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The growing need for project leadership

1/10/2019

 
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.

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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.



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Matthew
4/11/2014 15:29:09

I think the idea of enabling project managers to lead is great. In addition it helps to tie this into why projects fail.

How do you propose to close the gap? Seems like a question of "We can't afford to train our PMs to be leaders" vs. "We can't afford NOT to train our PMs as leaders"

Susanne Madsen link
7/11/2014 05:44:03

Hi Matthew,

Yes, that's spot on. Many organisations only invest in technical training of their PMs, but not in leadership training as they see it as an expense. But what is the cost of NOT doing it? Failed projects, missed opportunities, low retention rates, demotivated teams etc.

How can we close the gap? By providing powerful development programmes that combine technical skills training with leadership development. This is best done in small groups of interactive training followed up by one-2-one coaching. If we really want project managers to start behaving differently, we have to help them make those changes - ongoing personalised coaching helps to achieve that.

Susanne

Rainer Bach
6/11/2014 23:47:44

Thanks for the great article. What I would have loved to be stressed a bit more is the contribution of the organizational environment to project failures. Project management like process management depends on cross-functional co-operation. Without a deep-rooted institutionalization of both - accounted for by management and overseen by quality management - we will never overcome project or process failures.

Bruce Harpham link
9/11/2014 04:34:08


"Thinking and behaving with a traditional project management mindset of control and compliance is not serving us."

Perhaps we will see leadership skills formally added as a knowledge area to the PMBOK Guide soon.

I agree with you on the importance of leadeship skills. At the same time, leadership is a large concept. What do you see as a good starting point to help people get started?

Susanne Madsen link
9/11/2014 05:08:44

Yes, leadership is a large concept and many areas need to be addressed by project managers - from taking joint responsibility for the project's strategic vision, daring to stand out and take risks, learning to influence senior stakeholders, understanding human psychology (especially when change is involved), improving and innovating, and empowering the team. It's a tall order, but a very necessary one.

A good place to start is to shift a pure task-oriented mindset into one where there is more of an emphasis on people. Project managers can begin to listen more to their teams, ask more questions and start to uncover what makes each person tick. I really like Dan Pink's video "Drive, The surprising truth about what motivates us". It challenges people's conventional way of thinking about motivation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc

In my book "The Power of Project Leadership" I list 7 keys that need to be addressed. Empowering the team is but one of them.

Susanne

Alejandro
19/11/2014 05:29:29

This is quite an old theme, but it looks like is still in the spotlight.
I think, that the key issue here is enough empowerment of PM. I would say that key factor to success is strong sponsorship of the project, or let's say "sponsor commitment" or "passionate support from sponsor"... Without this supoort PM is pretty much on his/her own and can't do much unless is him/herself sponsor of the project, or atleast some high ranking officer in the company. This is particular true when you are working in non-project organisations, dealing with outside vendors etc. Don't get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being a leader, putting enough PR in your offort and communication skills, but when problems occur (and they allways do , particularly in large projects), you have to have "bullets in your gun" or you are doomed.

Ahmed
10/11/2014 05:31:32

Thanks for the great article, do you think leadership skills is a science or an art needs natural abilities, also I'd like to ask about the figure in the article do you think if somebody have the leadership skills (the 81%) it would be sufficient without the 9% of the technical project management skills

Susanne Madsen link
10/11/2014 05:43:21

Hi Ahmed.

To my mind leadership is a science and an art. It comes easier with natural ability, but it can be learnt and honed through coaching, mentoring and training, and by working for an inspirational leader who can serve as a role model. Initially there may be strategies that an aspiring leader can learn and follow (the science) but to truly excel these strategies must become unconscious and natural to the individual and always be adapted to the situation (the art). It is also an art for instance to listen to one's gut instinct and use it in decision making in addition to facts and figures.

On your second question, I would say that leadership skills alone are not sufficient to succeed. A certain amount of technical skills and business acumen must be present - otherwise the leader will have little substance and find it difficult to make good decisions and be respected.

Susanne

ahmed
10/11/2014 13:00:45

Thanks for your time to replay

Dan link
20/11/2014 06:38:40

Hi Susanne,

Tremendous insights, especially within the matters of influencing and relationship-building skills. It's a subtle reminder to p3m practitioners that employing effective soft skills in project management can still go a long way.

What is your take on <a href="http://bit.ly/p3mg-retain-talent">talent development</a> as a factor within this widespread acknowledgement of project failure? Is it still a question of who should control the budget in <a href="http://p3mglobal.com/competence-services/#training">p3m training</a> between the individual and the organisation? Can HR and potential trainees work together?

Susanne Madsen link
20/11/2014 10:17:04

Hi Dan, I'm not sure I understand your question fully, but talent development plays a major role here. To my mind what's important is that we provide leadership and soft skills training in addition to the hard skills training. Ideally, HR and trainees should work together to identify the right coaches and mentors to help reinforce the learning. Class-room training is not enough. A combined approach is recommended.

John O'Gorman
30/11/2014 05:43:27

I'm a bit biased, but for me project failures (and to your point, Susanne, the level of complexity) are directly related to the number of 'dialects' involved. Information 'X' projects, (where 'X' equals technology, management, application, governance, etc..) suffer from an immediate disconnect between what users think about and what technologists deliver. Put another way: they speak different languages.

Throw in a handful of other 'dialects' like medicine, accounting, human resources and/or systems architecture and you are almost guaranteed to fall short.

Tony Hargraves
30/12/2014 11:23:29

An interesting flyer for your book, I look forward to reading it. It is an interesting debate as to the contribution Leadership (or the lack thereof) really makes to project failure. Having witnessed first hand several major project failures, as far as I could see, none failed due to a lack in leadership! Several failed due to ill-understood or ill-defined requirements, poor design, excessively optimistic estimating, over-complex solutions, the uniqueness or immaturity or complexity of the technology, lack of 'customer engagement', weak governance, incompetence in design and project management, but leadership was rarely lacking! It is an interesting notion that leadership doesn't always need to come from the Leader, and when the chips are down often an alternative source of leadership[ emerges! So I am intrigued as to how in your experience deficiencies in leadership manifest themselves (cf weak programme or project management) and are clear causes of failure - what were the symptoms and what events brought the deficiency to a head?

Susanne Madsen link
30/12/2014 11:57:35

Dear Tony. Thank you for your comment.
More than anything, this may be a question of semantics. I don’t disagree with you that many projects fail due to ill-understood requirements, excessively optimistic estimating, weak governance or lack of customer engagement. To my mind these are all signs of poor leadership. If the project manager is not helping to ensure that the customer’s real needs are being identified and to engage the customer, then the project manager is lacking in leadership. If the governance is not defined and the project manager does not understand when to escalate and how to engage the steering committee, then leadership is lacking. When I talk about “leadership” I don’t just talk about setting the vision. I talk about the project manager’s ability to focus the team, to engage the stakeholders, to drive innovation and to ultimately make sure that the project adds value. It's about awareness, focus and engagement and about employing the right mix of management and leadership.

Tony Hargraves
6/2/2015 04:59:11

Thanks for the reply;I note your comments but alas I am not persuaded. In essence you have described and bundled project direction, leadership and management; but is project leadership/management really the issue? What you assert is true and well known and has been for many decades. It is interesting to note that when I started in project management, project leadership was subservient to project management with juniors undertaking 'project leadership' of sub-projects working to the PM. Management has matured its thinking and direction and leadership have come to the fore. Consider even the current review of Winston Churchill as our great wartime leader - and reflection on his many management failures along the way! But without doubt, a true leader in a crisis!
Leadership is leadership; management is management and often one must first succeed in the latter to be allowed to even play in the former! What you describe as project leadership many will see as just part of project management; can one really succeed as a project manager without being a leader? I would be careful about setting false hopes, fixing project leadership creating a cadre of project leaders who can also manage will help to reduce project failures but sadly it will not eliminate them. Projects are also led by folk other than the PM, To realise the vision of every project being a success will require seismic change with progress on many fronts, and perhaps focusing on the client will gain more traction.

We must remove the tolerance of weak project managers and projects that fail. Every project has a client and I believe that how that client behaves and performs has far more influence on project success. So maybe using the term organisational leadership or, dare I say project sponsorship may be a better indicator of the root causes of project failure! We can and do fire PMs who fail, but rarely do we fire the client who fails! We assess and accredit PMs, but do we do likewise with clients? The best project leader/director/manager in the world will fail without the support of the capable client.
Most projects that really fail (nb. being a little late or a little over budget is not necessarily project failure!), were doomed to fail before the project manager was even appointed! Granted, some half-truths, macho thinking or excessive optimism by the PM may exacerbate the problem, and I am sure failure to confront the client organisation also contributes to failure, but with a really incompetent client organisation failure is assured! . A wise Prog Director once explained to me that PM's are like fighter pilots they get fixated on the target and they often need a controlling mind to help them come down to earth safely. That controlling mind has often to be client-side,but too often the client is not skilled enough and/or the PM is too incompetent or headstrong to recognise, seek or heed that direction.
So, yes, I do agree; the issue is leadership, but perhaps more client-side than project-side. Thanks for stimulating this interesting debate!

Charlotte James
16/7/2015 12:54:36

Hi Susanne,

I would just like to say thank you very much for your help over the past two days at the Manager training session. The skills taught are invaluable and anybody involved in a project should definitely use your advice to their advantage.

Thank you again!

Susannen Madsen link
16/7/2015 13:23:20

Thank you Charlotte, also for your participation :-)

Susanne


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    Susanne is a project leadership coach and the author of The Power of Project Leadership (now in 2nd edition). Read more..

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