Take Leadership Into Your Own Hands
January 7th, 2003 by HalLeadership is a shared responsibility in project management. Really. I know we often don't see it that way. The truth is our designated leaders can't be everywhere at once. They can't see where leadership is needed. To succeed on our projects we can't wait for the designated leader to act. We must take it into our own hands.
I've called for simple leadership. In my reply to a reader's comment I offered five dispositions for leaders:
- Embrace uncertainty
We can't know the future; stop acting like we can. - Anticipate learning
The longer the project the more we will learn. - Anticipate failure
If it must go right, then rethink it, because it just might go wrong. - Produce strength of relationships
Nothing else really matters to human beings than being connected to other people. - Serve those being led
We get the greatest results when we take care of ourselves and the world at large.
There's plenty of good advice on leading simply. Perhaps the leading thinker on thinking is Edward deBono. He offers these thoughts in his book Simplicity:
Complexity harms everyone. So simplicity is everyones business. So why not let everyone help out?
We can each help out…providing leadership where it will do good. deBono offers these ten steps:
- You need to place a high value on simplicity
- You must be determined to seek simplicity
- You need to understand the matter very well.
- You need to design alternatives and possibilities.
- You need to challenge and discard existing elements.
- You need to be prepared to start over again.
- You need to use concepts.
- You need to break things down into smaller units.
- You need to be prepared to trade off other values for simplicity.
- You need to know for whose sake simplicity is being designed.
Offer simple leadership on your projects.
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January 7th, 2003 at 5:55 pm
Hal
I did not want to say that leadership is complex.
Could you say with 100% sure that if one person follow all these steps or dispositions that you wrote he will be a good leader?
If somebody asked me that I would say that it depends on the person.
What are we trying to find the right actions or the person?
The point is we know what to do. We know all the dispositions to be followed, but we do not know a way to find who can do that?
During my life I could see many people following all the steps or formulas to be a leader and failed. It made me think that I needed to figure out this thing, at that time. Maslow wrote 36 points to become a leader and most of them were not formulas but thoughts and I found them very interesting.
I cannot say that I am a good Engineer because I build on the right time, costs and quality. These are my obligations. I cannot say that I am a good Leader because I follow all the dispositions. These are the Leaderīs obligations.
I understand that the problems must be solved and the projects must continue and if we cannot find the right person let us teach others to behave like a leader at least! Life goes on!