Leadership, not just project management, is critical on all projects. Whether it comes just from the project manager – where it must be prevalent – or from others on the project team, leadership is very important. The problem is, it is often lacking on some of the projects that need it the most.
The reasons for this are many and are worth noting.
A tendency to select people solely for their technical expertise
While expertise is important, it is a mistake to assume that expertise is equivalent to leadership. Leadership goes beyond technical prowess, increasingly recognized as subordinate to other qualities. Often, a person selected for his or her technical expertise relies on that quality at the expense of the project.
Failure to distinguish between project leadership and project management
Project management deals with the mechanics of managing a project, such as building a schedule; project leadership deals with much bigger issues—for example, ensuring that people focus on the vision.
A tendency to wear blinders
In a complex, constantly changing environment, many project managers seek security by grabbing on to a small piece rather than looking at the big picture. They may focus, for example, solely on technical issues or on the schedule at the expense of more important areas.
A tendency to be heroic
That is, they try to do everything themselves and be all things to all people. They eventually start to over control and in the end, as many experienced project managers know, control very little, even themselves. They fail, for example, to delegate.
A tendency to emphasize hard rather than soft skills
Hard skills are scheduling and statistical analysis; soft skills are active listening and writing. It is not uncommon for project managers of technical projects to disparagingly refer to soft skills as “touchy-feely.” Yet time and again, studies have shown that soft skills can prove as critical, indeed more so, in a project’s success.
A tendency to select project managers based who knows who
Senior managers often select people they like or who are like themselves, who may or may not have the attributes of a project leader.
A tendency by senior management to micromanage a project
They treat the project as a pet, smothering it with attention, thereby killing any initiative by the project manager or the team. An example is requiring any action, even the smallest, to have approval from senior management. Such an oppressive atmosphere makes it impossible to exercise project leadership.
Failure to recognize that leadership is ongoing
It starts at the beginning and continues throughout the project cycle. Yet especially with long-term projects, managers tend to forget about inspiring people and their leadership assumes a posture of benign neglect.
A tendency to ignore or not recognize the indicators of poor leadership
These indicators include a high turnover or absenteeism rate among team members, repetitive problems with the quality of output, and constant slippage of major milestone dates. Of course, these indicators may reflect other problems; however, there’s a high correlation between problems in leadership and those in performance.
A tendency toward window dressing rather than dealing with substantive issues
Window dressing concentrates on images; substantive issues probe the root causes. While looking good has its immediate advantages, too much emphasis on image can have deleterious effects as the underlying problems persist and become more acute.