative bridges between people to make international projects successful. She relies on three pillars: project management skills, the languages she speaks, and a passion for sharing knowledge.
She is a PMP certification holder since 2013, a PMI- ACP and PMI-PBA certification holder since 2020. She is an active volunteer member at PMI France and PMI UAE, and a member of PMI Germany Chapter. French-native, she can speak German, English, Spanish, Italian, Japanese and she is learning Arabic. Yasmina loves sharing her knowledge and experiences at work, in her volunteers’ activities at PMI, and in projectmanagement.com as a regular blogger. She is also the host and co-founder of the podcast Global Leaders Talk with Yasmina Khelifi to help people in becoming better international leaders.
Yasmina can be contacted at https://yasminakhelifi.com/ or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/yasminakhelifi-pmp-telecom/
Visit her correspondent profile at https://pmworldlibrary.net/yasmina-khelifi/
To view other works by Yasmina Khelifi, visit her author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/yasmina-khelifi/
