Leadership Tips for Promoting Project Success

Abraham Lincoln said, Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed is more important than any one thing. By Neal Whitten, PMP I have collected project management related tips many learned too slowly and too painfully. These tips can offer pause for thought and help promote job performance effectiveness. Adopting one can benefit your project; adopting many can benefit your career. Its not about the ability of those around you to lead; its about your ability to lead, in spite of what is happening around you. Mind your own business first. Behave as if you own the business and your business is defined by your domain of responsibility. This not only serves to strengthen your behaviour and effectiveness, but, if everyone behaved similarly, your company would greatly benefit as well. Define your roles and responsibilities and obtain agreement from your boss. You are far more likely to rise to expectations when those expectations are clearly defined. We achieve according to that which we are measured. Treat all project members equally. Whether they are clients, vendors, contractors or company employees, a project suffers when preferential treatment is given to any group or person. A projects success is dependent upon the success of each and every project member. Boldness! You cannot be a consistently effective leader if you dont have it. The person who consistently displays bold behaviour will far out-perform the person with similar knowledge and experience who does not. Bold behaviour includes doing what is necessary, within legal and ethical parameters, to accomplish your job. Become a benevolent dictator. Micromanaging, consensus management and democratic rule all can be highly ineffective leadership styles in a business or project. A benevolent dictator leads, first, by actively soliciting information and opinions from team members and others, second, by listening, and third, by demonstrating the leadership, courage and boldness to personally make the right decision, and standing accountable for that decision. Practice the Golden Rule. Doing unto others as you would have them do unto you is the best time-tested behaviour to adopt while performing on projects. Perform post-project reviews and ensure that resulting lessons are applied to new projects. Lessons cannot be considered learned until they have been appropriately adopted. Seek out a mentor. There is no better way to learn than by having a mentor who has been there, done that, messed up and learned from the experiences. A mentors advice can positively impact your career and help protect your projects. Ask for help or become part of the problem. Asking for and obtaining help is a sign of professional maturity, not weakness. It sends the signal that you take pride in your work and care about the success of the project. For consistent success, focus on your top three priorities each day rather than your bottom 30. The top problems of a project are the areas that can cause the most harm. They must be effectively dealt with according to the urgency they require. Inspect what you expect. Dont trust that things are progressing smoothly or will work out okay on they own. Plan it, measure it and, if necessary, mitigate it. Dont delay or avoid escalating issues that are at an apparent impasse; escalations are a healthy and essential part of business. If you and another project member are unable to see eye-to eye, then after an earnest attempt to negotiate a resolution without success, you must call on higher levels of project leadership for help. The No. 1 reason why leaders fail: being too soft! If you are too soft, your stakeholders will not learn effective behaviour, nor will they respect you. Projects fail because their leaders fail.
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Its not about being liked; its about doing the right thing. Its called integrity! You are what you perceive yourself to be. Your vision of yourself becomes your reality.

Now go make a difference! This article was first published in PM Network, August 2003. A monthly magazine published by the Project Management Institute

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