If you are a new Project Manager, you really should think twice as how to go about leadership. It is very imperative to have a set of process steps to deliver successful project management. They will be your map for collaborative project management, without which you will get lost, your project may fail, and your project team will be disenchanted in you. But still if you know how to navigate the project management landscape very well, you will have to to do so with a leadership style that works for you and also works for collaborative project management. And if you are getting through your hoops for the
first time, this may be difficult for you.
Have you ever thought what style do you want to take on?
There are many words describe management style like;
Communicative, Collaborative with a hint of strong accountability, Contingent, Tyrannical, Intense, Effective, Driven, Control (related to several aspects – performance, communication, aligning a goal to the business, all kind of changes, stakeholders engagement), Amazing, Detailed, Unique, Methodical, Supportive, Insouciant, Proactive, Adaptive, Protective, Empathetic, Teamwork, Involving, Enable connect facilitate, Creative, Dynamic, Fluid, Insightful, Lead, Engaging, Efficacious, Empowered, Accountable, Inclusive, Comprehensive & Holistic (in the context of being able to see the bigger picture), Organized, Agile, Quantum, Gumby (Bend but don’t break), Target, Escaped, Get it done, Transformational, Customer Service focused, Persistent Awareness, Gratitude, Approachable, Efficient, Boost employee performance, Streamlined, Determined, Humble, Energizer, Planer, Directness, Straight, Professional, Visionary, Forecaster, Realistic and list goes on and on.
What style of management do you prefer to use or work with?
Regardless; what style you use or like to work with – you need to know how to NURTURE your leadership style.
Project Leadership Practices - High-quality leadership is a choice you make. Great leaders are not born thus. Great leaders make the necessary investments. Taking responsibility to lead yourself to a better place one day at a time will help you become a strong leader for others.
Are you in that good place already?
People willingly follow leaders they like, trust and respect. If you lose the respect of the team, leadership
becomes very difficult, and sometimes too high a hill to climb. This means that the type of person you
are and the type of values you live by will affect not only your leadership style but also your leadership
success.
People will not follow the “do as I say, and not as I do” leader for very long. What values do you live by? What is your moral compass?
As a leader, you need to keep your eye on the mission, the project goals. And you need to help people maintain that focus. There is no point being a wonderful and inspiring project manager if you are not goal focused! There is no benefit in getting people all enthusiastic / excited if you do not work with them to help them deliver. So the bottom line is to be a man focused on mission and objective.
Lead by example. Do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason.
Leaders need to create a dream, a vision, and a goal - communicate really well.
Leaders need to know themselves and be self-aware. They need to practice what they preach and never bluff.
Leaders need to have external awareness and should honestly, empathetically and respectively express the joy of success – and say “Thanks” more often; the pain of failure and concern at slow progress.
The leader cannot and should not carry all. Assign work to people – delegate what you cannot reasonably carry ‘Delegate Responsibly’.
Be Fair - People are really able for lots of change and will withstand much if everyone gets fair treatment. Always be fair, firm yet friendly (The 3 Fs).
Genuine communication is vital – ask and listen well so you can learn and lead.
Do not make remarks on the person / personality – rather focus on the actions, tasks and the job at hand.
Give very critical feedback in private and in person – in a one on one setting – not in the open plan office and never in a group meeting – and never on email.
Leaders MUST be visible and approachable – they must be seen to be serving with the people they lead.
Value diverse opinions, cultivate culture of trust, develop other leaders, help people with life issues, encourage, sell instead of tell, think of others, not yourself, think long-term, see big picture and act with modesty ‘A Servant Leader’.
Never claim the work of others as yours, be extremely sincere, live and lead with principles.
Are you ready to make the commitment to become one of the Great Leaders ?
This article is just a sample fruitful discussion from the project management basket of knowledge that I am offering in my upcoming series of project management training workshops for those individual / companies who wants to BE Agile rather than Doing Agile.
Join one of my workshops where I can walk you / your team through an Agile Multicultural Humanize Project Management / Leadership approach, allowing you to become a great leader of your project/organization by allocating, permitting people to do what they are good at, need to do in the most creative, innovative, productive and beneficial way without fear of human failure as well as enabling you having your weight, pull your weight and DO NOT throw it around!
Dr. Ben Hamilton
Agile Interim Executive Professional | Coach | Mentor
Dr. Ben Hamilton has over 35 years’ of international experience, visionary, dynamic, goal / profit oriented agile Senior-level Business Strategist | IT professional | Entrepreneur | Out of the box pragmatic thinker, polyglot, trained, certified corporate hands-on coach & trainer experienced as CEO, COO, VP Business Development, Agile Business | People transformation and Innovator for fortune 100 companies like ANZ, IBM, GE and Amadeus with over decades that includes years of experience across areas of International Business Performance | Excellence, Strategic Management, Innovation | Knowledge Management, CRM, ERP, Software Development Integration & Sociability (SDLC), Enterprise BPM, Business Development, BI, BPO, ISMS, ITSM, Service Delivery | Operations, PMO, Project |Program | Product Management, Vendor | Supplier Management, Incident | Change Management, People | Process Management, Training and Education.
He demonstrated excellence in Humanize Leadership, People and Project Management with solid strategic planning, clear-cut scoping, executing, validating, controlling, monitoring, delivering high value product / service that match customer’s quality requirements (PMP, Agile, Six Sigma, Lean Startup, NLP, ISO 9001, ISMS ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Certified) conform to time, budget constraints, based on existing barriers / resources, align with the overall vision, mission, objective of the initiative by utilizing agile mind-set approach to drive continuous creativity, maximizing efficiencies / productivity, delivery, improvement, revenue growth, reaching beyond customer satisfaction and exceed the needs of the marketplace in IT, Banking, Financial Services, Telecommunications, Airlines, hotel industries and associated markets. In addition, avoids scope-creep by balancing business | tech-side and customer needs with realistic professional commitment and common sense while leading projects to successful completion that exceeds expectation. Does all that better than others because of his 48 countries life / business experience complemented with a true network and collaboration experience where he had opportunities to “Learn & Earn” from top life and business experts real days lessons.
Laurels and Awards
2012 Excellence Awards for Outstanding Performance (Presented by President | CEO of Amadeus Corporate)
2011 Best Innovation & Quality Excellence for Management Style (Presented by President of Amadeus Asia)
2005 Leadership Award for Excellence Program Management & Demonstrating high values (Presented by President | CEO of GE Corporate)
2000 DWS Business Solution Consultant of the Year for Professionalism, Work quality, Reliability and Client Relations
1999 Best Overall Achievement for Software Quality & Software Engineering Project [IBM-GSA]
1998 Outstanding Achievement for Customer, Process & Information – IT Services [IBM & Telstra]