While leadership styles and skill sets might vary from one great Project Manager to another, there is definitely a pattern of "project manager genes" that explain success in this career path. This presentation will give an overview of the Project Manager Genes: from slicer-dicer, surveyor, captain and sheep dog, to listmaker and story-teller, finishing off with the Killer App, the one gene to rule them all.

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The Project Manager DNA
Elisabeth Bucci
Projissima inc

2. ©Elisabeth Bucci, Projissima inc
Agenda
Introduction
PM Brain or DNA
Discussion
Conclusion
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Introduction
Pop Survey
My month with Architects aka the value of shutting up
DNA or Brain = born with it (DNA) vs learned (brain)
Disclaimer
Meyers-Briggs
Not just for PMs
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Basic template
What it is
DNA or Brain
AKA
Flip side, if applicable
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Slicer/Dicer
Divide project into smaller chewable slices called
“tasks and deliverables”
AKA Creating the WBS and project schedule
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List-maker
Make and keep a list of things
Scott Berkun’s blog post on the power of lists to make things happen:
• “I’m convinced that despite all of the knowledge and skills I was expected to have and use, in
total, all I really did was make ordered lists. I collected things that had to be done—
requirements, features, bugs, whatever—and put them in an order of importance to the
project.”
Lists define priorities and focus
• “be a priority machine” “Priorities mean power”
AKA Risk Log, Issues Log, Action List, Product Backlog, WBS, project schedule, etc
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Inchworm
Move forward one step at a time, relentlessly,
towards DONE
AKA Monitoring and Controlling
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ABC
Always Be Closing = What’s the Decision? What’s Next?
NOT debating border width of 3, 4 or 5 pixels or 41
shades of blue
PMs vs Architects, BAs, Engineers or other SMEs
Flip side: too soon is as bad as not at all
• Ripe fruit is easier to pick
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Keep Track of Things
Every piece of information has a home
Issue? Risk? Deliverable? Action? Daily Log? Status
report? Decision Log? Meeting Minutes?
Journalists / scrapbooker / journal-keeper
Flip side: documenting is not deciding
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Pitcher and Catcher
Balls are action items which we throw and catch
and throw again
Who’s got the ball?
We always know where our balls are
AKA Delegate and Follow-up
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Order to Chaos
See a mess? Clean it up!
Project rescue missions
AKA List-maker, Keep Track of Things, Slicer/Dicer
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image via Jeffrey Beall

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Sheep-Dog
Keep the sheep (our teams, our Subject Matter
Experts) from wandering off-course
• creeping elegance and gold-plating
• priorities (use our lists)
• “just one more thing”
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Project Objective Change the colour from blue to bluer
image via billridio

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Surveyor
Know the limits of your project
AKA know your scope
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Jigsaw Puzzles and Dominoes
Jigsaw Puzzle: See the big picture and how
everything fits together
Dominoes: See the impact of one change on the
entire project
AKA Integration Knowledge Area
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Statue of Liberty/Bull-dozer
Statue of Liberty: Bring me your problems
Bull-dozer: remove obstacles by making decisions
and setting priorities
Flip side: do yoga and make jewelry
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ABP
Always Be Planning
NOT a Firefighter, we always have a Plan B
AKA Risk Management, Stakeholder Management,
Communication Management, Issue Management
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Story-teller
Master the Story, Master the Project
Communicate the right information at the right
time to the right people in the right way
360° of stories
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Captain / Servant-Leader
Captain gives orders = Command-Control
Servant-Leader = Tell me what you need and I’ll get
it for you
AKA Situational Leadership = Choose the right style,
List-maker = Priorities
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Killer App
Own it
Bring it
AKA the Accountability Gene
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The Accountability Gene
“We stand up in front of a group of people and we say ‘I will do this’.
And we do it.
Which means that we never, ever, under any circumstances, ever, utter
the words ‘It’s not my fault.’
Because it’s always our fault. That’s what being accountable means.”
--Elisabeth Bucci, If you can’t do this, you can’t be a Project Manager
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Slicer/Dicer
List-maker
InchwormABC
Keep Track of Things
Pitcher and Catcher
Order to Chaos
Sheep Dog
Surveyor
Jigsaw Puzzles & Dominoes
Statue of Liberty / Bull-dozer
ABP
Story-Teller
Captain/Servant-Leader
Accountability

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Questions / Discussion
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A Project Manager is a Master in the Pursuit of Done
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Let’s keep talking
blog: The Passionate Project Manager
Twitter: @ElisabethBucci
LinkedIn: Elisabeth Bucci
• If you send me an invitation, tell me why, DO NOT send the
standard form
email: elisabeth@projissima.ca
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