I’ve never bought into the myth that obtaining an MBA has anything to do with superior leadership or management ability. So it was humbling to find that my blog post was chosen as an example to help young MBA applicants write their leadership essay. My post said leadership was simple: Vision, Courage and Responsibility, and that it was these three elements and not position in the organization that constituted real leadership.
One of the things I like about writing this column is that it gives me the opportunity to poke at topics until I can come up with something concrete (which then generally turns into a Gartner research piece). Obviously leadership is one of my hot buttons this year since I spend a lot of time talking to heads of PMOs about the leadership crisis they face. Their PMs at best approach the three elements of leadership in reverse order — and yes order makes a difference — and at worst fail on all three elements in their entirety.
I’d been thinking that the problem was the PMs that they’d hired were simply unsuited to the work but what I now realize is that nobody has actually taught them how to lead and more importantly no one has given them “permission” to see themselves as leaders. Some of us simply lead through inclination. We see something that needs to be done, it takes more than a single person to do it, we go enlist other people and viola instant team and instant leadership. The Darwinian method worked for me but I now realize that I spent my early career in an environment that naturally produced leaders (Silicon Valley in its heyday). If a company culture isn’t designed to encourage this natural formation then we actually have to learn to grow them ourselves.
Now the light bulb has turned on over my head, I realize that I’ll have to figure out how we can begin to design a sustainable method for growing a crop of leaders. And YES it really is OUR responsibility since it turns out we have the most fertile fields. Projects and programs are fantastic places to develop the skills and abilities we need in our future leaders.
By the way for those of you already in a PPM leadership position, I might suggest that I’m offering you a golden opportunity to improve your own cache. One of the fastest ways to move up the ranks is to not only do your own job exceptionally well but to do something completely above and beyond your current job assignment. Most people do that by picking something their boss is passionate about. I have found that it works even better is you pick something the company as a whole values to work on. For a whole lot of reasons I won’t go into here — you’ll ruffle less political feathers if you do it smartly.
6 responses so far ↓
1 Glen B. Alleman // Oct 13, 2009 at 4:06 pm
Donna,
Congradulations on the light bulb moment. The primary benefit of holding an MBA is to understand the processes of business. After all it is a Master in Business Administration.
The counter-MBA folks (and there some in high PM thought leader poisitons – which itself is an oxymoron) fail to disconnect their personal experiences of having a boat load of MBA from Mckinsey dumped in their project and the “real” role of an MBA.
As a holder of a MBA with an emphasis on Systems Engieering, provided by a former employeer – it was crystal clear why they sent me to USC…
They wanted program managers who understood the business, could move into business management roles, and could connect the dots between being a technical lead and a business leader.
I’d suggest to anyone considering an MBA from the IT or project management role, to use this experience to learn about business management not just the management of the technlogy of business.
PPM is Business Management. An MBA is a Master in PPM if applied correctly.
As a final thought your basis for leadership – Vision, Courage and Responsibility – where does competency in the subject matter come in. Vision, Courage and Responsibility can run you off the cliff in the absence of knowing how the business processes enable all that vision, courage, and responsibility.
Glen Alleman
VP, Program Controls
Aerospace and Defense
Denver, Colorado
2 Donna Fitzgerald // Oct 13, 2009 at 5:12 pm
Since I didn’t go to USC and I was only 20 when I started my MBA I had a very different experience than you did. I certainly didn’t come out of grad school a master at anything. Of course my program wasn’t focused on creating leaders of industries. It was focused on checking a box that says MBA.
With that said, let me come back to my point. Leadership is NOT a matter of education. It might be a matter of training (the thought under consideration here) but I’m still not sure.
As to needing competency… Actually you don’t need a shred of personal competency to lead. You simply need a vision (which you don’t need to be able to realize all by your lonesome), the courage to commit to a course of action, and the willingness to take responsibility for the consquences of your actions (after all those are real people your’re leading and if you take them over a cliff the blame is completely yours.)
As to needing to know the business again same answer. If your idea is crackbrained, people will be smart enough not to follow so you can’t lead. On the other hand if your idea is a radical departure from any form of current process and it WORKS then you’re brilliant.
Essentially there are consequences in any leadership related activity and that’s why it takes courage and responsibility.
3 Diane D. Miller // Oct 22, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Donna – I agree with and appreciate your insight to boil leadership down to three primary elements: Vision, Courage and Responsibility. I am sad to say that I have seen very little of these in recent day “leaders”.
Over my career, I have seen many people with amazing aptitude beaten into submission by managers that fear the power of these would be leaders and organizations that allow their managers to behave badly. It is unfortunate that we do not have more role models that unabashedly show us what strong leadership looks like.
As our global economies continue to falter, I am afraid that exhibiting leadership has become too risky of a position for people to take. This is a sad time indeed. If we do not start growing our next wave of leaders now… What will the world look like for the generation inheriting this mess?
Diane D. Miller
DianeDMiller@gmail.com
4 Layla // Oct 29, 2009 at 6:35 am
Indeed, PPM needs creative leaders who will play a critical role in improving the PPM maturity level in smooth way. And also can guide the team to be leaders. When I hear PPM the first thing comes to my mind is conflicts and problem solving…. That’s why who are working in PPM area needs to be excellent in both conflict management and problem solving/decision making. I think that courage is the key element to be a leader
5 Layla // Oct 29, 2009 at 6:42 am
I totally agree with Donna when you mentioned
“that nobody has actually taught them how to lead and more importantly no one has given them “permission” to see themselves as leaders”
In case someone has got the key elements to be a leader? How to make it active in an environment where permission is not given ?
6 Donna Fitzgerald // Nov 9, 2009 at 8:15 pm
@Layla. Leadership without permission is generally based on vision and desire of the leader to get somewhere. One of the first tests of leadership is the willingness to take a stand for someting and to encourage others to join with you. You can be appointed a manager, you can be given a title that assumes you are suppose to lead (like CEO) BUT the title and the organizational permission actually don’t make anyone a leader. For some who lack the either the foolheartiness or courage to simply plow a head on the belief it’s better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission; mentorship and support can often add that little bit of encouragement that isn’t there natively.
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