The Project Book

CHAPTER 60 ROLE MODEL WHAT YOU EXPECT OF OTHERS

As the figurehead of the project, it’s your responsibility to share the vision, demonstrate the behaviours, communicate in the right way, and uphold the organisation and project culture principles. If the project is to achieve what it needs to be successful, you have to be a role model for transformation.

In their book First, Break All the Rules, Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman put it like this: ‘A manager has got to remember that he is on stage every day. His people are watching him. Everything he does, everything he says, and the way he says it, sends off clues to his employees. These clues affect performance. So never forget you are on that stage’.

This idea sits uncomfortably with many people, who simply want to attend a few steering committee meetings and read a few bits of paper, and allow themselves to be consumed by back-to-back meetings.

Being a role model requires self-awareness, continual feedback and a determination to be different from those around you. It requires that you understand the difference between leadership and management and that you are able to change roles as required.

Leadership involves a choice. It’s a choice to be different and not conform to the way things have always been done. It’s a chance to learn from past mistakes, to encourage and incorporate new ideas, and to constantly strive to be the best version of yourself. The key to success as a leader is difference, not deference.

In The Art of ...