your words can make a difference
ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Alfonso Bucero
Madrid, Spain
Abstract
When was the last time you seriously thought about the words you use each and every day as a project manager? How carefully do you select them? Many times your words have much more power than what you can imagine. They can build a bright future, destroy opportunity or help maintain the status quo. Your words reinforce your beliefs, and your beliefs create your reality and contribute to project success. This paper explains how your words, as a project, manager may generate different perceptions and reactions from different people; how to select the right words to be used correctly in the right environment, with the right people. If you take care selecting the right words to say you will be programming your mind to be successful as a project manager.
- Introduction
Your words have much more power that what you can imagine. Think of a process of a row of dominos that looks like this:
Thoughts – Words – Beliefs –Actions- Results
For instance, a project manager has a thought, such as “I am not very good when it comes to project sales”; now let’s remember that he doesn’t have this thought only once. He runs it through his mind on a regular basis, maybe hundreds or thousands of times in his life. Then, that project manager starts to use words that support this thought. He says to his friends and project management colleagues, “I am never going to do very well in sales” or “I just hate making sales calls or approaching prospects”. Here again, that project manager repeats these phrases over and over and over…in his self-talk and in his discussions with others. This, in turn, strengthens his beliefs and it is at this stage where the rubber really meets the road. You see, everything that you will achieve in your life flows from your beliefs.
So, in the sales example, that project manager develops the belief that he is not going to be successful in project sales. This becomes embedded in his/her subconscious mind. What can possibly flow from that belief? Because that project manager does not belief in his/her project sales ability, he/she takes very little action, or he takes actions that are unproductive or ineffective. He does not do the things that would be necessary to succeed in project sales. And then that project manager gets very poor results. To make matters worse, that project manager starts to think more negative thoughts, repeat more negative words, reinforce negative beliefs and get even more negative results. I’ is a vicious cycle. This whole process could have had a very happy ending if that project manager had selected positive thoughts and reinforced them with positive words. In turn, he would reinforce the belief that he is successful in sales. As a result, that project manager would take the actions consistent with that belief and wind up with outstanding results.
- Select the right words
In my experience professionals who feed themselves a steady diet of negative words are destined to have a negative attitude. It is a simple matter of cause and effect. I have heard some project managers saying and repeating negative words about the project they manage, and you cannot keep repeating negative words and expect to be a high achiever. The reason I found is that negative words will always lead to the reinforcement of negative beliefs and eventually to negative outcomes. I have observed many colleagues, myself included that usually repeated to themselves sentences like, “I am not good delivering presentations”, “I am not good talking to upper managers”, “ and I am not very good managing project cost”. And, after many years of using negative words, you develop a strong belief that you can’t do these things. We are unconsciously programming negatively our minds.
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How to cite this article: Bucero, A. (2020). You are special because your words can make a difference, PM World Journal, Vol. IX, Issue VI, June. Available online at: https://pmworldlibrary.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/pmwj94-Jun2020-Bucero-your-words-can-make-a-difference.pdf
About the Author
Alfonso Bucero
Madrid, Spain
Alfonso Bucero, MSc, CPS, PMP, PMI-RMP, PfMP, ACE, SFC; PMI Fellow, is an International Correspondent and Contributing Editor for the PM World Journal in Madrid, Spain. Mr. Bucero is also founder and Managing Partner of BUCERO PM Consulting. Alfonso was the founder, sponsor and president of the PMI Barcelona Chapter until April 2005, and belongs to PMI’s LIAG (Leadership Institute Advisory Group). He was the past President of the PMI Madrid Spain Chapter, and then nominated as a PMI EMEA Region 8 Component Mentor. Now he is a member of the PMIEF Engagement Committee. Alfonso has a Computer Science Engineering degree from Universidad Politécnica in Madrid and is studying for his Ph.D. in Project Management. He has 32 years of practical experience and is actively engaged in advancing the PM profession in Spain and throughout Europe. He received the PMI Distinguished Contribution Award on October 9th, 2010, the PMI Fellow Award on October 22nd 2011 and the PMI Eric Jenett Excellence Award on October 28th, 2017.
Mr. Bucero can be contacted at alfonso.bucero@abucero.com.
To see other works by Alfonso Bucero, visit his author showcase in the PM World Library at https://pmworldlibrary.net/authors/alfonso-bucero/