The Leader's role in projects, programs and portfolios

Abstract

This article analyses the role of the leader in projects, programs and portfolios. It takes a closer look at how the role changes through the three diffeerent categories and how to be a good leader in the respective categories.

Since a leaders work most with people it could be assumed that most leadership is on the project level. However, leaders are also needed at program and portfolio level. Here it is more a case of "leading leaders" than just leading the ordinary workers. This requires different skills and focuses even though the basic remains the same.

Leadership is very important in all desciplines. It is particularly important in project since the leader works directly with people. Programs require good leadership too because they need a clear vision and someone to share it. Lastly it has been shown that good leadership on portfolio level can have an inpact up to 10 % better project performance.

It is therefore clear that good leadership can have a big impact on the performance of the projects, programs and portfolios.

Leaders and managers

Contrsats and similarities

Figure 1: Time spend on the four managerial tasks

"The person in charge" is often rferred to as both a manager and leader. This can lead to the thinking that managing and leading is the same thing. This is, however, not the case. Whether an organisation refers to the person in charge as leader or manager often depends on what field the organisation is in. Organisations that works with people e.g. the military and most non profit organisations often refer to the person in charge as the leader. Business' on the other hand often refer to their top person as a manager.

It is interesting how organisations that works with people are more inclined to use the term leader while organisations that work with creating and selling products more often use the term manager. Looking at figure 1 it is clear that this is from a more "business" perspective since the people in charge are described as managers. From this alone it seems like leaders work more with people while managers work more with systems. This is further confrimed when looking at the figure, The higher the person is in the company the less leading the person do and the more planning. Controlling and organizing also increasees.

Many have summed up the differances between managers and leaders through the time. An example can be seen in the tabel below. This tabel shows clearly that the manger focuses more on the technicalities and the leader more on the people. The mangers focuses on the practical, he makes the system and tells people when and how things are supposed to be done. He is the one that makes the plans an makes sure evrythingis done accordingly. He is the one that makes sure things doesn't stop.

The leader on the other hand is the visionary. The leader makes change happen and inspire the workers to move forward and further. While people listen to the manager because of his authority they listen to the leader because of his influence. In short, the leader is more defined by his character and the manager more by his activities.

Manager	Leader
Technical	Visionary
Plans	Inspires
Focuses on system	Focues on people
Has authority	Has influence
Asks how and when	Asks why
Knows how it's done	Shows how it's done
Says "I"	Says "we"
Does things right	Does the right things

Leadership tools and competences

Working with a team

The leaders' goal can be summurized in one sentence; to deliver results through others. To achive through others the leader is very dependent on the team. Therefore the first important skill for a leader is to make his team. The leader has to find members whose personalities compliment each other but who can work together at the same time. There are many tools that can be used to help in this process, one is the Belbin's teamroles. This tool has ine different roles that often emerges in group work and through a test will show the participant which roles he/she are most suited for. Using this tool the leader can find teammates that compliment each other and make an effektive team.

When the team is made the process of delivering through others begin. To deliver through other the leader must define the task at hand, give feedback and coach the team. The leader is supposed to be then one with and overview of the situation. that is why it is easiest for him to define the tasks that should be done. When the tasks are carried out he should then give feedback to the teammembers. This will help them grow and learn form their experience. In the end it is the leaders job to coach the team. He has to empower them and help them so they start finding their own solutions to the problems and so becomes better and better.

Leader core competences

Analyzing what a good leader is not a new thing. It has been relevant all the way back to 500 BC with both Confuciius and and Aristotle looking into it. In more resent time six defferent leadership schools hav risen in the 20th century.

1. the trait school
2. the behaviour school
3. the contingency school
4. the visionary or charismatic school
5. the emotional intelligence school
6. the competence school

The last one of these, the competence school, incorporates elemnts from the previous 5 schools and may give a more complete picture than the other 5.

The competence school looks at leaders from threee different intellegances. The first is the intellectual intelligence (IQ). This includes firstly critical analysis & judgment, secondly vision and imagination and lastly strategic perspective.

The second intelligence is the Managerial intelligence (MQ). This intelligence includes engaging communication, managing resources, empowering, developing and achieving.

The third intelligence is the emotional intelligence (EQ). This intelligence measures self-awareness, emotional resiliance, motivation, sensitivity, influence, intuitivness and Conscientiousness.

Projects, programs and portfolios

Projects and leadership

Project definition

The projecet is a onetime change oriented assignment. It is something that falls outside the normal routines of the organisation. To handle this the organisation often sets up a group to handle the assignment. The group is often comprised of memembers from different places in the organisation since the assinment often affects more than just one area in the organisation.

A project has a concrete fram. It has a set timelimit and a limit amount of resources. The project focuses on delivering the agreed on "product" within the limits given.

The leaders role in projects

Small projects are often done by groups therefore the leader of a project is found as the leader of the group. for big projects or super projects where more than 100 or even 1000 of people work in it the leader is the person in carge of the project and has more interaction with the leaders of different areas in the project.

The role of the leader then is dependent on the size of the operation. If it is a small project it is possible for the leader to meet all the involved people and be a leader to them. In a big project the leader's role becomes more that of a leader of leaders. According to figure 1 a leader will spend more time managing in super project.

practical applications

In small projects the EQ would be the most important since it invovlse a lot of interaction with people.

A study was made to examine these intelligences and find out if there was a trend for succesfull project managers. The study was done by using some questionaires with 400 usable responses. The study found 4 common factors, critical thinking for the intellectual intelligence (IQ) and influence, motivation and conscientiousness from the emotional intelligences (EQ). These 4 factors were important in all of the succesfull project while other elements from the three intelligences where important in specific cases.

From this it is clear that if a leader has these four core competences size does not matter. The project can be big or small but the leader will still be well suited to handle it. However, the kind of project may have an influence. It can require some of the other cor competences. The tabel below shows some of the more specific requirments in some of the major areas.

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Programs and leadership

Program definition

A program is a collection of projects that share a common goal. The projects in a program will together fulfill the goal that was set from the start. Often are the projects in a program of similar type or they support each other, therefore they are also dependent on each other. This could be the case for some projects that can first start when others are done. The entire Program can, however, finish without all the projects in it being a succes. This is possible as long as the overarging gaol of the program has been achievet. The program as an end end term and when that is reach it is done.

The leaders role in programs

The program is lead by a program group that focuses on the goal for the program. This group can be comprised in defferent ways. For small programs it could be just a leader for the program working with all the program leaders and forming a team with the. For big programs it is better to have a program group that all focus on the end goal. If it is a program with many big projects there is not a single project leader but often a project group in these cases it is often a big program so there is also a program group.

Practical applications

There might be more IQ here since it isn't quite at top level yet it does require skill to get here.

This stage is all about vision. Since the program has a certain goal this goal has to be communicated and shared among the entire team. It does not matter whether it is a big or a small program. It is difficult to take on a vision that is not ones own. The main job of the leader is here to make people take ownership of the vision. The easiest way is by involving them in the process of getting the vision. This is often impossible in bigger companies.

Being unable to involve people in the vision process another method has to be imployed to share the vision. Here the "burning platform" approach can be used. The approach is to make the people unsatisfied with the current situation. When they then get sick and tired of it and come to you and ask "what should we do about it" the leader can answer " I am glad you ask, see here, this will fix our problems". Then they will be motivated to work towards the goal and hopefully take the idea in and own it themselves.

There is some controversy about the burning platform approach.

Portfolios and leadership

Portfolio definition

A portfolio is the combination of all the different projects and programs in the organisation. The portfolio does not have a goal as the program has. It is just where all the projects and programs can be found. The portfolio does not have en end term but continues as long as the organisation cintinues. The portfolio gives an imidiate picture of all the projects and programs of the organisation. The advantage of a portfolio is that it can help allocate the right resources to the right projecst and programs at the right time. It helps manage everything.

The leaders role in portfolios

The portfolio is often lead by a group of top managers in the organisation. The leader of this group is often the CEO or the CTO. Since it is impossible to get to every single person working in every project and program the leadership role here is manily in the group of ttop managers. if it is a small portfolio the leader may also have contact with the project and program leaders.

practical applications

Since Portfolio management is very high in the organisational structe it is assumed that MQ is more important here.

Often people think that you don't need much leadership in the top because they are all tp managers but that is not true. The top managers are people too even though they are often seen as "higher beings". The leader of the group should also make sure that these leaders will also be challenged and through that grow.

Good leaders should be able to take responsibility od their own growth. It is however still good to be motivatet from the outside too.

The CEO, who is often the leader of a portfolio management team, should use this oppurtunity to really get to know the team members. This can create a stronger connection in the top managament / leadership of the organization and will help especially if a crisis arise. This can also make a stronger connection to the firm for the topleaders so they won't be headhunted by rivaling companies.

Discussion

The biggest problem in looking at the Leadership of projects, programs and portfolio is the data. There have been many studies about project leaders nad on projects in general but there are very few sources dealing with program and portfolio management. Because of this I have been forced to look at what leadership abilities that seem important for these topics and recommend them. This however is only on a theoretical basis. This is definatly a field that can be explored further and should be explored.

1. dilemma with high EQ and more managing
2. burning platform