Is it easy to identify good leaders? A presentation by Collin Brooks delivered on 15th October 2015 as part of the APM People SIG

1.  To promote the inclusion of people
aspects of project management
 Research and promote tools and
techniques
 Provide support for project leaders
and teams
 Provide support for performance
improvement
Our Primary Objectives

2.  Building our reputation as a centre of excellence for people aspects of P3M delivery
 Communications & publications using appropriate media including:
o Contributing to the APM BoK
o SIG-specific guides (print & media)
o Social media
 Engaging with other SIGs & branches, the wider PM community and other ‘like-
minded’ bodies and organisations outside the APM
 Presentations & workshops
 Proposing, conducting and encouraging research into people aspects of projects
Delivered Through…

3. Is It Easy To Identify
Good Leaders?
Russel Jamieson - Chair People SIG
Colin Tweddle – HMRC Programme Director

4. Leadership
Definition
“Leadership is the ability to establish vision and direction, to
influence and align others towards a common purpose, and
to empower and inspire people to achieve success.”
APM BoK 6th edition

5. Where Is The Challenge?
 Diverse stakeholders
 Transient teams
 Inconsistent levels of support/interest
 New and novel products
 New and novel methods
 New customers
 New suppliers
 Diverse/conflicting Political and political agendas
 Human nature

6. Why
programmes
succeed
Why
programmes
succeed
Experience of
large numbers of
major
programmes
This may
affect other
programmes
BELIEF
Programme
failure
The programme
remembers the business
is usually correct
The programme
remembers the business
is usually correct
Front LineFailure
Business and main
supplier are aligned
Business and main
supplier are aligned
Objectives of
business and
main supplier
allowed to drift
apart
• Failure to recognise what
drives supplier and customer
• Zero-sum game – not win -
win
• Building individual defences,
rather than mutual success
No Alignment
Programme management
with a focus on benefits
delivery
Programme management
with a focus on benefits
delivery
Dependencies
and Risks
are documented
not managed
Tacit assumption of
slippage
Milestones are
too distant to
highlight
slippage
Decision making
process that makes
decisions and sticks
to them
Decision making
process that makes
decisions and sticks
to them
End Goal is clearly defined
and understood
End Goal is clearly defined
and understood
Failure occurs
when money
Runs out
Too few islands
of stability
No
contingency
planning
Leaders Lay The Foundations Of Programme Success

8. What We Are Going To Cover
 Is it easy to identify good leaders?
– What does a project leader look like?
– Leadership styles
– Personal values and personal leadership approaches
– Emotional intelligence
– Personal resilience

9. What Does A Project Leader Look Like?
Where do you stand?

10. PPM Leadership
To be a successful leader
you need:
– The right level of training and
capabilities
– A network of peers to support you
– Continuous professional development
– To learn from experience
– Confidence in your professional
heuristics
– A set of tools to assist you
– Determination and resilience
To be a successful leader
you must:
Support your colleagues through:
– Capability building and training
– Providing peer support
– Encouraging ongoing learning
– Sharing your experiences
– Help create more Master Builders
– Share your tools and how best to
use them
– Mentoring and coaching

12. Why Should Others Follow?
Do You:
 Promote and uphold the project vision, reinforce positive relationships, build an
environment that supports effective team work, raise morale and empower and inspire
others to follow throughout the lifecycle of the project?
 Determine what leadership style is appropriate for particular situations, individual or
group, and adapt your style as appropriate?
 Create an environment which encourages high performance and enables team
members to reach their full potential?
 Gain the trust, confidence and commitment of others and utilise collaboration
throughout the lifecycle to ensure continued momentum of the project?
 Build and maintain the motivation of the team throughout the project?
 Agree SMART performance objectives for the team and individuals which are regularly
reviewed and monitored to provide prompt and constructive feedback? and
 Identify and address development needs of the team and self?
APM Competence Framework – BC03 Leadership

13. Why Do Others Follow?
Never forget followers have their own identity
Rational
Hopes of gaining money, status,
power, or entry into a meaningful
enterprise and our fears that we
will miss out if we don’t.
Unconscious
Motivations
These lie outside the realm of our
awareness and, therefore, beyond
our ability to control them.

14. Leading Teams
Colin Tweddle RPP
Programme Director Wider Coverage Programme
Project Director Improving Caseflow and CRMM Project

15. PDLA Team Day | 16
Examples of High Performing Teams, please?

16. PDLA Team Day | 17/3/14 | 17

17. PDLA Team Day | 18
Teams and Individuals
Project delivery is a team sport (or is it?)
Individuals
Mindsets and Approaches
Leadership roles and styles
Leadership: incomplete

18. PDLA Team Day | 19
A Bit of Theory
Group Dynamics, Team Formation, Group
Development, Organisational Psychology
100s of Theories/Models (Hill & Grunner, 1973)
And yet we all know just one…
Tuckman (1965,1977) - Stages

19. PDLA Team Day | 20
Tuckman
Forming
Storming
Norming
Performing
Adjourning

20. PDLA Team Day | 21
There are others…
Lewin Tuckman Fisher Poole’s 4 tracks McGraths TIP Gersick Wheelan Morgan Salas & Glickman
TEAM
Unfreezing Forming Orientation Task track 4 modes Phase 1 Dependency and
Inclusion
Pre-forming
Change Storming Conflict Relationship track Inception Midpoint Counter-dependency and
Fight
Forming
Freezing Norming Emergence Topic track Problem Solving Phase 2 Trust/Structure Storming
Performing Reinforcement Breakpoints Conflict Work/Productivity Norming
Adjourning Execution Final Performing I
3 functions Reforming
Production Performing II
Wellbeing Conforming
Member
Support
De-forming

21. PDLA Team Day | 22
Building the Team
What do you want?
What do you need?
What can you get?
Who can you get?
What is the gap?
Where is everyone?

22. PDLA Team Day | 23
Keeping the Team
What will you feed it?
How will you shelter it?
How will you love it?
How will you develop it?
How will you know if its
healthy?
Who can help you?

23. Leadership Styles
Autocratic
Bureaucratic
Democratic
Laissez Faire

24. More Leadership Styles
Transformational
TransactionalCreative
Corrective
Servant

25. Personal Values and Personal Leadership
Styles
Scenario 1: Late Delivery
Scenario 2: Corporate Hospitality

26. Emotional Intelligence
The five domains
Knowing your emotions
Managing your own emotions
Motivating yourself
Recognising and understanding other people's
emotions
Managing relationships.
Daniel Goleman's - Emotional Intelligence

27. Personal Resilience
Resilience is the process of adapting well in the face
of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or significant
sources of stress — such as family and relationship
problems, serious health problems or workplace and
financial stressors. It means "bouncing back" from
difficult experiences.
American Psychological Association

28. Personal Reflection
What’s my identity as a leader ?
What’s my identity as a follower ?
Have I got emotional intelligence ?
Is there balance in my personal resilience, performance and wellbeing ?

29. Talent
spotting and
recruitment
POTENTIAL
New capabilities are
needed for our PPM
leaders of the future
You may be interested in:
People SIG
Research

31. In summary
Is it easy to identify good leaders?
• What does a project leader look like?
• Leadership Styles
• Personal Values and personal leadership approaches
• Emotional Intelligence
• Personal Resilience

32. Upcoming Events
Invitation: Become active with the People SIG
Leadership
Teamwork
Sponsorship
Collaboration
Communication
• Leadership – Northern Ireland Branch &
ICE joint event in Belfast
22 October 2015
• APM Presents… – University of Warwick
17 March 2016
• Emotional Intelligence Research
Ongoing

33. Contact…
• APM People SIG peoplesig@apm.org.uk
• Russel Jamieson russjam1@mail.com
https://twitter.com/PeopleSIG @PeopleSIG
https://www.apm.org.uk/group/apm-people-specific-interest-group

34. A Final Thought

35. This presentation was delivered at
an APM event
To find out more about upcoming
events please visit our website
www.apm.org.uk/events