Episode 140 – What’s Your Why? Ignite Your Project

The podcast by project manager for project managers. “Why you work determines how well you work.” Finding our Why impacts how well we lead a project, and enables team members to stay focused and motivated to finish the project successfully. Listen in for valuable advice on resilience, motivation, and “growing your grit” to help project managers envision their potential and build stronger teams.



Table of Contents



03:25 … Finding Your Why: A Look at Past Guests06:58 … Prepare To Roar Expeditions08:32 … The Riverbend Group09:18 … Embarking on a Major career Change11:08 … Doreen’s Story: Identifying Her Why12:48 … The Impact of Your Why14:01 … Relating the Why to Projects16:27 … Project Teams: Aligning Your Whys19:27 … Making it a Priority21:43 … Goals vs. Whys24:34 … Cultural Drivers Affecting our Choices30:35 … Resilience and Long Term Goals32:26 … Misconceptions about Motivation34:19 … Becoming Motivated36:39 … Key Factors of staying Motivated37:57 … Our Differences and Growing Grit39:34 … Are You at a Crossroads?42:40 … Get in Touch with Doreen44:01 … Closing



DOREEN LINNEMAN: ...and because of that the world is just reeling with change, and change is happening all the time.  And as scary as that is, the beauty about that is people’s postures are open for change.  Normally as humans we resist change.  But people are expectant for change.  They have just been forced to do it.  It’s like, oh, what’s coming next?  And with that is a gift.  It’s a huge gift for all of us.  If we laser focus here on just being your professional legacy, very rarely do you get the opportunity to change it, or to change a trajectory.  Really the only time you get to do it is when you leave a company.  Right?  And you get to start over and build up reputation from scratch.



What’s beautiful about the situation of moving past and through COVID is that, again, everybody is expectant to change.  And quite frankly, if you’re a leader who doesn’t change, I mean, shame on you.  How could you not go through what we’ve just gone through and not lead differently?  Right?  Your people want you to.  They’re ready for you to.  It’s just such a perfect opportunity to put a stake in the ground and be like, what do I want to be remembered for?  Who do I want to serve?  How do I want to be?  What is the legacy I’ll want to be?  And to start to make that shift.  And if it seems daunting, then you go back to those micro goals. ...but now is the time, because what you will not regret are making the changes.



WENDY GROUNDS:  You’re listening to Manage This, the podcast by project managers for project managers.  I am Wendy Grounds, and joining me is Bill Yates.  We’re so glad that you’re joining us today.  And if you enjoy this episode, please visit us at Velociteach.com.  You can leave a comment for us on our Manage This Podcast page.  We always like hearing from you. And remember you can still claim your free PDUs.   Our PDU claim page has the new instructions.  Make sure not to use the autofill, but type in “Velociteach” and the title when you are submitting your PDUs.  So I’m very excited.  Today we have a guest in the studio with us.



BILL YATES:  Yes.     



WENDY GROUNDS:  And we always love getting to personally meet our guests and not have to talk on Skype all the time.



BILL YATES:  Right.



WENDY GROUNDS:  Doreen Linneman is a keynote speaker, she focuses on management consulting, professional development team building.  She really takes leadership and professional development out of the boardroom and into nature, doesn’t she.



BILL YATES:  Yes, she does.  That’s an understatement.  She’s got three companies that she started, and one’s called Prepare to Roar.  We’ll hear more about that.  But that involves taking leaders out of the boardroom, out of the conference rooms and  all the coffee and doughnuts, and putting them in nature and having them face some of their biggest fears, like these gorillas or sharks or different things like that....