Organizations that are willing to allow hastily planned, poorly lead projects eventually weaken themselves and endanger employees by wasting precious resources.

Too many companies act as if project leadership, like meeting leadership, calls for the simple extension of the skills that any manager or professional already possesses. As reasonable as that assumption may seem, it is false. Projects, which almost always involve brand new challenges, only succeed if the leaders anticipate needed information, prepare and deliver revealing questions, select and/or prop up participants, develop and communicate detailed plans, influence resistors, manage time and work, present project results and remain relatively calm if the project is unexpectedly shelved. If the leader doesn't know that each of these skills is called for, if he doesn't have time to give each of these aspects of a project adequate attention or if he doesn't know how to do one or more of them very well, the project suffers. And suffer they do. Think through the projects you've lead or participated in. What percentage underperformed or failed outright? Sometimes the 'suffering' comes in the form of missed deadlines, extra resource needs, marginal results or, in extreme cases, no usable result at all. Stack enough suffering projects on top of each other and you'll end up with a suffering company.

Organizations that are flattening (re-engineering, downsizing, rightsizing, etc) will depend on projects and project leaders to get work done that was once handled by departments.

Back in the porky ol' days of just-in-case hiring and headcounts, a neo-military style of top down management took care of all but the most peculiar types of work. Superiors assigned work to their subordinates and business proceeded as usual. Those days are gone forever. Mean, lean and green hiring and headcount adjustments have thinned employee ranks to the point that old work practices simply can't handle the load. Where groups of employees were ready to handle issues in the past, now companies pull project teams together to address an issue and then disband. In the present and near future, projects won't be the exception, they'll be the rule.

With rare exceptions, project prime movers believe that project meltdowns are the result of weak project leadership.

Whether the cause of project underperformance is due to a unforeseen problems, participant delays or miscommunication, the blame almost always finds its way back to the leader. Where else would it go? When a project prime mover authorizes a project, the leader is given time, a budget and a measure of trust. Every extra dollar required to finish and every day required beyond the deadline comes off the top of any glory the project leader would have otherwise earned. Explanations may be listened to politely, but don't kid yourself; they come off like excuses.

More than one lumpy project leadership performance can give you a reputation that will repel future project participants.

It gets worse. Not only do underperforming project leaders lose points with management for blown schedules or budgets, they are also quickly identified by potential participants as frustrators and/or time wasters. Everyone has more work than they know what to do, which means that many of them are bootlegging time from home, honey and hearth. Waste their time and effort in an ill planned or poorly communicated project and you will quickly find out what the new paradigm's version of shunning is.

Project work is often disguised by the use of the word Team; if you find yourself on or leading teams, you're probably working together to complete a project.

Depending on the point of view of your organization, you may be leading or participating in a project and not even recognize it. Are you a team leader or a team member? In many cases, team is to project as cooking is to casserole. Team (a favorite word among extroverts) focuses on the activity and relationships while project (would the introverts quietly nod their heads) focuses more on the outcome. This book, although it's title includes the word "Project", tries to find a common ground between these two points of view and, in doing so, include the best of both.

The abilities that are required to organize and carry out successful projects will enhance other aspects of your job.

Successful project leadership is more about breadth than depth and, as such, successful project leaders tend to be good at all aspects of their work. Planning, gathering information, influencing people, making use of your time, delivering effective presentations and managing your own frustration levels are all part of being a strong project leader, an effective manager, a valued professional and an irreplaceable individual contributor. The practical competencies detailed in this book, if acted upon, could transform you into a Renaissance employee.

Leading successful projects is the best way to prove your promotability to the people who make those decisions.

Ever wonder how you can get that next promotion in an organization that has fewer middle and upper management positions? If you're not managing now or if you're managing in a low visibility part of the company, you could go for years before anyone noticed your abilities; unless you made a habit of leading highly successful projects. With business becoming increasingly competitive and cost conscious, one of the very best ways to get noticed is to take the helm of a successful project. As you use the abilities outlined in this book to reliably bring in valuable results, opportunities will start knocking on your door.

The best way to promote effective project leadership is to set examples that are so powerful and positive that others wouldn't dare do less.

A word of warning; you may be bucking tradition. When any organization tolerates the ever-worsening downsides of project haste for very long, what was bad business practices can become an accepted standard in the culture. Lame justifications can appear ("We don't have time for much planning; we'll deal with it when we come to it!" or "Who has time to monitor other people's project work!") and be embraced as a potential excuse should disaster strike one's own project.


A word of encouragement: buck tradition! If you invest time in leading projects right from the start, you won't have to (a) spend time explaining what went wrong, (b) beg for additional help from misused participants or (c) bootleg time from your loved ones so you can make things right. Even better, you will begin to set a new standard for leading projects and by raising the level of play within your organization, you will strengthen and enrich it.

Project leaders seldom get better until they know how to do it right.

One of the great lessons of the past decade is that as a country, as companies and as individuals, we can never rest on our laurels. There will always be someone gaining on us, which means that we must always strive to be better. Because project leadership is a key building block for producing value today and into the future, we must find ways to improve. For many and perhaps for you, this book represents one of those ways.

If you're not getting better, you're getting worse as you get older.

One last thought; you're lying on your death bed and, as we know from the movies, your life is flashing before your eyes. In one scenario, that moment will be littered with bosses, co-workers and legions of others, complaining about how you wasted company resources, their time and plenty of potential project enthusiasm by botching one project after another. In another scenario, you see legions of smiling faces thanking you for taking them to new heights of productivity and profitability. Of course, after your life finishes flashing, you'll expire, but which scenario would you prefer? The choice is yours.