Leadership

By Stephanie Barnes • June 15th, 2009

When Loyal first asked me to guest post on this blog, I said sure without thinking about it too much, I knew that Project Management and Knowledge Management went together, that’s what I do after-all as part of any project I do. Then I thought how am I going to explain it and make [...]

It had all the earmarks of a disaster, a real career-sinker of a project. And here was my old friend and former colleague calling me up enthusiastically, on the phone: “Hey Lisa, we need a Technical Project Manager for this start-up I’m working for, in Redwood Shores… you’ll love the project and the team. It’s [...]

After years of managing online products and projects, you’d think it would become old hat… but never, not for this gal. There’s always something new to learn, and a different twist on old scenarios, if you’re open to them. People and team dynamics are endlessly fascinating, and you never know how it’s going to go [...]

As Project Managers, I’m sure we’ve all seen the kind of scenario where there is a project team member who is generally uncooperative or can’t seem to get the tasks done on time – and the different approaches you can take in order to solve this problem. You can take the dictatorial “Do as I [...]

I’d like to start things off in this posting with a joke I heard on the US Television show, Two and a Half Men. Now keep in mind that the show is full of gratuitous innuendo and juvenile comedy, much of it not easily translatable in (nor suitable for) the context of project management.  In [...]

Participants in the UCSC Extension advanced course on the “Project Management Office” had ample opportunity to explore their environmental challenges, share questions with others, and prepare action plans on implementing a project office for organizational change.  They came with real questions and left with renewed understandings about the potential for anything from a Project Office [...]

Every program manager has run into the same situation at some point in their career. You put together your program plan with lots of spreadsheets, Gantt charts, requirements documents, resource requirements, risk management plan, etc. You present the plan to management and everything goes reasonably well until you start to talk about risks and how [...]

The ability to influence people is a good skill for a project manager. Isn’t it?
Isn’t it our job as PMs to influence people on the project? To find ways to get our stakeholders onboard?

Could it be that one person’s influencing can be another’s political manipulation?

Teams.  It seems like such an obvious part of project life.
Or, is it?
Recently, I’ve been noticing some things about project teams that trouble me.
Here are some descriptions of a team:

A group of two or more people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose and approach for which the team holds its members [...]

Inspiration is important, but we can’t depend on it showing up when needed.  It comes and goes, like a ferral cat who roams looking for a bite to eat.  We can feel inspiration waxing and waning within us, and the inspiration from the outside world can’t be counted upon to show up on a regular [...]

Some people in the corporate world still believe that people work for money.  But with a growing number of examples of people doing all kinds of work for free, it’s getting more difficult to adhere to that view.  Take Wikipedia, for example.  According to Wikinomics, by Tapscott & Williams, Wikipedia is the largest encyclopedia in [...]

As a project leader, part of your job is to inspire people to persevere in pursuit of seemingly impossible goals.  In my work, it’s not part of my job . . . that’s pretty much all I do.  A decade leading projects was the perfect preparation for this work.  Lately I’ve been spending about half [...]

Once again as an Incognito Project Manager, here are some observations on the Power of being Proactive…
 
Prior to my coming onto the team, our project manager had been hard at work preparing the way for our initiative.  Many hours strategizing plus preparing and presenting the business case clearly made all the difference for our success.  [...]

I recently changed hats from project team-builder to project team member.  As the e-learning course developer on the team, it has been a very enlightening experience to watch and support our most excellent project manager in action. 

This week I will share what this PM and others I have known have done that has made [...]

To wrap-up this week on being a change leader, here’s my short list of what to be and what to do:
BE
-  A person with character; leadership descends from character
- Visionary – Have a vision of the “changed” project
- Reliable and consistent to develop and maintain trust with your team
DO:
- Take a couple steps at a [...]

There’s one significant characteristic of a leader that I have not mentioned:
Be a model for those behaviors and traits that you are asking others to develop.
If this is done at the start of the project, it becomes part of the project “culture”.  If your team sees collaboration and good listening habits, they usually will behave [...]

So far I’ve covered the concepts that change leadership requires a vision and trust:

Vision to provide direction
Trust so that the team believes in the vision

I mentioned that the leadership begins by defining the “New End” (the vision). During the detailed “defining the new requirements and integrating with the progress to date, so we [...]

Yesterday I covered 3 points for change leadership and project management:
1.      You implement change everyday in your role as a project manager
2.      You are in a leadership role
3.      Major change requires strong leadership, starting with SEEING the “new” END
SEEING the “new” END becomes the VISION of what you and your team will be working to [...]

We’ve all experienced change.  In fact, we lead and manage change everyday as project and program managers.  Anita Wotiz did a terrific blog on Practical Change Management last week that provided a framework on planning and tracking to insure that the change is completed and successful.
Let’s consider what environment we are in right now: significant [...]

If you’re reading this, you are likely a project manager now or will be one soon. How well you do on actual projects depends as much on your leadership skills as your technical ones.
Here are six real-world keys which can help.
1.  Provide Common Vision
What was your best work experience?  If you’re like most people, it [...]

Courage is positioned as a pivotal issue for project management panache by Mike Levy. Courage is facing difficulties without fear. So what’s to fear in project-land? Plenty!
Let’s name a few fear factors:
•    Potential loss of job
•    Actual loss of team members
•    Churn in project portfolio’s
•    Confusion in corporate goals
•    Lack of time for skill development
•    [...]