Learning to lead

As important as tools and techniques may be, they cannot replace the power of a united, motivated and empowered team. Consider the effect of an involved, visionary and inspiring project sponsor on this same team, and we can imagine quite easily that the project is more likely to succeed in delivering the target benefits on time. Sadly, this is not the norm and perhaps changing this situation is the key to the APM vision of a world in which all projects succeed.

What does leadership entail?

Leadership is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the action of leading a group of people or an organisation, or the ability to do this. But, for me, this lacks the essence of what we recognise as leadership the action of inspiring others to follow in a course of action through personality traits, without using power in the relationship to motivate or move them. In other words, we recognise leadership as authentic and inspiring behaviour which creates followers.

Project teams soon move from this exciting definition into the challenges of managing the project and creating value. Like setting off in a ship in calm water with sun overhead, the project can soon change to being on choppy seas with strong winds and storm clouds on the horizon. This is when the leader responds differently to the project manager who does not have the same skills.

Some project managers resort to demands for additional reports from the team as his or her trust declines, managing through task-by-task control rather than delegated powers to team members, they quickly fragment the team when the pressure is on.

It is in such times when the project is at risk when requirements are changing, resources are short and stakeholders are demanding that true leaders make the difference by being a uniting force in the team, inspiring to find solutions and motivating members to succeed.

Project management is an activity designed to make changes in a change-resistant world. Whatever we might profess, most people dislike change and the higher the stakes, the greater the resistance to be overcome.

Leadership is the factor that enables teams to do more than they believed possible. It empowers ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

The so-called soft skills which make this possible are partly learned but also depend on personality, motivation, values and beliefs. They rely on comprehension skills: to understand the project context, the political and contractual landscape and the interaction of the project components.

What does being a good project leader involve?

I have written about the role of trust previously, but one of the characteristics of project leaders is they trust their instincts. They take in more information by their consultative style, by understanding the project context and by being more approachable than merely managing peers.

Good leaders decide what will work and how, based on belief and experience, which makes a great deal of difference when the project is in danger of hitting the rocks.

They give themselves the unfair advantage of a motivated and empowered team, following them willingly in a direction based on more information than their more controlling peers and their own experience of previous success.

This creates a virtuous circle. Project leaders who have seen how this style has delivered success in the past have a richer resource of ways to deal with unforeseen and anticipated problems in the project lifecycle.

They trust themselves and are trusted by others. The good people want to work with them, so they struggle less for talented resources and the combined know-how of the empowered team multiplies the range of options for overcoming hurdles. Of course, they are more likely to deliver on time, on budget and to the standards required, and as a result their projects are more likely to deliver the target benefits.

Think of Winston Churchills first speech on becoming Prime Minister in May 1940 after the Western offensive by the Germans left Britain reeling against the invading force: I have nothing to offer you but blood, toil, tears and sweat. The thing which makes this so powerful is its honesty. Churchills effectiveness as a leader did not depend on new techniques. It depended on an authentic and visionary man who could inspire not only his own people but also others to help in a seemingly hopeless cause. An extraordinary example of project leadership.

Can any project manager be a leader? This is an important question as more and more people enter the project management profession and take on the delivery of positive change in a global, technologically connected and complex world. 

Firstly, lets consider what being a project leader involves. Writer Brian Irwin, president of PM Team Dynamics in the US, suggests it has three key components they must be internally motivated and driven and capable of self-leadership; they must have the ability to lead others; and they need the ability to shape the context of the project.

This introduces an interesting idea project leaders create the conditions for success. They shape the projects context by influencing sponsors, aligning stakeholders, creating belief by those who approve the business case and the team members.

By changing these environmental factors and getting the maximum support for the project at each stage in its lifecycle, they dramatically increase the chances of success. Not only is delivery more likely but the people who will judge its success are already onside and are positive about the project.

So can any of us aspire to this? All of us can be better leaders. We need to start by taking a long, hard look at ourselves and asking if were internally focussed whats in it for me? or externally focussed what can I do for others? Helping 100 people to be more effective is obviously more powerful than trying to manage 100 simultaneous tasks.

How to be a project leader

If we are honest, in a competitive world it is all too easy to see project management as a slippery pole in which it is every woman or man for themselves to get projects over the line. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone. However, how you run your project tomorrow is an open book and you can start by thinking about what it is that inspires you.

• Think about how you are with friends and family. If the gap between the real you and your professional persona is considerable, then consider how authentic you appear to others. In general, the more our role is performed with another version of ourselves, the nearer we are to acting quite literally. People can tell when this is the case at a subconscious level and tend to reduce their trust accordingly. Being a leader means being true to yourself.
• Consider too, if your personal agenda is taking precedence over the teams success. We all have our objectives, dreams and insecurities but, when those dominate our decisions and how we act, we have lost sight of the responsibility of leadership to make the team effective and to deliver the project objective for the sponsor.
• Spend tomorrow talking and really listening to your team, your sponsor and your stakeholders. Remind yourself what excited you at the project definition stage and how that felt. Then use what motivated you to tell your team what they need to do differently to increase the chances of project success, and ask for your stakeholders ideas about the issues and risks your project faces.
• Encourage honesty by being honest. This doesnt mean making a kind of confession, but rather admitting what is on your mind and needing your team and your sponsors help to solve. It means treating people with respect without distinction based on seniority, role or background; but telling them clearly what you need them to do and why.
• Demonstrate a little more trust than yesterday. Then a little more tomorrow, and so on. It might make a bigger difference that you can imagine.

Biography
Kevin Parry MAPM is consulting services director at Cogenic Hong Kong. He has extensive experience of leading critical projects and programmes and specialises in the human factors aspects of business change.

This article first appeared in Project journal. APM members can read all feature articles from Project over recent years by accessing the Project journal archive.