Mindset and Project Management

Hi Luis,

i) Mindset is our outlook to life and its circumstances.

ii) A project manager has to juggle multiple projects. It is not always a smooth ride. So he/she has to have self-belief, confidence and a growth mindset. This helps the PM to take a step back and look at situations with a holistic frame of mind rather than having a clouded or narrow view of situations. With a growth mindset, the PM can then focus, take critical decisions and motivate the team to achieve the goals of the project Thus the mindset can affect the outcome of the project.

iii) Carol S Dweck's study on the mindset traits describes fixed mindset and growth mindset. I believe that for a change in mindset there has to be some catalyst such as a mentor or a coach. A person with a fixed mindset can be quite stubborn to change.

Luis, what an interesting question and an interesting discussion!

- What does Mindset mean to you?

Mindset is my state of mind, thinking, feeling, believing and behaving in a way congruent with an expected result.

- To what extent can Project Manager Mindset affect project outcomes?

In my opinion, to a very large extent. If a PM believes in a successful outcome, they will do everything required (within ethical and professional boundaries) to make the project succeed, no matter what the obstacles are. They can see the challenges and problems as opportunities to resolve, grow and move on. They will seek stakeholders engagement and championship to ensure everyone is on board to drive towards success.
It's the approach a PM follows to deal with all risks and issues, surprises and expected results and forge a pathway to a great outcome for all.
As leaders, we set the tone, and a mindset that fosters responsibility, respect, honesty and fairness, it is more likely that our teams will follow and our stakeholders will support. Hence creating a team mindset that is the main catalyst for success.

- Can we change our Mindset?

Yes, we can! It needs a "mindset" of understanding where we are, where want to be and why we need to change.
Optimism creates opportunities, pessimism creates more problems and challenges. The way we approach these challenges can change according to our beliefs, our feelings, our thinking and anticipating a specific result.
In some ways, this reminds me of the act of smiling - we can trick our mind by moving our facial muscles to smile (when we are down) which will start inducing happiness feelings.... and that will change our mindset ...

Mindset is the lens that you see things with.

For example: Do you wear rose colored glasses? Everything will be colored rose.

Luis, thanks for the subject.
Just signed in and read most of the comments and responses. The idea that intrigues me is the concept of changing one's mindset. Most are looking at it in the longer term, as an evolution of attitude and I can buy that. But my interest is: "can we adapt our mindset in response to a situation or for a specific project or phase within a project? Can you chose to adopt an aggressive mindset for a specific meeting, say with a non-cooperative contractor? Or possibly a more conciliatory attitude with a client looking for a scope change? I've been known to play roles within the project manager persona. Obviously one has to be careful to portray honesty and integrity and showing different faces can bite you back. But I think play-acting can be a useful tool. Thoughts?

Mindset is crucially important, always need to keep in check with surroundings and not constantly obsessed solely on own-self, the key is to be true to own-self and not pretending to be someone else.

Dear Peter
Thank you for participating in this reflection and for your opinion.

I have created, almost every day, a topic for reflection.
One of them was: "Nonviolent Communication and Project Management"

When I read your answer here, (which I thank you very much) it seemed more fitting to me in this other topic.

What does Mindset mean to you?
Is there a difference between Paradigm and Mindset?