Can You Be a Hero As a Project Manager?

When you work as a project manager you will get plenty of opportunities to work hard and resolve difficult problems. However, if you are hoping to occasionally be a hero as well then will this job leave you disappointed? Maybe not, as you can still do a great job and feel like a hero at times if you go about your work in the right way.
Be a Great Manager
Once of the best ways to feel good about what you do is to look after your team members. This is a vital part of the project manager role but one which too many people overlook. There are many different ways to be a top class manager and you will definitely have the chance to put them into practice at some point in your career. For a start, you can look after everyone’s training needs and make sure that they progress in their careers the way they want to. Not everyone has the benefit of working with a helpful and understanding manager so your team members are sure to appreciate what you do for them. Apart from this, you can give them the kind of tasks they really want and make sure that you give them credit when it is due without leaving them exposed to criticism from stakeholders and other people from outside the team.
Give the End Users What They Want
When you first start looking at solutions who do you think about? If the end users in the business area are your top concern then you are making a strong start to the project and could end up as a hero in their eyes. A lot of end users are very suspicious of project staff because they think that they only want to foist unsuitable solutions on them. After all, a project manager is liable to give the solution which best suit them rather than the one which best suits the end users. If you can look at things in the opposite way and go the extra mile to deliver something genuinely useful then your work will be well appreciated by the people who get most benefit from it. There are few better feelings for a project manager than that of knowing that they have delivered exactly what was needed at the right time. Of course, if you opt for the easy life and don’t take into account the end users then they aren’t going to see you as being much of a hero.
Be Someone Your Boss Can Depend Upon
You probably think that being solid and dependable at work is a bit boring and certainly is a long way from being a hero. However, your boss will be looking for project managers they can count on when the chips are down. It will be a fantastic feeling to know that they don’t need to worry about any extremely difficult project which comes along. Your boss might not tell you very often how important  you are but if it is clear to you that you are a valuable member of the team then this should tell its own story. One day they might tell you what a great job you are doing but even if that day never comes you can still read between the lines and understand that you are the kind of project hero they know that they can always rely upon to save the day.
Feel Good About Yourself
Of course, the person whose opinion matters most is you. If you leave work each day knowing that you have done your very best to get things done in the right way then no one else can stop you feeling like a hero. There are many jobs in the world which never give you the chance to feel like this and I have worked in a few of them. However, once you enter into the project world you get the chance to do a great job and feel fantastic about it. It is about following all of the previous points but also about knowing that you are right for the job and that it is right for you. This is a great feeling and something which many people never get to experience in their lives. If you are lucky enough to have discovered that the project manager role is ideal for you then you should make the most of it and enjoy the feeling of being a hero.