This document outlines the journey from rational ego-based project manager leadership to transpersonal leadership. It discusses increasing levels of leadership including becoming robustly emotionally aware and achieving radical ethically authentic leadership. An integral competencies framework and values self-assessment are provided to help leaders improve skills like empathy. Real workplace projects are recommended for experiential learning. The conclusion emphasizes it is a lifelong journey to adapt leadership style to different contexts.

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From Project Manager to
Organisational Transformation Leader:
Do You Have What Is Needed?
Presented by Michel Lavoie PMP

2. Agenda
Introduction
Context
Tomorrow’s leadership
The Integral Competencies of Leadership Framework
The steps in the journey towards becoming a ‘Transpersonal Leader’
Values self-assessment
Learning through real workplace projects
Conclusion
References
Questions and answers
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3. Introduction
We are all leaders now, and we all need to be. All of
us are on that personal journey and always will be
whether we are aware of it or not.
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4. Context
Unprecedented change in the demands of leadership
over the last 10-15 years.
Created by social and technological change, by
globalisation and by the growing concern for the
future of our planet.
The Age of Sustainability has begun
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5. Tomorrow’s leadership
HOW to become an excellent leader = Is asking yourself ‘What
do I need to do differently myself to become a better leader?’
Putting this learning into practice – is the rest of your life.
What was a ‘nice to have’ approach 10 or 15 years ago is now a
must have if you are committed to developing long-term value
to shareholders and other stakeholders.
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6. The Integral Competencies of Leadership Framework
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7. The Integral Competencies Framework
The sooner, the younger, the less experienced, then the
easier it will be to make the changes in how you operate.
The first step is to become a leader of oneself – something
everyone on the planet could benefit from.
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8. The steps in the journey towards becoming a
‘Transpersonal Leader’
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Advanced: The Transformational
Leader
Intermediate: The Project Leader
Launch: The Project Manager

9. The start: ‘Rational Ego-based As-usual Leadership’
The ‘Rational’ these individuals can think logically and
work things out on a rational basis.
‘Ego-based’ is where most leaders are at. They seek
power, reward, prestige or recognition, or any
combination.
‘As-usual’ refers to what can normally be expected from
leaders who have not been trained in behavioural skills
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10. The start: ‘Rational Ego-based As-usual Leadership’
There is nothing wrong with it. But to move to excellent leadership these
personal needs must be in harmony with the organisation.
Every individual have varying levels of intuitive thinking and emotional
awareness but most often they will not be fully aware of their
capabilities and therefore will not be managing these attributes to
maximise levels of self-management, relationships and performance.
Most of us react ‘As-usual’ when we are stressed at which time our
emotions are better placed to hijack our brains. Unfortunately, many
leaders react ‘As-usual’ all the time.
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11. The intermediate stage: ‘Robust Emotionally Aware Leadership’
The ‘Robust’ refers to an individual having reached a level of inner
self confidence where they are not afraid to say what they think,
willing to take risks and ensure messages are communicated
unambiguously.
‘The Emotionally Aware’ The leader also needs to be conscious of
and sensitive to people’s feelings and in particular how their
behaviour affects the mindset and performance of others.
Combining the two elements develops a leader that people will
want to follow.
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12. The intermediate stage: ‘Robust Emotionally Aware Leadership’
Leaders need to be able to respond to the fact that today we can hold less
than 10% of the information we need in our brains, compared to 75% only
20 years ago.
This means that the old mantra that ‘knowledge is power’ is no longer valid
so the genetic default just does not work.
We need to understand about leadership is how it differs from
‘management’. Management produces key results –leadership produces
change and transformation.
‘Self-awareness’ is the first rung on the ladder to leadership excellence.
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13. The goal: ‘Radical Ethically Authentic Leadership’
Radical because we need a new kind of leadership –And it
infers courage and fearlessness.
Ethically means not only integrity but a social conscience and
a willingness to follow the rules (or get them changed if that is
what is needed).
Authentic because a leader must act as they truly are – they
must be honest with themselves and others. ‘Authentic’ also
implies that the leader is the same person (though may
behave appropriately different) in all circumstances.
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14. The goal: ‘Radical Ethically Authentic Leadership’
The‘Transpersonal Leader’ thinks beyond his ego.
It means working for the greater good.
Leader needs to be emotionally intelligent in order to have
sufficient inner self confidence, awareness and empathy to
be open to and have the determination to respond to the
demands of developing into a ‘Transpersonal Leader’.
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15. Values self-assessment
Although there is no substitute for a complete 360°
assessment, a self-assessment taster can be used.
This is a self-assessment tool that is used as one of
the learning exercises to create greater self-
awareness in the journey to the advanced level of
transpersonal leadership development.
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Self-assessment areas:
Personal Conscience:
who I am – uncovered
Self-determination:
this is all about movement
and direction. How do I
release myself to get to
where I want to be?

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Instructions
Against each statement score yourself from 1 to 5 according the
listing below as to how often you perform/achieve the
behaviours described in the questionnaire:
1Never or almost never
2Occasionally
3Quite often
4Usually
5 Always
To get the full value from this exercise try to be honest and
objective. The completed forms will be retained by you, and
you only share the information you wish to.
Complete the sub-totals and totals for each section as marked.

18. X = Values – Personal
conscience
• A = Trustworthiness
• B = Truth and honesty
• C = Integrity
• D = Humility
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Y = Values – Self-
determination
• E = Motivation
• F = Drive (intense will)
• G = Courage

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Values self-assessment
Personal conscience
(Maximum score = 95)
76 or above: highly developed
personal conscience
57–76: good level of personal
conscience, some work needed
38–57: some improvement
needed
less than 38: significant
improvement needed.
Self-determination
(Maximum score = 60)
48 or above: highly developed
level of self-determination
36–48: good level of self-
determination - some work needed
24–36: some improvement needed
less than 24: significant
improvement needed.

20. Values self-assessment
Most leaders will have a higher rating, in self-determination
than in personal conscience.
Finally, take a look at the granular behaviours where you
scored lowest compared to your other scores. Choose one,
two or three granular behaviours to work on to improve
your transpersonal leadership.
These behaviours are sufficiently granular that techniques
can be learned to put them right.
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21. Values self-assessment
Knights’s recent research had shown that ‘empathy’
is the behaviour most in need of development (62
per cent of executives had this within their top five
development needs).
Developing others and Conflict management where
also among the list.
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22. Learning through real workplace projects
Consider workplace projects as a high-value, high-
impact learning strategy for learning purposes, as a
serious addition or even alternative to structured
training interventions.
Workplace projects live in the tensions of real
emotions and politics – this is a valuable benefit to
direct what is realistic in practice, but it is also
something to be ideally managed by a skilled
facilitator.
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23. Learning through real workplace projects
What follows is a checklist of questions to use with /by
people undertaking learning projects
The checklist is not exhaustive and you could develop
your own version
It is relatively simple and is useful to encourage a
continuous flow of reflections and encourage the idea
that we can always do things differently and better.
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24. Learning through real workplace projects
Project learning questions
Scope
What is the project about?
What is the problem I am/we are aiming to solve?
What is the solution I am/we are putting in place?
What do I need to find out about?
What facts do I need?
What resources do I need?
What are the priorities from the leadership assessment
feedback?
Approach
What needs to be done?
What are the alternative ways to do it?
How can it be done?
How will I decide how to choose the best approach?
What criteria will I use?
Which way is best according to my criteria?
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Project learning questions
Action plan
Which way have I chosen?
Who do I need to tell?
Who needs to be involved?
What are the tasks that need to be done?
How will the tasks be done? By whom? When?
Pre-action learning check
What has been learnt so far?
What else was interesting?
How could this impact my approach?

25. Learning through real workplace projects
Project learning questions
In action
How is it going?
Who would agree with my conclusion?
Who would dispute my conclusions?
What evidence do I have?
Am I on schedule?
Is quality being achieved?
Who would agree with my conclusion?
Who would dispute my conclusions?
Do I need to revisit the plan?
Who do I need to tell?
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Project learning questions
Post-action learning check
What have I learnt so far about what works?
What have I learnt so far about what could be done
differently?
What else have I learnt so far?
What else was interesting?
What might I do that is slightly different, to get a different
result?
What might I do that is radically different, to get a
different result?
How could this impact my next approach?

26. Learning through real workplace projects
Approaching a workplace project is not just about the tools
and techniques that will be applied during a project – it is
also about how reflection will happen, which is a crucial
strategy for experiential learning in projects.
Planning for the barriers to implementation can affect the
overall approach to the project. Conflict handling and
management responses/behaviours may also be useful even
if they are not intentionally a key part of the learning in the
project.
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27. Conclusions
It is a life time journey.
The younger you start the better it is.
There is always room for improvement, at all ages.
Even if it is showed as steps, it is iterative.
It is useful at all levels in organisations.
You must adapt you leadership style to each context.
Talk about it :
• How it is important to deliver value in your projects /organisations;
• Ask for support from RH in your organisations / clients;
• Share your concerns with co workers and executives.
We are all leaders now, and we all need to be. All of us are on that personal journey and always will be
whether we are aware of it or not.
I hope that this material had inspired you as much as it inspired me.
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28. References
The Invisible Elephant & The Pyramid Treasure;
Published by John Knights with contributors, 2012.
Leadership Assessment for Talent Development;
Edited by Tony Wall and John Knights, 2013.
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29. Thank you for attending.
I will be available for further discussions and
answering specific questions with my partners and
friends Claude and Charlotte.
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