CHAPTER 1

What Is Leadership?

I WANT TO BE A COWBOY: THE LEADERSHIP MYTH

We all want to be cowboys, and why not? Cowboys have always held a special place in our hearts. When we are kids, we point our fingers, yell bang, and then argue for hours whether we are dead or just wounded. When we grow up, who has not daydreamed of hogtieing her overbearing boss and riding off into the sunset to the cheers of coworkers? Cowboys are resourceful, daring, and are as quick with their wits as they are with their fists. They are always right. They always win.

In many ways, we see cowboys as the embodiment of leadership. Business leaders, like cowboys, are often presented as mythical figures doing amazing things. Standing alone and apart from ordinary folks, they are dreamers perched upon their mustangs, making their plans as they gaze off into a lonesome moon. Yet, when the time comes for action, they dig their spurs into their horses’ sides, gallop down to the town people, and tell them to circle the wagons. There they are, at the front of the fight, with their six-guns blazing, dropping the vermin dead in their tracks. And when the battle is over, off they go riding into the sunset to receive their rewards—the school marm for the cowboy, stock options for executives.

Of course, the problem is that life is not a John Wayne horse opera. We know this. For most of the hundreds of things that we do every day at work, we have a realistic view of what is expected and what is required. Most managers do not go into cloud-cuckoo-land when contemplating quality, deadlines, performance appraisals, strategic planning, and so on. But, when it comes to leadership, most of us jump back on our horses and head right back to the range (where the deer and the antelope play).

Problems arise when the myth of the leader becomes the end-all and the be-all of our learning processes. If we buy into a myth that is so overpowering, how can we ever hope to become one with our dreams? The result is that too many of us look at these ideals as something unobtainable. You have to be born a leader. You can never become one.

In no other area of management education is the concept of myth as prevailing as in leadership. We have all seen the books down at the local bookstore: The Twenty-Seven Habits of Semi-Effective People, The Leadership Secrets of a Fascist Dictator, The One Nanosecond Manager, and so on. Each claims to sell the secret of life, to impart unto you the magic word to make you a leader. Part of the problem arises in the use of terminology. Vision, for example, may lead one more often to think of Moses than of everyday business activity. But perhaps the larger problem crops up when people start talking about myths; they often have no idea what they are talking about. Myths are ways of simplifying our universe. Sometimes we simplify so much that myth and reality are no longer on speaking terms.

For example, cowboys do have a lot to teach us about leadership but not the cowboys that we are used to. What do cowboys do? Lead cows. Have you ever seen anything that indicates that John Wayne knows how to lead cows? What would he do? Go to the front of the herd and yell, “Charge”? Or perhaps just punch the lead cow in the face? What about Roy Rogers? Would he yodel until the cows moved or threaten to stuff them like he did to old Trigger? Obviously, Roy and the Duke are great Hollywood cowboys. They ride horses, shoot guns, and always get the girl. But have you ever seen them with a cow? Would you want them around a cow? Your cow?

Go behind the myth, and true leadership characteristics emerge. A herd of cows is a lot like an organization: massive and, at times, rather aimless. It takes dedicated leadership using a score of methods to energize this bovine bulk. A good cowboy knows how to select a lead cow, direct the herd into natural flows, and rely upon his well-trained subordinate, his horse, to help lead the herd. Moving a herd into Dodge City required considerable skill. It is the real cowboy, not a stylized caricature, that teaches us something about leadership.

Likewise, when examining leadership from the business perspective, one should view many of the myths about this subject with a grain of salt (a ten- or fifteen-pound grain should suffice!). Nobody can teach you leadership with a four-by-four diagram. Rather, it is a time-consuming and engaging task, requiring a great deal of thought and resources.

The book you are holding is not a cookbook. You will find no recipes for leadership stew here. Rather, this book is intended as a guide to leadership thought and practice. It is premised upon the following principles.

• Good theory underlies good leadership. Theory has received a bad rap. After all, we want doers, not thinkers, right? But, at its heart, leadership is concerned with transforming ideas and concepts into action. Your knowledge of basic principles is essential to you taking the first step to being an effective leader. In many ways it is like playing baseball. The difference between a good and a great hitter is the ability to think through the ball, to anticipate the ball's path and trajectory. Good, consistent hitting is more a matter of understanding the underlying principles than possessing a strong arm.
• Focus on leadership, not leaders. A lot of people make claims to being leaders. Every day, the bookstores are filled with badly written, much ballyhooed books by CEOs proclaiming their leadership brilliance. Yet, what they attribute to their leadership, many others would more accurately link to sound managerial skills, first-mover advantage, industry structure, and just good, old-fashioned luck. Just because a person succeeds does not mean that what he did can be ascribed to leadership skills. And this is the reason why focusing on leaders can often lead to the wrong conclusions. Also, it can be difficult translating one person's life experiences to assist another. Alexander the Great was a great leader, yet to try and understand his life and then transfer wholesale the principles upon which he built his kingdom would be dangerous.
• Leadership can be exercised daily. Leaders can only come into their own during extraordinary times, à la Lee Iacocca, right? Wrong. Leadership is a day-in and day-out activity. To insist that leadership is exceptional or above the norm condemns us to situations in which we can never develop leadership skills. Then, when the extraordinary does happen, we are set up to fail because we have had no opportunities to learn, to test our wings.
• Leadership can be developed. At the heart of leadership is a set of skills that can be honed and cultivated through insightful self-discovery. Furthermore, managers can make attitudinal adjustments through the visioning process (described in Chapters 4 and 5). With patience, leadership can be developed as much as any other managerial activity.

The quest for better leadership practices in managing projects is one that remains a compelling motivation in one company after another around the globe. More and more organizations are using project management as a key tool for implementing a variety of strategic organizational moves, including everything from new product development to new systems installations. Indeed, as many readers are aware, project management has literally taken off in the past decade. Companies are beginning to understand how effective project management allows them to operate both more efficiently and capably in their competitive environments. At the same time, however, these organizations are coming to realize that while it is an effective technique, project management requires a tremendous commitment from the organization if it is to be done appropriately.

One of the keys to successful project management has always been strong, incisive leadership. Project management is a leader-intensive undertaking, meaning that, for it to be successful, project management requires the efforts of individuals willing to engage in the numerous and diverse activities needed to promote project success. Successful projects, as we all know, simply do not happen. They are the result of the collective energies of a number of key project team members and stakeholders. None of these members is more important to project success than the project manager, operating as the project's leader, in every sense of the word.

If leadership is so important for project success, why is so little written about it within the project management arena? Part of the answer to that question comes from the fact that we are still learning about the various aspects of leadership. The field itself is continually evolving as we come more and more to understand the wide manner of ways in which leadership can affect project success. A second reason, closely tied to the first, has to do with the difficulty of coming to grips with the concept of leadership. It seems that when we refer to someone as a leader, there is a natural potential to ascribe a wide variety of different meanings to the term. In other words, if we cannot agree on what a leader is, how are we to promote effective leadership in our project management organizations?

THE NATURE OF LEADERSHIP

Few words evoke as much imagery or provoke as many varied interpretations as leadership does. While we often assign leadership abilities to captains of industry, heads of political or military organizations, and other equally highly visible individuals, in fact leaders emerge in all facets of our daily lives. People serving on school boards or with charity organizations possess the same qualities of leadership as their more well-publicized counterparts. As a topic of research and publishing, leadership is equally popular. It has been estimated that over thirty thousand articles and books have been written on leadership and leader behavior in this century alone (DuBrin 1995). A word search over the Internet, using leadership, generated over 309,000 responses. Clearly, leadership has become a well-used part of our everyday vocabularies.

With all that has been written and discussed about leadership, do we have any sense of an underlying definition of the term? While a number of working definitions of leadership exist, some that illustrate both the nature of leadership and the duties of leaders include the following (Bass 1990):

• using our interpersonal influence on team members to attain organizational and personal goals
• having the ability to generate a compelling collective vision and communicate it in a way that motivates others
• acting in a way that causes others to respond in a shared direction.

What are the common themes running though these definitions? Clearly, they suggest that leaders possess a vision of the future, a sense of where they see themselves, their team, and the organization. Having a vision, however, is useless without the concomitant ability to communicate it in an effective manner to others. We can either lead by example or through establishing a message so compelling that it motivates compliance. Further, leaders understand the art of influence—the ability to initiate actions in others, regardless of respective ranks within the company. The goal of leaders, it has been said, is to produce change. Through the vision of future possibilities and their efforts toward creating collective action, they work to change the status quo, to move their organizations or their teams in new and challenging directions in pursuit of their goals.

Leaders are goal directed. As we will demonstrate in later chapters, leadership behavior does not consist simply of taking care of one's team. Certainly there is a strong need to consider the project team members’ feelings and attitudes, working to keep job satisfaction and motivation high. At the same time, however, effective leaders also understand that they must remain mission driven. Their goal is the successful completion of a project. The steps they take, both for the welfare of the team and the pursuit of the project's goals, are all aimed at successful project implementation.

TRANSFORMATIONAL VERSUS TRANSACTIONAL LEADERSHIP

One method for understanding the unique characteristics of effective project leaders is to examine the difference between two distinct forms of leadership: transactional and transformational. The term, transactional leaders, typically refers to those individuals who view their jobs as a series of discrete transactions between themselves and their subordinates. They generally are good administrators in that they operate as problem solvers. Because they deal with issues as they come up (transactions), they may be excessively reactive rather than inclined to develop a vision for themselves, their departments, or their projects.

Transformational leaders, on the other hand, seek to make their mark on the organization or their projects through operating in a forward-thinking, often charismatic, manner. They work to make a difference as project managers, through transforming their project teams and, ultimately, their projects, in positive ways. We will argue throughout this book that a transformational leadership model is very appropriate for successful project managers. They must learn to view their work as a challenge of transformation—taking a chaotic and disorderly situation (the beginning of a new project) and, through their personal energy and ability to inspire team members, creating a vision of project success that motivates high commitment from the team.

When we consider some of the characteristics of transformational leaders, it is easy to see how they apply to successful project management. As readers will see, these themes resonate throughout this text. Briefly, transformational leaders have the following attributes (DuBrin 1995).

• Vision—Transformational project leaders are vision-driven individuals. Unlike transactional, reactive project managers, successful project leaders offer their teams and stakeholders an exciting view of where the project is headed, its goals, and potential. A vision, representing the ideal state of project success, gives the team a rallying point and a goal to strive for throughout the project's development.
• Good communication skills—It makes no sense to have a vision of the future if we are unable to communicate that vision to our teams. Successful project leaders understand that at the hub of all effective project activity lies the ability to communicate, inspire, instruct, and inform.
• Ability to inspire trust—A recent study by two noted experts on leadership found after interviewing thousands of managers that the number-one characteristics possessed by effective leaders were honesty and trustworthiness (Kouzes and Posner 1995). Transformational leaders’ greatest legacy is often the fact that their team members will risk their own careers to support the project leader's vision.
• Ability to empower—Effective leaders make their team members feel capable. They build rather than constantly tear down. Transformational leaders understand that it is not just the project's success by which they are measured but their ability to develop team members to their fullest potential.
• Energy and action orientation—Transformational leaders are characterized by high levels of personal energy and enthusiasm. Indeed, they understand that it is impossible to inspire others if they themselves are lethargic or lukewarm in their reactions to their latest challenge.
• Emotional expressiveness and warmth—Most transformational leaders are able to express their feelings openly. They do not leave their team constantly guessing about their latest mood; they do not play their cards close to the chest. Team members are not constantly tiptoeing around them in fear of explosions. These leaders know that they are expected to play cheerleader.
• Willingness to take personal risks—Transformational leaders share a common characteristic with successful entrepreneurs: they are not risk averse. In leading by personal example, they understand that if they expect their teams to use dynamic and potentially untried (risky) approaches to solve project-related problems, then they must exhibit similar attitudes.
• Use of unconventional strategies—A common term coming up in business these days is expressed as a willingness to think outside the box. What this phrase refers to is an attitude of refusing to be bound by conventional thinking and programmed decision-making. Thinking outside the box shows the project team that creativity and nontraditional thinking are encouraged and rewarded.

  

• Self-promoting personality—Transformational leaders are not shy; they do not hide their lights under bushels. Successful project managers understand the importance of playing the key political games, using influence and self-promotion to advance their projects. Transformational leaders have many characteristics; reticence, however, is not one of them.
• Capable in crises—True leadership is difficult to assess when things run smoothly. Projects, as we know, rarely do. In fact, it is precisely in how project managers handle the myriad problems of a typical project that we find the greatest measure of their leadership abilities. Transformational leaders rise to the challenge, seeing opportunity where others see only threat.

This book is organized around the unifying theme of transformational leadership. As Figure 1 demonstrates, we view project leaders’ actions as essentially the result of a number of issues, including their personal leadership styles, visioning ability, and understanding of team and personal accountability. Although the chapters will develop these points in considerable detail, they suggest that some of the most well-known leadership actions—including inspiring and building effective project teams, using influencing skills, and so forth—are directly related to our understanding of leader characteristics.

Transformational project leadership requires readers to understand at the outset that we are not offering a set of freestanding and independent leadership characteristics that can be adopted, or not, as the reader is inclined. Rather, leadership behavior is an integrated whole, based on possessing or developing both underlying personal characteristics and understanding their impact through applying specific leader behaviors. Attempting to develop one side of the model without the other is fruitless. It is no more possible to manifest leadership actions without understanding their underlying causes than we would be inclined to refine our leadership abilities to their highest potential without ever testing them by putting these theories into action.

Leadership behavior can be acquired. Despite the opinions of some that leadership is an innate personality characteristic that some have, and the majority do not, research and practical experience demonstrate quite clearly that this is not so. It is possible for all project managers to improve their leadership styles, first, through a clearer understanding of their preferred methods for running projects.

THE UNIFYING NATURE OF LEADERSHIP

Leadership behavior exists at the heart of successful project development. Having made this point, it is necessary to look at precisely how leader behavior affects all aspects of project implementation. Figure 1 illustrates the various elements involved in successful project operations, arguing that the combination of both internal and external environments, leader behavior, and an understanding of individual team members’ needs all can positively or negatively influence project team development. This team development will have a direct effect on the resultant project performance.

As a unifying theme, Figure 1 also demonstrates the linkages between the various chapters developed in this book. In order to understand the nature of the leadership challenge, it is important to devote some time to explaining the various models of leadership—which ones apply to the project management process, how they relate to each other, their practical implications, and so forth. Chapter 2 will take the reader through a short survey of important leadership ideas. We suggest that even though theory has gotten something of a bad reputation, implying somehow that it must therefore be divorced from reality, a solid grounding in basic leadership theories will go far toward making the ideas presented in this book clear and immediately applicable.

The important underlying theme of these theories is presented in our chapter on accountability. All leadership is a balancing act; it consists of an implicit understanding that we have to find the appropriate balance between an all-out desire for task accomplishment and an equally strong need to nurture and develop our team. This chapter will demonstrate the problems with an overemphasis on either philosophy. Too-high task concern may turn us into autocratic, insensitive monsters. On the other hand, an excessive focus on our team members and their feelings can lead to projects wallowing in uncompleted inertia, as we never seem to have the ability to drive the task to completion. Creating accountability is our desire as project leaders to find a middle ground working with and developing team members, but only within a strict set of project guidelines.

At the heart of leader behavior is the ability to develop the unique vision for the project that guides its direction. Project vision means an a priori understanding (and ability to communicate) what the completed project will resemble, the problems it will solve, and the benefits it will provide. An anonymous wit once noted that, “any road will get you there if you don't know where you are going.” Vision gives the leader the ability to project a positive and defined message to the project team and relevant stakeholders. Chapters 4 and 5 discuss the importance of and practical steps involved in developing a clear project vision and communicating it effectively to team members.

Because any leader only operates within the context of his team, it is clear that team-building abilities are key to effective project leadership. Team building acknowledges some important truths about successful project implementation: 1) It can only come about as the result of a motivated, integrated project team, and 2) Teams do not happen by accident. Successful projects occur as the result of successful teamwork. Competent and effective interactions among team members sound much easier in theory than they are in real life. The truth, as many readers will attest, is that taking a diverse group of individuals, usually with different functional backgrounds, experiences, and training, and molding them into a cohesive unit is one of project management's greatest challenges. It does not happen naturally or by chance. This metamorphosis occurs through careful preparation, understanding of human and team-related needs, and a knowledge of our own leadership style.

Embedded in effective leadership is the ethical side of our decision processes. Research has suggested that one of the traits most people look for in leaders is a sense of honesty or integrity (Kouzes and Posner 1995). This basic honesty implies that we are using our leadership for positive means, through creating an atmosphere for project development that encourages the best from each team member. In this sense, ethics is not simply an add-on feature to leadership—“Sure we want good leaders. Oh, and if they can be honest too, that would be nice.”—it is a key component of the leadership function.

The chapter on strategy and leadership brings into focus the sense that all projects are effective to the degree that we have made them fit into the larger environmental context. History abounds with examples of successful projects that did not fit the organizational context and, hence, were abandoned as expensive white elephants. Oregon's Department of Transportation recently spent millions to develop a computerized automobile-registration system that was only belatedly found to be so flawed, both in its technical snags and conceptual misunderstandings, that it was simply abandoned as a very expensive write-off. In the chapter, we offer some guidelines for project managers to make sure that while their projects are on the developmental track, their underlying strategies are still appropriate; in other words, the engine driving the project is still moving in the correct direction.

Writing a book on project leadership is an ambitious undertaking. Yet, based on our years of research, personal project management experiences, consulting, and interview data, it is clear that too much is at stake on both personal and organizational levels with our projects to go into them without a clear view of what effective leadership can do for a project's chances for success. Every reader can easily recall examples within their own organizations of projects that both succeeded and bombed due, in large part, to the actions or errors of the project leader.

At the heart of many people's difficulties with exercising leadership is our misunderstanding of what leadership means. Once we start to demythologize leadership, to make the term understandable and accessible to all, we take the first step toward opening up great opportunities for a number of novice project managers, scared to death at the thought of their first step into the live-fire range of project management. This book is another sort of first step. It represents a first step at stripping away the veil of mystique surrounding leadership, making it easier for project managers to both understand and practice. And that is the most important first step of all.