​Collaborating with clients, stakeholders and team members can be challenging. Some situations – and people – push your buttons, making it hard for you to self-regulate and respond appropriately. Perhaps someone you rely on hasn’t completed a critical task on time, and as the manager it now falls back on you to resolve the issue as it’s ultimately your responsibility. You get annoyed and angry and say things you wish you hadn’t. But why do some situations trigger such a strong reaction in you and what can you do about it?
 
The core quadrant model is a powerful tool developed by Daniel Ofman. It offers valuable insight into human behaviour and helps explain why we sometimes react so strongly to others in our personal and professional lives. It’s also a great tool for understanding what we need to do more of to strengthen our emotional maturity and become a more balanced person and leader.

Challenge
To avoid your pitfall and overusing your strength, you have to focus on your challenge. Your challenge, which is depicted in the bottom right-hand quadrant, is the exact opposite of your pitfall. If your pitfall is being pushy, then your challenge is being patient. If you can be patient at the same time as you are determined it will make you a more mature and complete person. 
 
The idea is not to take away from your core quality and make you less determined. The idea is to add more patience to the mix so that there is balance between your core quality and your challenge. It’s about both/and, rather than either/or. In this example, we could say that you need to become patiently determined. 
 
Allergy
What’s interesting is that too much of your challenge is likely to trigger an allergic reaction in you. When someone is too patient, they can become passive which is your allergy. Your allergy is the opposite of your core quality. You may get angry and overreact when you come across people who you perceive as passive. It’s also possible that you find it difficult to display more patience because you are afraid of becoming too passive. 
 
But your challenge and your allergy are not the same thing. As long as you confuse your challenge (patient) with your allergy (passive) your challenge will remain unattainable.
 
It’s thought-provoking that you can learn the most from people who you are the most allergic to. That’s because they have too much of something you are lacking. When you react strongly to a team member or a stakeholder, it often says more about you than them. A team member may be quite relaxed about a task that needs to be completed, but in your mind they are passive and non-caring, which makes you more stressed and pushy. Not a good reaction. The team member might actually be on top of the task, but provokes a reaction from you because their approach is different to yours. 
 
All you need to do in that situation is to relax for a moment. Take a slow deep breath and ask yourself: What is happening right now? With that awareness you will be less caught up in your habitual patterns and more likely to respond in a new way.
 
Another curious insight from this model is that the core quality of your life partner or best friend is likely to be your challenge. Opposites attract! But that also means that you may be married to your allergy! What a great opportunity to work on yourself and expand your emotional maturity.
 
What does your core quadrant look like?
To dive deeper, create your own core quadrant:

• What is a core quality of yours? Something you are inherently good at and that people complement you for? 
• What happens when you over-use that quality? What is your pitfall and in which situations does it tend to show itself? 
• The opposite of your pitfall is your challenge. This is a positive quality that you need more of to balance your strength. What is your challenge and how can you pay more attention to it?
• Finally, the extreme version of your challenge is your allergy. What does your allergy look like and in which project situations are you confronted with it? How can you stop confusing your challenge with your allergy?

​Inclusion is the action or state of being included or including others in groups, decisions and structures. Inclusive managers and leaders are highly sought after because they have the ability to make others feel safe and accepted, which in turn means that they are more likely to innovate, be a team player and contribute to high performance. Inclusion isn’t just a nice idea. It creates a true win-win situation. Team members feel involved, empowered and trusted. The organisation benefits from a more engaged and motivated team, and the client receives a better product or service.
 
Asked to assess themselves, most managers would say that they strive to involve and empower others. My work with senior leaders shows however, that they’re often not as inclusive as they think they are. Inadvertently, many managers end up disempowering their teams because they fail to delegate, ask, listen and coach. Instead, there is a tendency to retain control, give too much direction, and stay attached to their own ideas and ways of working. 

Feelings of belongingness and uniqueness are at the heart of inclusion
 
A 2014 study by Catalyst, highlighted the striking similarities across six major countries in how employees characterize inclusion and the leadership behaviors that help to foster it. The study, which included employees from Australia, China, Germany, India, Mexico and the US, revealed that:

• The more included employees felt, the more innovative they reported being in their jobs.
• The more included employees felt, the more they went above and beyond the “call of duty”.
• Perceiving similarities with co-workers produced a feeling of belongingness, while perceiving differences led to feelings of uniqueness.

 
The findings from the study show that in order for inclusion to happen, leaders have to value the differences as well as the commonalities of others. Valuing the differences is about recognizing the individual team member for who they are, acknowledging their uniqueness and helping them stand out from the crowd. Being acknowledged for our uniqueness and distinctive talents, is one of the most fundamental needs that all humans have. It makes us feel significant and special and makes us want to go the extra mile. 
 
Valuing someone’s commonalities on the other hand, is about making team members feel that they fit in and are accepted within the group. This part speaks to another human need that everyone has – the need to develop rapport and closeness with like-minded people and feeling that we belong to the group. 
 
When these basic needs are met, team members open up, collaborate and happily share their ideas. When they’re not met, for instance when a manager criticizes or excludes someone, it causes people to withdraw, stop engaging, or become overly critical and argumentative.
 
According to Catalyst, there are four major leadership behaviours that help to foster inclusion and lead to feelings of uniqueness and belongingness. The four attributes are Empowerment, Accountability, Courage, and Humility. Mastering these behaviours enables leaders to create an environment where team members can thrive and bring their whole selves to work. 
            
1. Empowerment
Empowerment is the ability to enable team members to develop and excel and to give them the best conditions to do so. This is about helping team members to grow, giving them the freedom to handle difficult situations, and providing the coaching they need without taking back control. When leaders coach, they trust that the team member can handle the situation on their own with a bit of guidance. That’s very different to micro managing someone and telling them exactly how to do something.
 
Empowerment is also about allowing the team to work flexibly and make decisions about when, where, and how work gets done. That means accepting and celebrating different ways of working, even if they're different from their own preferences. Some people are most productive in the morning, whereas others work better in the evening. Some people work well in loud coffee shops, and others prefer to be in a space that’s quiet. It shouldn't matter whether an employee is leaving early, as long as they're getting the work done and are collaborating effectively with others. 
 
2. Accountability
Accountability is the act of demonstrating confidence in team members by holding them responsible for performance that’s within their control. Many managers struggle with this, and find it difficult to give direct feedback when someone is not delivering what was agreed. Inclusive leaders first and foremost have to make sure that expectations are set – and mutually agreed – and that the team member is fully equipped to carry out the task. Secondly, they have to provide clear and regular feedback on performance as a way to support and coach the team member. It becomes much easier to hold someone accountable without the need to show aggression or become overly controlling, when outcomes and deliverables have been mutually agreed. 
 
We also shouldn’t forget, that in order to lead effectively, leaders have to hold themselves to account as role models and as champions for work-life effectiveness. Team members must be able to rely on their manager and feel that they’re human and that they sometimes need to take time off as well. When the manager leaves work early on occasion, it sends a message to the team that work-life effectiveness is an accepted part of the culture, and that both work and life matter. The key message is that we focus on the results that individuals produce rather than the time they spend in the office.
 
3. Courage 
Courage is the ability to put personal interests aside to achieve what needs to be done. That means acting based on convictions and principles, even when it requires personal risk-taking. There are many different ways for leaders to show courage, for instance questioning the status quo, advocating for new ways to get the work done, and standing up for what they believe is right. They can also show courage by standing up for the team and fighting against a mentality that emphasizes hitting deadlines at the expense of everything else. Courage is also related to trusting that team members will get the work done based on the support they are receiving, and giving honest and fair feedback when required. Everyone needs feedback, but not all managers take the time, or have the guts to do it. 
 
4. Humility 
Humility is the capacity to admit mistakes, to accept and learn from others and to ask for help in order to overcome limitations. Leaders aren’t perfect beings who always have the answers and who never make mistakes. In fact, if we try to project that kind of image it most likely means that we’re not a very good leader. When we can ask for help and admit that we don’t know everything, we show that we’re human and create the space for others to step up and grow. What’s important isn’t what we know personally, but what the team knows. This sends a clear signal that the entire team is needed, as the leader doesn’t have all the answers on their own.
 
We can also demonstrate humility by taking on board criticism, double-checking our assumptions, admitting that our own way isn’t the only way, and by giving the team the credit for successful results.
 
 
In summary
Inclusive leadership has the power to make an enormous difference to the level of collaboration, innovation, and performance of a team. When applied correctly inclusive leadership can provide the tools, behaviours and mind-set for team members to be more effective, not only at work but also in their personal lives. Inclusion happens when leaders value the differences as well as the commonalities of others. By actively demonstrating the four leadership attributes of Empowerment, Accountability, Courage, and Humility, leaders can create a safe environment where team members can thrive and be their best.
​

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Severe stress that leads to sickness and burnout is a growing issue in organisations. With the ‘always-on’ work culture and fewer people employed to get work done, many stretch themselves to the point where their body and mind can no longer cope. A recent study of 382,000 employees, revealed that the discussion of burnout amongst UK workers is up 48 percent. And a report from Westfield Health, shows that 51 percent of people surveyed believe they’re less than a month away from burnout. Unfortunately, as shocking as these figures are, they correspond to my own experience. In my coaching practice up to 50 percent of the people I work with, have an unhealthy work/life balance, and many suffer with physical, mental or emotional symptoms.

​Chronic stress is dangerous
Chronic stress is a dangerous condition that must be addressed before it leads to burnout or other serious illnesses. When we’re chronically stressed, our body is in a constant state of fight or flight with little ability to rest and recovery. This kind of prolonged stress is harmful and very different to the short bursts of stress, that help us rise to a challenge and perform at our best. We’re built to handle stress as long as it’s intermittent. Trying to avoid stress isn’t possible, nor is it advisable. The trick is to build in sufficient time to recover. As soon as a stressful event is over, we’re meant to relax so that our body and mind can rest and build back strength.
 
Sadly, people often aren’t able to detect that they suffer from prolonged stress, even if it’s obvious to others. That’s because they become used to the high levels of adrenaline and get addicted to the buzz it creates. To make matters worse, many dismiss their aches and pains. They don’t want to show weakness and they tell themselves, that their ailments are normal. But if we want to avoid burnout, we have to take the warning signs seriously. That includes symptoms as diverse as memory problems, insomnia, frequent colds, impatience and not being able to sit still without fidgeting or checking the phone. If someone is overly anxious or can’t relax during a holiday or on a Sunday afternoon, it’s a warning sign that should not be ignored. 
 
Unhelpful beliefs are at the root of stress
Chronic stress is often caused by a combination of external and internal factors. External factors can relate to an excessive workload, unrealistic deadlines or a company culture that expects employees to work overtime. But external factors are never the root cause of why someone ends up chronically stressed. Internal factors, in the form of unhelpful beliefs and behaviours on the part of the employee, play a crucial role. It could be, for instance, that the individual has difficulties saying no, because they’re motivated by an unhealthy need to be seen and validated. It’s also possible that they drive themselves too hard because they’re addicted to being in control and can’t let go of the detail.
 
This is not to say that the organisation is innocent. Managers have to take responsibility for aggressive deadlines and for expecting staff to work overtime to meet them. At the same time, the individual has to understand why they are prone to stress and why they have difficulties setting boundaries and prioritising their own needs. A good question to ask, is under what circumstances they would be able to approach themselves with more softness and compassion.
 
Type A personalities are more prone to burn-out
People who are the most likely to burn out are type A personalities, perfectionists and people-pleasers. Whilst type A personalities are results-oriented, energetic and feel that they are able to deal with anything, people-pleasers are driven by the desire to not let others down. In a work-environment these types are highly sought after because they get things done and are keen to meet or exceed expectations. But although their work-ethic can be gratifying, it will take a toll over time, and it can put undue pressure on others.
 
To avoid burnout, type A personalities would benefit from scaling back their goal-orientation and letting go of unrealistic expectations. When someone is too achievement-oriented, and measure their successes in terms of completed projects or milestones, they become overly attached to the outcome. A more fulfilling way to approach work and life would be to enjoy the journey, and to build sound relationships that can be nurtured on a day-to-day basis. Opening up, showing vulnerability and being genuinely interested in others can be a much better stress buster than many wellness programmes. 
 
Learning to set healthy boundaries
Everyone has a different level of energy and a different threshold for how much pressure they can handle. It’s also true, that whilst specific activities tend to drain some people, others find them energising. To avoid burnout, employees have to be honest with themselves about their limitations and take them seriously. A good place to start is to reflect on the activities they tend to find draining during an average week, and the activities give them energy. The equation has to stack up. Burnout happens when a person spends more energy than they gain for a prolonged period of time. When I did this exercise many years ago, I came to the conclusion that during the week, my energy levels were fine up until 6pm. At that point I would usually spend an extra hour at the office responding to emails before going home. It was this last hour that drained me. Once I realised that, I restructured my day so that I didn’t end up drained. Staying on the healthy side of stress, however, isn’t just about someone’s behaviour at work. Many tend to also overcommit themselves in their private life. Either way, the first step in making a lasting change is to become self-aware and being willing to listen to the signals from within the body.
 
Become a mindful observer
Self-awareness also plays a crucial role in helping employees manage their emotions when their stress hormones begin to rise. Being self-aware gives them the ability to become mindful observers of their thoughts and feelings without attaching too much judgement to them. As they observe themselves from the outside, they’re better able to put things in perspective and regulate their emotions before they take over. Failing to do that could result in someone becoming disproportionally emotional and overreacting. Perhaps they get overly sad or anxious, or they say and do things which they later regret. 
 
To build this kind of awareness, employees will have to pause, relax their tense muscles, and take a few deep breaths the moment they start to feel triggered. Remembering to pause, relax and breathe may be counterintuitive, but it’s the only thing that can truly help someone to manage their emotional reactions. Instead of reverting to a knee-jerk reaction, the employee waits for their emotions to stabilise before responding. Not only will this help them to manage their stress response, it also puts them in a much better position to think clearly about the action they want to take. 


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​Simply put, coaching is a way of helping others progress and resolve issues without telling them what to do. It can be a very powerful leadership style because in the process of encouraging employees to think for themselves, not only do we get access to great ideas, we also cultivate autonomy, growth and confidence. That’s what workers want. They want to be managed by someone who is interested in their ideas, has their back and invests in their development. The last thing people want is a controlling micro-manager or a boss who believes that his or her ideas and ways of working are better than everybody else’s. 
 
When you use coaching as a leadership style, you are better able to deepen your interactions, build trust and create an engaged and empowered team. Bob Nelson said that ‘you get the best effort from others not by lighting a fire beneath them, but by building a fire within’. The fire within can be stimulated by engaging with people’s ideas and by positively challenging their ways of thinking. I love the way Liz Wiseman describes it in her book ‘The Multipliers’. She says that the best leaders shift the burden of thinking to others by asking questions that challenge them, not only to think, but to rethink. 

Coaching is built on the fundamental belief that people are resourceful and can generate their own solutions. That’s especially true with team members who have prior knowledge and experience to draw from. Coaching is less appropriate with people who are junior or new in a role. Rather than challenging their level of thinking, they probably need a mentor who can show them how to do something and how to resolve the issue at hand. I use the word ‘mentor’ deliberately as it’s different to that of a coach. When you mentor someone you give advice based on your own experiences, a bit like one-2-one teaching.

It can be challenging not to give advice
When you coach you are driven by curiosity and by the desire to surface understanding and insight in the team member. That enables the team member to find their own solutions. Listening fully, and asking open questions – without layering your own solutions on top - is one of the best ways to do that. But stopping yourself from giving advice is easier said than done. In fact, it can seem counter-intuitive, as many managers feel that their job is to provide solutions, and to do it quickly. But providing the solution and telling others what to do can be very disempowering for others, even if it gets the issue resolved here and now. Your role as a leader is to help the employee deepen their understanding of the situation by asking great questions and guiding them to see what the way forward is. In that sense, coaching encourages your team to take responsibility for the changes they want to see, and to identify the steps required to realise those changes. 
 
Strengthen your listening skills
One of the biggest building blocks of coaching is to fully listen to what the employee or team member is saying, without interrupting or impatiently wanting to move on. To be an effective coach at work, you need to make use of your best listening skills, which means that you should aim to listen at Level III:

1. Level I – Internal listening – This is when you are primarily focused on your own inner voice, thoughts, feelings and opinions whilst the other person is speaking. It basically means that you’re only partially paying attention to the other person, because you’re busy listening to your own mind chatter. Most of us listen at this level most of the time. 
2. Level II – Focused listening – This is when you keep an intense focus on the other person and are paying attention to every word they say. Nothing is distracting you. When you listen at this level, the other person will feel the gift of your attention. They are more likely to open up and trust you.
3. Level III – Global listening – Believe it or not, but there is an even higher level of listening. When you listen at level III, you don’t just listen intently with your ears - you use your entire body and your intuition. You’re so tuned into the other person that you notice expressions, tone of voice, hesitations, sadness, lightness and shifts in attitude. When you listen at this level you will know intuitively what the best question is to ask next.

​
​Listening at Level III may take some practice as many of us are focused on our own internal dialogue. To hone your listening skills, begin to observe people when they speak. Be fully present and seek to hear beyond the words. Notice their body language and emotions and what they are really trying to say.
 
The GROW model provides a good framework 
One of the most popular frameworks for structuring a coaching conversation is the GROW model, which stands for Goal, Reality, Options and Will do. Even if you don’t follow the model step by step, it gives you a good understand of how you might approach the conversation and the types of questions you might ask. The model consists of four parts that you step through:

1. Goal – During a coaching conversation you first need to set the goal and understand what the problem, issue or aspiration is that you’re talking about. What would the team member like to achieve? What is the issue they are trying to resolve? You might ask: What would you like to achieve? Tell me about the issue. What does the situation look like when the problem is resolved?
2. Reality – The biggest part of the conversation will normally take place during this second step where you let the person tell their story. What is happening right now and how are they experiencing the situation? You could ask: What is the current situation? What have you already tried? What obstacles are in your way?
3. Options – At some stage when you feel you both have a good understanding of the problem and the current situation, you begin to explore options for moving forward. What could the employee do to overcome the problem and achieve their objective? Here you could ask: What could you do to resolve this? Which option is the fastest/easiest? What would you do in the ideal situation? What else?
4. Will do – Right at the end of the conversation you encourage the employee to take responsibility for the changes they want to see by asking what steps they are willing to take to move forward. Use questions such as: What action will you take? By when? What type of support do you need? How can I help? Note that it’s entirely appropriate to offer your help as long as you don’t end up doing the work for them.

 
Actively look for opportunities to coach your team
Even if you don’t remember the details of the GROW model in a given moment, you can still practice your coaching skills simply by asking more open questions and limiting the amount of advice you give. The best way to start practicing is to actively look for opportunities during day-to-day interactions, for instance when a team member asks you for advice about how to structure a client meeting. Instead of telling them how you think it should be done, coach them in the moment by asking questions that begin with what, how and who. For instance:

• What is the real purpose of the meeting?
• What outcomes would you like to get from it?
• How do you want people to feel as a result of the meeting?
• Who will be attending?
• What happened at the last meeting you attended?
• What are your thoughts about how you might structure the meeting?
• What are the advantages and disadvantages of these options?
• What is holding you back?
• What’s the real issue here?
• What do you feel is the best way forward?
• What support do you need?
• What else do you need to consider?

 
If you’re pressed for time, you might think that it’s quicker and easier to just tell people how you would like them to do something, but it’s much more rewarding for team members to identify the solution for themselves. As a result they will feel more empowered and motivated to contribute.
 
Remember to adapt your leadership style and to only use coaching when it’s appropriate. During a crisis – or when the stakes are high – it’s more effective to give clear direction. And when you are interfacing with someone who is new in their role, coaching might also not be the best approach. Other than that, it's hard to go wrong. Have a play and experiment with asking lots of open questions.

​How to have challenging conversations
Working effectively on a project, interacting with stakeholders and leading the team to deliver the best outcomes, require hundreds if not thousands of conversations. Not all of these conversations are going to be easy or pleasant. Customer expectations need to be managed and the team needs to find its feet. Many heated conversations may be had about scope, quality, timelines, budget, resources, solutions, tools and methods. In addition, team members represent diverse cultures, values and languages. They have different ways of working and diverse ways of solving problems. Negotiating a way forward, giving feedback and delivering bad news is often necessary, but not easy. 

What makes these conversations challenging?
Think of a conversation that you typically find challenging. When you examine it you will probably find that 1) There is a lot at stake. 2) There are opposing opinions. 3) There are strong emotions on one or both sides. For example, if you need to tell your client that you’ve hit a major roadblock and that the project will be delayed, it will turn out to be a challenging conversation – especially if your client has a strong emotional reaction and suggests a solution that you know isn’t possible. 
 
The types of conversations that I personally find challenging is when I need to say no to a piece of work for an important client. I feel that there is a lot at stake because I’m worried about damaging the relationship. That also means that I’m likely to go into the conversations with strong emotions rooted in fear. I’m unsure how my client will react and I’m worried they will try to put pressure on me or think less of me.
 
The emotional component 
The emotional component is one of the most important aspects to examine as it’s often the key to navigating and unlocking a challenging conversation. It turns out that we humans aren’t as rational and logical as we would like to think. A large part of our behaviour is influenced by emotions that we’re not aware of. In situations where we get emotionally triggered, a fight, flight or freeze reaction is activated in our mind and body. When our emotional brain kicks in it’s essentially trying to protect us and prepare us for danger. The heart beats faster, our breathing speeds up, blood rushes to the muscles and our focus narrows.

This automatic reaction is great when we’re in physical danger, but in a conversation it’s more likely to hinder than help. When we get emotionally triggered, the brain’s focus is diverted from the prefrontal cortex, which is responsible for decision making and complex cognitive behaviour, towards the emotional brain. In other words, when we become overly emotional, we lose the ability to think clearly, to make rational decisions and to draw conclusions. Unfortunately, we’re often emotionally triggered even before a conversation begins. We’re angry because a team member hasn’t delivered what he or she promised. Or we’re worried because our boss wants to talk to us about yet another project to be added to our plate. 
 
Our emotions aren't wrong. They are justified and serve the purpose of keeping us safe. But if we’re not able to manage them effectively, they will narrow our focus and prevent us from having an open-minded conversation and getting to the root of a problem. They might even influence us not to give feedback to someone even if we have a great deal to say. We simply avoid or delay the conversation because we find it too unpleasant. We’re worried that if we fully show up, speak our truth, or put our demands on the table, we will be rejected or criticized. But when difficult topics aren’t openly discussed they will mushroom under the surface. That can cause dysfunctional team behaviour, where sarcastic comments are made but never fully explored. 
​
Let's examine four tips that will help you prepare for and conduct challenging conversations.

1. Build self-awareness. Becoming aware of the conversations you tend to find most challenging, understanding why that is and how you usually react is the most fundamental step. That’s because you can only really change a pattern or a behaviour that you are aware of. Set aside some time to reflect on your current and past projects in a place where you will not be interrupted. What are the types of conversations that are the most challenging for you? In which situations do they typically arise? What makes them challenging? How do you feel entering into them (angry, afraid, sad)? How do they usually unfold? What are some of your typical behavioural patterns? Do you for instance tend to get defensive, competitive or aggressive? Or do you become avoidant or compliant? Is it easy or difficult for you to express your thoughts, feelings and needs during a conversation? Do you welcome challenging conversations or not at all? Be as objective and non-judgemental as you can. Simply write down your observations and see if you can identify a few of the traps that you usually fall into. 

2. Prepare for the conversation. We sometimes expect that we should be able to navigate a complex conversation on the fly without any preparation. As a result, we don’t always get to say what we really wanted to and end up beating ourselves up for having omitted an important point or not expressed our real need. Proper preparation cannot be underestimated. In the leadership programmes I run, the participants are asked to experiment and practice challenging conversations with actors. The actors, who are excellent at triggering our participants, might for instance play an angry client or an underperforming team member. Over time the participants learn what to watch out for and they always emphasise how much they learn from the prep-time we give them before getting into action.

So, set aside time to prepare and to think through why you are having the conversation, what you perceive the problem to be and what your preferred outcome is. How would you like your working relationship with your counterpart to be and what kind of mindset would you like to show up with? Also think about what the facts and tangible examples are that you want to present to your counterpart. Then, turn the tables and consider how the other person sees the problem and what they might want from the conversation. What are their underlying needs and what is their emotional state likely to be? By considering what your counterpart’s perspective is you will be more perceptive during the conversation and less likely to be caught off guard.   

3. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. As Dr Stephen Covey said, “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply”. If you enter the conversation with an agenda to first be understood and to get your points across, the effectiveness of the conversation will be limited and you might end up arguing who is right and who is wrong. An open and curious attitude, where you suspend your judgements as much as possible, listen, and ask lots of open questions, will get you much further. Even if you have a preferred outcome in mind, the goal of the conversation should be to collaborate and to openly discuss the issue before a conclusion is reached.

Don’t feel you have to have the entire solution thought through in advance. That leaves little room for collaboration. You can also improve the atmosphere by speaking in person and by sitting down rather than standing up. It’s more grounding. When it’s your turn to express your viewpoint, be honest and name the real issue. Don’t minimise it. You have to agree what the problem is before you can solve it. Be mindful however not to get confrontational, accusatory or to speak down to the other person. That undermines the entire process. Speak the truth as cleanly as you can by explaining how you see the issue, how it makes you feel and which potential solutions you see. 

4. Respond rather than react. As previously discussed, it’s important that you keep your emotions in check during the conversation as they may otherwise highjack and derail you. If the conversation goes as smoothly as you have planned, staying calm and clear-headed will be easy enough. It’s much more difficult if your counterpart throws in a wildcard, starts to accuse you of something or in other ways makes you feel uncomfortable. If that happens just stay quiet for a moment. Breathe as deeply and slowly as you can and relax your body, as that’s the way to slow down your heart rate and stay connected to the rational part of your brain. The goal in any conversation is to consciously respond to what is being said rather than lashing out based on a kneejerk reaction. Don’t let yourself get provoked.

​When our participants practice having challenge conversations with actors, they experience time after time how powerful silence can be. Five seconds of silence may feel like an eternity. But it works! Not only does it send a strong message to your counterpart, it’s also an effective way to help you manage your own emotions. If your counterpart’s behaviour is unacceptable, for instance if they belittle you, then you need to call it out and express how you are experiencing their behaviour. Not that easy, but necessary.  


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In recent years there has been much debate on how to characterize management versus leadership. Management is said to be the discipline that specializes on maintaining the status quo, conforming to standards and organizing and directing individuals around the boundaries (time, money, quality criteria etc.) that have been set to achieve the task. If you are a good manager it means that you are good at producing a set of products and services in a predictable way, day after day, on budget and to consistent quality. It is a discipline, which requires you to be rational and logical and make use of certain skills and methods.

Leadership on the other hand is concerned with setting goals, making improvements to existing ways of working and motivating and leading the team to reaching this new direction. It is characterized by certain behaviors such as sharing an inspiring vision, producing useful change, leading by example, empowering others and creating the most conducive environment for team success. Leadership is not about the specific skills you possess but about how you approach an assignment and how you relate to others. 
 
Managers rely on authority, leaders on influence
One of the main differences between management and leadership is the way in which the two disciplines motivate people and teams to achieve objectives. Managers rely on their authority to get work done. They allocate tasks to team members based on what needs to get done and expect them to carry out their job, by and large because they receive a salary for it. Leaders, on the other hand, influence, inspire and appeal to people at an individual level. They strive to get the best out of people by aligning each person’s individual objectives to those of the project and organization. You could say that managers use a push approach whereas leaders use a pull approach. 
 
Leaders have a high level of emotional intelligence
The differentiating factor between management and leadership isn’t the level of cognitive ability or technical skills that someone has – it is to a large extent their level of emotional intelligence (EQ). Managers may have a high level of cognitive intelligence or IQ, but not necessarily EQ. They may be good at implementing effective management systems, but they aren’t necessarily good at communicating change or bringing people with them. Leaders are skilled at understanding, motivating and influencing people. They keep their emotions in check and set a great example for others to follow. Because of their people skills, their approach is often described as transformational rather than transactional. These leaders are able to build strong relationships with others, whereas people with low EQ may be socially out of touch and have problems working in teams due to their individual behaviours.

It’s difficult to imagine a great leader who doesn't have a high level of emotional intelligence. Think about some of the leaders or role models you have worked with over the years. Would you agree that they have something over and above cognitive intelligence? 
 
Can project managers learn to lead?
Many project managers come from a technical background and have a rational, logical and analytical way of thinking. It means that they are good at analyzing facts, calculating duration, coordinating activities and making rational decisions. They are task-focused and concerned with getting things done. They see their primary role as delivering what the customer has asked for within the agreed parameters of time, cost and quality. They are less concerned with why their customer needs the product and in which ways it affects their business and the people who develop it and use it. Their strength is in executing someone else’s vision rather than defining it.
 
There is nothing wrong with being logical and task-oriented. As project managers we need those skills, especially when planning and estimating a large project. Being good at management isn't a bad thing. The issue arises when this is the only style in the toolbox, which is then being used to also manage people and communicate with customers. Project managers need both disciplines. We need to manage tasks and lead people. Building high performing teams, great customer relationships and ensuring that the project actually delivers what the customer needs cannot be achieved solely through logic. It requires creativity, empathy, risk-taking, vision and most importantly the ability to connect with people at a very personal level.

The good news is that leadership can be learnt. In contrast to IQ, our level of EQ is never set. Emotional intelligence is a flexible skill set that can be learned and improved upon at any age. To find out more about how to develop your project leadership skills, get hold of the The Power of Project Leadership, now in 2nd edition.


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What a couple of years it's been for all of us! We have experienced large amounts of change, uncertainty and - of course - remote working! For teams who had never worked remotely before, it's been a steep learning curve. But even for teams who were technically well placed to deal with the new situation, it’s been challenging. Businesses have had to reprioritise projects, introduce new ways of working and ask employees to go above and beyond. But the most difficult aspect has been the emotional turmoil due to the pandemic. Fear and anxiety have been widespread and so has anger and loneliness. 

It can be easy to feel overwhelmed and to only see the negative in our situation, but when we look back at the past year and consider how much we have grown, the taste in our mouth can quickly change. Even if you feel nothing much happened apart from sitting in front of your screen, you've probably grown leaps and bounds. Stress and adversity can be a great teacher even if it's initially hard to see. 

With the new year upon us, I encourage you to look back and ponder all the things you have learnt in 2021. In which ways have you had to adapt and expand due to adversity? How have you progressed and how can you continue to develop going forward?

Review the past year
Let's examine what happened last year. Take a notebook and make a list of everything that went well on your projects in spite of the challenging circumstances. In which ways did you successfully collaborate, lead and navigate uncertainty? What achievements are you most proud of? What personal attributes did you develop at work and outside of work? Take time to savour these moments and pad yourself on the back, as you can’t be sure that anyone else will do it. Looking back through your calendar and noticing all the things you did, will remind you of how far you have come and what you have learnt. It will make you stand taller and give you renewed energy for the year ahead. 
 
Also take time to consider what didn’t go so well in 2021. Perhaps some of the challenges were too great for you to handle. That’s okay. Take a deep breath and accept it. There’s no need to beat yourself up about it. Also consider what feedback you received from clients, colleagues and managers. Be careful not to see critical feedback as something negative, but as an opportunity to grow and continue to develop. We all have areas we can improve on. When they are brought to our awareness, at least we can do something about it. 
 
To continue to develop your personal leadership skills in the new year, have a look through the eight topics below. They are grouped into the categories of leading self, leading others, and leading the project. Read through each of them and assess which ones you need to pay the most attention to going forward.
 
Leading self

1. To what degree are you able to control your impulses? 
There are many situations on a project that can trigger your emotions, and if you’re not careful they can cause you to overreact and to do or say things that you will later regret. When an unexpected issue or challenge crops up, when a stakeholder changes their mind about a requirement, or when a team member hasn’t completed the work they said they would, it can cause you stress and trigger an emotional reaction. Noticing and expressing your emotions is a good thing, but reacting unduly – or overreacting – because you feel angry, upset or afraid should for the most part be avoided. Form the habit in the new year to become aware of how you feel about a situation and consciously choose how you want to respond. Never send an email or give instructions to a team member when you feel angry. First find a way to calm yourself down so that you can think clearly. You can do that by taking a short time-out, breathing deeply or going for a walk. 

2. To what degree do you have a mindset of success?
Are you able to focus all of your energy on being the best leader you can of your project, or do your thoughts side-track and sabotage you? What are some of the stories you are telling yourself? Perhaps a little voice inside of you is saying that you are not experienced enough, not technical enough, not old enough or perhaps too old to effectively lead a project? Studies show that up to 75% of people’s thoughts tend to be negative, which means that we are our own worst enemy. To be a successful project leader you have to manage your thoughts and remove the negative ones as you would weeds in a garden. If you feel your knowledge is not up to scratch, sign up to a course or find a mentor, but don’t beat yourself up with self-deprecating thoughts. Simply become conscious about what you are thinking and deliberately substitute any limiting beliefs with a set of more empowering ones. If you’re unsure how to do it, find a coach who can help you.
 
3. How good is your ability to manage time? 
Are you working proactively and do you get through most of your scheduled tasks during a working day? To be as effective as you can in the new year, take control of time and manage it well instead of letting time manage you. If you feel that you’re not getting enough work done, block out some time in the morning where you work uninterruptedly on your most important tasks. Resist the temptation to clear the small items first and be careful not to multitask, as it will dramatically lower your focus and productivity. If you manage to get most of your big tasks done early in the day it doesn't matter that the remainder of the day is consumed by interruptions, meetings and urgent issues. 

​Leading others

4. To what extent are you able to fully engage and motivate others?
Are you paying sufficient attention to how you motivate your team and make each member feel appreciated and included? Studies show that high performance occurs when all members of a team communicate and contribute in roughly equal amounts – something which is made possible when people feel safe to express their views and ideas without being criticized or dismissed. During team meetings, encourage people to share what’s on their mind and close the meeting by inviting those who haven’t yet contributed to share their ideas, thoughts and feelings. You can also encourage team members to speak up during your one-to-one’s. These meetings shouldn’t be spent just tracking progress and talking about tasks and assignments. They should also address how they feel and how you work together. Ask the team member if they feel that the delegation and escalation process between the two of you is working and if they are getting the support and guidance from you that they need. In the new year begin to initiate these kinds of honest and direct conversations and really value your team member’s input.
 
5. How good are you at holding people to account?
As much as you need to support, encourage and listen to your team members, you also need to challenge them and hold them to account. Otherwise, high performance is unlikely to happen. It can be truly motivating to have clear performance targets, so mutually agree measurable goals and objectives for all assignments. Remember that it’s not your role to singlehandedly set the targets. Ideally targets and SMART measures should be set by the individual team member based on their own analysis and estimates. When team members set their own targets regarding when a task will be delivered and how quality will be measured, it’s much easier for you to hold them to account. On the contrary it’s almost impossible to hold someone accountable to something they have not been part of agreeing.  
 
6. To what extent do you tailor your communication?
Do you understand who all your stakeholders are and do you tailor your approach and method of communication to each of them? Some people say that you have to treat people the way you would like to be treated yourself, but it’s far better to treat people the way they would like to be treated. Everyone has different communication preferences. Some of your stakeholders would like you to drop them an email to inform them of what is happening. Others would like you to inform them at your regular face-to-face meetings – or they want you to escalate to them via a weekly status report. Don’t make the mistake of treating everyone the same. Instead ask your most important clients and stakeholders how they would like you to keep them informed. Some may need a bit of time to consider your question, as they may never have been asked that question before.

Leading the Project
 
7. How good are you at scheduling retrospectives?
Do you regularly take time out to validate that your project is headed in the right direction and to assess what you can improve and change going forward? Having regular retrospectives is an essential part of leading a project because it enables you to course correct and engage the team in the process. Some of the questions you can ask of the team are: 

• What is working really well for other teams that we can replicate? 
• What does our gut tell us about the project? 
• Which bad decisions have we made that need to be reverted? 
• What would we do differently if we bet our own money on this? 
• What do our customers and executives keep complaining about? ​
• What are we not seeing that is new or different? 

 
8. How certain are you that the project has a strong business case? 
The purpose of your project is to deliver specific outputs and outcomes to your client or project sponsor, right? Well, that’s partly right. The ultimate purpose is for those outputs and outcomes to add value and deliver the business benefits. Many project managers conveniently forget this last step as they believe that it’s the sponsor’s or client’s responsibility to ensure that a valid business case is in place. But great project leaders are happy to co-own the business case and actively take an interest in helping to realize it. How good are you personally at understanding the project’s ultimate purpose and the wider business context? If you feel that this is a weak spot, make it a priority for 2022. Few things are more powerful on a project than understanding the business aspect. 
 
Now that you have carried out your review, choose three areas to work on in 2022. Don’t overcommit yourself by setting too ambitious goals. Small, steady steps is the best way to move forward and set yourself and your project up for success.

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Consider the most successful team you have been part of or that you know of, and what the characteristics were of that team. How many members did it have? How did the team members communicate with one another? How did they make decisions, and what was the feeling you had when you interacted with the team? 
 
Many of us know instinctively what it feels like to be part of a great team. We feel accepted and trusted and communication seems easy. And when conflict arises it doesn't cause a breakdown. The team is able to openly discuss differences in opinion and agree a way forward.

But even if we deep down know what a great team looks and feels like, the steps we need to take to create such a team aren’t always obvious.
​

Performance depends on the team’s communication patterns
Several studies have been carried out with the aim of identifying the factors that contribute to a team’s performance. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Google for instance have gone to great lengths to study teams and analysed if it made a difference to performance that team members socialised outside of work, had flexible working hours or that they had a high level of cognitive intelligence. But their studies didn’t show any correlation between the factors they studied and team performance. What they did show however was that high performance is closely correlated to a team’s communication patterns and whether all team members actively contribute to making decisions and moving the project forward. 
 
On the topic of communication patterns, the researchers found that high performing teams seemed to spend a lot of time communicating face-to-face or via videoconference. Emailing, texting and speaking on large conference calls were found to be a lot less effective and led to poorer performance. In the same vein, videoconference proved to loose its effectiveness the more people attended the call. What this shows is that for high performance to take place, it’s the quality of the communication exchange that matters, and that quality tends to be higher when people interact face-to-face. On remote teams, of course, it isn’t practical to meet face-to-face, but at least we can encourage people to connect individually and to activate their webcam.
 
Everyone speaks roughly the same amount
The researchers also found that in high performing teams the communication exchanges were distributed evenly among the team members. In other words, everybody on the team was actively communicating with each other and at the end of the day everyone had spoken roughly the same amount. Team members didn’t just communicate through the team leader and there weren’t pockets of people who weren’t involved. What this means is that if you are leading a team where only four of the team’s seven members are interacting frequently with each other and are actively contributing to making decisions and influencing the project’s direction, then it’s important that you spend time engaging the last three people. 
 
Regarding the size of the team, it’s been found that high performing teams tend to consist of less than ten team members – presumably, because it’s a lot easier to communicate effectively and engage a small team than a large one. Don't let your team's size be an excuse however to creating a productive team. If you lead a large team, split it into sub-teams and focus on creating high engagement within each of these smaller units. 

The interesting thing about Google’s research, isn’t just the conclusions that communication and contribution are the most important factors for high performing teams, but also how such an environment can be created. This is where the role of the team leader or project leader becomes vital. 
 
The studies show that equal communication and contribution happens when the project leader is able to create an environment where team members feel safe enough to contribute. In teams where a few members are allowed to dominate discussions or where the team leader is too controlling or judging, many members simply don’t come forward with their views and ideas out of fear of being dismissed. 
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​Project Leaders need to have a high level of social sensitivity
For you as a project leader this means that you need to take on the role of a facilitator and that you must moderate the team’s discussions in such a way that the members feel that it’s ok and safe to come forward and share what’s on their mind - be it concerns or new ideas. You can do that by explicitly asking the more reserved team members what their views are and by recognizing their contributions during meetings. At the end of a meeting for instance, you can let each person summarise their reflections and take away's to make sure that everyone has contributed.

Team leaders need to have a high level of social sensitivity and emotional intelligence to do this, as moderating a conversation and making people feel safe is all about reading people, listening, empathising and knowing how to make people feel that they belong in the group.  
 
First, examine what you feel your own role is within the team. Do you feel that it’s your job to come up with great ideas and to show the way - like the perfect superhero? Or do you feel that your primary role is to encourage the team members to contribute and to bring forth ideas? Those leaders who perceive themselves as strong, decisive and fast moving don’t always realise that they cut off the team in the process because they are not sufficiently inclusive. What we have just seen from the research is that high performance happens when all team members play along. This requires the team leader to sometimes slow down and take the council of all members of the team instead of rushing to fix a problem or implement a decision, which only a few contributed to. 
 
Show your vulnerability and create psychological safety
As time is of essence on most projects it can be tempting to jump in like a superhero, force a decision and to ignore the quieter team members. But Google’s research shows that you must be sensitive to everyone within the group and encourage people to be sensitive to each other.

What you want to avoid is a group of bright individualists where people are only thinking about themselves. Instead, help people to be mindful of each other and to share personal stories and emotions. Begin by setting a good example yourself. Become an advocate for trust and respect by sharing something personal that has some weight and that shows your vulnerability. This could be a time in the past when you made a wrong decision, failed at implementing a project or made a faux pas with the client. Or you could share something entirely personal about a health issue or a family conflict. What you will find is that you begin to create what psychologists refer to as psychological safety – a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up or for sharing something sensitive.
 
When psychological safety is present, people feel free enough to share what’s on their mind – whether it’s a bright new idea or a tough personal challenge. They are able to talk about what is messy and have difficult conversations with colleagues who have different opinions. And this is when high performance can occur. Because when people feel psychologically safe, they bring their entire personality to work where they contribute with all that they have without fear that they will be judged or criticized.

​So dear project managers and leaders, be mindful of how you come across to the team and the extent to which you like to be the superhero. Reduce your levels of control and judgment, and replace it with humility, empathy and sensitivity.

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The ability to identify, articulate and share a clear vision for the project is one of the key ingredients to project success. When we run projects we must begin with the end in mind as Stephen Covey put it in his best-selling book; The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Beginning with the end in mind – in a project context – is about envisioning what we ultimately would like the project to achieve and how it fits into the bigger context of organisational change. 

The vision clarifies the clients’, sponsors’ or organisation’s strategic objectives, focuses the team and provides a target to plan against. It gives the project manager a view of where the client wants to go, but it won’t give them all the stepping-stones to getting there. The stepping-stones will be derived by the team and will typically consist of tangible deliverables and outcomes. For the vision to be as effective as possible it should be clearly articulated, have an inspiring and energising effect and be aligned to corporate strategy.
 
Many project are tactical and not strategically aligned
Oftentimes projects get kicked off and executed without a clear vision. The result could be tactical project outcomes that are short-term in nature and that quickly get superseded by other changes. Without a clear vision there is a high risk of a disconnect between the project’s tangible outputs and what the customer or organisation really needed. The project may fail to deliver the expected benefits, either because the business needs weren’t fully understood, or because the initiative wasn’t fully thought through or aligned with corporate strategy. According to PMI’s research 60% of projects are not aligned to strategic objectives although such an alignment has the greatest potential to add value to an organisation. Unfortunately, this means that although many projects are delivered more or less to specification, the end product is tactical and ends up not adding as much value as it could have. 
 
We could compare the importance of having a clear vision to how great cities are built and developed. If a new area needs to be redeveloped the developers won’t just start building houses and roads without a master plan. The master plan sets the vision for how the entire area will look with houses, offices, public spaces, services and infrastructure. If the master plan isn’t in place the area may never function well or become an integrated part of the city. The same is true for other types of projects. We have to look as far into the future as possible and create a map of the project’s long-term outcomes and benefits. And we have to envision how the project will interact with other change projects and with existing business processes.
 
Leaders think differently to managers
In my book The Power of Project Leadership I have written extensively about the differences between manages and leaders.  One of the characteristics of managers is that they are good at delivering an output on time, to budget and to the expected quality. They are skilled at executing a vision, which has been set by others. Leaders on the other hand help set the vision by considering the bigger picture and by looking further into the future. When delivering a project they ensure that the strategic context is well thought through and that the project will add value in the long term.
 
Being visionary has been a characteristic that we associate with leadership for a long time. According to Harvard Business Review (HBR) being visionary and forward-looking is one of the attributes that most distinguishes leaders from non-leaders. In a survey of tens of thousands of people around the world HBR asked people what attributes they were looking for and most admire in a leader. 72% of people said that being visionary and forward-looking was something they wanted from a leader. Among respondents in more senior roles, the percentage was even greater, at 88%. 
 
When project professionals head up a project it's imperative that they don’t act like constrained managers who are just accepting the brief as given by senior management or the client without questioning it and engaging with it.  They have to partner with the client and play an active role in shaping the project’s goals and benefits until it makes sense and until they fully understand it. 
 
This may be a new way of thinking for many project managers who are used to the traditional way of operating. Traditionally project managers are concerned with delivering an output or a product rather than the big vision. The customer – internal or external – normally specifies what they want and the project manager helps deliver it. They happily leave the big-picture-thinking to the client or to the project sponsor who they feel is closer to the business and the decision-making process. 
 
The problem however, is that we often make the incorrect assumption that the client and sponsor know what their needs are and that they have analysed their current challenges and opportunities in depth. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case. Whereas the client, or business owner, know their day-to-day operations better than the project manager, they may not be skilled at specifying how their current and future needs can be met by a new product or service. They also may not be able to predict what the positive and negative impacts will be of a major change programme and what to do about it. Ultimately this may lead to a failed project. 
 
For this reason strategic projects require a leader who thinks and acts differently to the execution-oriented project manager. These projects need someone who knows that they can improve the project’s success rate and value by getting involved in the big picture and by fully engaging with the client’s views and ideas. This doesn't mean that they own the vision. It means that they query it, draw it out, improve it and align it with the project.
 
In addition to seeing the project in a strategic context project leaders are also skilled at sharing the vision with the team members who need to execute it. They know that working on projects that have meaning and purpose motivates team members. Many tactical projects don’t have a real impact on the organisation whereas strategic projects that are part of a bigger vision do. Having a clear vision isn’t just inspiring for the team it also provides an essential element of focus and alignment. 
 
Conclusion 
The main benefit of having a clear and meaningful vision is to help ensure that there is congruence between the actual project deliverables and the strategic objectives of the project – and that those objectives serve a greater purpose for the organisation. Whereas the project manager isn’t ultimately responsible for the vision they do need to ensure that the project delivers what the users need rather than what they want, and that the project will add as much value as it can in the long term. Having a sound project that’s backed up by a great vision gives the project manager and the team the ultimate focus and motivation that’s needed to deliver a strategic project.

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​

​The importance of risk management cannot be overemphasised. When you are proactive in identifying and mitigating potential threats for your project it means that fewer issues are likely to arise. Project managers who want to make a difference don’t sit back and assume that the road to project delivery will be straightforward. They regularly take time out with the team to assess everything that could impede the success of the project and actively take steps to manage the situation. 

​Be collaborative
One of the classic mistakes in risk management is to treat it as a mechanical process that’s carried out in isolation by the project manager. Risk management works best when all team members collaborate and share their knowledge and insight. When risks are identified, analysed, mitigated and planned in collaboration, not only are more risks identified, accountability and ownership are also reinforced. Project managers sometimes assign themselves to most of the items in the risk register. But that doesn’t leverage the team or create a shared sense of responsibility. It’s important to assign the right owners and to gain their buy-in and acceptance for fully managing a risk. 
 
Let’s examine the steps involved in managing risks in a collaborative manner. The method is based on post-it notes and flipchart paper and the team being co-located. If the team is working remotely, you can follow the same process by using an online collaboration tool. 
 
Step 1: Silently brainstorm risks
The first step in collaborative risk management is to ask the team to silently brainstorm all possible project risks in a workshop setting. Give people a stack of post-it notes and ask them to consider anything that could go wrong. As they think of potential pitfalls they should write down each risk on a separate post-it note and stick them on the wall. The more specific the risks, the easier it will be to identify an appropriate response to them.
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Some of the risks will be specific to the project, while others will be generic risks that affect all projects—for example, user unavailability at the time of user testing. That’s ok. Let team members capture all types of items as they could all turn into issues if not properly mitigated. And don’t make the mistake of deliberately omitting certain risks because they are too precarious to discuss. Remember, that it is much easier to manage a risk than to wait until it becomes an issue.

​Step 4: Identify and capture risk response
The fourth step is to focus on the risks with the highest likelihood and highest impact and determine what the best risk response would be. What actions must be taken to lower the likelihood and lessen the impact of the most important risks? You probably don’t need to respond to every single risk that has been identified. I recently facilitated a risk workshop with a manufacturing team in Malaysia. They identified 24 risks across the project and decided to mitigate each and every risk. The project was simply too important to the business to take any risk.

In your case, decide which risks are worth mitigating and which are not. Some risks are too insignificant to do something about and others are not worth mitigating, for instance, if the risk action is more expensive than taking the risk. When you have determined the risk response, log it in your risk register by determining some tangible actions. I have worked with project managers who only captured risk responses such as avoid, transfer, mitigate, accept or escalate. That is not enough. The risk response needs to contain specific actions. 
 
Step 5: Assign owner
Next, you need to assign an owner to each risk. The owner should be the person who is best suited to implement the risk response and monitor its progress. It could be anyone from within the team or steering committee as long as they accept responsibility. Many project managers make the mistake of assigning themselves to too many risks. As the project manager you are responsible for facilitating the risk management process, but that doesn't mean that you should own each individual risk. The best way to secure ownership for the risks is to collaboratively agree who owns what. Determining risk responsibilities in a workshop is much better than having the project manager assign ownership on their own and hoping that people will accept it.
 
Step 6: Monitor and communicate risks
The final step is to continually monitor and communicate the risks you have identified along with the agreed-upon actions. Schedule regular risk reviews with your team and stakeholders to identify new or changed risks that need to be addressed. Remember to always mention your main risks and mitigating actions in your progress reports and to highlight them during steering committee meetings. Not only will this show your stakeholders that you're on top of things, you might also get valuable feedback that will help you to mitigate risks even better. 

But what about the unknown risks?
The above risk management process is great for risks that you can foresee, but what can you do about unknown risks that your team is not aware of? One way of getting around this is to involve people in the risk identification process from outside the project. People who think in unconventional ways and have a different viewpoint may be able to spot the unknowns that we cannot spot ourselves. Some risks however cannot be spotted either by the team or by outsiders as they are inherently unknown. All we can do in those cases is to build contingency and flexibility into the plan so that we can cope with the impact of the unexpected, wherever it comes from.
 
To read more about how collaborate planning and project leadership, pick up a copy of “The Power of Project Leadership”.
 
Conclusion
Risk management is imperative to effective project delivery, as it is much easier to manage risks than waiting until they become issues. One of the cornerstones in managing risks is to be collaborative in your approach by brainstorming potential risks with key team members and stakeholders. It helps you identify and deal with potential threats and creates a shared sense of responsibility. You should also involve people from outside the project to help you spot the unknown risks.
 
After you have identified your risks, explore the root cause and determine how to best mitigate the risks that have the highest impact and probability. Resist the temptation to assign yourself to too many risks. Instead, jointly determine who the most appropriate owner of each risk is. 
 
Encourage a discussion around the project’s main risks at the monthly steering committee meeting and remember to always communicate an important risk to senior stakeholders in person before they see it in writing.


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