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The Importance of PIE

If you missed this week’s Lunch & Learn, you really missed out, and I’m not just talking about the free PDU for chapter members.  During the Lunch & Learn, John Signo from the Brand and Land team, addressed why PIE is important in our personal and professional lives.  Unfortunately, the meeting was virtual, so we didn’t have any actual pie (not that I’m admitting to, anyway).  Instead, John shared his insights into how Performance, Identity, and Engagement are important to our personal and professional brands.

John gave us the following definitions:

• Performance - our day-to-day work and the results of our efforts
• Identity - how we present ourselves and how others perceive us
• Engagement - our ability to connect with others and build meaningful relationships

He shared the amount of impact that each of these aspects of PIE have on our personal and professional brands…

• Performance - 9%
• Identity - 31%
• Engagement - 60%

…and raised the question, “Why are you spending 100% of your effort for a 9% return?”  I’d like you to think about that while I dig into the PIE.

You might be asking yourself, “Why should I care?  What the heck is a personal brand, and why should I spend any time figuring it out?  I’m already over-scheduled” (which is kind of ironic for a bunch of project managers).

Most of the project managers I’ve worked with have been motivated to be experts and high performers.  For those of us working in IT, and probably others, as well, we work with a lot of people who enjoy being ‘heads down’ and working hard.  I openly admit, I don’t like to ‘blow my own horn’, but I’m slowly learning that if you want a promotion or a new job, it doesn’t matter if you’re an expert if you’re invisible.

I’ll repeat that.  It doesn’t matter if you’re an expert, or hard worker, if you’re invisible.  You can’t stand out if nobody can see you.

Let’s take a look at some of the reasons that high performers, hard workers, and experts can get left behind.

• Nobody knows who you are or what you are capable of – being hard to get to know can lead to being considered hard to get along with; who is going to say otherwise if you’re not making yourself known?
• You aren’t playing the game – its like in college; you didn’t get A’s for being right, you got A’s for doing what the instructor said.  Don’t be a political hitman, but learn who the players are and find ways to interact with them, without being an apple-polisher (to put it nicely).
• You assume your work speaks for itself (hint: it doesn’t, and if you don’t advocate for yourself, somebody else might just take credit for the success of your projects.  Find the balance between bragging and hiding).
• Knowledge hoarding – part of being an expert should be helping others grow.

As we approach the end of the article, let’s revisit the definitions of PIE with a rough sketch.  You work hard and demonstrate expertise as a project manager.  This is the image you feel you portray.  For people to perceive this image, you have to engage with them.  Don’t overdo it.  You don’t want people to think that you think you’re the smartest person in the room.  You want them to recognize that you are confident, not think that you are overconfident.  You want to build relationships with them.  As you engage, appropriately, with others, and build relationships, you will influence their perceptions of you.  This will help you stand out and get the opportunities you are looking for.

To recap, be an expert, but don’t spend all of your effort on being an expert.  Create a powerful self-image and engage with others.  Help them to see you the way you see yourself, and help them to grow and succeed in the process.

While not a Utah native, Aaron Porter (insert alphabet soup here) raised his kids here and enjoys the sense of community he's found in Utah.  He maintains an on-again, off-again relationship with his blog on projectmanagement.com where he also participates in discussions on project management topics.  His most recent collaboration was on a DAVSC quick reference guide, available to the DAVSC community.  This is Aaron’s second time on the PMINUC Board of Directors; his first time was from 2010-2012 as VP of Education.  In between board positions, Aaron enjoyed volunteering as a project manager mentor, in the chapter and with other non-profits.