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2. 2
professionals study logistics.” As a project
manager, especially the one who brings
new products to market, I cannot agree
more. However, General Barrow has one
advantage that we do not have; he gets to
order his team into action and can expect
his team to follow his directions. We,
however, do not have this advantage as our
team members don’t report to us. And this
is where the salesperson in you comes in,
and you will have to be able to “sell.”
In The Art of Persuasion and The Little Red
Book of Selling, the authors summarized
quite well that people buy things based on
emotions more so than logic and that
people won’t buy from those they don’t
like. We as project managers don’t have
actual products to sell; however, we are
“selling” ideas every day. Before we can
talk logistics, we have to be able to bring all
the team members on board, and this
brings us all the way back to the beginning,
the “selling” of the idea that if we work as a
team, we will have success as a team. You
need to “draw” the picture of success to
your team; let them see what success looks
like by engaging your team members
emotionally. An upbeat project leader
brings positivity to the team whereas a surly
project leader brings negativity to the team.
Make sure that you are in your best of
moods whenever you engage your team
members. No sane person wants to follow
one who is always about doom and gloom.
One may ask how persuasion is not
manipulation. The answer is quite straight‐
forward. Manipulation aims to control and
to benefit oneself by sacrificing a
relationship. Once the manipulation is
discovered, the relationship is over and no
future collaboration will result. Persuasion
on the other hand is about cooperation and
mutual benefit to all parties. The goal is to
reach a win‐win situation for all who are
involved.
Effective Leadership
There is a Chinese proverb that roughly
translates to “Good news doesn’t travel
beyond your front door whereas bad news
travels thousands of miles.” This proverb
essentially describes how many people tend
to focus more on the negative than the
positive. As project managers, we need to
break that mentality. One of the things we
can do to promote positive attitude is to
give credit often and appropriately.
Especially for projects that span years, we
need to take the time and effort to reward
the small successes along the way and show
your appreciation for the job well‐done. A
pat on the shoulder or recognition during a
team meeting can speak volumes to your
leadership. One of my favorite tools is the
PowerUp Recognition. It is a fast, simple,
and professional way to recognize your
team members. Not only will your team
member receive a certificate of recognition,
his/her manager and one level above the
manager will each receive a notice of the
team member’s recognition. I was so
thankful for this tool that I wrote to the
program manager of the PowerUp
Recognition to thank her for this tool (What
did I tell you about giving credit often and
appropriately?).
Project managers need to take
responsibility and shield team members
during hard times. There are kinks in all
projects. The more complicated the projects
are, the more kinks we will experience. We
need to show our team members that we
as a team will stay together through good
times and bad times, much like a family.

3. 3
Not taking responsibility for the team and
finger‐pointing are synonymous with
abandonment. Once the team member
feels abandoned, all trust is lost, and it will
take tremendous effort to regain that trust,
if it is possible at all.
Short term memory prevails in Corporate
America. No matter how well planned your
project is, the longer the project is, the
more impatient your team members and
stakeholders will be. One way to counter
this effect is to often remind your team
members and stakeholders of the recent
successes the team achieved in the project.
This will remind stakeholders and team
members alike that the projects are indeed
going according to plan. And especially
important for long term projects, one has to
remind the team members and
stakeholders often of what the end goal is
and when the end goal is to be realized.
Without both, the interest of the project
may be forgotten and support of the
project may diminish.
When asked who a mighty person was,
Simeon ben Zoma, a Hebrew sage, replied,
“One who can control his emotions and
make of an enemy a friend.” The same is
true for maintaining a strong brand and
functioning as an effective project manager.
If you want to be a strong project manager,
you have to be amiable and be effective all
the time. It is by no mean a small feat.
So go forth, lead strong and I thank you.
Y.C. Maverick Cheng