Leadership & Motivation

Location: PMKI > People Skills & Qualifications > Leadership & Motivation.
The PMKI Library

This subject looks at the personal attributes needed by a person to lead a group of people towards achieving a common goal, and some of the many facets of effective leadership, including motivation.

Topics included in Leadership & Motivation:

- Leadership
- Motivation
- KPIs
- Useful External Web-links & Resources.

Other related sections of the PMKI:

- Personal Ethics
- Competencies & Interpersonal Skills
- PM Qualifications
- Develop and manage the project team.


Competencies	Training & Qualifications

Leadership

WP: Ethics and Leadership. A strong ethical framework is vital for personal success and underpins your ability to lead. Ideally this framework will be supported by the organization's governance structures.

Art: Ethical Leadership. The crucial role leaders play in establishing the ethical culture of their organizations - ethical standards are set at the top!

WP: Leadership. Aspects of leadership in the 21st century.

Art: Level 5 Leadership. The pinnacle of leadership as defined by Jim Collins in From Good to Great.

WP: Leadership Styles. Various approached to being a leader.

PP: The Secret Ingredient for Successful Project Leadership. When it comes to understanding how to ensure the successful delivery of organizational value, stakeholder engagement has been one of the best kept secrets. There is now an emerging recognition of the importance of people in the formula for success: there is recognition that projects are really about ‘people doing work for the benefit of other people’. By adapting attitudes and approaches, stakeholder initiated disruption can be minimized through proactive engagement activities. For decades literature and research have identified the need to focus on stakeholder engagement as a means for delivery of value to organizations through successful delivery of a project’s objectives – whether product, service or result. At the same time organizations are requiring the project leadership to do more with less. It should come as no surprise then, that senior management in organizations are resisting any calls to spend more time (and therefore more funds) on additional communication to build the necessary relationships between the project and its stakeholders.

An example of how early stakeholder engagement with its consequent additional consultation, communication and negotiation will add value to the project and all the partner organizations is highlighted in studies of extractive industries around the world, including South America Australia and New Guinea.These studies show that neglecting the lives and economies of the indigenous communities will cause a backlash that can lead to early closing of these projects and often radical action from those most affected. The findings of each of these studies have shown that a peaceful resolution will only come from consultation with those who are affected – not just their leaders. This is an example of how early stakeholder engagement with its consequent additional consultation, communication and negotiation will add value to the project and all the partner organizations – a practice that is not always supported by the management of those organizations. This paper draws on some case studies of projects within the extractive industries in New Guinea and South America and develops arguments that may persuade corporate executives to apply more funding and support on stakeholder engagement activities.

This paper develops: a definition of the value of stakeholders to an organization; a suggestion for building a business case for more effective stakeholder engagement activities; a connection between risk management and effective stakeholder engagement activities and a description of a maturity model to assist organizations understand how best to focus scarce resources. These findings are developed into a maturity model with general application, designed to assist organizations understand how best to focus scarce resources in the effective management of stakeholders to maximize project and program value

DP: Becoming great. From managing stakeholders to building a top-class team, looks at how you can become a great project manager.

Blg: The Art of Mentoring. The nine factors crucial to achieving a positive mentoring outcome.

Blg: The art of giving feedback. The ability to give actionable feedback on performance to team members so they know what you expect from them. Blg: Using negative feedback. How we can make use of negative feedback directed to us to improve.

Art: Are you a decisive or a divisive decision maker?? All effective leaders must make decisions – good ones are decisive, not divisive.
Click through for more on decision making.

Motivation

WP: Motivation. A key skill required by all managers is the ability to motivate team members and the wider stakeholder community. Great leaders are great motivators.

Art: The Evolution of Motivation. A brief outline of the different motivation theories from Maslow to ERG.

Hawthorn Effect Blg: Do management techniques such as Scrum,
Takt and Lean Construction improve performance?
This post looks at how the Hawthorne Effect and Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle can be used to improve the effectiveness of team planning sessions.

Art: Rewarding your team. The 'SCARF' model for understanding team reactions to motivational actions.

Art: Incentive Payment Schemes. A brief outline of incentive payments from piece-rates to profit sharing.

Art: The power of Happiness. The role of happiness and fun in developing a motivated team, but which comes first?

Art: Is a happy team a motivated team? What is happiness, and the importance of happiness to team performance - unhappiness demotivates, but the role of happiness is far from clear.It would appear that leadership and motivation are interconnected and in combination can create a happy, healthy and productive workplace.

Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

Art: What you measure is what you get! The KPIs you choose are communicating information to stakeholders on what you think is ‘most important, and what you choose to measure will change behaviours.

PP: Managing for Success - The power of regular updates. This paper looks at the interaction between the analytical and psychological processes involved in schedule development and control systems to identify ways to deliver major enhancements in the planning / scheduling process (Including how to ask for progress information to obtain the maximum psychological benefit). A number of examples from successful (and less successful) projects are used to highlight the opportunities and techniques that can be used by any project team to significantly enhance their prospects for success.

Blg: Designing effective KPIs. The practical challenges of creating effective KPIs.

Art: Lessons for PMO managers from the CBA scandal. Leaders need to understand that if your measurement systems focus on the wrong things, you will get exactly what you asked for!