When you’re responsible for vast swathes of results in a project management office, you can forget to have ideas for personal goals in your PMO career. They’re as important as office goals and will ensure that you perform to the best of your ability.
It’s likely that you’re only part-way through your project and programme management career, so you need to ensure that you become the best PMO worker possible to make career progress easier.
Of course, you still need to keep an eye on the goals of the office, but it’s a good idea to care about your future too. Here, we’re going to give you six ideas to inspire you to set realistic but stretching goals for 2022.
1. Increase time spent with your team
One of your goals for your PMO team should be to help them develop. To ensure these goals are followed through, you need to proactively monitor them and build follow-up into your regular team interactions.
Set yourself a goal of offering a minimum number of hours per team member each month or quarter, and focus on:
360° feedback
Following the progress of goals as well as KPIs
Offering mentorship and support
You will become a better leader when you dedicate more time to your team and, in turn, they will feel more valued.
2. Regularly celebrate personal success
As a leader, you often be focused on the work completed by your team. Indeed, having a project delivered on time and on budget will always be a joint effort.
However, when you personally made something happen, such as negotiating a better supplier contract or stepping in to resolve a bottleneck, you need to take the win. Make your personal success visible across the business will be good for your profile and for the office you run.
3. Invest in your personal development
Make sure you don’t get stuck in a professional rut, and be sure to work on your project knowledge and career development.
If you already have a project or programme certification, be sure to dedicate time to getting the credits you need to renew. If you’ve not yet formalised your PMO credentials, consider earning a professional certification at the same time you encourage your team to improve skills.
You can also ask your senior manager or your PMO C-suite sponsor for mentorship. Who you choose will depend on where you see your next career move after your stint in a PMO.
4. Build your network
Social media may be frowned upon or even banned in your workplace, but LinkedIn may be the exception. You can use LinkedIn to raise your profile in your industry, and this will reflect well on the business, as well.
Some activities you can work on include:
Connect with other people in your sector
Posting about your PMO wins
Resharing company posts
Producing and sharing posts for the business’ blog
This can help you become an authoritative voice in your sector which can help your career advancement prospects in the future.
5. Own a PMO-level goal
You’ll have already set goals for your PMO, and you’ll have overall responsibility for each of them. If you follow our advice in our previous post, each goal will be assigned to an office team member to personally steer.
Do the same for yourself – choose one of your PMO goals that you will work on specifically, along with overseeing the rest. Your team will see that you’re leading rather than telling them what to do, and you’ll be more hands-on with part of the office.
6. Win a new responsibility for your PMO
When you have a mature PMO and you have all your processes running smoothly, you should consider expanding your PMO. There will be issues that you can’t directly control or business processes that you regularly interact with that could sit under your scope.
Make it a personal goal to have your office take on a new responsibility and create a strategic plan to make it happen.
Personal goals for your PMO career
Using our six ideas for personal goals for your PMO career, you can make sure your office is successful and that you get recognition within and outside the business for it. When you are successful, you can ensure the people and your office are successful, too.
