Why Project Managers Feel Overwhelmed (And How to Lead Without Full Visibility)

0:00Viscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to progressive and save hundreds, because progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home and more. Plus, you can count on their great customer service to help when you need it, so your dollar goes a long way. Visit progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, potential savings will vary, not available in all states or situations. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing. Victory Lane? Yeah, it's even better with Chamba by my side. Race to chambacacino.com. Let's Chamba. No purchase necessary, VTW Group, Voidware Prohibit by Mom, CTNC's, 21 Plus, sponsored by ChambaCacino. Let me ask you something. Have you ever been held accountable for something you were never included in? You know, like decisions were made, context was shared, expectations were set, and somehow some way you kind of missed it all, not because you weren't paying attention, but nobody

1:04brought you into the role. And now you're expected to lead something you don't fully see, that feeling. That's what people call drowny. But let me tell you the truth. You're not drowny. You're never giving the full visibility. I don't remember this time. It's probably what? Three, about three years or more. I was sitting in this meeting. I had the plan. I had my notes. I thought I was prepared, but within the first few minutes, something just kind of fell off. It just didn't feel right. People started referencing decisions. I wasn't part of bringing up context that was never shared, asking questions on information. I didn't even have access to, I had to pull up the media agenda that I created to make sure that I was in the right meeting. Don't judge me because one day you may experience this. So I'm sitting there and I'm thinking to myself, was there another meeting? Was I supposed to be included in that particular meeting? Or how am I being measured on something? I have no visibility to and nobody stopped to acknowledge it.

2:06Nobody said, Hey, here's the background. What do you miss? They just kept moving like I should already know. That's when they hit me. A lot of project managers don't drown because they're unprepared. They drown because they're operating in silos where information is fragmented, expectations are invisible. Alignment is still not confirmed. So now you're trying to lead without full context, without shared understanding, without a clear definition of what success is. And then people look at you and say, Hey, project manager, why is this off the track? So if you ever felt like that, where you're being held accountable for things you were never included in, expected to deliver on outcomes that were never clearly defined, let me be clear. And I being crystal clear about something, you're drowning because you were placing an environment that didn't give you full visibility. So we're going to unpack this because once you see it clearly, you'll stop blaming

3:06yourself and your star navigating differently. Principle number one, drowning looks different from inside. See from the outside, it looks like you're doing your job from the inside. It feels like everything is slipping. That disconnect is real and it's more common than you think as a project manager or a project coordinator or even a business analyst. Why is this important? If you think you're the only one filling this way, you isolate yourself in spiral, naming that filling is the first step in managing. Experiment with these actual tips, name it specifically right down what specifically feels overwhelmed me instead of saying everything. See precision reduces panic, oh, I like that family. Next one, separate the known from the assume, let's what you know versus what you're assuming. Most of the weight is in the assumptions, here's my professional advice. Most people in your position feel this, they just don't say it out loud. I'm saying it out loud for you so you know you're not alone, matter of fact, you're not

4:06behind. You're just being honest about where you are. And when you don't say it out loud, your mind starts creating its old narrative, this old story, which leads me to principle number two, principle number two, imposter syndrome is a symptom, not a diagnosis, ooh, I like that seat, that filling up, I just don't belong here. It's not proof you're unqualified. It's a signal that something is unclear, maybe it's an expectation. Maybe it's about your role or about how success is actually defined. Why is this important? If you treat it like a personal flaw, guess what it happened? Your shrink. If you treat it like a signal, you start getting curious. One leads to a draw, the other leads to action and we're about action here. So experiment with these actionable tips. Ask for clarity. Ask one question in your next meeting that gives you clarity. One question at a time, bills, confidence, next one, identify the gap, identify one area

5:06where expectations are unclear and surfacing. Don't absorb it, silently, here's my professional advice family. Confidence doesn't come from knowing everything, it comes from reducing unknowns, one conversation at a time. And one of the biggest unknowns is how you're measuring yourself against others, which leads me to principle number three, principle number three, you're comparing your beginning to someone else's middle, ooh, I don't know how many times I've experienced it. This is personally where I started looking and watching where someone that I admired as a project manager and I'm like, why am I not there yet? And I had to realize I had to what? Run my own race. See, you're watching people who have years of reps, whether context, relationship, being able to understand pattern recognition while you're still learning the flow. This is not a gap in talent, it's just a gap in time and sets it a rep. Why is this important? One will make progress feel invincible, you'll actually dismiss real grow because it doesn't

6:10match someone else's output level, experiment with these actual tips. Track your progress. Track one thing you understand today that you didn't last week. Now we're talking real progress, see, progress is real, you just have to measure it. Mix one. Get honest feedback or I should say, get honest benchmarks. See, ask a senior PM what their first year actually looked like. That answer, I promise you, it will surprise you. Maybe I'll do something for you where I'll tell you about my first year and the disaster as a project manager, it was for me because I really think that will help someone. But here's my professional advice. You're never behind, you're just kind of early, see, there's a difference and it matters how you treat yourself in this season that you're in, but even when you realize that something feels structurally off, not just in you in the environment, which leads to principal number four, principal number four, the system set you up to struggle, oh, are my ruffles

7:11on feathers here, see, lack of onboarding, unclear process, missing documentation, conflicting priorities, that's not true, that's the environment. The dysfunction existed before you even walked into the door, why is this important? Once you see the system clearly, you'll stop blaming yourself for everything and your stars solving the right problems instead of absorbing the wrong ones. Let me even add some more context there, family. This is not about taking accountability because we want to take accountability, but we have to understand what can we control and what can we not control? We can control our attitude, we can control how we can get better, we can control practicing kaisen. What does that mean? Getting 1% better each and every day, experiment with these actionable tips, name the gap, identify one process gap that's causing confusion and just document it clearly. Next one. Build what's missing, start documenting what you wish existed, this document, this might become a standard, others follow, give them a professional advice family, strong project

8:12managers don't wait for the organization to get his act together. They create clarity in the middle of chaos, but you don't create clarity on all. You have to know when and how to ask for help without losing credibility, which leads us into our next principle. Principle number five, asking for help isn't weakness, it's navigation. See a lot of times, family, this role is not about knowing everything, you shouldn't know everything. This is why we have smooths, what are smooths, subject matter, expert, it's about knowing how to get the right information from the right people at the right time, not like alone, it's a skill, this is not a shortcut, this is something you're going to continue to build on, why is it important? Trying to prove yourself through silence will slow you down more than asking for help ever will and it will cost you visibility, trust and time, experiment with these actionable tips, reframe the ask, replace, I should know this versus who can help me understand

9:14the seat one protects the ego, other drives output and outcomes. Ask with precision, ask targeted specific question, vague questions, signal confusion, but specific question, signal leadership is my professional advice. The strongest people in the role are usually asking the best question, not because they know all the answer, but because they understand the power of curiosity and inquiry. When you start asking better questions, you start trusting your own read of the situation, first leads us to one next principle, principle number six, your instincts are off the right, you just don't trust them yet, hey, I'm going to be honest with you, I think trust my instincts for a while either, but over time, as I got sets and reps in, I understood I needed to trust my instincts, if you already notice when something feels off in the meeting, when stakeholders are disengaged, when a scope is drifting, you kind of start second guessing yourself before even acting on it, why is this important?

10:14Awareness prevents large stage problem, the PM asked or speaks up at the first side of misalignment has an opportunity to save the project, but you know, the one who waits for proof, they're going to inherit the crisis, explain it with these actual tips, speak up early, when something feels unclear, misaligned, name it in that moment early friction is easier to manage the late failure. Next one, validate data points, validate your instinct with one person or one data point before dismissing it, you're usually closer right than you think, here's my professional advice, trust is built through small confirmation, not one big, huge moment, every time you act on instinct and is validated, you build internal evidence that you belong, and once you start trusting yourself, you start believing in yourself, you start noticing more than just tasks, you're actually start reading the world, which leads us to our next principle, principle number seven, nobody taught you to read the room, but this is a skill, see project management

11:20isn't just about deliveries, it's about people, tone, energy, subtext, the unspoken dynamics in a meeting often matter more than was actually on the agenda, why is this important? What's not said in a meeting is often the more important than what is, if you can't read the room, you'll keep solving the stated problem while the real ones go unaddressed, oh I like that family, experiment with these actual tips, watch the quiet ones, yes the quiet ones, see notice who's quiet in a meeting and why silence is often the loudest signal in the room, next one, track the shifts, pay attention to the tone changes and hesitations, they're almost a signal, something we're following up on, here's my professional advice, if you can read the room, you can lead the room, that shift from task manager to room reader is what separates good peams from exceptional ones, but even when you start seeing clearly, things still might go wrong and how you respond to that is everything,

12:23which leads us to our last principle, number eight, recovery is part of the role, you will miss things, you will drop follow ups, you will miss restakeholder, you will even underestimate what a dependency is, that's not failure, that's experience in a real time, why is this important? Your value is not perfection, it's how you respond when things break, leaders are measured by their recovery, by their streak, experiment with these actionable tips, acknowledge quickly, surface issues early, it owned them clearly, delayed acknowledgement turns a mistake into a trust problem, next one, lead with next steps, always come with next steps, here's what happens, here's what I'm doing about it, that's leadership, my professional advice here family, people don't remember the mistake nearly as long as they remember how you handle it, recovery is the reputation and what you learn to survive in this role becomes the framework you would visually hand to someone behind you,

13:26that's full circle leadership, here's the true family, so if you're feeling like you're drowning right now, it's not because you can't swim, it's because nobody handed you a life jacket, and in a lot of cases, they didn't even show you the full picture, but now you see things differently, you understand the environment, you understand the gaps, you understand where your power actually is, and once you see that clearly, it's no longer about survival, you learn how to navigate, well family, I hope you enjoyed today's episode, I go about an MED, for all you smart intelligent folks out there, hey listen, that just simply means it, until next time. Tyler Reddick here from 2311 Racing, another checkered flag for the books, time to celebrate with chamba, jump in at chambacasino.com, let's chamba. No purchase necessary, VTW Group, void, we're prohibited by law, CCNC, 21 plus sponsored by chamba casino. You're listening to a podcast right now, driving, working out, walking the dog,

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