The most fundamental aspect of leading others is to first understand the factors that impact your own behavior. By appreciating and learning about the basic human needs that govern the choices you make, not only will you better understand yourself, you will also better understand the people you lead.
 
Some managers are still of the belief that a few common incentives motivate people – such as money and status – but research shows that we are motivated by a variety of factors and are not as easily swayed as some think. 

According to psychologist Chloé Madanes, our behaviour is motivated by the fulfilment of six human needs that go beyond desires and wants. Everybody has these six needs, but the order in which we prioritize them varies from person to person. Our most dominant two needs will determine the choices we make and the action we take, as they are the underlying drivers for achievement. Although these six needs persist throughout life, their relative priority may vary from situation to situation and can change over time. 

The six human needs are Certainty, Variety, Significance, Connection, Growth and Contribution. 

1. Certainty
We all have a need for certainty, safety, stability and predictability in our lives. We like to feel secure in our jobs, in our homes and in our relationships. We want to avoid pain and we want assurances that our basic needs are being met. Some people pursue this need for certainty by striving to control all aspects of their lives, including the projects they run and the people who work for them. They want to be as certain as possible that things work out the way they planned and that people do as expected and complete their assignments by the agreed deadline. When we lack certainty we tend to panic and get stressed. When things get too certain, however, we feel bored and demotivated.

2. Variety
Another human need – which opposes the first one – is the need for variety and uncertainty. At the same time as we want certainty, we also crave change, excitement and new stimuli. Variety makes us feel alive and engaged. Many project managers work in change management because of the inherent variety it provides. Projects are temporary by nature, and the uncertainty is for the most part tolerable because we know when the project is expected to end and what might happen afterwards. Too much uncertainty, however, will bring us fear, while not enough will cause boredom. So the first two needs are pieces of the same pie. If your need for certainty is 70 per cent, your need for variety will be only 30 per cent. People with a big need for variety may come across as risk-takers and may also seek out conflict and crisis situations to make them feel alive.

3. Significance
Deep down, we all need to feel important, unique and special. We want our life and our work to have meaning, importance and significance. Imagine how uncomfortable it would be to work on a project that is not needed and no one cares about. We can fulfil our need for significance and importance in many ways, positive as well as negative. One vehicle is by becoming a high achiever or by having many people report to us because it makes us feel important, special and wanted. That may also show up as being overly competitive and performance driven. Another, rather poor way to get this need satisfied is to put other people down and to elevate ourselves so that we feel we are better than others. We can also signal our uniqueness and difference through particular clothes or unusual hobbies.

4. Connection
Everybody strives for a level of connection and affiliation with people around them and wants to feel part of a larger community. We want to be loved and cared for and we want a feeling of closeness or union with like-minded people – be it friends, family, colleagues, members of a club or an online community. The need for love and connection is based on blending in and wanting to belong and be similar to others in the group. In some ways we could say that it’s the opposite of significance. If we are 100 per cent connected and part of a team, a project or a culture, we are likely to be encroaching on our need for significance and uniqueness, and vice versa. Many project managers feel this conflict in that they want to be part of the team community, but at the same token they need to differentiate themselves and stand out as the leader of the pack.

5. Growth
As human beings we all have a need to grow and expand in our personal and professional lives. Many people’s goal is to reach a certain position, a financial target or a particular lifestyle, but when they get there, they become stagnant and unhappy because they are no longer growing. They have reached a plateau, and although there are no apparent reasons for why they need to learn and develop, they have an intrinsic desire for doing so. People are most happy when they feel they are making progress. We all need something to strive for, something that will challenge us to grow and expand emotionally, spiritually, physically, financially and intellectually.

6. Contribution
The sixth human need is the desire to make a difference and to contribute to a greater good. This is the need to help, serve and support someone or something bigger than ourselves in a meaningful way. As human beings we have a desire to contribute something of value, whether that is manifested through community, family, society or the project work that we do. Some projects have a very worthy cause and may help to make the world a better place to live, or at least they will have an impact on someone or something else. But when we are head-down managing the detail, we may not always see it. Very few people are mindful of how this aspect can help fulfil one of their most basic needs.

According to Madanes, the way to lasting satisfaction and fulfilment is through the last three needs: the need for connection, growth and contribution. If we attempt to reach fulfilment through certainty, variety and significance alone, we will fall short. The problem with a high reliance on certainty is that no matter how much we seek to control our surroundings, we will never be able to gain complete certainty, as we live in a world of constant change. The issue with significance is that no matter where we look, we will always be able to find someone who is more significant than us. If we let out need for significance dominant we end up as managers who are more concerned with personal reputation than adding value to the client.
 
The best strategy for lasting job satisfaction and sustained drive is to recognize that your work is part of your purpose and to look at ways in which your needs can be met by the work you do. True leaders are not just doing a job. They are doing a purposeful job that fulfils their need for growth and contribution.
 
I invite you to examine the six human needs and ascertain which of them you value the most and how you go about meeting them. I also encourage you to ask the same questions with your team members in mind.

• Which two of the six human needs are most important to you?
• What are the ways (good and bad) in which you meet and balance these needs?
• In which ways can you use your profession to satisfy your need for grow and contribution so that you can increase your overall job satisfaction? 
• How can you help each member of your team to fulfill their top needs and increase their level of growth and contribution?

A successful project manager and leader is so much more than someone who is capable of producing a plan and track its activities. To be a leader, you must keep an eye on the vision, be able to navigate the unknown and focus on people as much as you focus on tasks. 

Your ability to build trusting and lasting relationships with your stakeholders is one of the key ingredients to becoming a successful project manager and leader. Read through the six principles below and ask yourself how you score on a scale from 1 to 10.

1. Seek first to understand before being understood
When you invest time in really understanding your stakeholders, the dynamics of the conversations and your relationships change. People become more open, receptive and more interested in what you may have to say when you actively engage and comprehend their situation. If you don’t listen properly, misunderstandings will invariably creep in and the quality of your relationships will weaken. Make every effort to really engage and understand the other person’s position. Make eye contact and ask into their feelings and opinions. Only when you fully understand their position should you speak up about your own topic and agenda.
 
2. Have empathy and think in win/win solutions
Empathy means being able to put yourself in someone else’s shoes and understand how they feel. View situations and responses from your stakeholder’s perspective and be committed to always finding solutions that will truly benefit all parties. The win-win idea is not based on compromise or on one of the parties giving up their position and need. It is rooted in the belief that synergies and mutual benefit can be drawn from every situation.

3. Set a good example as a project manager and leader
The quickest way to lose the respect of your stakeholders is to be a careless and unstructured project manager. On the contrary, your stakeholders will respect you for being an effective person who keeps taps on risks, issues, decisions and actions – including their own! Keep track of key decisions and hold stakeholders accountable for the activities they take on. Always turn up to meetings prepared and have the necessary information ready at hand.

4. Be honest and open about project progress 
Believe in yourself and be honest and open enough to say things the way they are. Never over-promise or feel pressurised to saying yes to unreasonable demands. Have the confidence and courage to talk openly about project issues and to ask for help when required. Your stakeholders will respect you for being honest and appreciate being given the chance to help out before the situation aggravates. You will score points for being realistic and for having your project’s interests at heart. Painting the picture rosier than it is helps no one.

5. Be proactive and take responsibility for your actions
Gain respect and admiration from your stakeholders by proactively resolving risks and issues in a resourceful way. When we are proactive we look for durable solutions and we take full responsibility for the consequences of our actions. We face the world with a can-do attitude and a mindset that we have the ability to change a situation for the better. You may have no control over what hits your project, but you do have control over how you respond.

6. Maintain a positive mental attitude 
Do your best to maintain a positive mental attitude. Be cheerful, friendly and smile. The positive energy you radiate will draw others to you and give your stakeholders the impression that you are in your comfort zone. Don’t be afraid to be funny or clever as most people are drawn to a person that can make them laugh. Use your sense of humour as an effective tool to lower barriers and gain people’s affection. Having said that, remember to always be respectful when you use humour. 

Questions for reflection

• How can you become a better listener and build better relationships?
• What can you do to be more proactive and more positive?
• In which situations to you need to get better at asking for help?

If you liked this post, you may also like:
How good is your ability to build trust?
Top Tips for Providing Effective Feedback
Project Leaders have a positive and empowering mindset
How to create a strong team identity during kick-off

Resistance to change is an interesting phenomenon that is often quoted as the number one reason why projects and change programmes don’t deliver the results they set out to. At its core, resistance to change is a label we apply when people seem unwilling to accept or help in implementing an organizational change. But oftentimes it isn’t the change itself that people resist. They resist because they believe they will lose something of value (such as status, belonging or competence) or because they fear they will not be able to adapt to the new ways. It is a big part of human behaviour to hold on to the status quo because it’s a safe port. Our brains are wired to keep us safe and to respond to potential danger. When we are faced with an organisational change our instinctive reaction kicks in because it makes us feel unsafe. We know what we have, but we don’t know what we will get.

Whereas junior project managers may not be so aware of the emotional side of change, leaders understand the importance of listening to people and ensuring that their needs are being met. Instead of exclusively dealing with tasks, activities and processes they delve into deeper layers and consider the psychological aspects. They draw people in, address their concerns and anxieties and demonstrate what is in it for each person. They know that most people resist change because they are uncertain about how it will affect them – whether consciously or subconsciously – and therefore seek to make them feel safe.

When Rod Willis researched why people resist change he found that in the majority of cases, leaders and managers don’t possess the necessary understanding of human psychology to effectively deal with the typical symptoms. He concluded that most managers operate at a capability level and fail to engage at a deeper level. This means that they consider what their team members are capable of doing and how they do it as a function of their skills, rather than considering why they do what they do and what they believe about themselves.

The majority of the resistance to change symptoms which Willis identified were a result of people’s values and beliefs, sense of identify and personal purpose not being met. People do not leave their emotions, doubt, fear or lack of trust at home. They bring them to work where they may be perceived as resistance. Willis concluded that there is a direct correlation between a manager’s ability to work at a deeper psychological level and bringing about successful change.

To make resistance disappear, we have to focus on building trust and removing doubt and fear. Overcoming resistance is about understanding people’s psychology and getting to the root of the opposition. This is a process, which will take time. According to Professor Eddie Obeng, resistance to change comes about when we go too fast. He says that the natural remedy is to go slower. He also suggests that we allow people to be part of the story and that we ask more questions. Questions are a great way to open up and allow co-ownership. 

There are several ways in which you can make people active participants in a change initiative and draw them into the story. You can for instance:

• Create surveys to elicit views and opinions from staff. 
• Set up discussion forums where ideas can be sourced and debated in a wider group.
• Give people a role to play by delegating part of the change process to those who will be affected by it.
• Appoint employee representatives and invite them to take part in executive decision-making meetings. 
• Facilitate workshops to develop a collective understanding of the issues, approaches and methods going into the change. 

The power of these methods is that they draw the employees into the process by engaging them, creating a dialogue and by giving them a role to play. It is no longer a one-directional flow where employees are simply being told what to do. Now, people feel that their input matters. They are being listened to and have become active participants who have real influence.


If you liked this post, you may also like:
Project Leaders have a positive and empowering mindset
Diversity and inclusion can increase team performance 
Risk  management is how adults manage projects!
6 principles for building trusting and lasting relationships
Deep work: How to embrace this superpower of the 21st century

​As COVID-19 has put most of the Western world in lockdown, managers, leaders and their teams are finding themselves with a plethora of new challenges. People have to quickly adapt to working from home, protect the physical and emotional well-being of themselves and others, revamp businesses to better serve the public and simply staying afloat.

When a crisis hits it’s easy to feel overwhelmed, to let our emotions run away with us and to get distracted by the many threats and limitations we face. And whereas our physical safety will always come first we have to be determined to not let fear dominate us. Out of crises and extreme threats can emerge incredible opportunities for individuals, organisations and for society as a whole. As we navigate our way through uncertainty, we must seek not just to overcome the crisis, but to learn and grow from it - and that’s exactly what good leaders help us do. 
 
Leaders always put people first
John Maxwell, author of 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership says that during a crisis, real leaders rise and become visible. They show up with openness, honesty and clarity and they always put people first. They ask What is best for the people? How can I lift them up? How can I serve and help them get through the crisis and get better from it?
 
With a solid focus on people, good leaders rise above the circumstances and see into the future. Their ability to manage their emotions helps them to stay focused and become ambassadors of hope. The key is to keep fear at bay and to not get emotionally caught up in the crisis. But how can the leader give hope to others and show up with clarity when things are so uncertain? In spite of not having all the answers and not knowing when the crisis will be over, leaders can convey that this too shall pass. They also put a great deal of effort into clearly communicating why they’re making the decisions they are. Being clear, honest and authentic is often more important than the decision itself. 
 
Together we will find a way through
Maxwell says that during a crisis people want authenticity more than they want perfection. The leader needs to always tell the truth and stay close to people. And it takes a great deal of courage to tell the truth and admit to not having all the answers. The crisis is an opportunity to set clear priorities, to leverage the team and to convey that together we will find a way through. That’s what hope is. Hope is saying that together we can make things better. It’s not the same as optimism, which is simply the belief that things will get better. It takes no courage to be an optimist but it takes great courage to have hope. 
 
During a crisis, great leaders stand out by inspiring people to develop the right perspective. They help people focus on what they can do and let go of what they cannot control. We cannot control the external events of a crisis but we cancontrol our choices and our responses. As Maxwell reminds us: When life gives you lemons, make lemonade! It’s about getting the best out of the situation and using our creativity to solve new problems, to serve and to build wherever we can. This may be the time to review existing practices, to forge new relationships, to adapt and to innovate. Take this opportunity to put people first and to send a message of hope. Together we can overcome this crisis and we can make things better.

​
If you liked this post, you may also like:
10 Tips for Handling Conflict
The secret to authentic leadership on projects 
Every interaction with your team is an opportunity to increase the connection
Become a better communicator with DISC profiling
What are the differences between management and leadership?
​Project leadership: Challenge the status quo

Yin-leaders support; yang-leaders challenge
Yin symbolizes the feminine elements such as listening, supporting, coaching and maintaining stability. These are characteristics that are hugely important when establishing a high-performing team, especially in the early days when people don’t yet trust their own abilities or roles within the team. Project leaders use the supportive yin element to build the team’s confidence and develop skills that are lacking. They encourage collaboration and provide a safe environment for team members to work together and come up with their own solutions. 
 
Supportive yin-leaders have a deep respect for people and want to understand what drives and motivates each person. They often spend one-on-one time with team members, assisting them to grow and develop. They are good at praising people for a job well done and will often ask what type of help the individual needs. Yin leadership is enabling and is concerned with making it possible for others to flourish, lead and contribute. 
 
Yang, on the other hand, symbolizes the masculine element, which is challenging, demanding and factual. This side of leadership sets a high standard and expects the team to deliver to it. Yang leaders have a strong sense of direction. They are action-oriented and results-driven. They ask challenging questions, hold people to account and may come across as forceful. They are assertive, push the team to deliver to the best of its ability and expect nothing but excellence. 
 
It is the yang element that pushes the team to continuously improve and innovate, and the yin element that steps back and enables the team to do so. We could say that yin is a predominant heart-based approach, whereas yang is a predominant rational or head-based approach.
 
Project leaders use ample amounts of both yin and yang
Consider the below diagram. It shows that project leadership encompasses a high degree of yin as well as yang. Team members need both elements from their manager in order to perform and thrive. 

At the most fundamental level, the quality of your personal and professional life is determined by the quality of your core beliefs. The beliefs you have acquired throughout your life shape your attitudes, which in turn affect the actions and the results that you get, or don’t get. As Henry Ford said, ‘Whether you think you can or can’t, either way you are right’. 

As a project leader you have to take control of your internal world and thoughts so that they can influence your outer reality in a way that serves you and your team. The key is to foster a positive and empowering mindset, being aware of how you respond to situations and taking action without hesitation or self-doubt. A positive and empowering mindset is one where you clearly see situations the way they are; the positives along with the negatives. Instead of reacting emotionally to the negative aspects and letting them control you, you carefully assess the situation and consciously decide how to respond. 

Let’s examine what some of these empowering beliefs look like.

I believe in myself
As a project leadership coach I come across many project managers who feel that they are not good enough. They fear that they will be “found out” and that they will be fired because of incompetence. But in most cases these project managers are judging themselves unfairly – probably because of past events or because of the negativity bias that we all have. The feeling of inadequacy isn’t rooted in incompetence. It’s linked to an underlying lack of self-esteem. 

In order to act, behave and be perceived as a leader, you first have to believe in yourself. You will not come across as trustworthy, impactful and inspiring if you do not have a strong regard for yourself. You have to feel that you are worthy of achieving the things that you dream of, and you have to have absolute faith that as long as you take the necessary action, then you can be every bit as successful as everybody else. It is this undeniable belief in yourself and being willing to back yourself all the way that fuels your motivation and moves you to action. This belief in yourself is not about being arrogant, putting yourself above the team or compromising collaboration. It simply means that you feel love and compassion for yourself and that you feel worthy of being a leader. Feel this worth in every cell of your body and don’t leave the house in the morning until you feel a warm glow inside of you.

I choose my responses
One of the most empowering beliefs you can adopt is to know that you are in control of your responses and that you always have a choice. You may not have control over the things that happen to you, but you can control the meaning you assign to external events and how you respond to them. This is a very powerful and mature belief system because it means that you take full responsibility for your actions without having to deflect blame onto others. Essentially, this is about responding to situations rather than reacting to them. There is a subtle but important difference between the two. 

Reacting is an unconscious process where you experience and react to an emotional trigger without thinking twice about it. This could happen, for instance, if you always get angry when a team member delivers their work late – or if you get stressed whenever your client asks you to incorporate a new change request. 

Responding, on the other hand, is a conscious process that involves noticing how you feel and then deciding how you want to behave. Instead of showing your anger to a team member, count to 10 and choose the most appropriate response so that you don’t default to your automatic reaction. You could for instance explain to the team member how you feel and what the impact is when work is delivered late. You can then work with them to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. Likewise, if you work in a very busy, competitive and reactive environment, you can either see this as a reason to get stressed and feel that you have to emulate that behaviour, or instead you can define your own way of working based on what you know will be best for you and your team. 

As an emotionally intelligent leader you have to take responsibility for your emotions and the impact they have on your surroundings. When you manage your impulses and consciously choose your responses, not only do you set a good example, you also create a safe environment for your team to freely communicate and express their views.

I have faith that the right things will come to me as a result of my actions
Part of having a positive and empowering mindset is to trust that as long as you do what can reasonably be expected of you, then the right things will happen. There is no need to worry unnecessarily that things might not work out or to imagine what failure looks like. In fact, focusing too much on the things that you don’t want is likely to derail you because you attract the things that you focus on. This relates back to the filter between your unconscious and your conscious mind. It is your beliefs that determine your reality. If you believe you will fail, chances are that you will. Your only concern should be to take constructive action towards your project leadership goals, stay focused and have faith that the right things will happen as a result. If you encounter a risk, by all means mitigate it, but then let go of it. Spending time worrying about the things you cannot control is lost energy. Empower yourself by being proactive and by focusing on the right strategy and trust that success will follow.

I see the opportunity in every situation
A great way to set yourself and your project up for success is to make sure that you don’t get discouraged or distracted by the issues or obstacles that you come across. We all encounter issues, but the difference between successful people and those who are not is the way in which they deal with the unforeseen. As Albert Bandura said, ‘People with high assurance in their capabilities approach difficult tasks as challenges to be mastered rather than as threats to be avoided’.[i] When something unexpected happens, make sure you don’t use it as an excuse to do nothing or to backtrack. Instead, ask yourself how you can move forward in spite of the issues and which new opportunities have opened up as a result. Your job is to focus on the opportunity and the way forward rather than the obstacle itself.

Let’s look at an example. Let’s assume that your company unexpectedly had to downsize and that you were losing your job. How would you react? What would your focus be, what meaning would you assign to this event and what actions would you take? Would you panic and say to yourself that this is terrible/I’m a failure/how could they do it/it’s their fault? Or would you say to yourself that this is their loss/I could be better off somewhere else/this is an opportunity to learn and do something new? Would you let this unforeseen situation paralyze you, or would you focus on the opportunity it presents and decide how to best move forward? The point is that although you can’t control external events, you can control the mindset with which you react to them. All it takes is mindful practice.
 
There is no such thing as failure; only opportunities to grow and learn
An empowering mindset is also one in which we don’t let fear of failure hold us back. If you are afraid of stepping up and showing yourself as a leader out of fear that you are not good enough – or that others might laugh at you – then you won’t get very far. You need to alter your view of failure into something constructive and allow yourself to feel the fear and do it anyway. Your ‘failures’ provide the opportunity to learn and grow and will genuinely move you forward as long as you take on board the lessons. And besides, what is the worst that can happen? Wouldn’t it be better to have a setback and to learn from it rather than never to have tried? When you change your thinking pattern into one that doesn’t see failure, you take away an enormous chunk of negative energy and worry. You free yourself up to pursue that which is truly important – your progress and the successful delivery of your project.

When I decided to set up my own company and become an independent project leadership coach, I faced a huge amount of fear. I had been an employee for 17 years and never before run my own business. Would I be good enough? Would people want to work with me and would I be able to make money? It took me many months to overcome this fear and to not let it control me. I did as much as I could to prepare for my new venture, but at the end of the day I had to have faith that as long as I did what had proved to work for other successful entrepreneurs, I would be successful too. I reframed the situation and started to build up a new set of beliefs. I began to study some great entrepreneurs around me and stopped focusing on failure. In fact I began to see my business as an experiment that I would learn from, in one way or another, even if one day I were to go back into employment.

I am fully committed to doing what it takes
We have probably all come across people who are dreamers. They keep talking about their big plans but rarely get around to implementing them. An empowering mindset is one where we are focused and committed and where we consistently take action that moves us closer to the things we want. There is no space for doubt or procrastination. Becoming a project leader who adds value in everything that you do may not be achieved in a matter of days. It will take much longer and will require you to be fully committed to doing whatever it takes and to learn and refine your approach. Sure, there will be times when you lose sight of the overall goal, but your drive, commitment and positive frame of mind will quickly get you back on track. At the end of the day it is your grit that will keep you going.

Interestingly, Psychology Professor Angela Lee Duckworth has proved that grit is the most significant predictor of success – irrespective of the industry or job role you are in. She explains that grit is about stamina and having passion and perseverance for long-term goals. It is about sticking with your future, day in day out, not just for the week or for the month but for years and working really hard to make that future a reality.[ii]

All successful people have needed to rely on their determination to get to where they wanted. Thomas Edison attempted to invent the light bulb 999 times before he finally succeeded. And Colonel Sanders, the founder of KFC, traveled to four different states and had his recipe rejected hundreds of times before he found someone who accepted it. The key is to be willing to have setbacks and be wrong and to start over again with lessons learned.

You can read more about fostering a growth mindset here.

[i] Bandura, A (1994) Self-Efficacy, Encyclopedia of Human Behavior, 
New York, Academic Press. (Reprinted in H. Friedman [Ed.], Encyclopedia of Mental Health, San Diego, Academic Press, 1998) [Online] http://www.uky
.edu/~eushe2/Bandura/BanEncy.html
[ii] Duckworth, A (2013) The key to success? Grit, TED, [Online] http://www.ted
.com/talks/angela_lee_duckworth_the_key_to_success_grit

You are probably as familiar with the statistics of failing projects as I am. According to the PMI only 52 per cent of projects are delivered on time and 69 per cent meet their goals and business intent. The numbers vary by industry and region. In the UK the Infrastructure and Projects Authority, reports that less than half of their projects had a green or amber/green rating upon delivery.
 
Projects fail because of unclear scope and success criteria, lack of strategic alignment, lack of buy-in and engagement from senior stakeholders, lack of change management skills, underestimation, inadequate risk management and poor resourcing. According to the PMI, organisations are losing an average of $97 million for every $1 billion spent on projects due to lack of focus on people, processes and outcomes. And that is in spite of more tools and techniques being available to us that help us keep track of the many moving parts of a project. It also appears that project failure rates continue to be high during periods of economic uncertainty and increased competition.
 
But why do projects continue to fail? An important aspect is the increased complexity of projects and the environments in which they are undertaken. Many factors contribute to this growing complexity – for example, social and technological change, growing global interdependency, increasing numbers of stakeholders and the need to communicate and coordinate cross-culturally. As the ICCPM (International Centre for Complex Project Management) writes in its report Hitting a Moving Target, ‘It is clear that the situation has to be addressed radically and comprehensively. If we do what we’ve always done, we’ll get what we’ve always got – and there are too many examples that prove what we’ve always got isn’t good enough’.
 
Stephen Carver, Senior Lecturer at Cranfield School of Management also has a view on why projects continue to fail. He explains that researchers now distinguish between three types of complexity to help us better manage projects: structural, emergent and socio political. Traditional project management techniques such as breakdown structures, critical path analysis and risk management were designed to deal with projects that are high in structural complexity. I.e. projects that are large, technically complex and that have many moving parts. But modern-day projects are also high in emergent and socio political complexity, which most project managers haven’t been trained to deal with.
 
Emergent complexity relates to how much the project and its surroundings are changing as you are trying to manage it, for example highly innovative projects or a project that is dependent on external world events, such as the price of oil. Socio political complexity is related to soft skills, relationships, personalities and behaviours that arise under stress. It’s this touchy feely stuff, as Stephen Carver calls it, that’s really the hard part, as it isn’t obvious how to manage a large number of stakeholders who behave in infinitely complex ways.
 
The academics at Cranfield asked about 250 project management practitioners which of the three types of complexity caused them most trouble on live projects. 70% of respondents said that it was the socio political factors, 20% answered emergent complexity and only 10% said their issues stemmed from structural complexity. The researches then asked people which of the three categories of complexity had received the most attention during their formal training. It turned out that 80% of their training was focused on structural complexity, 10% on emergent and 10% on socio political complexity.
 
In other words, process is necessary to manage structural complexity, but to master other types of complexity we need to be able to deal with behaviours and large amounts of change in relation to our projects. The best way to deal with emergent complexity is to see change as an opportunity rather than a threat. Change can be good if we open our minds to it and become more agile in our approaches. And to effectively handle socio political complexity project managers need to deepen personal relationships and understand how to listen, build trust, empathise and use different styles of communication.

According to PMI’s research, over 80 per cent of high-performing organisations report that the most important acquired skills for project managers to successfully manage complex projects are leadership skills. Traditional dimensions of project management such as cost, schedule and performance are necessary but insufficient. The world is changing at a rapid pace, and the need for leaders is greater than ever before. We need leaders who can deal with ambiguity, take ownership of the vision, foster collaboration, gain buy-in and motivate the team to achieve the expected outcomes. Thinking and behaving with a traditional project management mindset of control and compliance is not serving us. It is limiting our opportunities and it is contributing to project failure.
 
Given the right environment, the right mindset and the right support, I believe that all project managers have the potential to be great leaders. Being a leader is not something that is limited to CEOs of a large company. Anyone can be a leader within his or her field. Leadership is not a result of the job title you hold but of the attitudes and behaviours you possess. So get ready and embrace a new way of doing projects and get ready to lead. Stand up tall and sharpen your saw.

​

Now in its second edition, The Power of Project Leadership, explains how to generate positive results for projects and clients while growing as a leader and empowering the team to contribute to the fullest extent. It contains new interviews with successful project leaders and outlines capabilities, attitudes and behaviours needed to add real value and deliver outstanding projects. The Power of Project Leadership discusses current topics such as the psychology behind high performing teams, coaching, facilitation and conflict resolution, collaborative planning and risk management. Available on Amazon.

I recently listened to an interview on PM Podcast with Agata Czopek – a speaker at PMI’s global conference on the topic of inclusive leadership. I listened with great interest as many of her observations are reflected in my own book, The Power of project Leadership. And although Agata uses terms that are a bit different to my own, the underlying messages are the same: To build an effective and innovative team you have to bring people together with different kinds of thinking, fully include them in discussions and decision-making and make them feel psychologically safe.  

​Diversity leads to higher performance
In the podcast interview Agata explains that the future lies in diversity and inclusion. As project managers we want our team members to be innovative, to solve problems and to identify risks before they turn into issues. This is much more likely to happen if there is diversity of thinking inside the team. People with different backgrounds, culture and gender, see the world from different angles and solve problems in different ways. In teams where there is diversity of thinking, levels of innovation can be up to 20% higher and 30% more risks can be spotted.
 
These statistics are backed up by McKinsey research which shows that companies in the top-quartile for gender diversity on executive teams are 21% more likely to outperform on profitability and 27% more likely to have superior value creation. But it’s not just gender that’s making a difference. Companies in the top-quartile for ethnic/cultural diversity on executive teams were 33% more likely to have industry-leading profitability. McKinsey’s research also shows that there is a penalty for opting out. Companies in the bottom quartile for both gender and ethnic/ cultural diversity were 29% less likely to achieve above-average profitability than were all other companies in the data set. Not only were they not leading, they were lagging.
 
Although the business case is strong for inclusion and for hiring people who are wired differently, this is not always common practice. The issue is that we tend to surround ourselves with people who think like we do. And that’s a really bad idea if you want your team to excel in the long team. The financial crisis was partly caused by organizations run by similar types of people with a large appetite for risk and monetary results. A much more balanced team would be one were all personality types are represented. You do need someone who is results-oriented in your team, but you also need people who are fun, inspiring and creative, people who value harmony and sustainability and someone who looks after the detail and ensures that work is completed to a high standard.
 
Diversity of thinking is not enough. You also need inclusion.
Diversity of thinking doesn’t automatically create a team that’s good at innovating, solving problems or spotting risks. Diversity without inclusion won’t work. You also have to include people and treat them with fairness and respect. As I have written about previously people have six fundamental human needs that need to be fulfilled. These fundamental needs are related to feeling safe and certain, feeling valued and significant, feeling that we belong in the team, feeling that we have opportunities to grow and develop and that the work we do have meaning and purpose.
 
As a project manager and leader you have to cater for these human needs if you want people to contribute and come forward with their knowledge and ideas. Some of it is pretty simple such as spending time together, going for lunch, collaboratively solving problems, inviting everyone to team meetings and making information readily available. If people feel excluded there’s little chance they are going to contribute. Other aspects require more thought and emotional intelligence, such as making people feel safe and certain. If team members don’t feel safe to contribute with their ideas and openly ask a question or share a concern, they will hold back and withdraw from the debate.
 
To increase your team’s performance, make a conscious effort to include all team members, be interested and curious about their background and what they have to say. No one enjoys working for a diminishing leader who likes to hear himself talk and who believes that he is the smartest person in the room. Instead walk your talk and show that diversity and inclusion can have a real impact on project performance. As an inclusive leader you have to empower the team, foster collaboration and seek to overcome your biases and blind spots. An important aspect is making sure that your way of thinking doesn’t have an adverse effect on decision-making. How can you do that? By asking your team for feedback. Opening yourself up to other people’s views on your leadership style is one of the most powerful things you can do on your road to becoming and inclusive leader. 


If you liked this post, you may also like:
Team Motivation: Why we need more than money to be truly fulfilled
How to become a better coach
Top Tips for Providing Effective Feedback 
Delegate effectively and thoughtfully
What makes a high performing project team?

I tend to refer to Project Leadership as the epitome of good project management – or as an extension of traditional project management. Project Leadership is the art and science of leading successful change, and ensuring that we add as much value as possible to our organization, teams and customers. Project leadership is as much about vision, innovation, engagement and people as it is about tasks, plans and resources. It is characterized by a person’s ability to build relationships with customers and end users, understanding their real needs and leading the team to successfully deliver those needs.
 
We can gain further insight into project leadership – and how to get there - by examining The Project Leadership Matrix™.  

People who operate on the left-hand side of the matrix predominantly have a rational and logical mindset and are focused on skills, events and processes. They make use of their logic and authority when assigning work and will often tell their team members what to do. We could say that this approach to managing people is a push approach.
 
On the contrary, people who operate on the right-hand side of the matrix have a natural tendency to focus on people. They don’t rely on their authority, but appeal to people by finding out what motivates each person at an individual level. People-focused leaders involve team members in the decisions that affect them and show them how they fit into the overall vision. They don’t just tell people what to do, but inspire them by painting an appealing picture of the project’s objectives that they would like them to contribute to. We can call this a pull approach. They pull people with them like a magnet instead of pushing, or forcing them.
 
If you are in doubt where on this scale you operate, think about how easy or difficult you find it to approach a person who doesn’t report to you. In matrix organizations, where team members don’t have an organizational reporting line to the project manager, we cannot rely on our authority to allocate work. This is a situation that task-oriented project managers find challenging – not least when the team member they need to interface with is in a senior position and has a lot of experience. In such situations we need to make use of our people and influencing skills and of our understanding of human behaviour rather than relying on authority.
 
Let’s examine the dimensions of the vertical axis, reactive versus proactive. People who operate in a reactive manner – towards the bottom of the matrix – are drawn to immediate issues that crop up. Even if they arrive at work with a clear intention of what they need to achieve, they may not achieve it because something urgent or unexpected comes up and derails them. They spend their time following the flow of events rather than defining it and are constantly on a back foot.
 
At the other end of the scale we find people with a proactive mindset. People who operate towards the top of the matrix are concerned with the project’s strategic vision and they take steps every single day to create a successful future for the project. They set their own agenda to the benefit of the project, the client and the team. They don’t make knee-jerk decisions and only firefight when a true crisis emerges that cannot wait and that no one else can deal with. In that situation they will strive to address the root causes and put in place measures to ensure that the issue doesn’t reoccur.
 
Although most of us operate in all four quadrants depending on the situation, we have a tendency to spend the majority of our time in one of them. Project managers who are not getting the results they want operate predominantly in quadrant number II. They spend too much time firefighting and dealing with events and tasks that urgently need to be resolved. They are good at getting things done but will never be successful at implementing a strategic change initiative as long as they operate from this space. The biggest sign that something is wrong is the lack of clear direction and the number of project issues that crop up – interpersonal or otherwise. Oftentimes projects are kicked off before they are fully defined, roles and responsibilities are unclear, rules of engagement haven’t been agreed, stakeholders are not engaged, requirements are too vague and objectives aren’t aligned to corporate strategy. Ultimately the project fails to deliver the expected benefits – or if it does deliver them, it’s a long and arduous road to getting there.
 
Project managers who get outstanding results tend to operate in the top part of the matrix – in between quadrant III and quadrant IV. They are proactive and focused on the project’s long-term strategy and they are partly oriented towards tasks and partly towards people. This is the domain of Project Leadership. Project leaders continue to be mindful of the task side of the project and will not be effective if they operate exclusively in quadrant IV. People who operate exclusively in quadrant IV have great ideas and are good at inspiring people, but will often have no concrete plans or operational strategies to back up their vision. Project leaders may also spend time in quadrants I and II, but it is not a strategy they rely on to get results.
 
Many project managers find if difficult to break out of the reactive and task-oriented pattern. They don’t see how they can free up time and energy to proactively deal with people and the strategic side of the project. They are caught in the reactive management trap and find it hard to shift their over-reliance on control and rational thinking to a more people-oriented approach of trust and openness. After all, most of us are trained in mastering the detail and in thinking logically rather than building relationships and leading people. In addition, the more-for-less culture isn’t helping. In many cases it may be increasing the workload and pushing people into a reactive and task-oriented mode.
 
But no matter why we find ourselves in these situations, there will always be ways around them by thinking creatively and knowing that we have a choice. We may not be able to change external factors, such as limited budgets, reduced workforces and a reactive company culture, but we can control how we respond to them, what we choose to focus on and how we influence people around us. I was almost at the point of giving up my job as a project manager in financial services because I found it to be too exhausting. Little did I know that my working patterns were self-imposed and not the fault of the industry, the company, the project, the client or my manager. It is easy to feel victimized and look for someone to blame outside of ourselves. But the reality is that we hold the answer and the key to working more effectively, getting better results, feeling more energized and working with people to deliver better projects. Had I left my job at that time I would have found the exact same problems elsewhere. Instead I started examining what I could do to change the situation. I started looking at how I could work smarter rather than harder.

• Look at The Project Leadership Matrix and determine where you operate most of the time. Do you have a natural preference for tasks or people?
• Do you rely on your authority over people, or do you inspire and influence people at an individual level?
• Are you good at attending to important activities that lead to success of your project, or do you often get side-tracked and interrupted?

If you liked this post, you may also like:
Deep Work: How to embrace this superpower of the 21st century 
What are the differences between management and leadership?
7 essential time management strategies 
​The Secret to Authentic Leadership
Delegate Effectively and Thouhtfully ​
How to increase your wellbeing as a project manager