Finding and Developing Project Management Leadership Skills

During last weeks article on Blending together Leadership and Management, we concentrated on the need to have both sets of skills work together to achieve maximum results. In this week’s article, we are going to concentrate further on how to Identify, Find and Develop some of those Leadership skills – especially as it relates to Project Management. In addition, we will try at all times to make it ‘Practical’, so that the items discussed can be readily used and applied by many people. The primary question that is most asked by many seeking more information and training on Leadership is this:

How do I Develop my own Leadership skills?

I would love to take a page from David Letterman and the Late Show and present a ‘Top Ten’ list that everyone can use and follow, but it’s simply not that easy to accomplish. Leadership skills are those soft skills that you need, that will help you to inspire and lead your team to achieve goals and objectives that they do not always understand; and more importantly may not agree with at all. While managing projects and programs, we have all faced this from time to time – and not always from the leadership perspective. Many times on teams that I have worked on, I was asked to participate on a team whereby I felt that the approach and/or the goal was not the correct one. Many of these teams performance were not up to expectations. However, those teams that did not perform up to expectations were generally because of a lack of leadership and not a lack of management ability or execution.

During the mid-to-late 90′s, I was really into the day to day execution of Project Management skills, techniques and processes. I had been working on a team asked to develop ‘project management best practices and standards’ within the company that I worked for. I became frustrated with my inability to make the type of progress that our team thought that we should be making, and ultimately left the company to join yet another company attempting to do the same thing. That ‘thing’ that both were attempting to do was put Management Tools in place so that they would be more successful. Both companies (in hindsight) had the wrong goals. There were certainly areas of Management Techniques and Processes that could be improved, but what both lacked was significant ‘Leadership’ to take the programs to the correct plateau. It’s not that every one of the Managers involved lacked leadership skills, but in general they did not understand the difference between Leadership and Management or when to apply them. That, and they wrongfully assumed that since they were in Management, the people working on their teams would simply follow them.

There is the core problem that those that want to develop their Leadership Skills need to understand. Leadership is about getting an individual and/or team to ‘willingly follow a direction’ without the need or ability to have them execute their tasks simply because it is what they are supposed to be doing. Leadership is all about ‘influence’ – rather than ‘power’. The President of the United States on one hand has a tremendous amount of ‘power’. There are many things that the President can get done simply by Executive Order. That is not Leadership – that is simply executing ‘Management Prerogative and Privilege’. On the other hand, the President will need a considerable amount of Leadership, to influence Congress and the Nation to perform and address items on the President’s Agenda with no direct ability to use power and authority to get something done.

If you want to judge your leadership skills – lead a non-profit or community effort.

If you truly want to understand how effective you are in the areas of leadership, I suggest that you get involved in your Church, Community, School or other type of ‘Volunteer Organization’. Different organizations throughout the world offer many significant opportunities to make a difference and develop your Leadership Skills. When getting involved initially, you will likely be looked at as someone that is another team member to achieve a specific goal or objective. As you work within that group, you will likely find that 20% of the participants perform 80%of the work. Be in that 20% Group, and you will likely find that when the next ‘election cycle’ comes along, you will get to take on more of a leadership role. About 20 years ago I joined a National Civic Organization as a member. Went to a meeting, had breakfast, heard a speaker and was invited back and asked to join. Over the next 6-8 years, I progressed from simply being a ‘member’; to holding many different leadership positions both within my local chapter and Regionally. I learned more about ‘Leadership’ during that time, than at any other time in my professional career.

You cannot be effective leading a group of ‘volunteers’ for very long – unless you have or develop solid Leadership Skills. You have little to no authority to accomplish anything, unless you get the group that you are working with to ‘follow you’. This still brings us back to the question on ‘how’ to both identify and Develop the needed Leadership Skills to improve and be more successful. The next piece of advice, is the same advice that someone gave me during my stay at one of the companies that I have worked at previously and talked about.

Find someone that is in a Leadership Position, and study them closely.

While the advice above, to join into a volunteer organization is very solid and useful advice, modeling yourself after someone that you believe has significant leadership skills is a very positive step in the right direction. While it will always help to be able to enlist them as a mentor, many times your ability to be around them and watch how they work and perform as a leader will be a tremendous learning experience. Some years ago while working in the Banking Industry, I attended a traditional Executive Briefing and Leadership meeting for our rather large IT group. One of the announcements that came out just prior to the meeting was the appointment of a new CIO/VP in charge of Information Technology. At the appropriate time, he was introduced and spoke to us for about 15 minutes. In that 15 minutes, he ‘had’ almost everyone in the room. My personal comment to colleagues as we left after the meeting were fairly straight forward. ‘I want to work in his organization, and directly for him if at all possible’. He showed more leadership and the ability to ‘connect’ to his audience in that 15 minutes, than most of the leaders had shown over many years.

What we haven’t really talked about at all, is what are some of the traits that we look for in a leader – and how one understands which are the most important. However, I will finish up this weeks article at least metioning a few of the key traits of leadership, that you should look for when trying to identify your own mentor. Some of the key traits that I look for are:

Honesty; Confidence; Inspiration and the ability to Communicate Ideas clearly and effectively. While these are by no means all of the traits needed, they are some of the core skills that are needed.

Next week, we will explore more of the Leadership Skills and how they apply with the ability to lead.

Tagged as: Communications Management, Human Resource Management, Leadership, Management