01.05.2012
Culture, Review, Services
‘Power’ and ‘Influence’ are two words you will constantly hear if you are seeking to find the path to successful corporate leadership. They’re not lightweight terms, as the timeline of human history has shown. So, learning how to properly use power and influence is most likely to be one of the keys to finding the right path to success.
I’ve been interested to read about the world recognised Colin Gautrey and The Gautrey Group via their website. With a huge portfolio and wide reaching expertise they aim to provide the appropriate skills and training to people in all levels of the corporate workplace to help them achieve optimum, yet balanced levels of influence and, hopefully, genuine success in their chosen field. And that’s an achievement nearly all of us in the corporate arena, at some point, has found to be a challenge, perhaps especially in recent times.
Click here to browse The Gautrey Group’s website…
Portfolios Programs Projects – simply making them happen
13.09.2011
Analysis, Case Studies, Review
A few years ago, a meticulous research study of 860 Project Managers (whittled down from 5,258 PMs) and 4,398 of their stakeholders was undertaken. Called ‘The Alpha Study’, and led by Georgia-based Project Manager and author Andy Crowe, one of the aims of this landmark study was to try to define the qualities that made an ‘Alpha’ Project Manager more effective than any other. Crowe published the findings in his book, ‘Alpha Project Managers (what the top 2% know that everyone else doesn’t)’, which challenged many of the assumptions in the profession of project management today.
Essentially, the assumptions of the PMs were tested against those of their stakeholders, and perhaps not surprisingly, it turned out that most of us are making incorrect assumptions about what our stakeholders want and how we should relate to them. Interesting too was that only 18 (2%) of the study group were identified as Alphas – 6 female and 12 male, a close approximation of the gender split across the whole study group.
Crowe discovered that Alpha PMs were the ones who consistently delivered projects that met the project goals, managed stakeholder expectation, and kept the customer, the team and the organisation in harmony. And whilst it might appear obvious that naturally, an elite PM would be achieving results like these, the reality is that most PMs find it simply impossible.
‘Alpha Project Managers’ is interesting, and has attracted discussion from all sides. But importantly, it encourages you to think about how you manage your own projects. I’ve extracted some quotes for you to read, but if you’d like to read more, it’s available from Amazon in either hard copy or ebook format.
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