No Limits - What's Limiting You (Part 1)

"Successful women collaborate, communicate, and celebrate each other." says Valorie Burton in her book called "Successful Women Think Differently" that I mentioned in my earlier article. I was determined to finish reading the book that I had been gifted last year and had started reading. This month it was on the agenda for the Book Club hosted by PMI New Jersey chapter's Empowering Women In Leadership LCI (Local Community of Interest).

In June 2023, I had taken on the role of a Survey Team Manager for the PMINJ chapter and knew right away that I did not want to Do It Alone.

In October 2023, 4 volunteers agreed to be part of the PMINJ Survey Team. It has been a journey for all of us as we took this responsibility at heart and supported each other along the way.

What helped us collaborate is that we worked in areas of our strength.

Shout out to Vanessa A. Gomez, CAPM, CSM who spearheaded all new inquiries that came our way, working with various stakeholders to customize the surveys.

Shout out to Daniel Rossettini who took the lead for the Symposium this year and was instrumental in getting valuable feedback from all the attendees & presenting the results to the leadership team.

Shout out to Archana Narasanna, MS, PMP, CCRP who lives in California and still wanted to be actively involved with our team. She was responsible for the Networking LCI and Life Sciences LCI Surveys and we could not have done it without her commitment.

Shout out to Sydnee Weinbaum, PMP® who joined us a month after the others, that has not slowed her at all. She ensured we always had each other's back when a team member had to step away due to other commitments.

Last but not least,

Shout out to Lauri Accardi, MBA, PMP, SPC, CCMP™ who is the Smartsheet expert on our team and has been instrumental in keeping our team on track with the constant reminders and a tracking mechanism.

We are excited to be expanding our team and the scope of work we are doing for our chapter members.

In October/November 2024, 4 new volunteers agreed to be part of the PMINJ Survey Team. We are on a growth journey as we learn from each other and support the efforts as a team.

Welcome to Gregory Wojyn, PMP, CSM who has been supporting the Symposium Surveys for a few years and officially joined our team last month.

Welcome to Davidson Mugambi MS PMP® who is excited to be part of this initiative and ready to learn new ways to support our chapter members.

Welcome to M Anita Huq who is keen on identifying ways we can better utilize the surveys, I can't wait to see what ideas come forth.

Welcome to Sasha Savage, MPM, PMP who is the last addition to our team, I know that she is as keen to get onboarded as we are to work alongside her.

I believe that "Our Team has No Limits" - we plan to blow the cap off our capacity! How do we do that?

John Maxwell says - the only way we could reach our capacity as a person and as a leader is to practice and develop our strengths.

Let me introduce you to the CAPACITY CHALLENGE...

If you grow in your awareness, develop your abilities, and make the right choices, you can reach your capacity.

In other words,

AWARENESS + ABILITY + CHOICES = CAPACITY

The capacity challenge begins with awareness. Becoming aware is the first step I am taking to blow the cap off my capacity, I am reassessing my strengths and what I am passionate about. What was I good at? I was good at developing leaders around me, I enjoyed helping others in their leadership journey. I met great leaders like Sherrin Alphonse who encouraged me and helped me get better as a leader. Here is a glimpse of what we accomplished together:

Over the past 6 years on my entrepreneurial journey and continued to change my focus from my weaknesses to my strengths. I made better choices and my ability to lead others became more effective.

If you ask me now: What am I really good at?

Anupama would say: I am really good at empowering and equipping leaders around me.

How long did it take me to figure that out? I don't know for sure but I do know that I could not have done this on my own. I needed someone else to help me become aware of how to become better at reaching my capacity.

My goal is to EQUIP others to work on their strengths, so they can reach their potential. That's one of the reasons I became certified as a DISC Consultant and I help others identify their leadership strengths and coach them to reach their full potential.

Next time I will share with you the strategy I use to develop greater self-awareness.

Meanwhile, let me challenge you with these questions:

(1) How well do you know your abilities or strengths?

(2) How can your choices hinder your capacity?

Here is what is cooking next...