14 From project manager to project leader

What skills are required to become a successful project leader in today’s fast-changing world?

In a world that will have ever-increasing numbers of projects, the demand for strong project implementation competencies is increasing by the hour. Just search on LinkedIn and it will be clear that more and more job descriptions require sound project management skills and experience. In two of my previous companies, one of the major skill gaps identified was the lack of people capable of leading projects across the organization, also known as managing in the matrix. Although we learn several of those skills throughout our lives by intuition and practice – and many could claim to be project leaders already – the reality is that the core skills have to be learned and taught.

The project leader of the future will be a chef d’orchestre, a football coach, a true team player; someone who is able to gather a diverse group of people, each with their own expertise, and create a high-performing team out of the different individuals. Each participant has to have a clear role, feel that they are contributing to the purpose of the project and be appreciated by the others. I strongly believe that anyone can develop into a successful project leader. However, it requires focus, commitment, determination, personal awareness, eagerness to learn and perseverance during times of failure. I group the main qualities needed to excel in the project-driven world into five categories.

1. Essential project management skills

A good project leader should be able to use the available tools and techniques to determine the rationale and business case of a project. They should be able to work with key contributors and partners in defining the scope (whether for a detailed design, technical solution, product or service). The ability to break down the scope into manageable workloads – to identify interdependencies, to prioritize the work and translate the work into a comprehensive project plan – is one of the most important skills in these categories. Everyone can make a plan, but very few can make a well-defined and precise plan. It requires a good understanding of the details (analytical skills), as well as the overall picture (strategic skills).

Risk identification and risk management techniques are also essential. Once the project is under way, the project leader needs to establish reporting mechanisms to monitor the execution of the plan and ensure that sufficient quality checks and tests are being carried out. When delays are foreseen, or changes to the plan, a good project leader should be able to analyse the consequences and provide viable alternatives to the sponsor and steering committee.

How to acquire these competencies

My recommendation is to follow a training programme on project management and implementation. There are also year-long masters courses available. Just be aware that their content is focused on the added value, rather than pure and traditional technical project management. Ultimately, the goal is to obtain a recognized certification that accredits your knowledge. The most common worldwide accreditation is Project Management Professional (PMP) certification, from the Project Management Institute. There are others, such as PRINCE2 practitioner certification, which is well recognized in the UK and Commonwealth countries. A final option comes from the International Project Management Association, which is not as well known, but which offers a competency framework that is a good complement.

2. Technical expertise

These competencies give the project leader credibility among the team and the project stakeholders. They help the leader to have a minimum understanding of the important technical aspects of the project, and provide the ability to communicate in the language of the technicians. The technical skills of the project leader do not need to be too advanced, as this can lead to the tendency to end up deciding on and doing most of the work. A certain level of understanding, enough to challenge the teams, is enough. For example, if the project is to implement a new performance monitoring application, the project leader should take the time to get their head around some of the technical aspects of the software.

How to acquire these competencies

Be curious and open-minded. The bare minimum when starting a project in an unknown domain is to dedicate some time to reading articles, watching videos and looking at analysts’ reports. There may be online training via some of the MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) sites now available from many universities and professional business associations. Meet experts if you have access to them. Learn some of the key words and some of the major challenges faced in the industry. Make a summary of what you find out.

Never be afraid to admit that you are new to the industry or the topic. Highlight that you are eager to learn and appreciate the patience of the people who are giving you information. Don’t forget to explain your added value and what you will bring to the project.

3. Strategy and business acumen

Develop a good understanding of the environment in which the project will be implemented. For example, if the project is about increasing access to education, a good project leader will need to have a good appreciation of the different educational systems – which are the most successful, why, and what are the alternatives that best fit the specific needs that the project wants to address. Similarly, in terms of business projects, the project leader should have a minimum understanding of the business, its purpose, its strategy and goals, its main products or services, its key competitors and its main challenges. Additional knowledge of these functions is an asset.

Financial understanding is also a must. Being able to connect the project outcomes and purpose to concrete business challenges and priorities is essential for project buy-in and success. Most of the stakeholders, including senior management, will be more supportive towards the project and the project leader whenever that connection is made. The most important capability in this category is to ensure that, from the early stages, the project has a strong focus on the benefits and the impact. Value creation is one of the most critical and sought-after skills in the project-driven world.

How to acquire these competencies

When dealing with projects in the business world, the best way to acquire these skills is through a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree. MBA programmes are not cheap and require a significant time commitment, yet they cover most relevant aspects of management in general, and provide a strong general understanding of the key facets of a business.

Alternatively, there are masters programmes and even online courses (many free) on specific topics (innovation, finance, strategy, etc.), which are a good complement for a project manager.

4. Leadership skills

The increased speed of change, the higher complexity, the overlapping priorities, the conflicting objectives, the culture of searching for a consensus, the multiple generations now working at the same time – all these important elements make the implementation of projects much harder than in the past. While pure managerial skills were largely sufficient for previous generations, today, management skills are not enough; project managers have to evolve towards project leadership. They have to be able to provide direction, which requires the ability to:

• communicate progress and changes
• evaluate, develop and motivate staff
• deal effectively with people, without having authority, by motivating them (working in a matrix)
• confront and challenge
• engage the project sponsor and senior leadership
• understand different cultures and how to leverage from them
• manage and persuade multiple stakeholders, sometimes ones who are against the project
• build bridges across the organization (which will often be silo-driven and scarce in resources)
• create a high-performing team, and
• dedicate enough time to develop and coach team members.

In addition, a modern project leader has to be able to make effective decisions, be proactive, have discipline and be results-driven. Last but not least, a project leader has to be resilient, which is the ability to bounce back from any difficulties and changes that life throws their way – probably one of the most important leadership skills in projects.

As Lao Tzu, one of the most famous Chinese philosophers, said in his book Tao Te Ching (The Way of Life), ‘A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.’1

How to acquire these competencies

Leadership skills are the most difficult to teach and to develop. Some of them, such as communication, are easier to learn than others but most of them require awareness, time, practice and perseverance. There are various models that you can use to get an understanding of the topic.2

The most important step to start growing in this area is to be aware of your personal characteristics and your strengths and weaknesses. Accept that you are not great at everything. Select one or two areas you want to develop over the next year. You can work on them alone (self-development), follow a specialized course and/or engage a personal coach.

Open access learning and development

Praxis is a free framework for the management of projects, programmes and portfolios. It includes a body of knowledge, a methodology, a competency framework and a capability maturity model. The framework is supported by a knowledge base of resources and an encyclopaedia.

The framework has recently added a diagnostic that allows you to identify your preferred working style so that you can understand how you are most comfortable working within a team and in collaboration with others.3 The results of the diagnostic have been mapped to the original Praxis framework and show you the impact of your personal style on elements within the project process (for example, assurance, benefits, risk and stakeholder management).

5. Ethics and values

Project leaders are expected to have strong ethics and personal values. Leadership involves a relationship between people. Therefore, the ability to influence others ethically is a major indicator of effective leaders.

Leaders are often in the spotlight and become role models for the team members and the organization. In the project-driven world, there is less room for hiding and mismanagement, as projects and their implementation tend to be very visible and to require quick thinking.

Ethics, the motivation to act as a role model, and developing a plan of action are key aspects that positively affect leadership and a project’s outcome. When ethics and values are made a priority and are respected, it will have a positive effect on leadership.

How to acquire these competencies

Ethics cannot be acquired – they are part of who we are. However, you can develop a code of ethics that will act as a moral guide for you and for your project. This will also help to guide the project team on ethical matters. To develop a code of ethics for you or the project, look at examples of codes of ethics from other people and other companies. Then identify your own values by asking the following questions.

• What are my true beliefs?
• How would I like others to be treated?
• How would I like to treat others?

Share the outcome with your team and discuss whether they feel comfortable with these values. Once the project’s code of ethics has been approved, it should be applied and followed by every member of the project, starting with you. Nowhere is the aphorism of ‘leading by example’ more important than in the area of ethics.

Making sense of the project manager’s code of ethics

In 2015, the International Project Management Association published their first ever ‘Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct’. The code offered a series of statements relating to stakeholders and the wider project environment, including a fundamental principle.

We acknowledge that our community and the relations between professionals and their clients depend upon trust, mutual respect and the appreciation of our diversity.

We welcome the fact that we, as members of this community and as professionals, work in environments that are charged with various sensitive political, cultural and moral challenges, and we believe we are best equipped to embrace those challenges by being open to and respectful of our differences.

When working with clients, project owners and other stakeholders we act with integrity, accountability and transparency. We realize that our work in project, programme or project portfolio management may present us with a variety of ethical challenges and we believe that it is through these values that we will best be able to meet them.4