A Leadership Success Journey: Moving from Tactical to Strategic

Project Leadership

Mr. James B. Forman, MBA, PMP Principal Project Manager ProjectPlus, LLC. Dr. Richard Discenza, PhD, PMP Professor Emeritus, University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

Session Takeaways

1. Understand the differences between tactical and strategic leadership styles and their outcomes

2. Learn how and why a strategic leadership style is linked with long-term success for project managers

3. Calibrate your leadership style by taking a short quiz

4. Practice developing a more strategic leadership style, using case-study incidents

5. Assess learnings to develop a more strategic project leadership style

A Call for Strategic Project Leadership… “PMI has conducted the Pulse study since 2006 to provide evidence that implementing strategy successfully is inextricably linked to an organization’s capability to deliver successful projects and programs. As we continue to see worsening project outcomes, disruptive global trends, and an uncertain economy, we want to advance the conversation. We want organizations to shift their thinking and embrace project management as a strategic competency for success.” Page 5, PMI Pulse of the Profession, 2016

Looking at Project Leadership… Today, Organizations are Implementing “Management by Projects”-- Tom Peters, 1982

• How does project leadership style affect project performance, alignment to business goals, and success or failure?

• Is strategic or tactical project leadership behavior the primary project performance driver?

• Should project managers emphasize tactical or strategic leadership styles to foster project success?

To answer these questions, let’s briefly review how organizational leadership has evolved . . .

Factors Affecting a Leader’s Style Leadership is Perhaps the Most Widely Studied Topic in Organizational Sciences

In a workplace situation, a leader is one who:

• Influences others to meet or exceed an organization’s mission or goal

• Simultaneously satisfies individual, group and professional needs

Education, Experience

Situation, Task

Superiors

Leader Stake-

holders

Organization,

Objectives, Policies

Subordi-nates,

Followers

Peers, Associates

Patterns of Leadership The Evolution from Tactical to Strategic Leadership

• Style depends on:

• The individual

• Subordinates

• The situation (environment)

Leader-Centered Leadership Team Member-Centered Leadership

Autocratic Facilitative Participative - Interactive

Relative Autonomy

Relative Dependence

Adapted from Tannenbaum and Schmidt, “How to Choose a Leadership Pattern,” Harvard Business Review, March-April 1958, pp 91-101.

• Leadership styles can be characterized by 3 distinct behavior patterns

• Leaders are often unsure of which style to apply

How Projects Fit into Organizations

• Top leaders must design the organiza-tion to achieve its strategic purpose

• Projects vary in size and importance depending on: • Overall environment

• Strategy

• Technology

Project Manager

Tactical Leadership Styles Evolving Focus Moves from Project to Organizational Goals

• Peter Drucker (1954) popularized “Management by Objectives” • Projects were a tactical means to increase organizational value by

adding revenue, one project at a time • Project management became a tactical tool to facilitate execution of

individual projects

• Tom Peters (1982) popularized “Management by Projects” • Projects were becoming aligned with organizations’ strategic

objectives, e.g., entering new markets, reducing costs, etc. • Project management is becoming a tactical tool to achieve

organizational goals and foster organizational change

• Tactical project managers work “in” projects, not “on” them

Strategic Leadership Style “Management by Objectives” becomes “Management by Projects”

• Strategic project leaders develop aware-ness of how/where their project “fits”

• Maintain discipline on several fronts: • Asking strategic questions

• Stepping back to gain perspective

• Developing discipline to think strategically in the face of tactical pressure

• Engage and lead cross-functional resources into an effective team

• Maintain alignment between project execution and organizational objectives

Adapted from MPUG.com Blog Written on March 8, 2016 by Satya Narayan Dash

Strategic Leadership Drives Project Success

• Strategic project leader is the link between tactical execution and strategic business objectives

• The single biggest reason projects fail (38%*) is because they’re not aligned with the business strategy

• Alignment of project execution is achieved when deliverables can be mapped to business objectives

Adapted from MPUG.com Blog Written on March 8, 2016 by Satya Narayan Dash *PMI Pulse of the Profession, 2016, page 5

The Project Manager as a Strategic Leader…

• Works On the Project, not In it

• Manages and Communicates Upward and Outward

• Leads planning Downward and Inward

• Delegates execution Downward, checks progress and quality Downward

• Holds delegates accountable for execution commitments

• Rewards outstanding performance

Balancing Tactical and Strategic Styles

Strategic Thinking, Planning but Tactical Execution through Delegation and Trust

Considering the tactical activities in which you must engage with daily, ask yourself: • How much time do you consume daily in purely tactical activities?

• Is it because you are the only person who knows how to do this task? • Why is this task so important that only you can do it?

• If everyone else is busy and you have time to do it, why aren’t you thinking in a strategic context instead of doing this task?

• Are you trusting project team members to complete their tasks on time and achieving quality requirements?

• Are you coaching your project team or are you explaining functionality?

• Have you communicated with the project sponsor today? A stakeholder today?

Calibrate Your Leadership Style

• Take the short quiz being passed out, by scoring each statement so that it best describes your project leadership style

• Tally your scores, by summing separately, the values for the odd-numbered questions and for the even-numbered questions

• Write the sum total for each set in the boxes at the bottom of the quiz

• Then let’s analyze your scores to see what they reveal about your project leadership style

Leadership Style Quiz

Score

1 - 5

How strongly do you agree or disagree with each of the following

statements about you, as the leader of your project team? Record

your score for each statement in the box to the left of each statement.

Strongly Disagree = 1; Disagree = 2; Neutral = 3; Agree = 4; Strongly

Agree = 5

1.

Everyone on my team has a clear job description, understands exactly

what is expected of him/her and how they will be measured.

2.

I always make time to answer team questions about the “how” and

“why” of our design documents to drive project and product quality.

3.

I keep my team informed of stakeholder commitments and

communicate issues arising outside the team, throughout the project

lifecycle.

4.

I make sure that I have a full workload so that I set a good example and

work ethic for my project team.

5.

Every member of my project team understands our project objectives

and I regularly communicate a coherent vision of how they support

business priorities.

6.

I always make time to answer team questions about the “how” and

“why” of our design documents to drive project and product quality.

7. I like to focus on the bigger picture rather than fine detail.

8. I like to have a high level of control over all elements of the task.

9.

I set priorities and then delegate tasks to my team to carry out how they

wish to.

10.

I like to actively define the work and the roles required and to organize

and monitor tasks in detail.

11.

I give people assignments that take advantage of their talents and abilities.

This draws from them their best possible work and helps them grow.

12. I like to agree on carefully defined tasks with team members.

13.

I regularly communicate project benefits status, risks and best practices to

stakeholders and to the project team.

14.

I prefer to delay escalations until the timing is better and the recipient at

the point of escalation is in a frame of mind to carefully consider the action

needed.

15. I try to uncover probable pitfalls that can derail project success.

16.

While I endeavor to plan my day and work my top priorities, I most often

manage my day by the plethora of interruptions that come my way.

17.

I effectively gather critical stakeholder inputs formally and informally,

during the entire project lifecycle.

18.

I like to actively define the work and the roles required to successfully

complete it on time, and to organize and monitor tasks in detail.

19.

My project plan always links project objectives with better business results

for the sponsor's organization.

20.

I worry more about the mistakes we make than the people who make

them.

Total Score for odd numbered statements

Total Score for even numbered statements

How Did You Score?

• The sum total of the even-numbered responses reports your perceived tactical leadership style, within a scoring range of 5 to 50

• The sum total of the odd-numbered responses reports your perceived strategic leadership style, within a scoring range of 5 to 50

Tactical Style Score:

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Strategic Style Score:

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Tactical Style Score:

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Strategic Style Score:

5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

Teams Respond to Your Leadership Style Leadership Style Drives Project Results

Tactical leadership style cues:

• Responds to fires and leads the fight

• Hoards critical information and may share with only select team members

• Displays symptoms of paranoia

• Master of daily lists

• Describes functionality and answers questions about it

• Focused on daily “standup” meetings

• Leader’s calendar blocked with meetings

• Managing work at task level

• Micromanages task status and variance

Strategic leadership style cues:

• Big picture thinker

• Focus on deliverables quality

• Prioritizes project goals and trusts project team capabilities for execution

• Fosters stakeholder communication

• Shares stakeholder feedback

• Focus on who, what and why, NOT how

• Invests time in coaching the team and gives feedback skillfully

• The team knows the leader’s #2 and has confidence in the leader’s #2

• Acknowledges his/her own leadership style with team and promotes development

Apply What You’ve Learned

Using Case Study Scenarios Practice Strategic Leadership Styles

• Divide into small teams of 3-5 people with whom you don’t normally work

• Study the two project scenarios being passed out and discuss each one separately in your small teams

• Appoint a scribe and decide how to respond to each scenario by articulating priorities, work assignments, action plan or approach, and your team’s rationale for each

• Prepare to share you response plan for each scenario with the workshop

• Times up – move to discussion topics on next slide

Project Leadership Scenario “A” Based on your successful track record, and because this “high-stakes” project will be delivered to one of your firm’s key clients, you have been selected to manage it. It has a very aggressive timeline, maximizing schedule risk, and staffing it with well-seasoned resources will be a critical success factor. You have arrived on the project just in time to “own” the last iteration of the project charter. You take a deep breath, check your horoscope, roll up your sleeves, and plunge headlong into another major challenge.

Review the following list of near-term challenges that you face. Prioritize each task, decide if you will own it, delegate it, and if so why, and to whom (identify a trusted role) and if delegated, how much will you be involved (e.g., how often will you meet to review progress, etc.?) Assume you have committed your weekends to family activities.

Challenge Priority Delegate?

(Y/N)

Why Delegate?

Delegate to whom (role)? Level of PM Involvement

Stakeholder Mgmnt Plan

SOW & scope negotiations

Proj Mgt Plan + Annexes

Master Schedule

Kickoff & Status Mtgs

Change Mgmnt Plan

Project Comm’s Plan

Project Leadership Scenario “B” Your project is nearing the scheduled date for your first major deliverable, which will trigger a milestone payment amounting to 25% of the contract value! Supplier quality has been a vexing issue, your tech team lead has been out sick for 2 weeks, and morale issues have begin to spill over to the rest of the project team. Except for your daily personal “blocked” time, your calendar is wall-to-wall with meetings, conference calls, reviews, etc.

Review the following list of actions, select those that you feel are relevant to the current project situation, feel free to add new actions, then prioritize those actions that you feel need to be executed, assign each to a responsible role, etc., and explain your rationale. Your weekends are still committed to family activities.

Action Priority

Delegate? (Y/N)

Why Delegate?

Delegate to whom (role)? Level of PM Involvement

Develop a plan to slip schedule, presentation, present to sponsor

Review deliverable link to project objectives, re-plan remaining work

Meet with disgruntled team members to learn morale issues

Inspect vendor mfring facility and process with your QA team

Meet with stakeholders to review project objectives vs. schedule

Review staffing plan and accession plan; meet with resource mgrs.

Review your calendar, cancel meetings to free up time

Share Learnings from the Case Study Scenarios Moving from Tactical to Strategic Leadership

• What similar experiences have you had in one of your projects?

• As your team discussed how to respond to each scenario, were you able to not only relate, based on experience, but understand how a tactical versus strategic leadership style can produce different project outcomes?

• What do you think, in general, are the key outcome differences between applying a tactical versus a strategic leadership style in your projects?

• How will you react the next time you sense that as project leader, you are acting tactical when you should be thinking and acting strategically?

• What changes will you begin to make in your leadership style next week?

Reality Check There are Tell-tale Signs of a Strategic Project Leader

1. Myth or Reality: Manage your day by the plethora of interruptions that come you way.

2. Myth or Reality: Escalating an issue over someone’s head is bad business.

3. Myth or Reality: Worry more about the mistakes made than the people who made them.

4. Myth or Reality: Overload yourself with work to set an example for the project team.

5. Myth or Reality: Organizational processes and methodologies should always be strictly followed.

6. Myth or Reality: You’re not responsible for the quality of the deliverable you’re dependent on.

7. Myth or Reality: Once you have met with stakeholders and have shared a stakeholder management plan with your team, stakeholder management is done.

8. Myth or Reality: A leadership accession plan is something for the “C” suite, and not of much use on most projects.

In Summary – What have we Learned? • For many years project management was all in a tactical mode; the addition of

standards, methodology, and tools has emphasized the linkage between project execution and strategic organization/business objectives

• A project manager is the single leader, strategically placed between tactical execution to achieve business goals and the vision that fostered the goals

• Most project failures are well-planned from the start – the seeds are sown early; strategic planning and leadership from the start are the only antidote (NASA Rule 15)

• Today, projects move at flank speed; if the captain of the project ship is in the engine room helping the mate make mechanical repairs, on one is steering the ship away from the rocks

References 1. “From tactical project management to strategic project leadership,” D. Wessels and C. Wilson, paper presented

at PMI NA Global Congress, 2009 http://www.pmi.org/learning/tactical-pm-strategic-project-leadership-6619

2. Five Competencies to Successfully Drive Strategic Initiative, webinar by Jack Ferraro, http://www.projectmanagement.com/videos/290209/Five-Competencies-to-Successfully-Drive-Strategic-Initiative

3. Strategic Project Management Made Simple, Terry Schmidt, Wiley, 2009

4. Why CEO’s Fail, Ram Charan and Geoffrey Colvin, Fortune Magazine, June 21, 1999

5. Strategic vs. Tactical Project Manager, Lisa M. Drake, Lisa Drakes Project Management Blog, http://lisamdrake.com/2011/10/15/strategic-vs-tactical-project-manager/

6. “Extending the Vision – Bridging the Gap between Strategy and Execution,” Matt Alderton, PM Network, May 2015 http://www.pmi.org/Learning/PM-Network/2015/bridging-gap-between-strategy-execution.aspx

7. “What Project Strategy Really Is,” P. Patanakul and A. Shenhar, Project Management Journal, Vol. 43, No. 1, 4–20, January, 2012 http://www.pmi.org/learning/fundamental-building-block-strategic-project-management-2246>

8. “The collision of strategic project management & business analysis,” D. Wessels, paper presented at PMI NA Global Congress, 2007 http://www.pmi.org/learning/collision-strategic-project-management-business-analysis-6989

9. “The revolutionary strategic project management maturity model,” Gary R. Heerkens, paper presented at PMI NA 2008 http://www.pmi.org/learning/global-congress-strategic-project-management-maturity-7054

10. Introducing--the revolutionary strategic project management maturity model (SPM3),” Gary R. Heerkens, paper presented at PMI NA 2007 http://www.pmi.org/learning/strategic-project-management-maturity-model-7333

Contact Information

Jim Forman jforman@outlook.com 719-330-9941

Richard Discenza Rdiscenz@gmail.com 719-200-8902