Posts
6 months prior to my arrival, the management of the company hired a consultant to turn this program around. I have to acknowledge that the consultant did a great job in putting in place some of the foundations - but it was just not enough.
The leadership style of that consultant (let's call him Mr. Wrong) was the total opposite of what the team needed. The new leader was very aggressive in his approach and very directive. Departures started to occur, conflicts between managers arised, conflicts with our clients arises... Wrong, wrong, wrong dynamic no? All that distortion prevented the team to mobilised the effort against the real objectives of the program. At the time, the word that started to get around was that we did not have what it took to deliver the contract.
M. Wrong was focusing on short term objectives and did not provide the team a long lasting vision with objectives linked to the program. In addition, the leader did not have excellent people management skills. There was lots of flaws in the leadership style. On one hand we had delivered painfully the first site and were able to calm the press and media and on the other hand, we were still very disorganised and were still very immature in terms of program and project management practices.
I call this type of leadership TEMPORARY CRISIS LEADERSHIP.
Why temporary? because I sincerely do not believe that this type of leadership is a long lasting type of leadership that can bring people to work towards a common vision. This type of leadership is very reactive and not proactive.
Do you feel that the leadership style in your program or project is not the right one? Do not hire the first guy you meet just because he or she has great credentials! Make sure that you hire the right one like cenderilla's perfect shoe fit! If you have doubts or agree that it is the case, you surely need to take action and change the leadership style you got. You cannot change the leadership of someone, it is just the way we are individually. In my case, even if this program if the most important and strategic in my portfolio, I just had to do something quickly to change the leadership style. It is too painful and expensive to keep this leadership style. I can't afford to fail!
Tip:
1) Select the right leadership style for your specific environment - You MUST ensure that the people you select as leader will provide the right leadership at the right time. This will either break or make you project.
Example 1: If you have a high quality product but struggle in the efficiency on how to deliver the product, you need someone that will be able to transform the organization into an effective delivery machine. You will need in this case a very hands-on individual with deep people skills and profound understanding of business processes.
Example 2: If you have a good product, a good team but have external dependencies that affect your delivery. Then you will need a strong negociator, someone that will be able to influence external parties, someone that has a vision and can bring everyone on the same table. This skillset is very different from the first one you will agree with me.
Example 3: If you do not have a good product, you are in much more trouble. You will need someone very strong technically to lead your internal team. You need a visionnary, someone that understands your market, someone that can build a crisp vision of where you need to be in X months and how you need to get there. You need a go-gether, someone that is process driven. Someone that can sell the vision to internal and external teams
