Create an Amazing Future with 2017 Projects

Manage Your Project Portfolio Differently

Whether you are in charge of your entire project flow (entrepreneurs,

ultra-empowered), or most of your projects get handed to you (typical

employee situation), most of us fall into a trap of letting our projects

define our workflow, and our future.



You absolutely must manage your project portfolio for your personal

success and for your future!



Designing Your 2017 Project Portfolio

We all know that our future will be filled with lots more disruptions,

lots more volatility, lots more chaos. The best way to organize your today

to prepare you for that future is by managing your project portfolio.



Think of your projects in much the same way you manage your long-term

financial portfolio. You and your financial advisor assess your tolerance

for risk and manage your investments accordingly. An ‘average’ investment

portfolio is likely to contain a small amount of high-risk/high-return

investments, a small amount of low-risk/lower-return investments, and

the majority, somewhere in the middle — not risky, but high enough

returns to help you get to your long-term goals.







Your projects need to be

managed in the same

way. Let’s say you do

ten projects per year,

and your focus is

‘average.’ To ensure

that you are future

strong, about one out

of every five projects

need to be beyond

your normal risk tolerance — bolder, riskier, more disruptive, greater

chance of failure, greater chance of ‘looking bad’ than your normal workload.



This is the bare minimum to be future strong: two out of every ten projects need to be outside your comfort zone, beyond what you

would normally seek out.



If you are not getting that from your manager, you must be proactive in

seeking out that kind of project!



You’re about to plan for success in 2017. If you end the year with less than

two out of every ten projects that began far outside your comfort zone,

then you’ll soon be joining the dinosaurs. You won’t be strong enough to

succeed in 2018. (BTW: The Elon Musks, Steve Jobs, and Walt Disneys of

the world fill their portfolio with eight or nine or ten out of every

ten projects with work beyond most people’s comfort-zones.)



It’s your responsibility to get the projects you need to ensure your

long-term success. Be proactive. Build a more disruptive project portfolio

for 2017 than you did in 2016. You’ll need it!