Project management has grown up a lot over the past few decades. It’s more visible, more global, and more established as a profession.
What hasn’t changed, though, is the question that sits underneath all of it:what actually makes someone effective in this work?
That question shaped much of my recent conversation with Becky Winston on Project Management Matters.
Becky’s career spans government, industry, academia, and nonprofit leadership. She served at the highest levels of PMI governance during a period when both the Institute and the profession itself were still finding their footing. What made this conversation valuable was perspective and clarity.
Success Was Never Just Delivery
Early in our discussion, Becky challenged one of the most persistent assumptions in project management: that success is defined solely by delivery metrics.
Yes, scope, schedule, and cost matter, but they’ve never been enough.
Real success, she argued, shows up when a project manager understands:
* what is being done
* why it’s being done
* when it matters
* and how it connects to the rest of the organization
That level of understanding doesn’t come from templates, it comes from professional curiosity.
Ego Is the Quiet Failure Mode
One of the strongest throughlines in the conversation was ego and the subtle ways it undermines effectiveness.
As project managers gain experience, credentials, or seniority, it becomes easy to mistake confidence for mastery. Becky was direct about this risk: the moment ego takes over, learning stops. And when learning stops, effectiveness follows shortly after.
She described seeing this repeatedly in her shadow management work. Project managers who could point to completed artifacts but couldn’t explain what was actually happening on their projects.
They had risk registers, but they couldn’t articulate the risks. They followed the checklist, but didn’t engage the work.
Listening Is a Professional Skill
Becky’s legal background added another important layer to the discussion: listening.
The type of listening that forces you to go beyond just waiting for your turn to talk and really listening to what others have to say. This allows you to:
* translate technical work for non-technical stakeholders
* identify gaps in reasoning
* ask the next question that actually matters
She made a distinction that stuck with me: repeating someone’s words back to them doesn’t prove understanding. Often, it proves the opposite. Understanding meaning, not vocabulary, is where leadership lives.
Preparation Enables Confidence
Another recurring theme was preparation as a foundation for influence.
Becky talked about how being studied, coming prepared to meetings, conversations, and decisions, changes the dynamic entirely. It reduces noise and makes difficult conversations easier. It creates space for better questions.
That lesson was reinforced early in my own volunteer leadership journey, when she advised me to read every page of the board materials before my first meeting. Preparation wasn’t about impressing anyone, it was about being ready to contribute.
PMI, Strategy, and Professional Maturity
The conversation naturally turned to PMI and a pivotal shift in its evolution: the move the PMI Board made from operational focus to strategic leadership.
Becky recalled challenging an early version of PMI’s “strategic vision” that focused on membership numbers. Her point was simple and consequential: that wasn’t strategy, it was a tactic.
What followed was a deliberate separation between governance and operations. Boards needed to think long-term and act as stewards not as administrators.
That shift didn’t just strengthen PMI, it modeled what professional maturity looks like.
The Role of Community and Mentorship
Underlying all of this was a quieter but powerful theme: volunteerism and mentorship.
The profession didn’t grow because of certifications alone. It grew because experienced practitioners made themselves available. Mentors answered calls, PMI Founders shared time generously, and leaders stayed connected to chapters and communities around the world.
PMI’s real strength wasn’t just its frameworks, it was its people.
Nuggets of Wisdom
Becky emphasized some critical points that can perhaps be distilled with the following:
* Curiosity over ego.
* Understanding over artifacts.
* Listening over performance.
* Strategy over activity.
* Community over credentials.
Her reminder to Project Managers is a simple question, do we really understand the work we’re leading?
The answer matters more than any template ever will.
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