In this episode, hosts Merv Jersak and Tim Jerome emphasize the importance of technical competence in project leaders, allowing them to inspire confidence and efficiently lead their teams towards success. The discussion highlights the need for a balance between leadership and management skills, and how these skills must be adapted to suit the unique challenges presented by IT projects. They explore the concepts of team responsibility, delegation, and the vital role of project managers in ensuring project deliverables meet objectives, especially in a remote work environment. Additionally, they touch upon servant leadership and its relevance to both agile and predictive project management. The goal is to improve project outcomes by focusing on the human aspects of project management.

Main Take-Aways

1)     Project managers who are strong leaders exhibit both strong management and leadership capabilities.

2)     IT project managers need all the skills of any business leader plus skills specific to information technology.

3)     Self-organizing teams still require strong project leadership.

4)     IT project managers need to develop additional leadership skills when handling a remote work force.

 

Show Notes

Today’s Project Managers Coffee Chat: Leveraging Leadership Skills for Successful IT Project Management

00:27 Diving deep into leadership of IT project teams; leading IT project teams has its own challenges and characteristics.

01:48 Two particularly good examples of IT project managers – leaders who could easily move between and exhibit both management and leadership on the project. They were also technically competent and able to get into detail.

04:19 Managing and leading IT project teams means managing the technical components of scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, etc. and leading the teams by making it easier for them to perform.

Project managers need to have the generic leadership capabilities expected of any person in a leadership role PLUS additional leadership skills specific to IT projects.

07:51 Skills specific to the IT project leader include:

• Helping stakeholders understand the benefits of technology
• Maintaining stakeholder engagement in the project
• Handling team members’ training requirements in the midst of the constraints of project delivery
• Encouraging continuous improvement

11:31 The necessity of leadership in self-organizing teams seems to be incompatible with the concept of self-organization. The leader needs to:

• Assure the “big picture” is always in view
• Manage stakeholders and decision makers
• Integrate all project activities
• Intercede between stakeholders and the project team
• Resolve conflicts
• Develop decision-making frameworks
• Assure team member development and training

Self-organizing does not mean no leadership; it means no constant supervision.

15:31 In remote work situations, the role of the project leader becomes even more complex.

17:22 Servant leadership has become an important consideration in IT project management. A servant leader focuses on team members’ growth, development, and relationship. Project leaders who exhibit servant leadership deliver projects with greater success and have more satisfied project teams.