Leadership Without Authority
Pat Weaver, PMI-SP, PMP: Some project managers are completely responsible for the on-time, on-budget performance of work—but many organizations refuse to give them any control over the people needed to do the work. The project manager is blamed for not achieving time and cost outcomes.
This is a failure of organizational governance, which is the responsibility of executives, and it's all too common. A project manager with brilliant leadership capabilities, managing upwards, can sometimes overcome these hurdles, but good governance should be focused on removing those obstacles in the first place.
Roberto Guandique: Neither authority nor position will make you a leader. I see many professionals who, because they have been given authority by someone higher up, think they are leaders. If that were the case, any fool with authority could be called a leader.
When I was new in my career, I thought you needed authority to be a leader, but not anymore. If a person needs authority to lead, he or she is not a leader but a manager. A leader leads by pure charisma, dedication, engagement, knowledge, experience and initiative. He or she does not need anybody to present the mantle of “authority.”
Pat Weaver, PMI-SP, PMP, is managing director of Mosaic Project Services pty Ltd. a project management training and consulting company in Melbourne, Australia.
Roberto Guandique is an Atlanta, Georgia, USA-based partner at RTI (RealTech International Inc.), an IT consulting and training firm.
Mr. Weaver: Leadership without management backup tends to create a mob on the rampage in one form or another. However, far too many project managers rely on authority and have unhappy, unproductive workers in their team. The only way you become a true leader is if others decide to follow you. Your power, authority, position and management skills are largely irrelevant.
Mr. Guandique: Yes, Mr. Weaver, nobody becomes a leader without followers. But the true leader does not want followers; he or she wants to teach others how to be leaders. When I teach our junior people, I am trying to teach them to become independent, to give them autonomy. What I am trying not to do is to have them depend on me to do what they are supposed to do themselves. This might seem like a paradox, but I think that every leader wants that.
Mr. Weaver: Mr. Guandique, you're correct—effective leadership is embedded in the motivations of the people who elect to be your followers, and one of the key motivators is autonomy. Good followers and good team members are also good leaders in their own right or aspire to become good leaders.
Mr. Guandique: I have seen project managers who act domineering in order to be in control. It's sad—many of the more experienced project managers are the ones who try to apply this “behavioral leadership style,” and most of the time with negative results.
Those who rely on authority or position are the worst leaders—and the most common.
—Roberto Guandique, RTI, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
Mr. Weaver: The fight to climb up the corporate ladder in most Western corporations and bureaucracies, such as those in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, does encourage selfish behaviors. Then, after succeeding in the corporate jungle, those same people must become holistic, generous and supportive to be really effective top-level executives. It's a hard task, and only a few succeed.
Mr. Guandique: If a leader is constantly living to the “Superman syndrome” created by some societies, he or she burns out and the organization collapses. Leaders need to create other leaders so they can take care of other personal and professional matters.
A leader can be anybody who shows initiative to lead. Leadership can be taught, but not everybody who goes to leadership training school becomes a leader. He or she must know the responsibility and sacrifice of leading.
Mr. Weaver: Leadership can be taught—but not in school. Core traits include integrity and trust, which are innate, as well as great communication skills and efficient management capabilities, particularly delegation. The last three can be taught or improved.
Mr. Guandique: With so many employees, managers and “wannabes” pretending to be leaders these days, how do we recognize a true leader?
In my opinion, a leader does not try to blind us with his or her brilliance; a true leader makes us see ourselves so we can get better. Few project managers I know have shown this capability. Those who rely on authority or position are the worst leaders— and the most common.
Mr. Weaver: If someone has to tell you they are a great leader, they probably are not! To identify a leader, you just have to see who people are following. Following can take many forms: the person who is asked for advice to solve complex problems, the person who is asked to help in negotiations or discussions, the person who is listened to in a meeting.
Leaders do not need to rely on power or authority; in fact, leaders can manage without formal authority if their followers are happy to follow.
Mr. Guandique: Sometimes the “I have 30 years' experience and I have seen it all” mentality is the cause of failed leadership in projects as well. We need to renew the way we approach leadership in project management. Young, inexperienced project managers are more open to new paradigms, and eventually I believe they will be the ones who will change the approach to leadership.
Mr. Weaver: I completely disagree with Mr. Guandique on this point. Many of the important traits that help leaders lead tend to accumulate with age. Where older people can be at a disadvantage is cultural—what worked 20 years ago probably won't be much use today.
But the traits of any effective leader include a burning desire to keep on learning, linked with flexibility, adaptability and the ability to develop rapport with and motivate their followers. Stuck-in-the-mud project managers who want to do the same things they did 10, 20 or even 30 years ago aren't leaders—and aren't very good managers. Great leaders are continually adapting to the needs of the situation and the needs of their followers. PM
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