Solving people

problems
six practical tools for today’s
project manager

inShare

CONFERENCE PAPER Team Building , Leadership , Skill Development 3

October 2002

Seminars & Symposium

Flannes, Steven W. | Flannes, Steven | Levin, Ginger
How to cite this article:
Flannes, S. W., Flannes, S., & Levin, G. (2002). Solving people problems:
six practical tools for today’s project manager. Paper presented at
Project Management Institute Annual Seminars & Symposium, San
Antonio, TX. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Reprints and Permissions

Introduction
A project team operating within a global
telecommunications organization was floundering. Deadlines
were missed, project quality was suffering, and adherence to
budgetary guidelines was beginning to look like an
impossibility. The team had been given more than enough
technical resources and skills to complete the job, but
failure was looming around the corner.
An outside project manager was brought in by the
sponsoring executive to see what was wrong with this
project. She found that interpersonal communication among
team members and stakeholders was poor, morale and
motivation was low, conflicts were left to fester, and the
project manager appeared to have little awareness of the
different leadership roles he should be demonstrating during
the project. In short, she found that the project leader and
team members did not have the skills and tools available to
solve the often messy and complicated “people problems”
that can surface in any team environment.
Most individuals enter the role of project manager with
sophisticated technical expertise and content knowledge,
but are often not extensively knowledgeable or skilled in the
“soft” skills that are necessary for project success and
career advancement.
And without the skills to address the complex people issues
in projects, those projects are often doomed to failure. The
good news is that for a few years now, there has been a
growing awareness that project management approaches
that emphasize key business factors AND interpersonal skills
will lead to a reduction in project failure. Indeed, a far back
as 1999, the GartnerGroup (August, 1999) estimated that this
combined focus on business factors and interpersonal skills
will reduce the total number of projects that fail by 30% (.8
probability). The Project Management Institute (PMI®) also
notes in its The Future of Project Management (1999) the
importance of people skills as it states: “More focus must be
placed on the people, human, and emotional aspects of
project leadership” (p. 15). PMI further explains that the
project management body of knowledge is expanding to
further develop the important people skills that are part of
general management. Then, in 2001, in The PMI Project
Management Fact Book, it stated that in the coming years,
the following capabilities will be most critical to those who
are project management professionals: “leadership
skills/vision and motivating others, people skills/getting
along with others, and management skills/directing and
managing others” (p. 14).
However, while such research efforts have documented the
need for the interpersonal or people skills factors, few
investigators or writers have taken the focus on the
interpersonal to the next level. That level is the description
of tangible, learnable interpersonal skills that can be
practiced and refined over time. The current authors, writing
on the subject of people skills that can be applied by project
managers (Flannes & Levin, 2001), have taken the first step
in defining and operationalizing these very powerful and
important project management “people skills.”
This paper describes six different people skills that are
crucial for project manager success and career
advancement. These six skills are a selection of a number of
people skills that the current authors have written about in
their recent book (Flannes & Levin, 2001) on the subject of
the development of people skills for project managers and
technical leaders.

Interpersonal Communication Skills

The most important of the soft skills that the project
manager should have is the ability to communicate
accurately and effectively with all stakeholders.
“Accurately” is defined as getting the message across in its
intended form, granted the ultimate limitations that all
humans have in being understood by another person. More
important in the long run, however, is the ability to
communicate “effectively,” which means getting your
message across in a manner that affirms and strengthens
the relationship between you and the stakeholder. This just
makes good business sense: you will have more successes
in your career if you have created positive relationships with
those with whom you encounter. This does not mean that all
interactions need to be pleasant, because at times there will
need for confrontation and conflict resolution. But if you
have created good interpersonal “currency” with your
stakeholders, you will have something tangible to draw upon
during tough times.
How does one create this positive interpersonal currency?
There are a number of interpersonal skills that help make
this happen. These skills include: the awareness of
individual styles, the ability to hear what is not verbalized, a
knowledge of the different types of communication, and a
firm grasp of specific verbal skills that facilitate getting
your message to your listener.
Exhibit 1. (From Solving People Problems: Six Practical Tools
for Today's Project Manager, by Steven Flannes and Ginger
Levin)
Every stakeholder in your professional life has a unique
personal style that is a combination of personality, values,
and cognitive style. Your job as a project manager is, to the
best of your ability, to “see” the uniqueness of each
stakeholder, and then to craft a communication approach
that is tailored to the needs of each individual. One very
popular system for viewing individual differences is the
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator system, MBTI (Consulting
Psychologists Press, Palo Alto, California). Although many
project managers have been exposed to the MBTI over the
years, their exposure, unfortunately, has frequently taken
place in superficial manners during a leadership training
course or in a team-building experience. In reality, the MBTI,
when used in a sophisticated and pragmatic manner, can
offer the project manager a wealth of concrete approaches
to use in identifying the best way to communicate with team
stakeholders. Flannes and Levin (2001) present an overview
of key implications for using the MBTI in communicating.
Key points from their treatment of the Myers-Briggs are
presented in Exhibit 1.
The MBTI as a psychometric tool has evolved in
sophistication and application, with researchers now able to
describe subscales for the traditional preferences (i.e.,
“Extravert” and “Introvert”). Similarly, new computer-
generated reports are available, which can assist the project
manager in building teams and resolving conflicts among
team members. This heightened ability to more precisely
describe individual style and preferences makes it important
to keep the MBTI tool in your project manager toolbox, even
if you have taken or used the instrument in the past.
The “ability to hear what is not said” sounds questionable at
first airing, but it is the ability to listen at deep levels and
hear what the team member is saying without using words.
This idea was first expressed decades ago as the ability to
observe nonverbal communication, but the idea has more
precise definition and application today. This ability to “hear
what is not said” involves, based upon your knowledge of
your stakeholders, your skill in being able to:
• Observe mood (i.e., excited, anxious, angry, depressed),
because mood states often flavor or exaggerate the intent of
the person's message.
• Assess whether the mood/behavior of the individual
matches the content of his or her message. When this does
not happen, there is a lack of congruence between these
two sources of communication. An example would be the
anxious, fidgety team member, with eyes directed at the
floor, reporting that things on the project are “going well.” Is
that true? Is the team member experiencing a personal
problem that may account for this anxious behavior?
Something is not matching, and as project manager, you
need to be vigilant and pursue this discrepancy.
An important guideline for any project manager to remember
is that all communication is intentional. And the intent of the
communication may take many forms. These forms include
the following:
• Information questioning: The basic act of seeking facts,
opinions, and reactions from another person. This is a good
tool to use when first meeting new stakeholders, as it
demonstrates your interest in their opinions.
• Personal acknowledgment: Letting the other person know
that you “see” them, whether this is a nod in the hallway or a
comment in a meeting. This is the currency of relationship
building and should be used even where there is no concrete
business to conduct. In colloquial terms, this is known as
“schmoozing!”
• Providing information or feedback: A necessary aspect of
managing people, but care should be given to ascertain
whether the other person is open and available for the
feedback. Timing is important here, and you want to pick you
spots with care.
• Teaching: This approach also needs to be used
selectively, because everyone on the team may not be open
to “teaching” from you, particularly if they perceive
themselves as your professional peer. This approach is best
employed after asking if the other person would value some
additional input or information.
• Crisis messages: In those moments where the project is
at risk, and strong, directional comments need to be offered,
“telling people what to do” may be appropriate. Hopefully, if
you need to employ this approach, you have previously
developed a productive relationship with the individual, a
connection that will help you ride through these rough times.
In summarizing this section, it should be said that the
sophisticated (and successful!) project manager will
consciously consider which type of communication he or
she is about to present to the stakeholder and will then craft
the message carefully. “Knowing where one is coming from,”
therefore, is crucial to initiating any communication in the
best possible manner.
In addition to the types of communications that have just
been described, the project manager must also think about
specific communication “tools” that will be used. Three very
powerful tools include:
• Open-ended questions (“Please think out loud with me
about the specifics for the software installation…”), which
allow you to obtain a great deal of information while
creating good will.
• Active listening (“Sounds as though you believe A, B, and
C about cost over runs…”), which allows the speaker the
chance to make sure his or her message is getting through
to you.
• Reframing (“I guess another perspective on the problem
would be idea B…”), which can be very helpful if you are
dealing with someone with a complaining or negative
approach to problem solving. This is a communication
application of the philosophy of seeing the glass half full.
In closing this section on interpersonal skills, project
managers will want to remember that everyone struggles
with achieving these skills, particularly during crisis points
of a project, but these skills can be obtained by all if one is
willing to practice them and refine one's personal approach
over time.

Project Manager Roles

There is no one leadership style that is appropriate for all
situations in the world of project management. The goal is to
be aware of the different roles required of the project
manager, and then having the focus to know when to deploy
each role. These roles are defined in detail in Flannes and
Levin (2001), and include:
• Leading, which involves the project manager's ability to
internally conceptualize the purpose of this project, often
including the added value, and then being able to
communicate this vision to the team members.
• Managing, which involves creating the administrative
processes and structure to keep the project moving toward
achievement of the triple constraints.
• Facilitating, which is the project manager's ability to
provide resources and remove obstacles that hinder team
member achievement.
• Mentoring, which is the complex, challenging, and often
subtle ability to provide intellectual and emotional support
to the team member, helping that person marshal his or her
resources to master a particularly sticky problem.

Motivating Team Members

Motivating team members may be the most difficult and
ambiguous people skill confronting the project manager. In
many ways, motivation is truly an art form. Experimental
psychologists, leadership thought leaders, sales managers,
and football coaches, among others, have grappled with this
complex task over the years. Our experience has taught us
that the following considerations and goals have proved
successful for the project manager in motivating individual
team members and the team as a unit. As you read this
section, consider what you would add to this listing.
• See the team member as an individual, with a unique
personal style and goals. Do not assume that what motivates
you will motivate them. Observe them, consider their
personalities and previous work, but most of all, ASK them
what turns them on in the professional world. “Asking” gives
you important information, but it also creates good will.
• Notice where the individual is in his or her career. Schein
(1990) describes an interesting model for identifying the
current career stage one is in his or her career, and
knowledge of these stages serves as a useful tool for
motivating individual team members. Schein's model,
consisting of 10 career stages (entry into the profession,
achievement of membership in the professional guild,
resolving mid-career crises, career disengagement and
retirement considerations, etc.), provides a unique window
through which to view the individual team members. The
project manager, with an understanding of where the team
member is on Schein's developmental continuum, can craft
motivation approaches that match the needs and goals of an
individual functioning within the specific career stage.
• Consider the values of the individual team
member. Schein's work, described above, also involves a
quick, self-scoring assessment tool that results in the
description of eight values (Schein's term is “career
anchors,” and some of these include: the values of challenge,
general management, autonomy, service, etc.). The project
manager can consider these values as they relate to his or
her individual team members (obtained through dialoging
with the team member or having the team member complete
the assessment tool).

Addressing Performance Problems

A performance problem can be defined as a type of behavior
from a team member than hinders the team member in
completing an assignment or that hinders other team
members in the completion of their duties (Flannes & Levin,
2001). These problems may be ones that concern technical
competence, relationship management, time management
and work habits, verbal communication, written
communication, and the like. The project manager must
address these situations proactively so that the work of the
individual team member and the entire team are not
adversely affected. Several approaches can be used
including:
• Preparing a performance improvement plan
• Considering possible training and other resources
• Addressing a work problem that may be caused by a
personal problem.
Regardless of the specific situation, the project manager,
who is addressing team member performance, is
encouraged to consult with other key parties, provide clear
feedback to the team member as to specific levels of
acceptable performance, adopt a supportive but task-
oriented tone with the team member that conveys a
message of being fair but also firm, focus on the work issues
and not become a counselor or psychiatrist, and follow-up at
regular intervals with the team member, requesting
examples of progress toward goals and providing
suggestions for improved performance.

Resolving Conflict With Project

Stakeholders
As greater focus is placed upon the soft skills required for
project management, there is growing acceptance of the
fact that conflict must be addressed actively and with a
positive attitude. Indeed, there is much evidence from a
variety of sources that suggests that the highest-quality
product often is delivered from those teams in which there
has been a healthy amount of conflict, actively managed by
the project manager to facilitate the creative process.
Thought leaders in the area of conflict management are
Thomas and Kilmann (1974). Thomas and Kilmann have
identified five primary approaches to resolving conflict, and
through the application of the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict
Mode Instrument, have devised a quick, self-scoring
assessment tool to measure one's preferred method(s) of
resolving conflict. Their approach is filled with wisdom, in
that they acknowledge that in the real world, one must have
a number of tools available for resolving conflict, and must
have the ability to know which tool to use in which situation.
In this current application, Thomas and Kilmann, would
encourage project managers to develop skills in:
• Competing, which is the ability to aggressively pursue
your point of view, especially in situations of great
significance where you are convinced that your point of view
is correct and must prevail.
• Collaboration, where individuals of equal competencies
work through a mutual problem-solving approach, with each
party contributing valuable parts of the total solution.
• Compromising, where a quick decision needs to be made,
and the issue at hand is one where it is appropriate to “meet
in the middle.”
• Avoiding, where it makes sense to “let things slide,”
incurring good will on a subject or issue that is not crucial.
• Accommodating, which involves the action of deferring to
the other person, allowing them to have their way. This
approach also can create good will and allows the other
party to have a “win.”
In addition to their contributions in describing the settings
where these conflict resolution tools are best applied,
Thomas and Kilmann also wisely point out the negative
consequences when an approach is over utilized. For a more
thorough description of both the negative and positive
applications of these approaches, see Flannes and Levin
(2001).

“Know Thyself”
Project managers have tough jobs: bring the project in under
the triple constraints while operating in a matrix
organizational structure, with no firm authority, but with lots
of responsibility, and a myriad of stakeholders all pursuing
their own agendas, often contrary to the formal mission of
the project. This is a significant challenge!
Operating in such a demanding crucible, the project
manager, in order to achieve excellence in the project AND
manage personal stress, must be adept at “knowing thyself.”
This sounds good, but what does it mean on tangible levels?
We believe that knowing thyself involves a five-fold approach
grounded in self-awareness and action planning. For us, this
process of knowing thyself involves:
• Knowledge of your personal style (obtained through
feedback from others, personal assessment processes, and
private reflection), including an awareness of your
personality, your communication style, your method of
resolving conflict, and your preferred decision-making style.
• Ongoing clarification of your values and beliefs,
addressing questions such as: what is your personal and
professional mission? Why are you working as a project
manager? How do you want to “make a difference?” What are
your professional and life goals?
• Achievement of work and life balance, addressing those
messy and ambiguous questions of how you want to allocate
your time in life, what do you want to do with family and
friends, and what will be your contribution to the larger
community in which you live? There's always less time in life
than we think we have; how do you want to spend your
available time?
• Managing stress and seeking a healthy and robust life ,
(however YOU define this), which involves conscious
attention to the body as well as the head. How do you “let
go?” Is it through a positive channel, or is through a more
negative channel (denial, overindulgence, Type A behavior?)
that ultimately has reduced returns on our quality of
professional and personal life.
• Clarification of your spiritual and philosophical stance in
the world. In other words, once the bills are accounted for,
what is your real reason for getting up in the morning? What
is your life really about? And, importantly, who are you away
from your job identity?
It has been our experience that when project managers put
time aside to consider the questions and goals of this five-
fold approach to “knowing thyself” (20 minutes here, a few
hours there…), greater professional efficiencies are
achieved, personal satisfaction increases, and emotional
and physical health are maximized.

Final Thoughts
We have attempted to describe some of the key skills that
we have seen successful project managers use in different
settings to address the often complicated and frustrating
people challenges that can derail any project. An implied key
thread that runs through this paper is that the project
manager must be active in practicing these people skills.
While some individuals have a more effective natural wiring
for the application of people skills, everyone can develop
and improve their own people skills. Three guiding principles
for developing people skills are the ability and willingness
to:
• Take risks, experimenting with new behaviors and
approaches.
• Make it acceptable to not be perfect, as we all struggle at
times in the people areas.
• Seek feedback from colleagues, mentors, and confidants,
as this helps redirect behavior as well as giving you a
chance to celebrate your successes.

References

Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto,

California, www.cpp-db.com . Flannes, Steven W., & Levin,
Ginger. 2001. People Skills for Project Managers. Vienna, VA:
Management Concepts.
GartnerGroup Inc. August 11, 1999. What Skills Will
Characterize Top Project Managers? Research Note
Strategic Planning, SPA-08-7617.
Project Management Institute. 1999. The Future of Project
Management. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management
Institute.
Project Management Institute. 2001. The PMI Project
Management Fact Book. Second Edition. Newtown Square,
PA: Project Management Institute.
Schein, Edgar H. 1990. Career Anchors: Discovering Your
Real Values. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.
Thomas, Kenneth W., & Kilmann, Ralph H. 1974. Thomas-
Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument. Palo Alto:
Xicom/Consulting Psychologists Press.
This material has been reproduced with the permission of the
copyright owner. Unauthorized reproduction of this material is
strictly prohibited. For permission to reproduce this material, please
contact PMI or any listed author.
Proceedings of the Project Management Institute Annual
Seminars & Symposium
October 3–10, 2002 • San Antonio, Texas, USA

Essential
leadership skills
 for project
managers
inShare

CONFERENCE PAPER Leadership , Skill Development 2009

Kumar, Victoria S.
How to cite this article:
Kumar, V. S. (2009). Essential leadership skills for project managers.
Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2009—North America,
Orlando, FL. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Abstract
Successful project managers are managers who practice
both strong management skills and effective leadership
skills. Leadership skills are not the same as management
skills. Strong management skills can be gained through
experience and practice. Leadership skills can be learned
and leadership qualities can be developed. Effective leaders
develop new leadership skills to complement those that
made them successful as managers.
This presentation focuses on leadership competencies
required for project managers to manage their teams
effectively and deliver projects successfully. The
presentation will cover the differences and the
commonalities between project management and leadership.
Participants will learn about practicing leadership skills in
managing projects, including interpersonal communication
skills, negotiation skills, influencing skills, and team
building, as well as the most basic leadership competencies
in motivating and inspiring teams. The focus will be on
building leadership competencies to transform successful
project managers into effective leaders.

Introduction
With project management professionals utilizing best
practices in project and program management in their
organizations, we have seen project success rates improve
in the last few years. Project managers have mastered
implementing project management methodologies,
leveraging advancement in technologies as applied in useful
project management and team collaboration tools and
techniques.
However, even with improved project success rates and
more technologically advanced tools and techniques to help
improve team productivity, organizations today still face
many complex challenges in setting and achieving their
strategic goals. One big challenge is coming from the lack or
weakness of “leadership” in the organization.
To be successful in implementing their strategic goals
through projects and programs, organizations need effective
leaders. Organizations need to have successful
project/program managers who are also effective leaders.
What leadership skills do project managers need? Are
project management skills not sufficient?
Project management is different from leadership. Successful
project managers may not be effective leaders. By
understanding the difference between project management
and leadership and taking the path to become effective
leaders, successful project managers can utilize their
innovative and creative skills to help them develop
leadership skills that will complement their project
management abilities.
Although project management is different from leadership,
there is some commonality between the two. The
performance of a project manager and the effectiveness of a
leader are both measured in terms of the performance of the
followers—the performance of the team. Hence, focus on
team performance is a very important aspect in developing
leadership skills for project managers. The most essential
leadership skills for the project manager start with
motivating and inspiring teams and individuals—negotiating
and communicating skills, listening and influencing skills,
and team building with emphasis on improving team
performance.

Project Management and Leadership

The latest edition of the A Guide to the Project Management
®
Body of Knowledge (PMBOK Guide)—Fourth Edition (Project
Management Institute [PMI], 2008) defined project
management as the application of knowledge, skills, tools
and techniques to project activities to meet the project
®
requirements. The PMBOK Guide—Fourth Edition (2008)
defined the standard project management framework and
provides guidance to best practices in project management.
Charles M. Cadwell (2004) summarized definitions of
leadership as developed by leadership experts John P.
Kotter, John W. Gardner, and Peter F. Drucker. John P. Kotter
(1988), of the Harvard Business School, defined effective
leadership as the process of moving a group of followers in
some direction through mostly non-coercive means and
producing movement in the long-term best interests of the
group. John W. Gardner (1990), a leadership expert who has
been an advisor to four U.S. presidents, defined leadership
as the process of persuasion or example by which an
individual induces a group of followers to pursue common
objectives. Peter F. Drucker (1996), an internationally known
author on leadership, defined a leader as one who has
followers. He says that regardless of a leader's own
individual abilities or greatness, there can be no leaders
without followers.
Differences between Project Management and
Leadership

Although there is an expectation for project managers to be

leaders, project management and leadership are two
different things. Being a successful project manager,
delivering successful projects consistently, does not mean
that one is a successful leader. Successful project managers
develop project management skills through knowledge of the
standard project management framework and through
experience in utilizing best practices in implementing
project management methodologies. Successful leaders are
innovative and creative individuals who continuously
develop new skills to integrate with their current
capabilities. Effective leaders integrate leadership skills
with project management skills, developing new leadership
skills to complement their project management skills.
Charles M. Cadwell (2004) summarized the difference
between leaders and managers in the following chart.
Cadwell says that “management skills provide a foundation
for developing leadership skills. Effective leaders have the
ability to apply the appropriate skill at the appropriate time
and in the appropriate place” (p.).

Leaders Innovate; Managers Administer

Managers usually focus on implementing and following

processes, attending to the daily routine of activities,
ensuring that the team can be productive with the tools they
need to perform their tasks.
Leaders are innovators who are always looking to improve
ways of doing things and challenging the processes in order
to improve the team's productivity level.
Exhibit 1: Differences between leaders and managers

Leaders Seek Challenges; Managers Seek to

Maintain the Status Quo

Managers are skilled in following processes. Hence, they

tend to accept the status quo and continue to do things the
way they have been done. They tend to resist deviations
from the current process, and therefore, resist new ways of
doing things.
Leaders tend to look for challenges. Challenges lead to new
ideas and improvements in the current processes.

Leaders Think Long Term; Managers Think Short–

to Mid-Term

Leaders create a vision—the future state of the organization

when its strategic goals are achieved. Leaders think long
term in achieving the vision. Project managers are focused
on achieving the short-term and mid-term deliverables to
accomplish the project goals, as part of achieving the long-
term strategic goals.
This makes both effective leadership and project
management essential in achieving short-term and long-term
strategic goals for any organization.

Leaders Motivate and Inspire; Managers Control

Leaders motivate and inspire their people simply in the way

they work with them: in setting goals, making meaningful
contributions, recognizing their efforts, always encouraging
the team to deliver the best work that they can. Managers, in
their focus on implementing processes, control their people
and the working environment, including their work
assignments, schedules, deliverables, etc.
Successful project managers continuously develop
leadership skills in motivating and inspiring teams. They
practice effective human resource management processes
for team development.

Leaders Worry about Doing the Right Things;

Managers Worry about Doing Things Right

Leaders are focused on accomplishing the vision for the

organization. Implementing the organizational strategy
through projects and programs depends on the
organizational leaders making the right decisions on what
things, what initiatives, should be implemented. Once the
decisions (on what initiatives to start) have been made,
managers take care of project/program delivery, ensuring
that things are done right (utilizing project management to
implement the project).

Leaders Have a Wide Circle of Influence;

Managers Have Limited Influence
Effective leaders impact the entire organization and also
people outside the organization. Their influence extends
beyond the boundaries of the organization.
Project managers' impact dominates their own projects, but
they have little influence outside of their project
stakeholders.

The Commonality between Project Management

and Leadership

The biggest commonality between project management and

leadership is what the followers bring.
Peter F. Drucker (1996) gave his definition of a leader, as one
who has followers, i.e., having followers defines a leader.
What else do followers bring? The success of a leader is
determined by the performance of the followers.
In a project environment, the project manager's followers
are the project team. In a project environment, the success
of a leader and the success of a project manager depend on
the performance of the project team. The performance of a
project manager and the effectiveness of a leader are both
measured in terms of the performance of the team.

Leadership Skills for Project Managers

Project managers accomplish assigned project work through
their project teams. They acquire the necessary technical,
business, and leadership skills to help manage their project
teams effectively. They apply effective leadership skills in
motivating their teams in accomplishing project objectives
and completing the project deliverables to achieve the
project goals.
Essential leadership skills for project managers start with
motivating and inspiring teams. Other leadership skills
including negotiating, communicating, listening, influencing
skills, and team building are also important, especially to
the extent that they contribute towards improving team
performance.
 Motivating and inspiring. Leaders develop a vision and
then continually communicate that vision throughout the
organization, working with the team to achieve the vision.
Leaders keep their people enthusiastic in doing their work
and focused on the project vision. They encourage the team
members to do their best and accomplish the work with full
self-satisfaction for the making their contribution towards
the project vision.
 Team building. Leaders help the team members help
each other, as they make their individual and group
contributions toward achieving the project goals.
 Negotiating and communicating. Leaders get the team
members and project stakeholders to work effectively with
one another, considering all parties with shared or opposed
interests, with intent to compromise before reaching a team
decision. Leaders create a project environment where team
members can be honest and open in communicating with
each other, understanding each team member's
communication style, and able to communicate effectively
with project stakeholders.
 Listening and influencing. Leaders are active listeners,
understanding and considering the team members'
perspective before making team decisions that will affect
the team. Leaders get project team members and other
stakeholders to collaborate and cooperate with each other,
working towards a common goal.
A number of authors have written about leadership skills for
project managers, including Steven Flannes and Ginger
Levin (2005) and Vijay Verma (1995), providing great sources
for exploring ways to develop project managers into
effective leaders. There is not sufficient room in this paper
to even summarize their work.
Another great work on team building is Patrick Lencioni's
(2002) work on overcoming team dysfunction which is briefly
discussed in the next section.

Improving Team Performance by

Overcoming Team Dysfunctions
Effective leaders are those who apply the appropriate skills
at the appropriate time for the appropriate situation. With
the leader's and project manager's performance measured in
terms of the project team's performance, effective leaders
always focus on applying appropriate leadership and project
management skills to improve team performance.
However, improving team productivity is a very difficult task
to achieve. Project teams are made up of human beings—
people often with diverse personal culture, different skills,
strengths, weaknesses, and different personalities.

Exhibit 2: The five dysfunctions of a team

In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick
Lencioni (2002) explained that majority of project teams in
organizations today are dysfunctional. He described five
team dynamics issues, which he called team dysfunctions,
and how to overcome these five team dysfunctions to
improve teamwork, and ultimately improve team
performance.
Exhibit 2 shows the five dysfunctions of a team, starting
with the first dysfunction at the bottom of the pyramid.
 According to Lencioni (2002), the five dysfunctions of a team
are:

1. Absence of trust. The first dysfunction is an absence of trust

among team members. When team members who are not
honest or genuinely open with one another about making
mistakes or about their weaknesses. This is often due the
team's unwillingness to be vulnerable within the group.

2. Fear of conflict. Absence of trust sets the tone for the

second dysfunction: fear of conflict, when the team members
are incapable of engaging in unfiltered, passionate, and
constructive debate of ideas.

3.Lack of commitment. Fear of conflict ensures the third

dysfunction of a team: lack of commitment, when team
members rarely, if ever, buy in and commit to team decisions.

4. Avoidance of accountability. With lack of commitment and

buy-in on team decisions, team members develop an avoidance
of accountability, the fourth dysfunction.

5. Inattention to results. Lack of accountability leads to an

environment where the fifth dysfunction can thrive: inattention
to results, when team members put their individual objectives
above the collective project team objectives.
The five team dysfunctions are interlinked like a chain, so
that when one link is broken, teamwork deteriorates even if
only a single dysfunction is allowed to flourish.
To understand the five dysfunctions, Patrick Lencioni (2002)
described an opposite approach—a positive one—that shows
how members of truly cohesive teams behave. He also
covered a number of suggestions on ways to overcome the
dysfunctions.
 Exhibit 3: The five dysfunctions of a team and the positive
approach
According to Lencion (2002), the five dysfunctions with the
positive approach are depicted in Exhibit 3 and are as
follows:

1. Opposite of the first dysfunction: Team members trust one

another.

2. Opposite of the second dysfunction: Team members engage

in unfiltered conflict around ideas.

3. Opposite of the third dysfunction: Team members commit to

team decisions and plans of action.

4. Opposite of the fourth dysfunction: Team members hold one

another accountable for delivering against those plans.

5. Opposite of the fifth dysfunction: Team members focus on

the achievement of project team goals.
Understanding each of the team dysfunctions and exploring
ways to overcome them (i.e., focusing on achieving the
opposite of each dysfunction) is a great test to one's
leadership skills. An effective leader assesses the team's
weaknesses, what team dysfunctions exist within the team,
the causes of the dysfunctions, and apply ways to overcome
the dysfunctions to improve team performance.

Conclusion
Project management is different from leadership. Successful
project managers may not be effective leaders. But project
managers can develop leadership skills to become effective
leaders. And organizations today need successful project
managers to be effective leaders, as well. By understanding
the difference between project management and leadership,
and taking the path to become effective leaders, successful
project managers can utilize their innovative and creative
skills to help them develop leadership skills that will
complement their project management abilities.
The common aspect of project management and leadership
is the yardstick by which the performance of both the
project manager and the leader is measured. The
performance of a project manager and the effectiveness of a
leader are both measured in terms of the performance of the
followers—the performance of the team. Hence, developing
leadership skills for project managers with focus on skills to
improve team performance should be an important
consideration in leadership skills development for project
managers. Essential leadership skills for project managers
start with motivating and inspiring teams and individuals,
and include negotiating and communicating skills, listening
and influencing skills, and team building with emphasis on
utilizing these skills to improve team performance.

References
Cadwell, Charles M. (2004). Leadership skills for
managers (4th ed). Retrieved July 18, 2009,
from http://common.books24x7.com/book/id_11513/book.asp
Drucker, P. F. (1996). The Executive in action: Managing for
results, innovation and entrepreneurship, the effective
executive. New York: HarperCollins.
Gardner, J. W. (1990). On leadership. New York: The Free
Press.
Kotter, J. P. (1988). The leadership factor. New York: The Free
Press.
Lencioni, P. (2002). The five dysfunctions of a team—a
leadership fable. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass
Flannes, S. W., & Levin, G. (2005). Essential people skills for
project managers. Vienna, VA: Management Concepts, Inc.
Project Management Institute. (2008). A guide to the project
®
management body of knowledge (PMBOK guide) (4th ed.).
Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.
Verma, V. K. (1995). Human resource skills for project
managers. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management
Institute.
This material has been reproduced with the permission of the
copyright owner. Unauthorized reproduction of this material is
strictly prohibited. For permission to reproduce this material, please
contact PMI or any listed author.
© 2009, Victoria S. Kumar, PMP
Originally published as a part of 2009 PMI Global Congress
Proceedings – Orlando, Florida, USA
 Are you an above
- the - line
project leader?
inShare

CONFERENCE PAPER Team Building , Leadership , Skill Development 10

October 2015

Rogers, Thomas M.
How to cite this article:
Rogers, T. M. (2015). Are you an above - the - line project leader? Paper
presented at PMI® Global Congress 2015—EMEA, London, England.
Newtown Square, PA: Project Management Institute.

Thomas M. Rogers, PhD, PMP

University of South Carolina Upstate

“Are you an above-the-line project leader?” asks a seemingly
simple question, which forces us, as project leaders, to
make a choice: we are either above the line or below the line
(Sumner, 2006, p. 127); you cannot straddle the line. The
Project Management Institute (PMI) created the Talent
Triangle with one “leg” designated as leadership and altered
the mix of requirements for continuing certification to
include at least eight Professional Development Units
(PDUs) in leadership. Further, “66% of organizations say that
 leadership skills are not as teachable, but are most
important for early success in project management” (Project
Management Institute, 2015, p. 1). The Empowerment
Dynamic is a tool project leaders can utilize to pull
themselves (and their project team) out of the Drama
Triangle to strive for above the line performance and
leadership. This paper presents how to determine if you, the
project leader, or your project team are above the line.

Project Leadership
Knowing where your project is right now and where your
project is headed is necessary to lead a project team. Where
a project is headed comes from the scope statement and the
resulting objectives and deliverables will provide the
destination. Project leaders’ assessments of where you are
now tend to focus on the physical resources assigned to a
project and the skill sets of people assigned to a project. If a
project team possesses the necessary skill sets and the
needed resources to fulfill the project objectives and
deliverables, why do so many projects fail to be on scope, on
time, or on budget? (Stanford Group, 2009, p. 1). Why is a
project leader successful on one project, but fails on his or
her next project? Missing from this assessment is the
recognition and acceptance of the roles project leaders and
members of the project team play, which enhance or inhibit
the success of a project. To be above-the-line project
leaders, we must know how to reinforce the roles that
enhance the probability of success of the project and how to
counter-balance the non-productive roles. To gain this
knowledge, first, we must know what it means to be below
the line.

Below the Line

 Being below the line means you're focusing on yourself;
you're focusing on “me.” If you're focused on “me” and not
considering the members of your project team, then you are
not leading them. As project leaders, we fear failing to bring
a project in on scope, on time, or on budget; we fear
exposing a lack of knowledge, not knowing which action to
take, and exposure as less than perfect. Fear is the first and
biggest motivator, which pushes us below the line.
Your project sponsor blaming you for something within the
project not happening just as they wish is usually caused by
his or her fear of project failure. One result of this fear is to
level blame at the project leader (Dethmer, 2014, p. 47).
Whether or not you control or are responsible for the event,
which caused your project sponsor to blame you is
irrelevant. This blame puts you on the defensive and pushes
you below the line. Project leaders must hold team members
accountable for their actions and results, but passing on the
blame from your project sponsor to a team member or
blaming a team member of your own volition differs from
holding someone responsible for their actions. Blaming
someone means you are not thinking about the individual or
the project team, but attempting to shift responsibility from
yourself (i.e., “me”) to them.
Another result of fear, whether from the project sponsor or
the project leader, is to shame someone else (Dethmer, 2014,
p. 47). Shaming or humiliating someone creates an
atmosphere of fear for the individual, which pervades to the
whole team. Shame is an internal emotion, which usually
manifests externally as embarrassment. Embarrassment
reflects a feeling of a vulnerability, which pushes individuals
and whole project teams below the line and into the Drama
Triangle.

The Drama Triangle

Stephen Kaufman first described the Drama Triangle in his
article, Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis(1968, p. 40).
The Drama Triangle (see Exhibit 1) reflects the inter-play
between power and responsibility and is comprised of three
roles.

Exhibit 1: The drama triangle.

Victims represent the central role in the Drama Triangle.
Without a victim, no one needs a Rescuer and no target
exists for the Persecutor. Victims are overwhelmed by their
feelings of vulnerability and lack of power and do not take
responsibility for their vulnerability. Victims identify
themselves by simultaneously agreeing with you but, also,
not agreeing with you. Victims often identify themselves
with statements that start with “Yes, but …” or “I
understand, but …” Whether explicitly stated or not, you
need to listen for the “but” in their statement. This type of
statement combines with a “woe is me” attitude to indicate
that this person inhabits the role of Victim.
Rescuers claim to want to, and have every intention to,
finish their own work, except they had to “help.” Rescuers
attempt to cover up their vulnerability by “helping” victims,
even though the victims have not asked for help. For
someone who claims to want to “help,” rescuers don't try to
find out the needs of the victim first and, in fact, shame the
victim by implying they cannot perform their assigned role
on the project team. Rescuers will do most of the work for
the victim, but do not get their own work done. You can
identify rescuers by their failure to complete their own work
or by their unwillingness to help in emergency situations
 because they are “too busy.” Rescuers commonly use
statements such as, “I would have completed my work if I
had not had to help <insert Victim's name> with his or her
work.” When speaking with or observing a rescuer on your
project team, take note of their focus on “helping” others
with their work instead of focusing on completing their own
work.
Persecutors are usually unaware of their power and,
therefore, do not appreciate the negative and, at times,
destructive impact their actions have on the victim.
Persecutors expose their vulnerability by blaming others
team members (or non-team members) for their own inability
to complete their assigned tasks. They do not take
responsibility for blaming or shaming victims. Persecutors
often start out as victims or rescuers, and their statements
reflect an, “If it weren't for you, the project would be fine”
attitude. When identifying a persecutor, look for the keen
awareness of the tasks they need to complete and an
attempt to shift responsibility for their failure to complete
their assigned tasks to someone else. Persecutors will also
try to force the cooperation of the rest of the team with
statements such as, “We would have completed our work if
not for …” with the intent of masking their own individual
failure.
The central themes across all roles in the Drama Triangle
are a focus on “me” and the unwillingness or inability to
recognize their vulnerability or accept responsibility for their
actions. The above descriptions of the roles in the Drama
Triangle reveal methods project leaders can employ to
identify the roles currently played by their project team
members, including the role the project leader is playing.

Identifying Roles
The project leader must identify who is playing which role
(Bridge, 2014, p. 5), which includes whether he or she is
 above the line. The stresses and pressures serving as a
project leader makes you as vulnerable, if not more
vulnerable, than other team members to falling into the
Drama Triangle. Identifying who is playing which role is
particularly difficult if the project leader is below the line
and caught in the Drama Triangle. A first step, which will
help to identify who (including the project leader) is playing
which role is to take notes; yes, notes. Writing down who is
playing which role in a given situation will help the project
leader emotionally detach just a little (www.leadership-
development-coaching.com , 2014, p. 3). This modicum of
objectivity is an excellent method for project leaders to
know which role to utilize to counter-balance individuals and
encourage them. For project leaders to employ The
Empowerment Dynamic, you must know which roles you and
your project team are playing to respond properly.
The best approach to determining if your performance is
above the line is to have another project leader serve as a
mentor and sounding board to provide feedback on your
actions. Utilizing another project leader means they are not
part of your project team and can provide a more objective
assessment of whether or not your performance is above the
line. Be careful which project leader you choose to serve as
your mentor. If your mentor is caught in the Drama Triangle,
they will not be effective as a mentor. Evaluate potential
mentors and choose wisely.

The Vicious Cycle

People caught in the Drama Triangle will change from one
role to another, and these changes increase the difficulty in
identifying the role a project team member is playing at a
specific point in time. (Reeves, 2015, p. 2). People, in
general, don't want to be victims. At some point in time,
when a rescuer comes to “help,” the victim will lash out at
him or her; when the victim lashes out at the Rescuer, the
Victim shifts from being a victim to being a persecutor. At
this point in the relationship the rescuer will, most
commonly, shift roles to victim. This shift becomes obvious
when the original victim (now persecutor) states that “If it
weren't for you …,” and the original rescuer (now victim)
responds that he or she was just trying to “help.”
Victims may also shift roles to that of rescuer. Victims
recognize other victims and, in an effort to mask their own
vulnerability, move to be a rescuer by “helping” another
victim. When the other victim shifts to the role of persecutor
and lashes out, the team member who shifted to rescuer
shifts back to being a victim. As implied in these scenarios,
persecutors usually start off as victims or rescuers in the
Drama Triangle (Lucas, 2105, p. 1). The shift from either of
these roles is an attempt to exert power over someone else.
Regardless of their current role in the Drama Triangle,
people work to keep the status quo. In particular, the status
quo is maintained because of the natural affinity between
the victim and the rescuer (Lewis, 2015, p. 1). People in all of
these roles maintain the status quo under the umbrella of
“To Me” (see Exhibit 2). In other words, everything that is
happening in the Drama Triangle is being done “To Me.” How
do we break this status quo and move out of the Drama
Triangle?
 Exhibit 2: Below the line in the “to me” quadrant.

The Power of Recognition and

Responsibility
The first step toward breaking out of the Drama Triangle is
to recognize you're in the Drama Triangle. This recognition is
the “biggest step” (Menzies, 2015, p. 1) in escaping to and
leveraging The Empowerment Dynamic (TED) (Emerald, 2010,
p. 67).
The next step in breaking free of the Drama Triangle is to
accept responsibility for yourself and your actions (Dethmer,
2014, p. 50). Recognizing you're in the Drama Triangle,
combined with accepting full responsibility for your own
actions, is the impetus which allows you to determine where
you are in your relationships with the project team,
understand why these relationships are not working
personally or for the good of the project, and take action.
Recognizing where you are in the Drama Triangle, accepting
responsibility for yourself and your actions, and taking
action moves you from things are happening “To Me” to
things are done “By Me.” (see Exhibit 3).
Relocation to the “By Me” quadrant is precarious because
fear still reigns and brings to the fore your vulnerability. You
must now navigate the fear of being open with yourself (and
others) and risking embarrassment. If you let your fear of
embarrassment grow, you can relocate right back into the
Drama Triangle. The amount of stress is significantly lower
than when you were in the Drama Triangle, but being in the
“By Me” quadrant does not mean you are doing everything by
yourself. You are, however, recognizing your vulnerability and
accepting responsibility for performing your job: You no
longer seek to rescue someone else; you no longer try to
persecute others for your problems or setbacks; and you no
longer feel others are looking down on you.

Exhibit 3: Below the line with “by me” quadrant.

The relocation to “By Me” adjusts your perspective from the
need to be right to being present; being present requires
awareness of your situation. To help prevent regression to
the Drama Triangle, the project leader needs a destination
around which to build awareness for the project team and
serves as the starting point for building trust. Accepting and
acting with awareness of the destination means “By Me” is
merely a point on our journey on the way to “Through Me”
(see Exhibit 4). “Through Me” is where you become the
conduit to assist others to creatively perform tasks to meet
the project team's needs. A guide on our journey in above-
 the-line project leadership is The Empowerment Dynamic
(TED) (Emerald, 2010, p. 67).

Exhibit 4: Above the line with “through me” quadrant.

The Empowerment Dynamic (TED)

The creator is the central role in The Empowerment Dynamic
(TED) (Emerald, 2010, p. 67) (see Exhibit 5). The creator
orientation is the counter-point to the victim orientation. The
victim orientation is problem-focused, but the creator
orientation is outcome-focused. The project leader needs to
be the Cceator who seeks the most efficient and effective
path to meeting project objectives and deliverables.
Exhibit 5: Above the line with TED.

In the planning stage, the project leader possesses the

vision for the project and the current reality of resources
with respect to the scope of the project. These are the two
elements, which project leaders need to fully engage in The
Empowerment Dynamic. The project leader uses these two
points to create the path from the starting point to final
destination to meet all of the project objectives and
deliverables. Creation of this path to project success allows
the project leader to connect and engage with his or her
project team and opens the door for the project leader to
employ the other two roles in The Engagement Dynamic:
Coach and Challenger (see Exhibit 6).

Exhibit 6: The drama triangle and TED.

Project leaders acting as coaches are the counter-point and
the antidote to the rescuer. Instead of being a rescuer and
performing a task (or tasks) for a victim, a coach will guide
the rescuer (aka their project team member) while allowing
him or her to perform the actual work and become self-
sufficient to handle future events.
 A project leader acting as a challenger puts a call to action
to the individual playing the role of persecutor or the whole
project team. The challenge may range from the need to
finish a task early to the need to meet an expanded scope
without a corresponding expansion of the project budget.
The project leader as challenger presents the persecutor (or
team) with a given scenario and asks, “How will we do this?”
or “How will we accomplish this goal with these
constraints?” The challenger's approach is the “antidote to
the persecutor” (Emerald, 2010, p. 151). The roles of creator,
coach, and challenger focus on “we” instead of “me.”

Authenticity and the Project Leader

It may seem odd to mention the different roles you may have
to play as a project leader and, then, state you need to be
authentic. “Authenticity is vital to effective leadership”
(Bywater, 2015, p. 2). No one will trust you if you are not
authentic; if no one trusts you, you will have no one to lead;
if you have no one to lead, you cannot be a project leader.
So, what does it mean to be authentic in light of the various
roles you might play as a project leader?
Authenticity comes through your style as a leader. Your style
should be a true representation of yourself and consistently
presented to everyone. Authentic project leaders seek
feedback from their project sponsor and their project team,
challenge themselves as well as their project team, and
“face their failures as learning opportunities” (Emelo, 2015,
p. 2) which allow them to lead by example. Even when you
play different roles to pull someone out of the Drama
Triangle or push someone to leverage their creativity, you
must be consistent and truthful while appreciating the
differences in the people on your project team; these
differences are what make them valuable to you in your
pursuit of a successful project.
Removing a Team Member
What does a project leader do when a team member does
not respond to coaching, challenges, or a push to help
create a successful project? These people do not accept
responsibility for their own attitudes or their actions. Part of
being an above the line project leader is removing obstacles
to project success, and unfortunately, sometimes removing
the obstacle means removing a person from the team.
Attempts must be made to bring him or her above the line to
be an effective team member; they were, after all, put on the
team for a reason. If they don't respond or continually and
quickly regress to the Drama Triangle, however, you must
remove this person from the project team for the good of the
project and other project team members.

Final Thoughts
“Knowing yourself and your team is a big advantage”
(Berkun, 2010, p. 50) and provides a boost to your
authenticity and credibility as the project leader. Knowing
yourself pushes you to locate yourself and identify whether
you are an above-the-line project leader.
Project leaders should only think, say, or act in ways that
help you and your team move toward the successful
completion of your project (Satterwhite, 2014, p. 9).
The challenge to all project leaders is to create the
environment in which our project teams can thrive to drive
to project success.
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O'Reilly Media, Inc.
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conflict-problem-solving-drama-triangle-model/
Bywater, L. (2015, April 14). Authentic leaders, authentic
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from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/20140825171123-
6885921-authentic-leaders-authentic-teams
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leadership/the-karpman-drama-triangle/
Dethmer, J., Chapman, D., & Klemp, K. W. (2014). The 15
commitments of conscious leadership: A new paradign for
sustainable success. Middletown, DE: KaleyWarnerKlemp.
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leadership framework at GHS. Presented at PMI Palmetto
Chapter meeting.
This material has been reproduced with the permission of the
copyright owner. Unauthorized reproduction of this material is
strictly prohibited. For permission to reproduce this material, please
contact PMI or any listed author.
© 2015, Thomas M. Rogers
Originally published as a part of the 2015 PMI Global
Congress Proceedings – Orlando, Florida USA

Up your
relationship
skills index
how to work with the "crazy-
makers"

inShare
 CONFERENCE PAPER Team Building , Leadership , Skill Development 10
October 2015

Bristol, Phil
How to cite this article:
Bristol, P. (2015). Up your relationship skills index: how to work with the
"crazy-makers" Paper presented at PMI® Global Congress 2015—
EMEA, London, England. Newtown Square, PA: Project Management
Institute.

Phil Bristol, CMC, CPHDA, PMI-SP, PMP

CEO, Projectivity Solutions

Business owners implicitly entrust valuable resources to
leaders with the primary expectation of producing results.
Equally important is a leader's stewardship duty to help
people flourish. Team members who cooperate and
collaborate are enjoyable and easy to work with. The crazy-
makers present the biggest challenges and are time and
energy consumptive. Crazy-makers are everywhere; they
arrive from many places and seem to appear without notice.
In many circumstances, current leaders are reformed crazy-
makers and, oddly enough, do not remember how their
personal transformation to collaborative, results-oriented
behaviors took place. This white paper provides perspective,
insights, tools, and skills for working with the crazy-makers.
Understanding this topic is much like being Alice in Lewis
Carroll's classic tale, Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland (1866). Preparing to work with crazy-makers, a
leader needs to Peek into the Rabbit Hole and adopt the
proper mindset. Once Into the Rabbit Hole, on the way to the
Mad Hatter's party, learning how to spot crazy-maker
behavior is helpful. Just as important are the road maps
provided by The Five Dysfunctions of a Team (Lencioni, 2002)
and Tribal Leadership (Logan & King, 2002) to help navigate
away from Wonderland into a trust-based collaborative
 culture. The Regaining Sanity section offers practical
considerations for setting direction and clarifying work and
relationship expectations. Finally, Getting Out of the Rabbit
Hole presents crazy-maker survival skills, which enhances
leadership competency. Highly-developed leadership
competencies not only motivate teams to produce timely,
cost-effective, and quality results, they help facilitate
change with grace and build a trust-based culture of
collaboration. The cumulative effect of an intentional
mindset, heightened awareness, pragmatic tools, and skills
is the transformation from crazy-maker to trusted team
member.

Up Your Relationship Skills Index:

How to Work With the “Crazy-
Makers”

Introduction
Leaders have a principle responsibility to be in service to
teammates, colleagues, clients, and managers. Being a
leader “is the ability to set direction; motivate and influence
others to collaboratively produce results” (Bristol & Yeatts,
2011). Significantly reducing a leader's ability to influence
and produce results is chaos, confusion, and collusion often
associated with crazy-maker behavior. Collusion provides
the seeds for chaos to grow. Clarifying direction, work
expectations, and relationship expectations are important to
restore equilibrium. Team members and leaders have a high
need for order, consistency, and producing results.
Transforming crazy-makers into collaborative members of a
team can be time consumptive. With the right mindset,
 skills, and tools, leaders can create a culture that produces
results and respects the team member's humanity.
To expedite clarity and eliminate crazy-maker-created chaos,
a leader objectively needs to analyze and resolve confusion.
Leaders need a framework to understand crazy-maker
behaviors and to evaluate personal attitudes. Attitudes and
behaviors can become habits that filter the available options
for gaining clarity and subtly restrict a leader's focus.
Having a singular focus on business results reduces a
leader's awareness of their responsibility for team member
development and growth. The keys to working with
challenging people require a leader to understand what
mindsets to review, how to gain transparency, and how to
influence team member collaboration. With an intentional
mindset and an understanding of chaos, a leader can see
that what appears to be disruptive is, instead, multiple
layers of interconnected and interrelated solvable patterns.
In short, moving to a collaborative culture creates an
environment to facilitate doing what's important—identifying
the appropriate results, processes, and people-related
activities needed to remain competitive in the marketplace.
A culture of collaborative, trust-based relationships is the
basis for a lasting competitive advantage.

Peeking Into the Rabbit Hole:

Preparing for the Journey
Working with crazy-makers is a leadership journey—a
journey filled with challenges and opportunities. How we
mentally prepare for the crazy-maker expedition will shape
the experience. One approach is to consistently view others
as a vehicle for personal success or as an impediment to the
results desired. Our unconscientious mind can be running
self-protecting questions to help justify our position of
authority and organizational importance (Exhibit 1).
Exhibit 1: Self-protecting questions (Arbinger, 2010).
Mindful leaders prepare for the excursion with balanced
awareness between two big responsibilities and obligations.
Responsible leaders are always mindful and attentive of the
results needed and their influence on others. Simply
summarized, world-class leaders know the WHAT (actions
and activities that produce needed results) and the HOW (a
way of being that inspires and motivates others). Tightly
bundled with the WHAT and HOW responsibilities are
leadership obligations to facilitate change and build a trust-
based culture. World-class leaders make an intentional
decision to serve others and society by making a positive
difference for a higher, greater good. Exceptional leaders
add to society instead of depleting it. This world-class level
of performance requires elevated levels of awareness and
compassion for the humanity of others. While preparing for
the journey, there are simple questions to ponder (Exhibit 2)
that can create opportunities, rather than the spiralling
downward, rabbit-hole vortex of crazy-maker self-interest.

Exhibit 2: Collaborative questions (Arbinger, 2010).

Leaders must be mindful and aware when entering into the
rabbit hole because, “If you don't know where you're going,
any road will get you there” (Carroll, 1866).
Into the Rabbit Hole: Spotting the
Crazy-Makers
Entering into the crazy-makers rabbit hole, a leader may
experience a cast of characters similar to the Mad Hatter's
tea party. Knowing where to look and what identifiers to
spot will help a leader remain resourceful. Unlike the tea
party participants’ outlandish clothing, crazy-maker
behaviors, what they say and do, become their costumes.
Over time, cumulative crazy-maker behaviors can result in
organizational dysfunction. To produce results and create a
trust-based culture, a leader's ability to influence team
members and stakeholders, even the crazy-makers among
them, is essential. Knowing whom the crazy-makers are,
where to find them, and what they do is a first step to move
toward raising your relationship skills.

Who are the Crazy-Makers?

Crazy-makers are people who create team turmoil and
organizational churn. As crazy-makers interact with team
members and other stakeholders, they create seductive
distractions from useful and collaborative work. These
distractions slow progress and redirect focus on
unproductive activities such as complaining and gossiping.
Crazy-makers appear in all organizational levels: executive,
mid-management, and knowledge-worker. Additionally, years
of education, functional expertise, industry longevity,
organization tenure, sex, age, or nationality fail to provide a
unique way to identify crazy-makers. The Arbinger Institute
(2010) suggests a simple, unifying way to identify
collaborative relationships. Placing relationships in one of
four large categories (Exhibit 3) (manager, reports, peers,
and customer), will be helpful when developing skills to get
out of the rabbit hole.
 Exhibit 3: Identifying crazy-makers (Arbinger, 2012).

What do They do?

In Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to Build a
Thriving Organization, Logan and King (2011) address Me-
centric behaviors (Exhibit 4), which create alienation,
disengagement, and disharmony. As crazy-maker
dissatisfaction grows, they begin to collude by enrolling
others into a web of gossip and complaints. The recurring
observable communications and behaviors (Exhibit 4) create
friction and distract from team and organizational
performance.
 Exhibit 4: Crazy-maker behaviors.
Patrick Lencioni's 2002 book, The Five Dysfunctions of a
Team, suggests that a focus on results, embracing
accountability, achieving commitment, mastering conflict,
and building trust are indispensable for a high-functioning,
collaborative team. Crazy-makers actively recruit allies to
their point-of-view. The ensuing confusion will erode trust
and increase personal and organizational conflict. By paying
attention to symptoms that are crazy-maker induced (Exhibit
5), leaders can identify organizational indictors and take
appropriate action to restore productivity and collaboration.
Mindful awareness to the subtle beginnings of these
behavioral indicators can minimize consequences. Just like
bad news, bad behavior does not improve with age.

Exhibit 5: Organizational symptoms.

Navigating the Crazy-Maker World:

Frameworks for Action
Leaders disentangle crazy-maker-created turmoil and chaos
by knowing frameworks for understanding the behaviors of
organizations, teams, and individuals. Within each
framework, select interpersonal skills and tools can help a
leader remain resourceful and focus on what is important.

Organization Behavior
 The success of a team depends on its people; the strength
of its people determines the culture; and effective
leadership creates a flourishing culture. Each progressive,
organizational stage (Exhibit 6) displays distinctive
behaviors. Logan and King (2011) recommend simple actions
leaders can take to move individuals from the lower
performance levels of alienation, disengagement, and Me-
centric behaviors, to become teams that are more
productive. Typically, stage two (disengagement), and stage-
three (Me-centric behaviors) are characteristic in many
organizations. Crazy-makers entrenched in stage-two firmly
believe “my life sucks” and avoid accountability and are
cynical and sarcastic, believing all their problems are
caused by others. Stage-three crazy-makers continually need
to win others over to their point-of-view, form cliques, make
others feel like objects, and fail to manage time. Me-centric
crazy-makers let everyone know, “I'm great… and you're
not”… in other words, “aren't you lucky I'm here to solve all
these problems.” Research by Logan and King (2011)
illustrates that a leader's principle tools are clearly-stated
purpose and values to achieve stability and superior
performance.

Exhibit 6: Organizational and team stages (Logan & King,

2002).

Team Behaviors
Lencioni (2002) reveals the five dysfunctions, which go to
the very heart of why teams often struggle. Crazy-maker
behavior emerges when teams have low levels of trust and
do not know how to manage conflict. A way to understand
 the Lencioni model is to convert the five dysfunctions into
positive behavioral statements of a cohesive team (Exhibit
7).

Exhibit 7: Desired team behaviors.

Teams succeed because they are human. By acknowledging
the limitations by being vulnerable, team members overcome
Me-centric tendencies that make trust, conflict,
commitment, accountability, and a focus on results so
elusive. This simple model (Exhibit 8) can help leaders build
cohesive and effective teams where trust-based
relationships are the foundation for results.

Exhibit 8: Team functions (Lencioni, 2002).

Behavioral Communication Styles

A leader's ability to influence, inspire, and motivate directly
correlates to communication skill proficiency. Leaders
establish and sustain trust-based relationships by how they
communicate. It is important to recognize that
communication styles exist along a continuum. The two
major communication style continuums are task-people
focus and aggressive-reflective problem solving approach
(Exhibit 9). Paying attention to behavioral clues of naturally-
occurring communication style variances can help to
differentiate style tendencies and distinguishing behaviors
to help a leader recognize styles in others. Differences in
communication styles can create naturally-occurring
conflict and under stress, most people have the tendency to
overdo their preferred style. Ironically, others can perceive
the overuse of a strength as a weakness. A communication
style that has a task focus rather than a people focus may
be seen as too demanding and uncaring about people. In
another instance, when making a decision, others may see a
reflective communication style as taking too long before
taking action. These behavioral differences can cause
tension and feed the notion that the crazy-makers are in
action. Knowing the tendencies of others, a leader can
match natural inclinations and establish rapport and trust.
An effective team-building program encourages individuals
to understand and appreciate diversity. Team members learn
about differences in motivators, communication, and
thinking and problem-solving styles. A leader's ability to
identify and calibrate to the preferred communication style
of another, coupled with the flexibility to adapt to the other
person's style is the most effective way to establish trust
(Bonnstetter & Suiter, 2013). Understanding the similarities
and differences between style preferences can help team
effectiveness by preventing or defusing conflict. “If you
honor teammate individuality, their differences, they will feel
like a winning team” (Alessandra & O'Connor, 1996).
 Exhibit 9: Communication style behaviors (Bonnstetter &
Suiter, 2013).

Regaining Sanity: Focus on What's

Important
The quintessential leader question is how to slow down, or
even stop, the rising tension when crazy-makers seem to
appear from every direction. To regain sanity, an appropriate
leadership mindset uses emotional intelligence to establish
the overall tone for organizational culture and personal
performance. “The biggest benefits of having the right
mindset is to help leaders be more creative, operate in a
more relaxed way, and be open to trying novel approaches”
(Brooks, 2014). Emotional intelligence and communication
style flexibility allow leaders to gain a new perspective, so
they can align intentions, thoughts, and actions. A
collaborative, results-oriented leadership style creates
success at multiple levels, with individual people, teams,
 organizations, and the larger community. Mutually
contributing to a larger service-oriented goal is what shifts
peoples’ viewpoints from trying to gain more control to
becoming helpful to others. This shift toward helpfulness
requires a leader to pay more attention to the subtle clues
that ambiguity, tension, and conflict present. This trio
comprises the elements that allow the crazy-makers to
thrive.

Heightened Awareness
The two primary considerations to develop increased
awareness and stay resourceful are avoiding personal blind
spots and using emotional intelligence skills. As Stephen
M.R. Covey states (2006), “We judge ourselves by our
intentions and others by their behavior.” Decision-making
and problem-solving skills diminish when a leader views
others through this Me-centric filter. When the crazy-makers
are hosting the Mad Hatter's tea party, emotional
intelligence (Goldman, 1996) provides another framework for
building and sustaining trust-based relationships (Exhibit
10). Mersino (2007) states compelling reasons for leaders to
enhance their emotional quotient (EQ) in order to avoid poor
decision making, reduced collaboration, and low awareness
of others. Significantly, Dr. Frieland (Frieland & Frieland,
2013) describes how the amygdala (Exhibit 11) hijacks our
capacity for creative and logical solutions, while flooding
our body with cortisol and adrenaline. As a leader,
recognizing and identifying our emotions and an awareness
of the emotions of others is an essential interpersonal
competence—combining heightened awareness with
actions, tools, and skills to produce results (the WHAT), and
build trust-based relationships (the HOW). A leader can
eliminate ambiguity and foster passionate, fact-based
discussions with increased awareness of WHAT essential
actions to initiate, and with a HOW mindset that respects
the humanity of others. Taking these actions provides an
 opportunity for crazy-makers to “play nice in the sandbox”
with others.

Exhibit 10: Emotional quotient (EQ) (Goleman, 1996).

Exhibit 11: Amygdala.

The WHAT: Producing Results

Leaders facilitate the actions and activities of the WHAT by
setting direction and clarifying work expectations. These
actions typically produce a tangible document to help team
members and stakeholders understand the outcomes of their
collective effort and the work sequence needed. Direction-
setting activities create a focus on results when
 documented in a charter or plan. Leaders clarify work
expectations by identifying and prioritizing key results; then
creating schedules, processes, and performance metrics so
others understand how they can contribute. These work
products directly support the top two layers of Lencioni's
pyramid model—results and accountability.

The HOW: Building Trust-Based

Relationships
Trust-based relationships (the HOW) are built by combining
an EQ mindset and behavior management documents that
aid in issue escalation and linking values. “Genuine success
does not come from proclaiming core values, but from
consistently putting them into daily action” (Blanchard &
O'Connor, 2003). Using a value definition process, leaders
engage team member participation. Identifying values
begins with dialogue around the important, expected
behaviors. Then, continues with a list of value synonyms
which clarify behavior, then paraphrase what that value is
and is not. This simple, four-column table (Exhibit 12)
provides daily guidance for intentions, dialog, and actions.
Clearly-stated relationship expectations and communication
style flexibility lay the foundation for Leniconi's trust and
managing conflict layers.
Exhibit 12: Values template (Bristol & Yeatts

, 2010).
The book, Tribal Leadership: Leveraging Natural Groups to
Build a Thriving Organization (Logan & King, 2011), reveals a
simple format (Exhibit 13) to integrate direction, work
expectations, and relationship expectations on a single
page. This template facilitates a team's best thinking when
brainstorming the WHAT, while keeping in mind the HOW.
This format reminds leaders to measure results by the effect
on clients and end-users, in addition to typical project
productivity measures such as timelines and budget
compliance.
 Exhibit 13: QwikPlan (Logan & King, 2002).

Getting Out of the Rabbit Hole:

Crazy-Maker Survival Skills
Mindset matters. When working with challenging people,
leaders need to take an objective inventory of their
strengths and weaknesses. They can systematically convert
weaknesses into strengths by paying attention to
assumptions, way of being, and subconscious self-justifying
beliefs.

Mirror… Mirror on the Wall: Where to

Start
The book, Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone
Smarter (Wiseman & McKeown, 2012), provides an objective
framework to examine personal leadership assumptions and
related actions (Exhibit 14). Multipliers intentionally bring
out the best in others, while Diminishers display Me-centric
thinking, typical of a person operating at stage-three.

Exhibit 14: Assumptions (Wiseman & McKeown, 2012).

The Arbinger Institute books, Leadership and Self-

Deception (2010) and The Anatomy of Peace (2015), provide
another framework for leadership consideration. An outward-
facing mindset reflects a way of being where another person
matters. The dreams, hopes, fears, and concerns of others
matter just as much as leaders’ personal dreams, hopes,
fears, and concerns matter. With an inward-facing mindset,
people experience others more as objects, and less as
humans. Also, as an object, a person can be seen as an
obstacle, blocking progress; a vehicle, a tool to provide an
advantage; or an irrelevancy, just invisible. Prolonged
inward-facing thoughts can result in “Better Than, Must Be
Seen As, Worse than, or I Deserve” attitudes and beliefs
which create interpersonal barriers or boxes (Arbinger,
2009). These interpersonal boxes help crazy-makers justify
 poor behaviors and cultivate debilitative emotions, which
contribute to chaos and churn.

Action Steps
Social commentator and humorist, Will Rogers, once said,
“Even on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit
there.” A practical action plan is the next step once a leader
is clear on what interpersonal skills are wanted.
Follow a Process: Step one: conduct an objective
assessment. Step two: work the extremes. After assessing
your leadership practices, take your highest strength to the
next level and concurrently improve your lowest low. Step
three: adopt the leadership behaviors and practices
identified in We-centric, outward-facing and multiplier
approaches. Step four: take the 30-day challenge. Pick one
practice in a discipline and work it for 30 days. By immersing
him/herself into a skill, a leader moves from unconsciously
incompetent to consciously competent. This focused
process starts by developing the attitudes demonstrated by
outward-facing leaders. When leaders practice these core
attitudes daily, they form new beliefs and have enhanced
interpersonal skills, (Dispenza, 2014). These heightened skill
levels significantly help to convert challenging personalities
into collaborative team members.
Develop Interpersonal Skills: The most successful leaders
manage their emotional temperature, demonstrate
communication style flexibility, and invite a collaborative
culture. Emotional quotient (EQ) improves when we develop
personal and social competence skills (Exhibit 15).
Communication and rapport are key to leadership success.
Leaders create a way of working which enables diverse
skills and interests to collaborate and bring out the very
best in each team member. Leadership by example sets the
behavioral standards for team and client interaction. To
sustain rapport and trust-based relationships, leaders need
to understand individual communication styles, recognize
the communication styles of others, and develop
communication style flexibility. Authentic leaders establish
exquisite rapport through communication style flexibility by
aligning behaviors that fit and resonate with teammates
(Bristol & Yeatts, 2011). We-centric leaders see others as
people and suspend judgment, inviting the team to take
collaborative action. A stage-four leader encourages the
team to develop a solution by asking thought-provoking
questions and removing any barriers that hinder
performance. Seeing others as people, leaders “are
different” by the manner in which they listen, learn, and
teach, while helping things go right. A level-four leader
allocates more time keeping others informed, finding and
using the genius of others, and helping colleagues grow
professionally, while clarifying performance expectations.

Exhibit 15: Goleman's framework of emotional competencies

(Mersino, 2007).
We-centric leaders see others as people and suspend
judgment, inviting the team to take collaborative action. A
stage-four leader encourages the team to develop a solution
by asking thought-provoking questions and removing any
barriers that hinder performance. Seeing others as people,
leaders “are different” by the manner in which they listen,
learn, and teach, while helping things go right. A level-four
leader allocates more time keeping others informed, finding
and using the genius of others, and helping colleagues grow
professionally, while clarifying performance expectations.
Level-four leaders significantly improve project results and
trust by seeing people as people, as shown in Exhibit 16.

Exhibit 16: Leaders “way of being” (Arbinger, 2012).

Determine the Pace: Incrementally building skills layer-by-
layer takes time. Collaborating with other leaders can
hasten progress, as mutual learning deepens resolve and
team performance accelerates. A leader wanting to
accelerate the transformational journey may consider
finding a mentor or engaging a coach to compress the
elapsed time. Regardless of the approach, as leaders
develop a stage-four mindset, clarify values, and use team
tools, they will become more We-centric. These refined
interpersonal skills help transform conflict and chaos into a
collaborative culture, which produces results for the
organization.
 Exhibit 17: Accelerating interpersonal skills transformation.

Closing
Mindset matters. Working with the crazy-makers can be an
opportunity to help someone flourish as a productive team
member or a never-ending series of challenges. Leaders
need to conduct an objective self-inventory, making certain
they are not contributing to the uncertainty. If a leader has a
low emotional quotient and treats a crazy-maker as an
obstacle or a tool, the churn and confusion will most likely
intensify. With certainty, a crazy-maker will find allies willing
to join the Mad Hatter's tea party, creating more distractions
from desired results and team harmony. Leaders who
intentionally raise their emotional intelligence quotient and
practice communication style flexibility can begin to have
cogent conversations. When these fundamental
interpersonal skills integrate with a clearly-stated purpose,
charter, or plan; transparency about work expectations; a
schedule or process; and relationship expectations and
values, a collaborative transformation begins. As strengths
and weaknesses are identified, prioritized, and an action
plan is developed, a leader can grow the strengths and
enhance the high-priority weaknesses.
Lead by example. Be the leader who takes a hard look into
the mirror and is transparent about his/her shortcomings,
then shares the action steps for skill development. Then use
your enhanced emotional intelligence and communication
skills to understand, create rapport, and build trust-based
relationships. Building skills layer-by-layer creates personal
synergy as leaders develop a world-class leader mindset,
build core values, and use team tools to transform their
competencies to accelerate organizational performance.
Stage-four leadership relationship competencies not only
motivate teams to produce timely, cost-effective, and quality
results, they harness these competencies to help facilitate
change with grace and build a trust-based culture of
collaboration. The cumulative effect of an intentional
mindset, heightened awareness, pragmatic tools, and skills
is the transformation from crazy-maker to trusted team
member. As a leader, you will leave the Mad Hatter's tea
party and exit the rabbit hole; welcoming life in a
collaborative culture which produces results.
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© 2014, Phil Bristol, CMC, PMP, PMI-SP, CPHDA
Originally published as a part of the 2015 PMI Global
Congress Proceedings – Orlando, Florida, USA
In my role as Business Development Manager at XYZ Inc., I was
responsible for a team of five tasked with organizing all of our
client events. As you may know, XYZ Inc. is a top provider of
enterprise security software. Our client events are key to driving
revenue. We host conferences and other events that feature
expert speakers on key issues in the industry. These events help
us to attract prospective new clients and also to retain our
existing top clients. Unfortunately, we noticed that event
attendance dropped by almost 15% from 2011 to 2012 and that
customer retention also dropped during that time period. When I
sat down to start planning the 2013 event schedule, I knew that it
would be critical to get attendance back to at least 2011 levels. I
sat down with my team members and I also interviewed our top
sales representatives. I had some ideas about why attendance
had dropped, but I wanted to look at it from all angles. Our sales
reps felt like we could do a better job marketing the events
through social media. We also sent out a questionnaire to past
attendees and partners and asked for their input on how we could
improve our events. In the feedback, we saw some key themes
emerging — our clients had great ideas for new topics and
speakers and we also saw a clear desire for more structured
networking as part of the events. Based on this internal and
external feedback, I was able to revamp the event agendas to
include additional topics and additional opportunities for
networking. I then created a whole new marketing plan, including
a social media marketing component, to promote the new and
improved agendas for 2013. We brought in a social media
consultant to help us amp up exposure on both LinkedIn and
Twitter. We saw the impact of our changes right away. We saw a
lot of buzz on LinkedIn and Twitter and had a record number of
advance registrations for our first big event of 2013. For that
event, we saw increased attendance of more than 25% over the
previous year. We also saw a huge improvement in our event
evaluation scores. In particular, attendees really enjoyed the new
networking component and over 75% said they would be very
likely to recommend the event to a colleague. Internally, we got
lots of great feedback from sales and from senior management. I
was actually singled out by the CEO and asked to present an
overview of my approach to his senior staff meeting.