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A Resource for PM Professionals
The PM Leadership Edition

October 2008 Newsletter
Dear Donnie,

Welcome to the TA newsletter compiled by Donnie MacNicol and Brenda Hales. We have sent this to you because you've previously expressed a similar interest to us in advancing PM thinking and practice. We hope you will continue to find the content useful and stimulating. Each edition will be:
  • identifying issues which you are telling us are impacting you: more importantly highlighting solutions (the next edition will discuss PM Communities of Practice)
  • providing feedback from the research we are undertaking: encouraging you to participate where possible
  • bringing you updates on key PM events and interesting thinking and publications
  • providing you with a platform to share your thoughts and experiences with your PM peers and colleagues.
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PM Leadership - is it different to Leadership?

We want to encourage debate on issues that matter and one that keeps coming up in various guises is the difference between PM Leadership and Leadership.  We believe there are some distinct activities and as a result some important features of PM Leaders that require not a totally different approach but certainly a different emphasis.  One aspect that we think deserves consideration is:   Leading successful projects and programmes without hierarchical position.
PMs, particularly those who are selling / delivering into customer organisations, lack what is taken for granted by managers "in" organisations, namely a recognised position within the organisational hierarchy; since it is this hierarchical position that often confers on managers the authority to allocate tasks, influence managers etc.  This raises the need for unique and often intricate influencing skills from the PM.  Given such projects are also delivering to the customer it can be very hard to insist on certain tasks and timescales to ensure timely/quality deliverables that still support the supplier/customer relationship and developing follow-on business.    We would be fascinated to know what your experiences on this and other differences have been and what helped you most to develop your own or others' skills to overcome these additional challenges.  Please email your thoughts by clicking here.  In the next edition we will be providing a summary of your feedback.

PM Leadership Development article - what is your reaction to our thinking?

Our focus as an organisation is very much on PM Leadership. Feedback suggests to us that you are interested in a range of aspects from encouraging new PM's to start to locate their leadership muscles, to your top end PMs breaking through 'glass ceilings' to take their rightful place on organisational boards.  Brenda has written an article in the Aug/Sept issue of Project (the magazine of the Association for Project Management) deliberately highlighting the many and various challenges in developing PM leadership capability.  You can download a pdf version of the article by clicking here.    Feedback from many readers tells us that while this may be what we need, it is too far ahead of where we are at present, potentially too expensive and take too long.  On Thursday at Project Challenge, where Donnie was presenting a session, a good friend said "You are setting the gold standard - but how many people will go for gold?"  We really would like to know what you think.  To send us your thoughts click here to email us.  To browse our other APM and RICS published articles click here.

Our favourite snippets:
  We have updated our website, www.teamanimation.co.uk and would encourage you to explore it.  It now captures our 7 core offerings for individuals, teams and organisations.  Feedback on how we can make it more useful for you would be much appreciated.
A great quote:
"All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time." The Age of Uncertainty, Galbraith

A key article on TimesOnline .....
... on major complex projects being a breeding ground for future leaders, with input from the Association for Project Management. Great to see a PM perspective in an article on leadership. Click here to view.

New Associate
  We are delighted to welcome Simon Cavicchia to our team as a coach and leadership consultant.  Simon brings with him a huge wealth of learning and experience around people issues.  The holder of three masters degrees and a lecturer on another three (two are on coaching, the third is on organisational change) you only have to spend five minutes with him to realise how much he brings to developing people through a consultative coaching approach.  With experience in many organisations and gravitating towards PM he is now available to work with organisations keen to incorporate coaching into their learning approach. To view other members of the team please click here.  
We hope you found the newsletter of value. If you want to contact us please call us on 01932 589259 or email us at info@teamanimation.co.uk Feedback is always welcome.

The TA Team