Month: June 2013

Leadership Values

/ David Llewelyn Samuels / Leave a comment

“As you work on yourself to develop the human traits that will serve the new strategic order, you will be required to unlearn many of the traits you thought came with the territory of leader.” Ken Blanchard 

The question should be asked, “Are your subordinates there to serve you, or are you there to serve them and your organization?” Are you developing your own self to build the confidence required to inspire others? Moreover, leaders have to monitor themselves to keep from slipping into arrogance, either as a cover for insecurity or as a means for getting things done. Ken Blanchard, author of such books as The One Minute Manager and Who Moved My Cheese? is probably the most engaging and penetrating thinker on leadership values, states with some authority, “As a managerial leader, you will go further when you concentrate on serving others rather than on serving yourself.” The same sentiment is echoed in The Leadership Pipeline, “Managers must cease thinking only about themselves and start thinking about others.”

It is essential to gain an appreciation of the underlying values structure of the individual. If one’s value system has not been fully developed, one may not be capable of learning leadership. Strong managerial leadership is connected with the values of openness, integrity, trustworthiness, and respect for others. Without these, one can never be an effective leader. Furthermore, effective leaders put the organization’s needs and their followers above their own.

The ability to take a realistic self-assessment enables leaders to reflect on whose needs come first. 

Analyzing the Role of People on Project Teams

/ David Llewelyn Samuels / Leave a comment

Project teams succeed or fail because of program management.
It has been the writers’ experience that role of the project management office (PMO) is extremely challenging, probably, more challenging than an organizational management. Project teams are formed quickly and players are brought in from the outside and from within an organization, largely thrown together in a short space of time with a directive to deliver solution. The unique nature of this ‘temporary’ organization requires out of the box management, in the very least, management who do not apply status quo management techniques. Project teams require a ‘skunk-works’ mentality – people passionately committed to creating something great and unexpected, largely risk-averse, and passionate about creating something new and possibly ground-breaking or revolutionary. Old-style, everyday management techniques will not work for doing something new… if things are still being done the old way.7 That said, the project team will find success elusive if a clear set of objectives, spelled out unambiguously by management does not exist. Individuals with leadership roles on project teams need to demonstrate enthusiasm and passion associated with the hallmarks of those who aspire for greatness, because the need to engage the organization or customers is one of the greatest challenges to gaining buy-in and creating the shared need and urgency around the project.