Introducing yourself
as a project manager may not feel like it's a piece of cake, but in this video, I'm going to share with you
what I do when I introduce myself to my team for the very first time. And don't forget to stay
to the end of this video 'cause I'm going to share
with you on how you get your hands on my guide, on how to
avoid top 10 common mistakes project managers make. Hi, if you're new here, welcome. My name is Adriana Girdler, and you've hopped on the best practical project
management channel out there, YouTube world. Now, I'm really excited that I'm going to share with you my tips on how to introduce yourself
as a project manager. So, let's get to it. Do your research. What Adriana, what are you talking about? We're talking about introductions, and you're talking about research? Yes, absolutely. You're the project manager, you're going have a
team reporting into you for the project, right? For the project. And it becomes really important prior to getting to know
them, or introducing yourself, get a little bit of
background information. Who they are, what is your
subject matter expertise? You're going to want
to talk to your manager or the sponsor of the
project to get that insight, because they're the ones
who probably gave you, here are the individuals
who are going to be on this project. So definitely
ensure you do a little bit of homework, generally speaking, on them to know who you're dealing with. The email introduction. Okay, hopefully you're doing another, "What Adriana." Yes, email introduction. Think about it in this way, you have not met your team yet. You've done a little bit of
research, which is excellent, you're trying to figure them out but the first real way
that they get to meet you is through email. That's how we talk in the corporate world. So this email introduction is
really going to set the tone for when you do meet with them in person. So this email introduction
should be short and sweet, perhaps give a little bit
of your project style, just so that you can
set the tone with them. Now, I have an example for you, so let's go to it. Hi project team, welcome to project ABC. I wanted to introduce myself for those who may not know me, my name is Adriana, and I'm passionate about projects and working collaboratively. We will be having our first meeting soon and I wanted to let you know I'm excited about this
project and working with you. Please watch out for my meeting
invite coming to you soon. Feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions. Sincerely, Adriana. The in person, or virtual introduction. Okay, now you are here. You're actually going to
either be face to face, literally on camera, or in person, meeting your project team
members for the first time. This really is the impression that they're going to get from you. The good news is you
already did the email intro, so you've already set the tone letting them know what to expect. So, how would you do this? Again, if you are virtual, I highly recommend you
turn your camera on. They want to see your face, there's a lot of information when you're doing an
introduction that way. And when you do turn it on,
make sure it's eye level. If you are in person, well you may want to stand
up and walk to the top of the room wherever that may be, because don't forget
you're the project manager and you are the one who is
the leader of this meeting. You're the facilitator,
you sent out the invite. So there's nothing wrong with you with going to the top of the room to really introduce yourself. Now, what is it that you're going say? Very similar to what you did
in the email introduction, you want to say your name, who you are, maybe some project experience, and maybe something that
is on the personal note because you're going get
to know these people. You want have a connection with them, so it's not just about
business, business, business but a little bit of personal
interjecting in that is actually something that
everyone can relate to and people really do like. Now again, I have you covered, so let's do that introduction. Hi, everyone. Welcome to our first team
meeting, how exciting? As you know, I'm your fearless
project manager, Adriana and I'm so excited that we're here today. So I've been project managing
for over or 20 plus years, I have some specific ways
that I really like to work that I'm going share with you, and some expectations as well. On a personal note though, I want to share with you some other stuff. I love playing guitar, I'm a runner, I have an amazing family,
but even more importantly, you will hear me talk about my little dog. Her name is Yoco, she's a French tin, ugh, she's my little baby girl. Okay, now that you have
that introduction example remember keep it brief, you're going to have plenty of opportunity to share more things about yourself, and as well to get to know them. Remember, put a smile on your face. You're introducing yourself
for the first time, that's that first impression. I'm also going to ask you, don't forget to stick around
to the end of this video 'cause I have that guide
for you that I want to share on how you can get your hands on that. Ending your intro. Now that you have that example of the body of the
introduction, short and sweet. You now want to just use a very
quick ending to wrap it all up like a present with a bow on it. And a very simple one that
I use all the time is, "Now that you know a little bit about me, who would like to go next?" Be prepared for questions. If you did end your intro
with who would like to go next allow everyone to do that,
but be open to questions, in fact, you may even wanna
start off asking questions. This is a great opportunity to really get to know the
team a little bit more, maybe it's questions
about their experience. Maybe they said something
on a personal note, because again, you started that off, which is a great leading by example. So being prepared for those
questions it's just going to ensure that open communication and the team getting to know each other, which is really important for bonding. What a great way to kick that
off at your first meeting. Follow up. All right, what a great after the meeting, your first one you introduced yourself, your team introduced them, do a little follow up. You have a choice, you can
do a group follow up email and just let them know how
excited you are to move forward and how nice it is that
you're going to be able to work with them. You may even want to consider individual notes to
each member of the team, so you can get to know
them a little bit better, maybe even set up some one-on-ones. But that follow up is
just something that goes that extra mile that can really give
out a great impression for you as a project manager. Now that you know how
to introduce yourself as a project manager,
yay, I'm excited for you 'cause that is setting
the tone and so important. Remember what I said to
you, if you stick to the end you need to get this,
you need to download it. Where can you get that download? A link is under this
video, just for you, free. Take advantage of it.