demonstrate leadership behaviour

The Importance of Demonstrating Leadership Behaviour

In the latest version of the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK) V7, released by the Project Management Institute on 1 August 2021, there are 12 Principles. Did you know that “Demonstrate Leadership Behaviours” is one of the principles that the standard is based on?

Source: PMI.org

The PMBOK Guide has moved away from the traditional focus on processes, inputs and outputs, and what you find now is an emphasis on Principles, Performance Domains, Models, Methods and Artifacts, and Standards. In other words, there is a shift from process-based standards to standards based on principles; from Knowledge Areas to Project Performance Domains with the focus on outcomes rather than outputs / deliverables.

The purpose of this article is to delve a bit deeper into the Principle of Demonstrating Leadership Behaviour. Since Leadership is a project management skill that has received increasing focus over the years, I wanted to understand how it is positioned as a principle.

Leadership to support individual and team needs

Leadership traits exhibited by people in the project environments include establishing and maintaining a vision, critical thinking and creativity, motivation, encouragement and empathy.

The PMBOK Guide provides an interesting perspective on leadership by stating that leadership is not exclusive to any specific role. It states that high-performing projects feature multiple people exhibiting effective leadership skills, traits and styles to help the team perform and to deliver the required results.

leadership vision

It continues to say that it takes leadership to motivate a group towards a common goal, influence them to align their individual interests in favour of the collective effort and to achieve success as a team.

The Guide makes an important point in favour of situational leadership, which means to tailor the style to meet needs of the team. Therefore, effective leadership is shown when it best fits a given situation. A few examples are given to explain.

  • When chaos exists, directive action will create more clarity than collaborative problem solving.
  • In environments with competent and engaged teams, empowered delegation is better than centralized coordination.
  • When there’s conflict over priorities, neutral facilitation helps more than detailed recommendations.

Something that I definitely agree with, is the Guide’s statement that ‘effective leadership skill is grown’. It is something that can be learned and developed so that it becomes a professional asset to the individual.

Of course, leaders need to be a role model in areas of honesty, integrity and ethical conduct. According to the Guide projects work best when leaders understand what motivates people. Motivators include autonomy, recognition, purpose, growth opportunities and personal contribution.

A last point made as part of the principle to demonstrate leadership behaviour, is that by blending styles, growing skills and leveraging motivators, any team member or stakeholder can motivate, influence, coach and grow the project team, regardless of their role.

Which Leadership skills to develop

Servant leadership

Your leadership acumen can be developed by practicing a combination of various skills and techniques. Project managers will recognize this as part of the many activities they perform every day on projects.

Ensure the vision for the project outcomes is well understood and that the team is focused on the agreed goals. Seek resources and support for the project and overcome obstacles to progress.

Negotiate and resolve conflict within the project team and between the team and other stakeholders. Adapt your communication style and messaging to be relevant to the audience.

Coaching and mentoring fellow project team members will take much of your time. Appreciate and reward contributions made and provide opportunities for growth and development. Do this by delegating responsibilities to team members and empowering them for high performance.

Facilitate collaborative decision making and practice active listening. Show empathy for project team and stakeholder perspectives. Practice self-awareness of your own bias and behaviours.

Manage and adapt to change during the project life cycle and facilitate a mindset of learning quickly by acknowledging mistakes.

Interpersonal skills will include many soft skills, like emotional intelligence, recognising our own and others’ emotions, to guide thinking and behaviour. This includes self-awareness, self-management, social awareness and social skill.

Continue to practice all the above while you role model the desired behaviours. As you can see, this is quite a tall order for any project manager, but at the same time, leading is what keeps the role interesting, challenging and contributes to personal growth on every project. The perspective of the Guide is that on high-performing projects many members portray effective leadership skills.

Leadership development

Demonstrate leadership behaviour

In conclusion, there is no one behavioural or leadership style that will make for success. Rather a flexible and adaptive approach needs to be adopted so that the most appropriate style is used for any given situation. To know the appropriate style to use, comes with practice, years of experience, observing great leaders and a growth mindset for continuous learning.

More information

If you’d like to obtain your own copy of the latest PMBOK Guide v7, you will find it on the Project Management Institute’s website. It is pricey, but a 50% discount is available for PMI members. For a frank overview of the PMBOK Guide v7, you will find the article by Dr Mike Clayton refreshing.

Maintain Morale and Motivation of a Remote Workforce

How to maintain the morale and motivation of a remote workforce

By Rhylan Jozelle

Even though many employees have started going back to the office, it’s clear that all staff being there all day, every day, is simply no longer the default for many organisations. The big question now becomes: “how to maintain the morale and motivation of a remote workforce?”

There are obvious advantages to remote work — avoiding commutes, flexibility, smaller overheads from costs like office rental, and for some disabled workers, it was always more practical. Very often, there’s reportedly no loss to productivity. It’s not without its challenges, of course, and one of the victims can be morale. Low morale is generally an expression of other factors — it’s not just an inevitable consequence of being outside the office. When we seek to understand and acknowledge that team members may develop a lower morale over time and loose motivation, it makes sense to find ingredients that can improve motivation among those who are spending countless hours still not moving from their home.

Let’s take a look at 5 ways to maintain the morale and motivation:

#1 Keep Connected

Maintaining consistent communication with team members, is really the basis of all further points in this article. Simply staying in touch on a one-to-one basis as well as in a group context — by video conference, not just messaging — makes clear your approachability and responsiveness. In addition, staff can use a support group to communicate with one another about non-task-related subjects. It’s about being human rather than always talking about deadlines and targets.

#2 Help Employees Find a Healthy Work-Life Balance

maintain motivation and morale for remote workforce

Work-life balance is the most commonly cited reason for remote work in the long term. But there’s a sense of stress and anxiety that we’ve all become far too familiar with thanks to the blurring of work and play environments. Distractions and ‘not being able to unplug’ can suck the enjoyment and productivity out of work, making it a frustrating grind. We’ve a number of tips for those wanting to reduce stress when working from home such as creating separate spaces where possible and making time to do things you enjoy. Even if they are familiar with some or all of them, sometimes a gentle reminder to check in with these aids to well-being will do wonders for a team member who has fallen into a rut. Mental health is to a large extent about habits, as with other aspects of health.

#3 Exhibit Leadership

Proper leadership sets the tone for employees. It’s not easy — Gallup recently found that companies fail to choose suitable managers 82% of the time. A good leader trained in the principles of management leadership, with skills like critical thinking, team-building, communication, and problem-solving ultimately bring out intangibles like confidence in the organisation. Applying these skills to engender a culture of transparency, accountability and drive creates a better working environment for remote workers.

#4 Discuss Scheduling and Capacities with Employees

The word ‘with’ here is important for this practical step, because while the ship has sailed on one-size-fits-all schedules, issues can arise from de-synchronisation. The tech giants have all come to different overarching policies, for instance, but case by case concerns complicate things. If Stephanie has recently had a child, for instance, she may be able to remotely complete her work during different hours but not make it to certain physical or even remote project meetings, leading to some coworkers thinking she is ‘not pulling her weight.’ Improving Stephanie’s morale might simply require a conversation with her project team to raise awareness and work out how to keep her in the loop.

#5 Minimise distractions and interruptions

Studies suggest frequent interruptions at work correlate with decreased job satisfaction and wellbeing. Thus, by providing employees with tools designed to minimize those distractions (such as noise-canceling earbuds), employers may make a big difference in workers’ productivity—and happiness.

It’s clear by now that remote work is not a magic wand, and that its long term integration requires meeting its particular challenges to avoid dislocated, burned out and incohesive teams.

How to Reach Success in Agile with Small Habits

For experienced project management professionals, the transition to Agile can be one of the hardest things to do. I would sometimes explain it to people by saying: “It’s like learning to brush your teeth with the left hand, if you’re right-handed.”

It does not come naturally; it takes time and practice. There are a number of habits to unlearn, like the need to have all things under your control and being the center of coordination.

What I want to share with you today, is how to be successful in Agile, by creating new, small habits. You want to become an Agile Project Leader which is a journey that does not come overnight. What if I told you that you could succeed with small habits?

When you choose to go into a new direction, like following an Agile approach when delivering projects, instead of the traditional, waterfall approach, you can do that by using small habits. Take charge in tiny bit-size chunks. This will make change possible and help you to become that person you desire to be, and you know you could be, namely an Agile Project Leader.

How do you create a small habit successfully?

1. Don’t try to change the world overnight. Start with just one new habit and then go from there. Practice to let go of the need to be in control of everything.

2. Make a commitment. Not every habit is created equal, and some take longer to embed in your mind than others. However, one thing is true. The longer you perform the same activity day after day, the more success you will have in creating that habit.

Take the mindset change for example, to adopt a new culture of Agile values. Start with the 4 Values and 12 Principles of the Agile Manifesto, study each one until you properly understand their meaning and the implications of the impact on the way you work. Decide right now that you are going to give this new habit of living the Agile values and principles at least 4 to 8 weeks to give it a proper start.

3. Link the habit to something that already works. If you have a successful habit already in place, ask yourself what small thing you can attach to that habit. For example, if you are already communicating with your team members daily, to add a daily standup would not be that hard, right?

4. Keep it small. Knowing that most habit formation fails because you are trying to do too much too soon, then make a point to keep the changes very small. That will give you a much higher rate of success than trying to create a great big change. For example, keep asking yourself, what is the least documentation we need to do in order to communicate enough detail for the work to continue.

5. Have a disaster plan in place. Knowing that things are going to go wrong from the start helps you to be ready when they do. If you want to step in and tell people what to do to solve a problem (so that you can stay in control), rather take a step back and ask a few questions that will lead the team to find a solution to a problem themselves.

6. Grab a friend. The only way to keep on track, especially when building habits, is to use your network. Have an accountability partner to keep you honest. This is one of the most important success criteria when adopting new habits.

Do it with friends / colleagues who are on the same journey than you, as well as with Agile coaches. They will give you answers and examples of doing things in diverse ways; different from what you thought would be the right way. Often, there is not only one right way. Be open to possibilities and become more creative in your thinking.

7. Reward yourself. Celebrate every little milestone with a reward, something that makes sense and will encourage you to keep going when motivation becomes low.

I used to belong to what is called “Agile Coaching Circles.” They consisted of a group of people who come together every second week at a time that is convenient for all, to discuss Agile topics of their choice. The knowledge sharing and learning that took place, was hugely rewarding and kept me motivated to come back for more.

8. Redefine yourself. Accept that this is the new you. The habits you are building are going to change who you are and how you do thing. Embrace the new identity. Enjoy the experience of doing things in a new way that will make you a good Agile Project Leader and will help you to be successful in delivering value to customers, just like you have been doing before.

By following these steps, you not only will succeed when applying small habits to your life, but over time you will see amazing growth and development as a person. That is pretty exciting, especially when you consider how little you had to do to get there.

Agile Project Leader Online Training

If you want results, and you want to fast-track your learning about Agile, the Agile Project Leader Online training course is just what you need. It will solve the transition challenge for existing project managers and give you the exact strategies, mindset, process and practices to move the needle on successfully implementing the strategic initiatives following an Agile approach. It provides much guidance on various Agile roles, frameworks and different certifications available to help you select the best one. You will find multiple Guides to download for immediate use.

Through the tension

Through the tension – creating a sense of certainty

By Mandy Carlson

Balancing the tension between what is known and what is unknown can enhance our ability to think and act more effectively.

‘A sense of certainty is one of the brain’s intrinsic goals. At a fundamental level in the brain, certainty has to do with the ability to predict, using past patterns to prepare for what comes next. Everything we do moment to moment is based on predictive patterns.’

David Rock

Tension from uncertainty

Creating a sense of certainty helps us see things more clearly which enables us to predict more accurately. We know where we stand, understand our current context or reality, and can see the future possibilities that lie ahead. There’s a feeling of being grounded. This means we are more likely to be positioned to take the right action at the right time, and to be eliminating some of the unnecessary distracting thoughts (like worry because of uncertainty) in our minds as well as some of the clutter that sits on and off our everyday work/life paths.

We experience uncertainty in our brains in much the same way as physical pain. Recent research shows us that, like pain, too much uncertainty can reduce our high performance energy levels and cloud our thinking. We experience a decrease in the functional capability of our brain, in particular in the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for optimal executive thinking. And because our brains and our bodies are one system, ongoing and intense levels of uncertainty can then result in anxiety, high stress levels, and in some cases burnout or disease.

What can we do?

What we can do is use the resources that we each have and can gain, and equip ourselves with ways to reduce the anxiety of the unknown, find a sense of calm, and be able to think and act with more certainty. As we think about and practice new ways of creating certainty and reducing stress, we develop new patterns of behaviours (habits). This is continuous learning for personal mastery that we bring to our social ecosystems.

We are effectively settings ourselves up to operate at our best – an empowering space to be.

A better understanding of what is possible in our immediate worlds – what is closest to us and within our circle of influence gives us a better sense of knowing and being empowered (and being in control) as Steven R Covey so well advised.

The uncertainty of current and future

Let’s take a look at how to travel through the tension of uncertainty.

Uncertainty of current and future

Certainty relates to experiencing what is. A kind of knowing in our minds and in our bodies. Why in our bodies too? Because we sense and think with more than just our minds. With our bodies we feel, and respond based on our interpretation of that feeling.

Ask yourself how it would feel to be more certain. For example, it may feel like a sense of relief which means a more relaxed mind and body state. This is the sweet spot where we want to be physiologically speaking – a relaxed body, relaxed mind. To be able to see with greater clarity and to do things differently to create something better for improved results.

Effectiveness encompasses wellbeing of body and mind and our application of ourselves in everyday life – how we are performing relative to what is available to us and what we can create. It is a dynamic concept and refers to how capable we are of doing most effectively what we need to do, and building our capability to stretch and grow further.

Just think about the uncertain paths we have and are navigating. There are more uncertainties than ever experienced during this time of survival and transition in our worlds. And at the same time there is so much opportunity, especially to innovate and do things differently and with speed. We just need to see it, feel it, commit to it, and really care to make it happen.

We spend a lot of time looking back and in the present, while looking at future scenarios could create a greater experience of calm through certainty. Consider the process of creating future scenarios for certainty – to ease the tension and to feel more empowered in what you know and what the future may bring.

How does certainty support us?

Giving attention to ‘what if’ means that we can experience how we think, feel and would respond based on the information we have at hand. The more personally relevant the information available to us, the more we can increase our ability to think and feel and respond most effectively.

Explore – see how certainty presents in your thoughts, relationships, everyday activities. Just observe.

Ask – once you have identified the certainties and uncertainties, see where the tension lies and ask why you are feeling this.  What are you really feeling, and how important or relevant is that particular sense of certainty for you in your life?

Openness – open up and view ways to balance the tension from different angles, from diverse perspectives. You may be surprised about what you notice.  Predict – create different scenarios of what is possible (even if just thinking about it rather than journaling). Place yourself in these scenarios and see how you could do things differently.

Create diverse scenarios of the future for deeper understanding, and a greater sense of certainty. Be curious, question, and see which ones grab your attention as being most realistic. In the process you may feel discomfort in your body and your mind until you reach just that right amount of tension [another sweet spot?].

  • Gather information that informs your thinking.
  • Gather information that challenges your thinking.
  • Gather the most diverse [and credible] information.

Mindfully asking, listening, and receiving this information enables you to balance the tension and make the most of your thinking – for seeing clearly with a wider perspective, making decisions and taking action – and to feel more certain.

Feedback of insights, thoughts, and experiences as you explore this theme are welcomed.

About the Author:

Mandy, of carlson practices, a change consultant, coach, and learning facilitator, is a certified Results Coach through Neuroleadership Institute as well as an accredited coach through Neurozone. She is constantly learning through studies and practice of contemporary neuroscience findings, systems thinking, positive psychology and is passionate about empowering teams, leaders and individuals with simple tools and actionable strategies to learn and bring about lasting change for wellbeing and effectiveness.

The content is substantiated by contemporary neuroscience findings, as well as diverse experiential learnings of real people in their everyday lives through the application of brain- and body-based coaching techniques.

Sources

  • Some practical suggestions on dealing with certainty in this CEO World Magazine article by Hamish Knox.
  • Dr Tara Swart references developing resilience to effectively respond to stress in this Daily Stoic article and offers a simple exercise to help build mental resilience.
  • Gartner highlights scenario planning tips and tools on their website and in an eBook.
  • Dr David Rock of Neuroleadership Institute shares neuroscientific insights in a Forbes article on creating clarity.
  • Dr Etienne van der Walt shares latest data from Neurozone on optimising our finite energy to enhance our resilience for high performance.
Task board to be more productive

4 Types of Task Boards to make you more productive

By Kaylee White

Most project managers use multiple methods and tools to keep organized. We’re tracking people, tasks, files, updates, and changes while trying to make sure the quality of work is up to standard and that deadlines are met. Many companies use Project Management software for collaborative task tracking and communication, and then we supplement with spreadsheets, notebooks, to-do lists, calendar reminders, and, for those of us who are visually minded, bulletin boards.

Task Board

If you need an easy way to keep track of your projects, you may find that a revamped bulletin board, called a task board, can help you maintain a bird’s-eye view of what you’re working on. It also helps when we need backup: the internet goes down, the PM platform is unavailable due to maintenance, or some other issue means you need a physical (not virtual) means of managing of your project.

Depending on how you use it, a task board can tell you what you’ve committed to, what you’re working on, what you’ve accomplished, and whether or not everyone on the project is collaborating well.

Poster Board

One example of a task board is a large piece of poster board divided into three sections: to do, doing, and done. You can color-coordinate sticky notes and place them on the board depending on your needs, whether it’s by the person doing the task, the project, or another system you’ve created that works for you.

Window Board

Another option is to use a window. This takes a little more time to set up, but it can look more elegant since it uses a clear background (glass) instead of paper or brown corkboard. Once you’ve decorated your window and created sections, you use this version of a task board the same way you would the Poster Board.

Corkboard

On a corkboard you can use icons representing the work to be done. Use different paint colours to indicate the To Do and Done sections on the board.

Magnetic Board

Beyond the poster board, window, and cork board, you can also use a magnetic board. Each of these options have their own pros and cons, and then you have more than a few options for how to organize your projects on each.

Whatever you end up doing, if you use the task board in your office, it may help your team if you hang it in an area with high traffic so they can see at a glance where a project stands. In Agile this concept is known as an Information Radiator.

Benefits of a Task Board

Furthermore, to make it more interesting for everyone, try using photos of each team member instead of just their name: This can reduce confusion and make the board and its tasks feel even more important. For PMs who work remotely, task boards can serve as a colourful way to decorate your home office space, with the added benefit of making the work visible. If you can, put the board on the wall behind you so that it’s visible on video calls and during online meetings.

Task boards are excellent tools for any kind of project, especially Agile projects. Your team will appreciate a task board because it’s easy to update and shows valuable information in a visually appealing, easy-to-understand way.

If you’d like to learn more about task boards, check out this infographic, with compliments from Quill. It goes into detail about each type of task board and different ways of organizing the information on your board. You can also, of course, make your own completely unique task board that suits your project and flow of work. This infographic will give you a great place to start.

Agile Project Leader

How to become a credible Agile Project Leader

By Linky van der Merwe

When I first transitioned to Agile, coming from a traditional project management background, I quickly realised that one of the keystones to become successful in Agile, would be to change my mindset. The mindset that needs to be adopted, is the Agile mindset, based on a set of key values and principles designed to better enable collaborative work and deliver continuous value through a “people-first” orientation. This means a huge move away from being very process driven and a focus on output (PMI’s PMBOK has 10 knowledge areas and 49 processes after all); to becoming more people focused and outcome driven. What a shift to make for any experienced professional project manager! Many project professionals rightfully ask how do they become credible Agile Project Leaders? This article aims to answer that question.

Read this article on the challenges and what it takes to be successful as Agile Project Managers.

Shift to Organisational Agility

For the past few years many organisations have been on a mission to improve their Organizational Agility, meaning their capability to quickly sense and adapt to external and internal changes to deliver relevant results in a productive and cost-effective manner. The need to become more agile, has been fast-tracked by the world-wide COVID epidemic.

According to the PMI Report: Achieving greater agility, 2017, companies will be successful if they build a culture of Agility. Culture is a critical enabler.  It needs to be a culture of readiness that supports flexible processes and employee training in support of agile practices. Those who succeed gain considerable efficiencies.

The Report goes further to state that 88% of organisations with high agility realise significant benefits including more efficient and effective processes and higher customer and employee satisfaction. These organisations are more likely to align their projects with strategic objectives which is critical to benefits realisation and success.

The Role of Project Leaders and the PMO

PMO in Agile

In addition to executives to advocate agility, project leaders could become evangelists for greater agility. In organisations with high agility, it is noted that 77% have an agile PMO or agile working group who are leading Agile Transformation. Successful transformation commonly requires new approaches in fundamental areas of business. Those include budget cycles, hiring practices, procurement practices, and role delineation.

An agile oriented PMO has a customer-collaboration mindset. In many cases, this means the PMO operates as an internal consultant, tailoring project delivery approaches to accommodate resources, timelines, and overall business needs, even as they change. Based on a documented case study in the PMI report, of TD Bank, the PMO can continue to perform similar functions than before, like:

  • Establishing standards
  • Serving as the Centre of Excellence  
  • Educating the organization
  • Training and building talent

To achieve the above there are practical ways for a PMO to support and lead an organisation’s agile transformation. The PMO leaders need to become subject matter experts in agile. Develop and/or acquire the expertise to help guide agile practitioners, develop training, and establish a community of practice that provides coaching services. They need to define the value proposition of agile and the PMO’s role in agile delivery. Help the organization define the agile target state and a roadmap to get there. Drive the change beginning with successes in project delivery and extending it beyond projects to business agility. Build the capacity by acquiring and/or retooling the workforce with the necessary agile skills, build a culture of agile within the project delivery organization, apply agile concepts to all projects regardless of delivery method.

The Agile Project Manager

Where does the Project Manager fit in and continue delivering value in the agile context? Project Managers need more than technical skills. To sense change they need to be well informed about an organization’s strategic objectives and how their projects align. They need to forge strong relationships with business owners who request projects as well as with the functions that support them (e.g., finance, legal, risk management, and HR). Those with leadership skills and strong business acumen, can lead strategic initiatives and play a role to ensure projects stay aligned with strategic goals. Agile Project Managers will help to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of how work gets done, including identifying unnecessary steps in work processes, as well as to share essential information broadly with all stakeholders.

The PMI Report: What’s next? Identifying new ways of working, Dom Price, a Futurist and Head of R&D at Atlassian is of the opinion that Project Managers will take on a more strategic role by managing for complexity, ambiguity, agility, and communication. As knowledge workers they will continue to learn and grow their strategic value. Project, Program and Portfolio Management will drive innovation and change by playing their role to enable the organisation to navigate change every day.

In a case study from AstraZeneca, they have evolved their PMO and Project Management capabilities by demonstrating the value of project management to build trust across the organisation, by:

  • involving project managers to identify smart and efficient processes,
  • improve ways of working,
  • streamline key areas such as risk management, planning, and control.

Enterprise-wide agility really requires everyone to understand what agility means—that it’s the capability to quickly sense and adapt to external and internal changes to deliver relevant results in a productive and cost-effective manner. Everyone also needs to adopt agile practices. The PMI Report conclude how project leadership can facilitate and advocate organisational agility by supporting the following:

  • Understand technical project management activities
  • Remove impediments and streamline processes when working with other areas of the business, such as HR and finance
  • Expose and communicate bottlenecks
  • Align stakeholder needs
  • Advocate for training in agile practices

How to be a credible Agile Project Leader

Agile Project Leader

How do Project Managers become credible experts in Agile? To answer this question, I’m going to use guidance shared by Jo Ann Sweeney, a transformational change consultant based in the UK.

“To be viewed as a credible expert, you need to know the subject inside out, but expertise is not just about our knowledge on the topic. Substance does come first; close behind comes sincerity and passion.”

She explains that you don’t need to know everything about a topic. You need to be honest about the gaps in your knowledge, respect expertise in others and have a passion for your topic aligned with a passion for sharing. Credibility comes from three things:

  • your confidence – how you view and present yourself
  • your character – the innate qualities that make us unique based on your trustworthiness, respectfulness, responsibility, fairness, caring and social responsibility
  • your capabilities – your knowledge, skills and aptitudes; the natural talents you’re born with and develop throughout your life when you interact with others as well as learning through academia, training, mentoring and coaching

What’s next

I would say that experienced project managers (often PMP’s) have confidence based on their past experiences and ability to lead projects. They are able to display character, based on upholding the ‘Code of Ethics’ and professional conduct expected of project professionals. And any gap in capability can be addressed by training and coaching. There are various good certifications to consider for Agile, see this article for more information.

In a Techrepublic.com article, Allen Barnard stated that tech-savvy project professionals with business skills are highly valued for their ability to understand and facilitate change. The trend is to solve problems by using a design-thinking perspective. This means you view challenges from different stakeholders’ point of view and generate ideas to address them with clients. To facilitate these types of problem-solving approaches, project managers will need to develop leadership and technical skills, as well as empathy to build the strong relationships that are required to support organizational change.

There is a massive contribution to be made while helping organisations to build their Agile culture. An Agile Project Leader can help with establishing standards, to educate, to train and to align stakeholder needs. Do use your strengths of improving processes and enabling teams towards high performance. In a world with so much change, Agile Project Leaders are ideally positioned to help executives to turn their ideas into reality.

Sources

  1. PMI report: Pulse of the Profession 2021 Beyond Agility
  2. What’s next? Identifying new ways of working, 2018
  3. Forbes.com: Agility, not efficiency, is the key to business success In 2021, by Sherry Suski. December, 2020.
  4. TechRepublic.com: Project managers playing larger role in organizational agility. February, 2020.
  5. PMI Thought Leadership Report – Achieving greater agility, the critical need for cross-functional support, 2017
Social Media guidelines

Apply good Social Media Practices as a Project Professional

There are people who spend an extra-ordinary amount of time on social media daily. You tell yourself that you want to uncover news and industry trends in real-time, or perhaps you want to spy on your competition. Or you use social media to provide better customer service. You want to connect with colleagues and thought leaders. There are many reasons, some good, some less so. As a Project Management professional there are good practices to keep in mind when you engage on social media. Here are great guidelines on how to navigate social media with colleagues from Quill.com.

Some companies have have very strict social media policies, and if that’s the case, you’d best read up and follow these policies closely or risk accidentally committing a fireable offense. It is best to keep it professional considering your position at work. Generally, it’s easier to keep your personal and professional lives separate and not to become friends with your entire office.

Consider the platform you’re using as you would approach the various networks differently. Post with care and maintain your privacy by knowing how the privacy settings work on each platform. Always think before you post and a good rule of thumb is to stick to what you would say in public, as people tend to think they can hide behind account pictures and say anything they like when they are not seen in person.

One example of approaching it could be to use Facebook only for friends and family, whereas LinkedIn is a good platform for professional connections. If you receive a Facebook friend request from a colleague, you can politely decline with a reason and ask them to connect on LinkedIn instead. When you consider these guidelines and keep it professional, you should be good to navigate the murky online waters in a professional and respectable way.

Leadership lessons from Angela Merkel's life

Top Leadership Lessons from Angela Merkel

By Linky van der Merwe

Early in 2021 there was a political leader who received a standing ovation when retiring at the age of 67 years old after leading the Christian Democratic Union for 18 years. This leader was born in July 1954 and grew up in East Germany. The first political leader with a doctorate in quantum chemistry who worked as a research scientist. Then she became the first female chancellor of Germany. She is a Protestant Christian who stated that she keeps religion as her constant companion and that Christians should not be afraid of standing up for their beliefs.

The person described here is Angela Merkel, known to be called “Iron Chancellor”, in comparison to the former British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, often called the “Iron Lady”.

This article will summarise the top leadership lessons that we can learn from the political career and achievements of Angela Merkel during her reign as the Leader of Europe’s biggest economy since 2005.

Leadership Lessons

Top Leadership Lessons from Angela Merkel

What follows is an overview of her leadership qualities, the traits that distinguished her as a successful leader, her style as a leader from a strengths and weaknesses point of view and a powerful quote.

She can be well described using the letters of her country G-E-R-M-A-N-Y.

G – goodness, generosity

E – epitome of purpose-based leadership and she’s a master of leading from behind, which means viewing leadership as a collective activity. Explained by professor Linda Hill in her 2015 book: Collective Leadership, ”what makes people willing to do the hard tasks of innovation together and work through the inevitable conflict and tension.”

R – ruthless, took bold stands, rational thinker.

M – methodical, likes to work patiently through a problem, splitting it into its various parts, weighing up pros and cons, and crafting a solution step by step, bit by bit; known to be the best-prepared person in the room, always on top of her briefing material.

A – assertive, independent as part of her self-expression

Top Leadership Lessons from Angela Merkel

N – named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in Dec. 2015, and she topped Forbes magazine’s list of “The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women” in 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019, as well as multiple other awards.

Y – youngest German Chancellor since the Second World War; first woman to be elected German Chancellor; the first to have grown up in the former East Germany, and the first born after 1945. She was also the first female leader of a German political party, and the first German Chancellor with a background in natural sciences.

Longest-serving leader

As a four-term Chancellor of Germany she was the longest-serving leader in the European Union. The leadership traits that distinguished her as a successful leader are:

  • High self-regard and self-actualization
  • Emotional self-awareness
  • Assertive, independent as part of her self-expression
  • Interpersonal strengths – empathy, social responsibility
  • Thinking – problem solving, impulse control
  • Stress management – flexibility, stress tolerance, optimism
  • Believes in gender equality

Leadership style

Top Leadership Lessons from Angela Merkel

Her leadership style is described as both pragmatic and methodical; a person who stayed away from risky decisions and who sought the middle ground. She played her plans close to her chest and was not afraid to take bold stands. Her values – humanity, generosity, tolerance – helped her to provide steadfast moral leadership in a world where it is in short supply.

Perhaps her most admired qualities can be summarised as her determination, giving her extraordinary drive and staying power, an incredible inner strength that allowed her to stay at the table and push the negotiations over the line. This is evident in how she dealt with the Euro sovereign debt crisis. Also, her sense of duty, because she dealt with Europe as a “matter of the heart”, believing in a prosperous and peaceful Europe that is committed to diversity, freedom and tolerance.

Like most people, she has weaknesses which are described as her strategy, the fact that she’s so rational and that she tends to think only about Germany, with her low point being the ongoing refugee crisis.

Above all, much inspiration, wisdom and good learnings can be taken from the life and leadership style of a woman who earned the trust and respect of her colleagues, her country and the neighbouring countries through her tenacity, principles and purposeful leading from behind.

Angela Merkel has embodied this spirit of courage and leadership that opened up the possibilities of a better future for all. In her own words:

“Let us not ask what is wrong or what has always been. Let us first ask what is possible and look for something that has never been done before.”

Sources

The Leadership Qualities That Made Angela Merkel ‘Time’ Magazine’s Person of the Year | Inc.com

Angela Merkel—Striking the Right Note on Leadership (imf.org) By Christine Lagarde; HHL Leipzig Graduate School of Management, August 31, 2019

Angela Merkel Leadership traits (slideshare.net) by Western Kentucky University

How to deal with stress when working from home

How to Deal with Stress when Working from Home

By Michael Morris

Working from home might sound like a less stressful option than braving the daily commute or dealing with face-to-face contact with coworkers, but it doesn’t eliminate those daily workday anxieties completely – and it can bring its own set of worries along with it. Since the coronavirus pandemic, stay-at-home orders have meant that more people than ever are working from home and facing the realities that homeworking can bring. Many people ask: “How do you deal with stress when working from home?”

5 Great Tips for Handling Stress when Working from Home

1. Differentiate between home life and work life

When you’re working from home, the lines between your home life and office life can easily become blurred. It brings a whole new meaning to “bringing work home with you”. Therefore, it’s essential to make sure that you create a space in your home that you only use for work purposes so that you don’t constantly immerse yourself in your work life or let work-related stresses bleed into your daily routine.

5 tips for handling stress when working from home

When you finish work, it’s imperative that you can switch off and enjoy your family time or just find time to relax. Put down your pens, turn off your computer and step away from your desk until it’s time to start work again. Don’t be tempted to check your inbox and find ways to distract yourself if you feel that niggling desire to write that email you just didn’t have time to complete earlier in the day.

2. Create a comfortable workspace

How to deal with stress when working from home

When creating your home-based office, try to find a quiet space that’s away from distractions such as the television, or your children. By immersing yourself in an environment that’s conducive to productive working, the transition from office to homeworking will be much easier.

Be sure to set up your home office in a way that will keep you relaxed and make you feel comfortable at your workstation. Most importantly, don’t skimp on breaks. When you’re in the office, it’s natural to get up from time to time to chat with a colleague or wander into the kitchen to get a coffee. In your home environment, it’s much easier to forget to take these breaks – but they’re essential for mental well-being and stress reduction.

3. Don’t let social isolation impact your mental health

How to deal with stress when working from home

For anyone who is used to working in the buzz of a busy office environment, the change to homeworking can be quite isolating. Whether you have a family or live alone, the lack of interaction with coworkers can create a deep void.

Scheduling regular calls with colleagues and your managers can really help, especially if you have weekly team sessions to check in with each other.

Outside of work time, video calling with friends and family members can ease your loneliness. Sharing your feelings with trusted friends will allow you to channel and ease your stress instead of repressing it.

4. Make time to do something you enjoy

Deal with stress by doing something you enjoy

One of the best stress-busters is doing something that you enjoy. Whether it’s a daily run in the park, spending time with your family, watching your favourite show, taking your beloved dog for a walk, or simply sitting back and listening to music, fun can be the best medicine for beating stress factors.

If you’re still struggling with stress or anxiety, try guided meditations to help you unwind, or breathing techniques for effective stress management.

5. Talk to someone who can help

If the stresses of homeworking are proving to be a significant burden, talk to your manager or call the Samaritans (UK) in a crisis situation. Sharing your worries can help to alleviate them and make you feel better. Remember that, although work is an important part of life, the most important thing is your mental health and well-being.

For an excellent Guide on Mental Health while working remotely, click here.

The Connection between Project Management and eCommerce

Connection between project management and eCommerce

By Sarah Hollenbeck

When you’re leading a team who is working on digital projects (or if you are in the process of becoming a project manager), you may normally seek advice on how to manage different personalities, how to keep everyone on track and tips on how to stay sane juggling multiple projects at once. But have you ever stopped to think just how important other aspects of your company — such as the connection between project management and eCommerce — directly affect your projects?

While it might not be common for Project Management Practitioners to dive deep into eCommerce trends, the information can be more valuable than you’d think. By gaining a better understanding of what your company’s customer base is looking for as well as how they interact with your brand online, you can strengthen your current projects and ensure they meet their goals.

Say for instance you are a product manager, leading a small team to create a new product line. How can you even begin to launch a new line of products without first understanding your consumer’s sale patterns, their needs and what they are willing to pay for similar products? And while you could rely on another team to get you that information (which is the easier route by far) you will get the most value diving into the data yourself.

To help Project Management Practitioners of all kinds take the leap into research, the team at WebsiteSetup has created a Guide to eCommerce Trends that you need to know about. From industry-wide statistics to a deeper breakdown of consumer behavior both before and after the pandemic, check out the top stats below or visit WebsiteSetup for even more information.

How the eCommerce industry has changed

Before you and your team dive into your target market’s specific preferences and trends, it is crucial to understand how the eCommerce industry behaves as a whole. Though online shopping has always been popular, it has taken on a new life in recent years, surpassing previous records on an almost yearly basis. And this past year, thanks to the global pandemic, this trend has only continued to rise.

You may ask: “Why exactly do consumers flock to brands with eCommerce sites in place?”

For one main reason, the convenience. Being able to shop for what they want when they want it! It means no waiting in traffic to get to the store and no lines at the checkout counter. Plus, they can shop on their own schedule, even late into the night when traditional brick-and-mortar stores would be closed.

Another aspect of the eCommerce industry that consumers really love, is delivery. Whether through the brand directly or through a third-party service provider, consumers are almost always willing to pay more for expedited shipping straight to their door.

View these statistics to better understand how eCommerce industry as a whole, influences the market:

  • eCommerce sales hit $794.5 billion in 2020, which is a growth of 32% from the previous year’s sales.
  • During this year (2021), over 2.1 billion people are estimated to make purchases of goods or services online.
  • The eCommerce industry is expected to grow to over 450,000 jobs by the year 2026.
  • Over 95% of all purchases will be completed through eCommerce websites by 2040.
  • To help business owners create a website with ease, online platform use has skyrocketed in the past few years:
    • WordPress powers over one-third (39.5%) of all websites currently live.
    • From March 2020 to April 2020, the number of stores created on Shopify grew by at least 62%.

Looking Deeper into Consumer Trends

Now that you and your team understand a little bit more about how businesses operate online, lets dive deeper into specific consumer trends. While of course, your proprietary data about your own customers will always offer the best insight into how to manage your products, and the related projects, looking at consumer trends is a good place to start (especially if you are working for a new business that doesn’t have a large customer base yet).

Find the most important statistics on how consumers interact with eCommerce brands:

  • Convenience drives sales. In fact, 11% of consumers admitted that even before the pandemic they let convenience drive their purchase decision.
  • Even older audiences have mastered eCommerce, as shoppers 55 and up have moved to online shopping and say they plan to continue shopping this way.
  • When it comes to user experience, having a properly run website is crucial as 84% of customers say that they will walk away from a brand they love after just one bad experience.
  • Customers of all kinds prioritize convenience over cost, as they are willing to pay more for an easier online shopping experience.
  • When designing a customer service program, go with real people over bots. Studies have shown that over 65% of consumers trust a brand more if they can talk to a real person.
  • Delivery is important, as 98% of consumers will be more loyal to a brand if they offer these types of services. Even better if it’s free and fast!

Check out the infographic below for even more tips on eCommerce trends from WebsiteSetup!

A guide to eCommerce trends

Emotional Intelligence: A Quick Guide to Empathy

A quick guide to Empathy

By Dr Eben van Blerk

Most of us from time to time say something (or do not say something) that we regret. Our intentions were good but our behaviour did not match up. Our good intentions were hijacked by our emotions. Often, this is stressful for us and for others. This is where our emotional intelligence (EI) and specifically empathy can assist us to manage our emotions in order to live our good intentions.

What is Empathy?

Empathy is the ability to see a situation from the perspective of others. It is understanding the feelings and thoughts of others as they experience the situation and putting yourself in their shoes.

Empathy means being there for someone, listening to them and having a sincere interest in their feelings and perspective. It is an honest and practical demonstration of their importance to you. Empathy is about connecting emotionally. In the process, we build bonds that often last a lifetime.

Lack of empathy

Why are we considering empathy? A lack of empathy affects the bottom line in companies. It leads to morale problems, disengaged employees, poor conflict handling and resulting loss of profit. Customers experiencing a lack of empathy leave. They tell everyone willing to listen about their bad experience and encourage them not to do business with you anymore. By not being empathetic, you may be seen as not caring, aloof, not respecting others and insensitive to their feelings. This may trigger feelings of anger and resentment leading to broken relationships on a business and social level. Sometimes, when your name is mentioned years later, these feelings are rekindled.

Benefits of having more empathy

empathy benefits

Empathy helps to build long lasting trusting relationships. Seeing the world from the perspective of others helps you to act appropriately in any given situation. When you show empathy, the other person feels valued, respected and listened to. This will connect you to them emotionally. People will feel drawn to you and stay by your side. This will result in give-and-take behaviour where they will be more likely to care, listen, help and support you as well.

Empathy self-test

empathy self-test

Consider the following statements:

  1. Yes/No: I sometimes struggle to understand what someone else is feeling and what they might be thinking under their current circumstances.
  2. Yes/No: I find it difficult to see things from the perspective of others or put myself in their shoes.
  3. Yes/No: Sometimes, I am not able to feel with the other person.
  4. Yes/No: I often fail to assure others that I am there for them and that they are not alone.
  5. Yes/No: I am indifferent to people dealing with emotional anguish, loss and sadness.

If you answered yes to some of the above questions, you may benefit from further developing your empathy.

10 Tips to improve your empathy

  1. Actively listen and pay attention to the other person in a conversation without being judgemental.
  2. Focus on the non-verbal cues to understand the emotions behind what is being said.
  3. Ensure that your body language show that you are interested in the other person’s point of view and that you want to listen (keep eye contact and do not look at your phone).
  4. Try to understand the other person’s perspective and their reasoning behind it. Ask sincere questions for clarification.
  5. Imagine yourself in their situation and how they might be feeling.
  6. Watch a conversation from a distance. Try to identify what the participants are feeling
  7. Think about friends or colleagues that in your opinion are empathetic. What do they do that makes you feel this way?
  8. Make a list of what you can do to make people you have contact with on a daily basis feel more valued and respected.
  9. Always be thankful and kind.
  10. Show gratitude.
emotional intelligence and empathy

Empathy can be further developed. You must however be willing to consider the perspective of others, even if you do not agree with their view of the world. Empathy does not only benefit others. As we develop our empathy, we but broaden our perspective of the world.

This assists us in responding more appropriate in the situation when dealing with life on a daily basis. Especially in trying times and crisis, empathy will pull us through. It will help to bind us together as a team. As a responsible member of the larger community we live and work in, we will do our part and come out stronger in the end.

Prior articles in the Emotional Intelligence series:

  1. What Emotional Intelligence (EQ) really means and how it can be a good predictor of success
  2. 7 Misconceptions about Emotional Intelligence
  3. 5 Practical steps to improve your Self-awareness

About the Author

Dr Eben van Blerk

Eben holds a Doctor of Technology degree from the Cape Peninsula University of Technology, as well as an MBA degree from Stellenbosch University. He is an experienced emotional intelligence author and speaker. In addition to presenting emotional intelligence talks and facilitating emotional intelligence workshops, Eben has published articles and book chapters on leadership and emotional intelligence in local and international publications.

Contact him on LinkedIn if you need a speaker or workshop facilitator on emotional intelligence for your next team engagement.

How to lead productive online meetings

By Kathryn Casna

How to lead a productive online meeting

All of a sudden, nearly overnight, huge swaths of the world’s workforce was asked to work from home. Instead of face-to-face meetings, they now had to figure out how to do all that work remotely, over online meetings. For Project and Programme Managers one of the biggest questions became: “How to lead productive online meetings?”

Challenges to overcome

Of course, we’ve all adapted, and are trying to do our best in work circumstances that may be less than ideal. Some of us had many challenges to overcome. For example:

  • Some may not have dedicated office space.
  • Some may be trying to balance a lot of family demands.
  • Some have children who are at home without daycare or school age children who are doing virtual learning.
  • Some have life partners who are also working from home.
  • Some have pets who may cause interruptions, or are barking in the background.

That means productivity during work time has gotten a lot trickier than it used to be. So how do you figure out what to do to move forward, to stay productive and to keep meeting attendants engaged? One good place to focus is technology. What can you put in place to strengthen this and other issues?

Lead a productive online meeting

This graphic offers some guidelines to help.

About the Author:

Kathryn Casna is a digital marketing and travel writer from San Diego, California. Customer-facing retail, hospitality, and event production make up her professional roots. Today, she runs her own writing business from whatever new locale she happens to be exploring.