Hey friends

I have new senior management starting soon and it's created a bit of fear in me and I wanted to examine why I have that fear.

Is it because that I don't think I'm good enough? Is it because I'm scared that my way of working will be challenged? Is it because I'll be pushed out of my comfort zone?

Or is it because I think that our team has already reached perfection and doesn't need change?

If I was completely confident in myself and in my team, my processes and projects, there is no way that a change in management could bring any fear into me.

So it must be that I think there are things that I can improve.

That uncomfortableness is a sign that I should examine my processes carefully this week, examine my ways of working and examine my team and see if there's anything that we can improve. Sometimes external events are a trigger to look inwards.

The Big Idea

Your project management degree taught you processes, frameworks, and methodologies—but it didn't teach you how to actually manage projects.

The most critical skills for PM success aren't technical; they're human. Real project management is about leading people, not just following procedures. It's about understanding that communication, emotional intelligence, and practical productivity techniques matter more than any Gantt chart you'll ever create.

Here's the uncomfortable truth: you can have perfect project plans, flawless risk registers, and color-coded status reports, but if you can't get people to buy into your vision, communicate effectively across different personalities, or manage your own productivity, your projects will still fail.

The gap between academic project management and real-world success is massive.

Universities teach you the "what" and the "how," but they completely miss the "who" and the "why." They don't prepare you for the messy reality of managing competing priorities, difficult stakeholders, and your own mental bandwidth. The skills that actually determine whether you'll thrive as a project manager (like knowing when to bend rules, how to give feedback that motivates rather than deflates, or how to manage upward without seeming pushy) can only be learned through experience and deliberate practice in the real world.

Takeaways

• Soft skills are your competitive advantage — People skills get results, technical skills just get you in the door
• Double down on communication — Your message rarely lands the first time, so reinforce through multiple channels
• Work smarter, not longer — 25-minute focused sprints beat marathon work sessions every time
• Recognition is free but invaluable — Public praise delivers massive motivational returns
• Clear your mental bandwidth — Get everything out of your head and into a reliable system
• Avoid the debate trap — Most workplace debates produce two losers and accomplish nothing

Try This:

• Use the "communication sandwich" — Deliver important messages verbally, follow up in writing, then circle back to confirm understanding
• Give public praise — Thank one team member publicly in your next meeting or client call
• Brain dump everything — Spend 10 minutes writing down all tasks/ideas bouncing around your head into your preferred system

Deep Dive

The One Skill That Will Save Your Career From AI (And How to Master It) Learn the one mental skill that will future-proof your career against AI. ​Read full story →​

From my Toolkit

The more tasks I have, the less I trust my memory to keep them straight. Sounds obvious, right? But for years I tried to juggle everything in my head (or worse, scattered sticky notes). The result: I was constantly reacting instead of moving the important stuff forward.

Now I use a simple task tracker in Excel. You can use Excel or Google Sheets, it works the same. No more mental gymnastics, no more “didn’t we already talk about that?” moments. Just clarity.

Here’s my system: if it’s a one-off task I can do in under 5 minutes, I knock it out immediately. If it’s bigger, it goes in my tracker with a deadline. I also tag it by project so I can see progress where it actually matters, not just a random list of to-dos. At the start of each week, I pick my three “must-move” tasks and highlight them. By Friday, I measure my success by whether those three things are done. Everything else is bonus points.

Here’s the best part: because the tracker is simple (just columns for task, deadline, status, and project), I don’t waste time managing the system itself. To save you time, here’s the exact Task Tracking Template I use.

✅ Do it now if under 5 minutes

🗂 Add bigger tasks to the tracker with a deadline and project tag

🎯 Pick 3 “must-move” tasks per week

📊 Measure success on progress, not volume

Let me know what you thought of this email. I read every reply.

Have a great week ahead.

Jonathan