Achieving Project Management Success in the Federal Government

Chapter 7  

Leadership and the ProjectManager: Bearing theBrunt of the Storm

I believe the techniques and principles that work are timeless. It’s all about collaborating with people, building trust and confidence, and making sure you take care of the followers. You also need to give them what they need to do their work well, solve problems, face reality, create opportunities and monitor risks.

—GENERAL COLIN POWELL (U.S. ARMY RETIRED)¹

The harsh and cynical view, regretfully often fact-based, is that the difference between leadership and management is that leaders motivate people to follow while managers force people to follow. A somewhat less harsh statement is that “Good managers do things right. Good leadership does the right thing.”