The Strategic Project Leader ^{2nd Ed.}

As executives build and nurture their organization's strategic agility in today's turbulent, uncertain business environment, the ability to lead strategic change has become more critical than ever. The Strategic Project Leader: Mastering Service-Based Project Leadership, Second Edition will help project managers lead with confidence in temporary, ambiguous team structures that execute risk-laden work in an increasingly agile project environment.

Like the first edition, this edition encourages readers to take ownership of their leadership agenda and become disciplined in the processes of building a framework of leadership skills. Readers are introduced to a new role: the service-based project leader. This role serves the entire project organization by creating a meaningful experience for team members, customers, and critical stakeholders.

This provides practical guidance to help you move from project management to service-based project leader. Detailing a framework for developing and refining leadership skills, it explains how to build a leadership competency pyramid and then execute a self-directed plan for building leadership competencies. The leadership competency pyramid includes an intuitive model that will be helpful to project managers at any level.

The elaborates on the components of each layer of the pyramid and how each layer relates to the others. A chapter is dedicated to each layer of the pyramid, with supporting evidence for the necessity of each of these layers, as well as practical advice on how to build and practice these component layers.,

• Section I: The New Project Leader
1. Leadership in Project Management: A Defining Moment
• Introduction
• My Story
• Are We Better Off?
• Two Types of Project Managers
• Understanding Leadership
• Carol's Story
• Effective Leadership
• Challenges for Practitioners
• "I Don't Have the Authority"
• "I Don't Have the Ability"
• "The Organizational Culture Must Change First"
• Another Defining Moment
• Summary
• Endnotes
2. The Rise of the Service-Based Project Leader
• Introduction
• Importance of Transformation
• Separating from the Pack
• Efficiency
• Customization
• Foresight
• Connectedness
• Filling the Role of Service-Based Project Leader
• The Younger Generation of Workers
• The Volunteer's Story
• Summary
• Endnotes
3. Project Management as a Service: What You Need to Know
• Introduction
• Growing Expectations
• Project Management as a Service
• When Professional Services Become Commodities
• The Optometrist's Story
• Information Technology Case Study
• What versus How Work Gets Done
• Unbundling of Project Management
• New Managerial Work
• Information Overload
• New Work, Old Model
• Summary
• Endnotes
4. Project Management Certifications: The Leadership Angle
• Introduction
• Value Certifications
• Project Management Certifications
• Australian Institute of Project Management
• International Project Management Association
• Project Management Institute
• Problems with Certification
• Jacque's Story
• Summary
• Endnotes
5. Professionalism and the Leadership Void
• Introduction
• Obstacles to Professionalism
• The Leadership Void
• Performance and Expectations Gap
• Contributors to the Leadership Void
• Organizations
• Practitioners
• Trainers
• Where Do We Go from Here?
• Summary
• Endnotes
6. The Case for the Service-Based Project Leader
• Introduction
• Customer Focus
• Increasing Portfolio Management Return on Investment
• Increasing Project Management Maturity
• Academia in Project Management
• Ethics in Project Leadership
• Summary
• Endnotes
7. Discovering the New Project Leader in You
• Introduction
• A Commitment Story
• Committing to Personal Change
• Unfulfilled Needs + Natural Abilities = Initiation of Personal Change
• Ownership: Whose Career Is It, Anyway?
• Life Choices
• Decisions
• Truth
• Personal Confidence
• Group Confidence
• Psychological Barriers
• Summary
• Endnotes
8. Finding Meaning in Creating, Rather than Problem Solving
• Introduction
• Structure for Creating
• Personal Visioning
• Group Visioning
• Initiative Visioning
• The Creativity in All of Us
• Creativity in Project Management
• Exploiting the Creative Process in Project Management
• Summary
• Endnotes
9. Finding the Energy to Make the Commitment
• Introduction
• Barriers to Commitment
• Fear of Change
• Stress
• Impact of Stress on the Heart and Mind
• Durable Energy
• Elements of Commitment
• Alignment
• Direction
• Authenticity
• Rare Opportunity
• Summary
• Endnotes
• Section II: The Service-Based Project Leader’s Competency Pyramid
10. Competence: The Foundation of Leadership
• Introduction
• Competence
• Background on Project Management Competencies
• Project Manager Competency Development
• Framework Overview
• IPMA ICB Standard
• Lack of Focus on Behavioral Leadership
• Summary
• Endnotes
11. Customers' Perception of Your Project: Stakeholder Management
• Introduction
• Paying Customer's View
• Strategic Project Characteristics
• Uniqueness
• Risk
• Temporary in Nature
• Expanded Playing Field
• Decision Making
• Distance and Diversity
• What Customers Really Want
• Losing Control
• Summary
• Endnotes
12. Project Leader's Competency Framework: Service-Based Project Leader's Competency Pyramid
• Introduction
• Overview of Service-Based Project Leader's Competency Pyramid
• Knowledge, Skill, and Experience
• Subject Matter Expertise
• Trust-Based Relationships
• Consultative Leadership
• Courage
• Balancing the Pyramid's Layers
• Summary
• Endnotes
13. Building Your Base — Knowledge, Skills, Experience
• Introduction
• Building Project and Program Management Knowledge
• A Certification Story
• Building Project Management Skills
• Real Needs
• How to Create a Need Statement
• Crafting the Project Mission Statement
• Leading with Work Breakdown Structures
• A WBS Story
• Stakeholder Management with Simple Project Network Diagrams
• Risk
• Building Project Management Experience
• Summary
• Endnotes
14. Building Subject Matter Expertise
• Introduction
• Why Leaders Need Subject Matter Expertise
• Mastering the Acquisition of Subject Matter Expertise
• Follow the Money: Revenue and Cost
• Business Process Mapping
• Research and Networking
• Summary
• Endnotes
15. Trust-Based Relationships
• Introduction
• Compatibility
• Building Trust on Projects
• Building Blocks of Trust for Project Leaders
• Value Proposition
• Credibility
• Reliability
• Tips for Creating Credibility and Reliability with Customers
• Intimacy
• Tips for Building Intimacy on Projects
• Low Self-Orientation
• Listening and Disengaging
• Tips for Low Self-Orientation
• Customer and Project Team Trust-Based Relationships
• Summary
• Endnotes
16. Consultative Leadership: Becoming a Service-Based Project Leader
    • Introduction
    • Advisory Nature
    • Serving versus Coaching
    • Power
    • Need for Advising
    • Tips for Advising
    • Consultative Leadership Process
    • Engage
    • Listen
    • A Story about Listening
    • Frame
    • A Story about Framing
    • Vision
    • Commit
    • Summary
    • Endnotes
17. Courage
• Introduction
• Environmental Impacts on Courage
• Risk Attitudes
• Modifying Risk Attitudes
• Emotional Literacy
• Summary
• Endnotes
18. Helping Children: Nemours Case Study
    Susan Voltz and Elizabeth Allen
• Complexities and Challenges Bring Transformation
• A Strong Base of Project Management Knowledge, Skill, and Experience, Plus Subject Matter Expertise
• Trust-Based Relationships
• Consultative Leadership
• Commitment to Self-Directed Leadership Development
19. Instilling Transparency: Norwegian Cycling Association Case Study
    Henning Vahr and Vibeke Binz Vallevik
• Knowledge, Skill, and Experience
• Trust Building
• Consultative Leadership
• Self-Directed Leadership Development
• Section III: Self-Directed Project Leadership Development
20. The Consciousness of a Leader: Understanding Intentional Change
• Introduction
• Understanding Intentional Change Theory
• Overview of Self-Directed Project Leadership Development
• New Training Methods
• Project Management and Self-Directed Project Leadership Development
• Summary
• Endnotes
21. Commitment to Leadership: Taking Control
• Introduction
• Commitment
• Human Motivation Theories and the Service-Based Project Leader
• Significance and Motivation
• Commitment Killers
• Culture of Fear
• Fatigue
• Denying Failure
• The Boxer's Story
• A Healthy Commitment
• Summary
• Endnotes
22. Assessing and Acquiring Project Leadership Skills
• Introduction
• Considerations for Assessment
• Formal and Informal Assessment
• Directors
• Socializers
• Thinkers
• Relaters
• Focus on Strengths
• Safe Environment
• Acquisition
• Assessing and Acquiring the Base of the Service-Based Project Leader's Competency Pyramid
• Initiation and Planning
• Execution
• Control and Monitoring
• Closing
• Summary
• Endnotes
23. Practicing to Be a Service-Based Project Leader
• Introduction
• Active Leadership Experience^™
• Practicing Mental Skills
• Summary
• Endnotes
24. Serving Your Community
• Introduction
• Three Calls to Serve
• The Teacher Becomes the Student… and Vice Versa
• Giving to Receive
• Measuring the Progress of the Service-Based Project Leader
• Summary
• Endnotes
25. Developing Your Action Plan
• Introduction
• Commit
• Assess and Acquire Leadership Behaviors
• Practice
• Serve
• Final Thoughts