More Than Managing

The process of leading a project is more than managing the project. The process of leading a project entails the approach utilized to guide the people involved (team, stakeholders, organization) toward the accomplishment of the project’s objectives. This process involves your mindset and leverages key skills such as dedication, interpersonal skills, adaptability, and customer orientation. If we look back at Chapter 2, many of the roles a project manager performs involve leadership, including the following:

• Planner—Ensures the project is defined properly and completely for success, all stakeholders are engaged, work effort approach is determined, required resources are available when needed, and processes are in place to properly execute and control the project.

• Point person—Serves as the central point of contact for all oral and written project communications to key stakeholders.

• Facilitator—Ensures that stakeholders and team members from different perspectives understand each other and work together to accomplish the project goals.

• Aligner—Gains agreement from the stakeholders on project definition, success criteria, and approach; manages stakeholder expectations throughout the project while managing the competing demands of time, cost, and quality; gains agreement on resource decisions and issue resolution action steps.

• Problem solver—Utilizes root-cause analysis process experience, prior project experiences, and technical knowledge to resolve unforeseen technical issues and take any necessary corrective actions.

• Umbrella—Works to shield the project team from the politics and “noise” surrounding the project, so they can stay focused and productive.

• Coach—Determines and communicates the role each team member plays and the importance of that role to the project success, finds ways to motivate each team member, looks for ways to improve the skills of each team member, and provides constructive and timely feedback on individual performances.

• Salesperson—Focuses on “selling” the benefits of the project to the organization, serving as a “change agent,” and inspiring team members to meet project goals and overcome project challenges.

In addition, many qualities of successful project managers described in Chapter 2 have strong leadership elements, including the following:

• Takes ownership—Takes responsibility and accountability for the project, leads by example, and brings energy and drive to the project; without this attitude, all the skills and techniques in the world will only get you so far.

• Savvy—Understands people and the dynamics of the organization, navigates tricky politics; has the ability to quickly read emotionally charged situations; thinks fast on feet; builds relationships; leverages personal power for benefit of the project.

• Intensity with a smile—Balances an assertive, resilient, tenacious, results-oriented focus with a style that makes people want to help; consistently follows up on everything and their resolutions without annoying everyone.

• Eye of the storm—Demonstrates ability to be the calm eye of the project hurricane; high tolerance for ambiguity; takes the heat from key stakeholders (CxOs, business managers, and project team); exhibits a calm, confident aura when others are showing signs of issue or project stress.

• Strong customer-service orientation—Demonstrates ability to see each stakeholder’s perspective; able to provide voice of all key stakeholders (especially the sponsor) to the project team; has strong facilitation and collaboration skills; has excellent active listening skills.

• People-focused—Takes a team-oriented approach; understands that methodology, process, and tools are important, but without quality people it’s very difficult to complete a project successfully; acts ethically; protects the team; and takes a teaching approach.

• Always keeps “eye on the ball”—Stays focused on the project goals and objectives. There are many ways to accomplish a given objective, which is especially important to remember when things don’t go as planned.

• Controlled passion—Balances passion for completing the project objectives with a healthy detached perspective, which enables the project manager to make better decisions, continue to see all points of view, better anticipate risks, and better respond to project issues.

• Context understanding—Understands the context of the project—the priority that the project has among the organization’s portfolio of projects and how it aligns with the overall goals of the organization.

• Looking for trouble—Constantly looking and listening for potential risks, issues, or obstacles; confronts doubt head-on; deals with disgruntled users right away; understands that most of these situations are opportunities and can be resolved up front before they become full-scale crisis points.

Where Is Leadership Needed on a Project?

There are three key points to know about leading a project:

1. There are many aspects of project leadership.

2. The project manager is not the sole provider of project leadership.

3. Specific leadership providers vary depending on the project environment.

To clarify this idea, let’s take a look at project areas where leadership is needed and who could provide it in Table 16.1. Please note that for agile projects, the reference to “Team leader(s)” in Table 16.1 would include the Scrum Master and Product Owner roles.

We explore managing stakeholder expectations, managing project communications, and building an effective project team in greater detail in Chapters 17, 18, and 19, respectively.

12 Keys to Better Project Leadership

In the modern world of projects, project leaders cannot rely on position power or traditional, autocratic leadership approaches to get the job done. To guide a group of unfamiliar project stakeholders and project team members to accomplish something that has not been done before, you must rely on a different set of skills and leadership principles. As we review the 12 keys to more effective project leadership, please remember this is not an all-or-nothing deal—it is a continuum. The more of these that you demonstrate, the better leader you will likely be.

1. Focus on the people—There are those who maintain that project management is about managing a process (or a work plan) and not about managing people. Are they serious? Who does the work? People. An effective project leader takes a holistic view that puts people first. This approach results in a focus on establishing and building relationships and a focus on gaining an authentic understanding and buy-in from each stakeholder.

2. Visualize the goal…and the way there—This is the traditional leadership ability of providing direction to the team. Not only does a project leader need to clearly see the end and be able to create this picture for everyone else, but they must also understand how the team is going to get there. The ability to see this big picture is vital to keeping the project focused on its primary objectives.

3. See with “their” eyes—This is a skill that is not natural for many, but an invaluable one if you can do it. Look at your project from the perspective of the other stakeholders. What do they see? What are they thinking? What do they need? This ability to take another’s perspective is foundational to building better relationships, developing requirements, managing communications, managing expectations, and building a productive project team.

4. Earn their trust—Effective leaders are trusted by senior management to do the right thing and get the job done. They are trusted by other stakeholders because they manage with integrity and consistently seek win-win scenarios to any project challenge.

5. Earn their respect—How do you earn the respect of project stakeholders when you do not have position power? There are four key behaviors that affect the level of respect granted you by project stakeholders:

   • Show respect—First of all, show respect to each person you are dealing with. Listen to them—I mean, really listen to them, respect their time, and respect their knowledge, experience, and perspectives.

   • Be real—Deal with reality, not what it should be or could be. Your willingness to acknowledge and confront the realities of the project will be key to your overall effectiveness.

   • Be fair—People might not always like final decisions, but they will respect the decision and you if they feel you handled the situation in a fair manner. An approach to team management, decision-making, and conflict resolution that emphasizes fairness is key to earning the respect of others.

   • Be consistent—Lead by example, stick with your decisions, maintain your principles, do what you say you are going to do, and be emotionally steady.

6. Facilitate progress—As a project leader, you are focused on accomplishing the project objectives, and you realize that one of the most important jobs you have is to make it as easy as possible for your team to complete its work. How do you do this? Think of yourself as a conduit for progress, an enabler, a productivity enhancer. Some key actions include the following:

   • Anticipate issues, work to prevent them, and confront and resolve the ones that do occur—quickly

   • Create an open and honest team environment where members are encouraged and comfortable to exchange their thoughts and ideas

   • Facilitate the decision-making process

   • Get needed information quickly

   • Ensure the team has the structure, process, and tools to be as productive as possible

   • Work to reduce the doubt and uncertainty factor for others

7. Take ownership—Let there be no doubt in anyone’s mind who is responsible for this project. An ownership mindset manifests itself in a persistent, results-focused, no-excuses attitude that is undeniable and contagious to the other team members.

8. Be resilient—Like the proverbial willow tree that shows its true strength when confronted with a ferocious wind, a project leader is able to quickly adapt his approach and style to best meet the needs of the project. Through a creative and flexible mindset, a project leader understands that there are many ways to achieve the targeted goals and works to make it happen.

9. Be a teacher—A great model for the modern project manager is that of a teacher. In many situations, you are literally educating all stakeholders regarding their roles and responsibilities in a project approach. But in all project situations, taking a teaching mentality—a mindset that sincerely wants others to learn, grow, and improve—rather than a judgmental view will be paramount to your leadership effectiveness.

10. Strive for excellence—An important trait of effective project leaders is their ability to create confidence that the project will be well managed and that it will accomplish its goals. How do you do this? Be very good at what you do, know what you are doing, and exude competence and professionalism (note—I did not say arrogance). The three simple keys here are be prepared, be organized, and never stop learning and improving.

11. Compensate for weaknesses—A leader is humble enough, has enough self-awareness, and is team-focused enough to recognize personal weaknesses. From this recognition, the leader then builds a team and delegates responsibilities to properly compensate. Again, it is difficult to be proficient at everything, and it is much easier to leverage the strengths of yourself and of your team to get the job done.

12. Showcase self-control—As a rule, most effective project leaders are models of self-control. They are consistent and positive in their behaviors and are generally immune from egocentric approaches and significant shifts or swings in their emotional stability (especially negative ones). In addition, they are able to remain calm under pressure and serve as a model for others during stressful times.

Depending on your experiences, organizational culture, and education, these project leadership keys might seem perfectly natural to you or they might seem like the ramblings of academia management theory. In either case, I can attest that each is important to your ongoing project leadership effectiveness.

Power of Servant Leadership Approach

Although we discussed numerous project leadership keys in the previous section, it really boils down to a simple, practical mindset that drives the thoughts, words, and actions of an effective project leader. It is a mindset of “service first” and not “me first.” Personally, I had served as a project manager for many years before I ever learned that there was a name for the natural approach that I took to managing projects. The approach is called servant leadership, and it was popularized by Robert Greenleaf in 1970 in his book The Servant as Leader. Since then, the philosophy of servant leadership has been steadily growing in popularity and now serves as the foundation for most modern leadership training programs.

One of the main reasons I took this type of approach naturally is because it just made sense. In a project environment, where you are stakeholder-focused, where you must rely on yourself, where you must effectively relate to others to get work done, and where you must completely understand the needs and requirements of your customers to deliver the proper solution, it just seems to be a very practical path to take.

To me, it is a synergistic approach for any organization (or project) that values strong customer-service and team-focused approaches in their leaders.

To better illustrate what is meant by a servant leadership approach, and why I think this approach gives you the best chance of doing the right work, the right way, for the right people on your project, let’s look at the prominent characteristics of this philosophy:

• Asserts a strong service orientation; lead by expanding service to others

• Emphasizes listening, patience, respect, and responsiveness

• Takes the perspective of others; maintains the best interest of others

• Accepts responsibility; takes initiative

• Encourages collaboration and trust; empowers individuals

• Seeks growth and improvement in all team members, organization, and community

• Solicits input and feedback from all stakeholders, especially in the decision-making process

• Insists on the use of skills to influence and persuade, not manipulate

• Spotlights a strong integrity principle—the ethical use of power

Again, like all project management and leadership skills, a servant leadership mindset is not an all-or-nothing approach. It is a spectrum between a total egocentric, leader-first mindset on one end and a complete servant-first thought pattern on the other end. The goal is to do your best, continue to learn, and work to improve over time, just as you do with the other skill set areas.

Figure 16.2 summarizes the main points reviewed in this chapter.