I add accelerant to aspiring project managers' career pivots ⛽

Unorthodox Project Manager who likes to help others break into project management in new and unique ways!

I do this by helping aspiring project managers ID pain points for why they aren't getting PM opportunities.
These typically present as one of three deficiencies:
> Lack of identified relevant experience
> Improper resume presentation
> Poor/underutilized tactics for networking

Once identified, we work through ways they can improve those pain points and leverage them appropriately for a new opportunity

Background about me and project management experience: 

I spent 7.5 years in laboratory bench science while gaining project management experience.  Obtained my PMP certification in 2018, was officially promoted to Research Project Manager in 2020, and now am a Senior Project Manager with our Enterprise Project Management Office, overseeing highly-visible strategic projects across our healthcare org's Midwest footprint.

Other PM experience:
- Project oversight of multiple preclinical gene therapies
- Project management of small molecule and repurposed drug screening projects
- Establishment of a standalone screening facility to collaborate with other research institutions, pharmaceutical, and therapeutics companies

Urgency has become a substitute for strategy

Everything feels urgent now.

Slack messages.
Multiple meetings.
Emails marked high priority.

Urgency creates motion.

But motion isn't the same as direction.

When everything is urgent:
👉 Priorities blur
👉 Quality drops
👉 People react instead of think

Strategy doesn't eliminate urgency.

It gives context.

It answers "what can wait and what can't?" "What matters even if it's quiet?"

Calm isn't the absence of pressure.

It's the presence of perspective.

The most effective teams don't move the fastest.

They move intentionally.

🤙

Logan Langin, PMP

Enterprise Program Manager | Add Xcelerant to Your Dream Project Management Job

Busy is often a symptom

Not a badge of honor.

When work feels chaotic, people get busy.

They respond faster.
They attend more meetings.
They say "yes" more often.

Busyness feels productive.

It feels responsible.

But it's often a coping mechanism for uncertainty.

When priorities are clear, people don't need to prove their value with motion.

They can slow down.
They can focus.
They can choose.

If your days feel full but unsatisfying, don't ask HOW to do more.

Ask what's creating the need to stay busy in the first place.

🤙

We don't have a productivity problem

We have a decision problem.

Most teams aren't slow because they lack tools or talent.

They're slow because decisions are:
→ Deferred
→ Diffused
→ Revisited/revised
→ Softened until they mean nothing

So work starts without alignment and then restarts without warning.

Productivity doesn't break down when people stop working.

It breaks down when no one knows who can say "yes" or "no."

Clear decisions:
✅ Reduce meetings
✅ Prevent rework
✅ Lower anxiety
✅ Speed everything up

If progress feels harder than it should, look upstream.

There's a good chance the work isn't blocked by effort.

It's blocked by indecision.

🤙

Clarity is a leadership decision

Not a communication skill.

Most teams don't lack communication.  They lack decisions.

So they talk more.
Document more.
Meet more.

But clarity doesn't come from explaining things better.

It comes from deciding things sooner.

Decisions create:
✅ Boundaries
✅ Momentum
✅ Focus

Without them, communication just fills the gap.

If people keep asking the same questions, it's not because they weren't listening.

It's because something was never decided.

🤙

How I know things are off track before the metrics say it

Data lags reality.

By the time metrics show red, the problem has usually been there for weeks.

I focus on earlier signals:
👉 Topics that keep resurfacing
👉 Decisions that feel reversible, not firm
👉 Energy drops in/after meetings
👉 People asking for reassurance instead of clarity

These aren't data points.  They're patterns.

Numbers tell you what happened.

Patterns tell you what's coming.

Learn to read the room.

It's just as important as reading a report.

🤙

Being helpful can quietly become a liability

Being helpful is praised.

So people jump in.

They fill gaps.
Answer quickly.
Solve problems for others.

But over time, constant helpfulness can:
❌ Create dependency
❌ Blur ownership
❌ Hide real issues

Sometimes, the most helpful thing you can do is not provide the answer.

Slow the moment down and let responsibility land where it belongs.

Helping feels good in the moment.
Clarity lasts longer.

Leadership can't always be about rescuing progress.

It has to be focused on making progress sustainable.

🤙

Meetings aren't the problem

Misaligned intentions are.

Meetings get blamed for a lot.

Too many.
Too long.
Too draining or misaligned.

Meetings aren't broken, but they are carrying too many hidden agendas.

People show up for many different reasons.

✅ To get decisions made
✅ To share needs, concerns, wins, etc.
✅ To be informed
✅ To be heard

With all of these reasons, it's hard to know which is which and how to handle each.

So conversations wander.
Decisions stall.
Follow-ups multiply.

Effective meetings aren't about better facilitation.

They're about clear intent.

Why are we here?
What should be different when we leave?

When intention is aligned, meetings become shorter, more targeted.

Or unnecessary.

🤙

The strongest leaders aren't the ones doing the most work

Early in our careers, impact usually looks like contribution.

So we jump in.
We fill gaps.
We solve problems ourselves.

As we grow, leadership changes the definition of our value.

At some point, your impact stops being about what you DO and starts being about what you ENABLE.

The strongest leaders:
👉 Create clarity instead of just giving answers
👉 Ask questions that unlock other people's thinking
👉 Build systems for success rather than stepping in to "save" something

They don't step in and do it.  

They elevate it and those that are doing it.

If everything still needs you, you're not leading yet.

🤙

Being busy isn't leadership

Direction is.

Some of the most overwhelmed people at work are also the most reliable.

They're always booked.
They're always responding.
They're always "on top of things."

And still, progress feels slower than it should.

Effective leadership isn't just about keeping things moving.

It's about deciding what movement MATTERS.

Calendars create motion.  Leadership creates directions.

And direction sounds like:
✅ "This is the priority, everything else can wait."
✅ "The decision matters more than perfect execution."
✅ "We're not ready to move yet, and that's intentional."

The people who create momentum aren't the busiest.

They're the clearest.

If you can get a whole team operating on clarity, the sky is the limit for what you can do.

👉

The questions I ask before any work starts

👉 What decision does this work need to enable?
👉 What problem are we ACTUALLY trying to solve?
👉 What does "good" look like when this is done?
👉 Who gets to decide when tradeoffs are considered?

Why do I ask these?

If the answers to these questions aren't clear, we're prioritizing speed.

Speed is fine, but without shared understanding it can end up leading to rework quickly.

Most projects don't fail because execution was weak.

They fail because the work started before clarity existed.

The fastest way to move, especially later on, is to slow down and ask the right questions early.

🤙

The simple framework I use to reduce rework

When work keeps looping, I check 3 things:
👉 Intent
👉 Authority
👉 Constraints

These correspond to 3 questions:
→ Are we aligned on the outcome or just the task?
→ Does everyone know who decides?
→ Are tradeoffs explicit or implied?

If any of the above are fuzzy, rework is almost guaranteed.

Rework usually isn't a delivery issue.

It's an early clarity issue that shows up late.

Fixing it doesn't require better tools.

It requires intentional, better framing and confirmed, shared understanding.

🤙

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