Simple but powerful approach to leading projects.

1. Hossam Weiss, PgMP, PMP, PE

2. Workshop Objective
 To stimulate a discussion about the subject of
leadership in project management.
 Discuss the difference between leadership and
management.
 Discuss the CVME basics.
 Discuss the difference between leaders and losers.

3. Do you see yourself as a leader?
 Write one or two
things that you do
which you consider
a leadership
attribute.
 Discuss with your
team.

4. How do you see others?
 Write one or two things
that someone you know
does which you
consider a leadership
attribute.
 Discuss with your team.

5. Leadership in project management?
Leadership is a core competency for
executives but should it be also a
core competency for project
managers?

6. Why isn’t management enough?
 The profession of PM is continuing to increase in
complexity.
 Having to deal with different cultures, social
backgrounds, educational background, etc.
 Large complex projects that have sums of money and
scope complexity beyond the ability of one or limited
number of people.

7. Why isn’t management enough?
Project managers are driven toward
producing what they promise, and
cannot do so if no one is willing to
follow their directives.

8. Management and Leadership
 Management is charged with producing and
maintaining a degree of predictability and order.
 Leadership is charged with producing change.

9. Management and Leadership
Leaders are people
oriented, whereas
managers are task
oriented.
Leaders inspire, whereas
managers organize.

10. Management and Leadership
 Leaders inspire teams.
 Leaders resolve issues with
unquestioned authority, and ultimately
lead successful projects.
 Leaders can venture outside the normal
and defined comfort zones.

11. Exercise
With your team:
Write a comparison of leading
versus managing.
Write real life examples of each.

12. Leaders aren’t born, they are made
Even people with a natural
propensity for inspiring employees
to achieve results need
development to truly reach their
potential.

13. The CVME basics
Clarity
Vision
Motivation
Execution

14. The CVME basics
 Clarity – in all actions
 Vision – build a shared vision of success and what it
will take to achieve it
 Motivation – of the team
 Execution – deliver results

15. Clarity
 Be honest and play fair. Manipulation and
misrepresenting facts destroys a leader credibility.
 Give team members clear rules of the game.
 Never create false expectations.

16. The CVME basics
 Clarity – in all actions
 Vision – build a shared vision of success and what it
will take to achieve it
 Motivation – of the team
 Execution – deliver results

17. Vision
 Leaders see the big picture
 Create a vision for your team and make sure that the vision
is always on the mark and is being acted upon.
 Must understand what is the right balance for all
stakeholders’ needs and keep them in sync.
 Leaders must understand customers’ requirements,
address their changing needs and manage the dynamics of
those changes. Here; flexibility and adaptability is part of
having the vision.
 Emphasize vision, not supervision

18. Vision
Achieving the right balance involves balancing scope,
schedule, cost, quality, risk and human resources
requirements.
Leaders ask the tough questions and challenge others to
come up with the answer.

19. Vision
Tough questions:
 Which requirements and deliverables can be eliminated to
postponed?
 Are the required milestones real? Are they really required?
 Do we truly have the need for certain resources?
 Can we relax our constraints?
 Can we change our assumptions?

20. The CVME basics
 Clarity – in all actions
 Vision – build a shared vision of success and what it
will take to achieve it
 Motivation – of the team
 Execution – deliver results

21. Motivation
 Show respect - Being a leader is all about building respect
among people with varying levels of status and authority.
 Instill confidence – Remember that good project managers
are confident enough to surround themselves with people
smarter than they are.
 Provide growth opportunities - Give your team the desire to
improve their performance.
 Aspire - Engage the hearts, minds, bodies, and spirits of
people.
 Coach

22. Motivation
Coaching:
 Read 10%
 Listen 20%
 See 30%
 Listen/See (TV) 50%
 Discuss 70%
 Act 80%
 Teach / share with others /
coach 95%

23. Motivation
Prophet Muhammad
“The best of you is that who
learns the Quran and then
teaches it.”

24. The CVME basics
 Clarity – in all actions
 Vision – build a shared vision of success and what it
will take to achieve it
 Motivation – of the team
 Execution – deliver results

25. Execution
 When a team lacks cohesion, failures and weakness
shine. The goal is to keep a team focused on handling
all of the individual tasks
 Facilitate
 Know what works with different people
 Know that projects rarely fail due to a lack of technical
competence.

26. Execution
 You can’t always please everyone, so learn how to
navigate multiple priorities and make strategic
decisions.
 A good leader never micromanage.
 Empower the team to make decisions, especially when
a decision calls for a specialized technical knowledge.
 Employees must have no fear of failure

27. Execution
 It is easy to focus on the technical side of things when
making project decisions but you must focus on the
human element as well. The best leaders make
decisions based 75% on their own judgment and 25%
on input.
 Even if you know your own mind and are certain you
are making the right choice, seek the input of your
team.

28. Execution
 People want you to involve them and be a strong
leader.
 If making a strategic decision means overriding
stakeholders’ requests you can still make the right
choice for the project while demonstrating respect for
their wishes.

29. Question
With your team; prepare and present
your explanation of the CVME
project leadership basics?

30. Bill Stewart
“Leadership is not a job title”

31. Sam Walton
“Outstanding leaders go out of their
way to boost the self-esteem of
their personnel. If people believe
in themselves, it’s amazing what
they can accomplish.”

32. Jack Welch
“The art of leading comes down
to one thing: Facing reality, and
then acting decisively and
quickly on that reality.”

33. Leaders versus Losers
 Leaders confront and resolve  Loser complain and whine.
issues.  Try to "work around" the
 Get deeply inside the problem. problem but are always running
 Feel strong enough to be against it.
friendly with other people.  Rarely feel friendly toward other
 Respect people who are more people.
able than they are and try to  They either feel their
learn from them. weaknesses or behave as small
 Recognize that other people can tyrants.
have abilities.  always look for others'
 Look for answers. weaknesses.
 Look for excuses.

34. Leaders versus Losers
Write additional comparison points
between leaders and losers.

35. Leadership in summary
Creating, communicating, and implementing vision.
 Creating the vision – a clear direction, a scope, an
agenda of work.
 Communicating the vision – developing the team,
aligning people, ensure acceptance, lining people
up towards the vision.
 Implementing the vision – energize people to
overcome hurdles.

36. Brilliant Leaders
 Balance their teams’ goals with organizational
strategy.
 Know when to rely on instinct over rigid
conformance to rules and strive to inspire their
team members
 Capitalize on opportunities for growth during
change
 Understand the significance of showing respect to
others to get it in return
 Persevere past the pain until desired results are
achieved

37. The light side!

38. Thank you