From Trust to Delegation

  Career Development   Leadership   New Practitioners   Resource Management   Talent Management  

More than at any point in the past, it is important to note that all project managers have physical, mental and emotional limitations. Human beings are bound by these internal constraints, which affect everything they do. Many project managers fail to acknowledge their humanness so strongly that reason and logic regarding it often falls to the wayside.

Identifying the presence of and understanding the Superman or Wonder Woman syndrome means acknowledging the following facts: Everyone around the project managers tugs at their cape at the same time, all the time. Due to the conviction in having a never-ending source of energy, the pink elephant called fatigue is rarely seen until after the crash.

The net effect is a collective belief system that project managers have no known physical, mental or emotional limitations. This belief can, when not corrected, lead to the self-fulfilling prophecy called burnout. Every project manager will hit the wall on an extended, highly complex project (some quicker than others).

Anyone who has been involved in project management for an extensive time has found out that project managers are effected by their own unique version of kryptonite: It’s called self-induced burnout, a condition that quickly escalates to chronic burnout if left unchecked. They are bound by the limitations of perfection and the belief in the heuristic “…

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