How Project Managers Lead with Attitude

Basketball Coach’s Lessons Resonate with Villanova Project Management Professor

The title of Villanova University adjunct professor Bill Hyde’s presentation at the Project Management Institute (PMI) 2019 Global Conference may sound familiar, particularly to attendees who are college basketball fans.

“Attitudes of Winning Project Managers — On and Off the Court!” might bring to mind Villanova men’s basketball coach Jay Wright’s 2017 book, “Attitude: Develop a Winning Mindset On and Off the Court.”

That’s completely by design.

The presentation, Hyde said, is “simply something I pulled from his book a couple of years ago.”

Like Coach Wright, Professor Hyde stresses positivity as a formidable tool for creating success.

Coach Wright’s attitude, Hyde said, is “really a mindset. It’s a part of the culture of his basketball program.”

A Focus on Attitude

Hyde noted this when he attended a Villanova basketball practice:

“When something happened on offense or defense at a practice, all the players were clapping their hands saying the word ‘attitude’ over and over again,” he said.

“They’re saying ‘attitude’ to each other meaning, ‘What happened on the last play doesn’t matter. Focus on the next play,’” Hyde said.

“That’s what I try to articulate in the talk, relating it back to the business world that anything that happened last week or last month, it’s already happened,” Hyde said. “What attitude will you have going forward on your project to make it successful?”

Three Key Areas

The focus of the presentation, Hyde said, “is what you can do to continue to improve daily in your job and in your personal life.”

Hyde names three elements, “the ABCs” as he calls them, that drive this continual improvement:

1. Attitude – ideally, a positive one
2. Between the lines – controlling what’s in your world, your environment and your personal life
3. Commitment – to executing a successful project

“I relate it back to those who came to the conference,” Hyde said. “They committed to a weekend of professional development. If they continue to do that going forward in their job and their life, they’re going to be a step ahead of everybody else.”

“If people are going to take away something, those three things I think would be very beneficial,” he added.

How to Manage a Team with Varying Attitudes

Whether it’s nature or nurture, positivity doesn’t seem to have been distributed equally. An upbeat, can-do attitude seems to come naturally to some people, while others seem to focus on the cloud in the silver lining. Hyde explained how he translates his message to both parties.

He related a story about a friend of his who was expressing pessimism about his career.

“This had been going on for weeks,” Hyde said. “Finally, I said, “If you’re so down on this career, why don’t you make a change? You’ve got skills in these areas so why don’t you try something else?”

Hyde’s words seemed to have had an impact, as his friend did make a change.

“Sometimes that’s all a person needs,” Hyde said. “Maybe it’s a change of direction or a change of career. Maybe they’re a creature of habit and they’ve gotten to a point in a particular company that they’ve been able to provide all the value that they can, so it’s time for them to move on and try something new.”

Working with a project team likely means dealing with optimists, pessimists and every attitude in between. It’s “part of a role within the project management organization, to deal with different types of individuals,” Hyde said.

“It’s very much like a coach on a basketball court,” Hyde said. “You’ve got five guys out there at one time, you’ve got a coach who has to deal with playing time and five guys sitting on the bench. As a project manager, you have a large team. Some people you are able to provide more time to, while others on the extended project team you might not be able to interact with all the time.”

“A challenge for a project manager,” he said, “is to meet the needs of the entire team, to run a successful project that hopefully will be on time and under budget, and within the scope that‘s been defined for you.”

Develop Your Project Management Skills

Managing the disparate personalities of a team, whether on the basketball court or in the corporate business world, requires interpersonal or soft skills to help promote project-management success through people-management success. This is a key factor stressed in the Mastering Project Management course, a requirement in Villanova’s Certificate in Applied Project Management program.

Completing the professional certificate also may help students prepare for the Project Management Professional (PMP)® or Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)® certification exam offered by PMI. Earning the certificate demonstrates a student’s commitment to their profession and showcases their expertise in the project management field.