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Project Leadership

Jeremy M. Eiler
College of Integrative Sciences and Arts, Arizona State University
OGL 321: Project Leadership, Strategy and Scope
Professor Ben Pandya
June 24th, 2022
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Project Leadership

Part 1

Since taking the Mind Tools How Good Are Your Project Management Skills? quiz and

after this quick session of OGL 321: Project Leadership, Strategy, and Scope, I have noted a few

changes in my attitude towards how I approach project management. In earlier assignments, I

noted that I was not nearly as familiar with some of the budget concerns or resource acquisition,

so I made it a point to familiarize myself with those processes.

Areas of Growth and Knowledge

In addition to taking this degree program, I now have a weekly sit down with my boss,

Alex. Since starting, I have discovered what it means to be a project manager and how the inner

workings of project management fit within our organization. I made it a point to learn about how

each project we undergo is bid, how we win, and how we determine the costs associated with

each project. An interesting thing I learned during this process was that this was all changing

quickly, as our organization received its general contracting license. This would mean that future

jobs would be bid differently, and we would undertake the contracts of our installers, usually

glaziers and electricians. I also learned about the system design process, and how project

managers provide feedback based on best-known practices from previous jobs we worked. With

this cumulative knowledge, our project managers give our system design team valuable

information, which in turn leads to the greater success of the organization.

Regarding the learnings from the course, I found the module about ethics most

invigorating. The lessons learned and what principles to apply are extremely valuable to

maintaining integrity within the scope of project management, which in turn leads to a healthier
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and friendlier organization, resulting in repeat customers and a solid avenue stream. I am very

excited to have the Project Management Institute Ethical Decision-Making Framework in my

back pocket now. An important lesson of what I learned with ethics is that not all decisions are

black and white. We as project managers will be challenged each time we are faced with an

ethical decision regarding other employees, schedule or budget concerns, scope issues, or other

problems relating to the project.

Communication is also an extremely important takeaway from the lessons. A project

manager who takes the time to actively communicate expectations to the team will find great

success in their projects. But communication also works both ways. Project managers need to

work on a top-down and bottom-up line of communication. This empowers others within the

group to speak up, should they have any issues they have discovered. Often, project teams can be

a struggle in the realm of power dynamics. Personalities do not blend well and sometimes we

just cannot get along. Project managers should recognize these dilemmas as soon as possible and

mitigate them from the source. This can be done through one-on-one meetings, coaching

sessions, lunch and learns, or other forms of meetings. Susanne Madsen of Susanne Madsen

states:

The studies show that equal communication and contribution happen when the project

leader [can] create an environment where team members feel safe enough to contribute.

In teams where a few members are allowed to dominate discussions or where the team

leader is too controlling or judging, many members simply don't come forward with their

views and ideas out of fear of being dismissed. (paras. 9)

Alongside the process of communication is that of decision-making. A project manager is

best suited to make decisions because their hands are in all the pots of honey (the honey which
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belongs to the stakeholders). But a project manager without all the facts, opinions, or expertise of

their project team is completely in the dark. They may as well be throwing darts randomly and

hope for a bullseye. This can be reduced, nay, eliminated through proper communication and the

appropriate channels. Providing an avenue for your team to communicate brings forth ideas or

concerns for the project manager to take into consideration for all decisions.

The Personal Approach and Real-World Examples

Each week, the class was given a scenario provided by Harvard University, in which we

were acting as project managers. Every week, we were assigned a project involving the

development of a new printer. The challenge was different each week, mostly involving

personnel, budget, schedule, scope issues, or a different combination of all four. Even our

competitors got into the mix, releasing the expected delivery of their product, directly competing

with our product release date.

After 7 different scenarios, I believe my approach to project management has developed

into a softer touch. For example, during the earlier scenarios, I paid less attention to the stress

levels of my employees. They weren't real after all, right? But what I found was this affected my

score negatively, as the health and wellness of my project team were important. I made it a point

to always be there for them in the later scenarios, which helped improve my overall scores. By

adding or subtracting meetings as necessary, especially coaching sessions, I enabled my

employees to maximize productivity while I stayed out of the way. Project managers who allow

their team to do what they do best, and execute the project plan that is, will find their greatest

successes in the management of project team health and wellness.

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An example of my softer touch in my organization's current projects is that of celebrating

project success. Over the last 6 months, my team and I have been working tirelessly to complete

the brand-new terminal expansion at PHX Terminal 4 for Southwest Airlines. As a treat to my

team, I set up a project celebration to congratulate them on their successes. I am doing this

because of the sacrifices they made during the duration of the project. Many late nights and early

mornings were spent, verifying that the electrochromic system was working flawlessly. The

tradeoffs of working overtime to complete the project successfully were inevitable. To

accomplish this project, sacrifices were needed to complete it on time, under budget, and deliver

a worthwhile deliverable. After project completion and during the grand opening of the new

terminal, we had kind words of congratulations from the Mayor of Phoenix, Kate Gallego, the

CEO of Southwest Airlines, Bob Jordan, and United States Congressman, Greg Stanton. I knew

a celebration was due, so I treated our project team of 14 different individuals, each contributing

their skills and expertise, to a San Diego Padres game at Petco Park in San Diego, California.

This celebration is a way to let the team know that their work is much appreciated and our

success as an organization will reflect in over 43,000,000 passengers annually.

Another key element for project managers to maintain a steady course was that of

reactive and proactive management. Project Managers need to stay on their toes and avoid

complacency. A great analogy I came across for this was presented by Kerry Wills, PMP. She

compares proactive management versus reactive management to that of a daily commute. The

reactive project manager will take the same route every single day, dealing with traffic, weather,

or other delays which may hinder their arrival time. The proactive project manager will look at

the weather report for the day, be observant of traffic blockage or construction restraints, and

reorient their route to maintain an on-time arrival. The difference between reactive and proactive
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management is key to maintaining a smooth path to success. For example, in one of my recent

projects involving a new corporate office in Silicon Valley, we were faced with the challenge of

COVID-19. As a project engineer, I took a proactive approach to manage my teams'

expectations, maintaining their vaccination records, ensuring they had proper PPE, and verified

we had personnel on stand-by should one of my team members become infected and miss a few

days of work. This proactive approach helped our project team maintain a steady course to the

project completion date and we completed the project with no significant delays.

During the last seven weeks, I believe the biggest area of challenge I had was mitigating

risks. Another project I worked on alongside the PHX Terminal 4 expansion, was Boardwalk,

located in San Diego. Boardwalk is a cutting-edge and state-of-the-art new life science campus,

focusing on bioscience research and medication. Our electrochromic glass is a vital part of

considering this project state-of-the-art. Unfortunately, a few insulated glass units were damaged

during the installation phase. After repairs were made, the glazier damaged surrounding units,

resulting in further rework. This was a major miss on my part, so I need to make a note of having

prerevolution meetings to discuss the plan of attack and to develop a risk plan. This would help

avoid catastrophic failures. Our meetings could discuss cable routes, common mistakes, best-

known methods, and contingency plans should something else get in the way of completing the

tasks accordingly.

Part 2

Dominating the Harvard Project Management Simulation

Students who are taking OGL 321: Project Leadership, Strategy, and Scope for the first

time will be surprised by the scenarios. These scenarios offer each student a unique experience in
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which they are the project manager and make all the decisions regarding the project, including

selecting the appropriate deliverable based on management expectations, managing the scope,

determining the schedule, balancing, or maintaining the budget, producing the project team,

developing prototypes, assigning weekly meetings, and utilizing outsourcing. A fine balance of

all decisions will result in successful runs, but future students should be aware of imposing

concerns. Each scenario will throw a wrench in your plans, usually in the form of a materials

shortage, a loss of vital project team members, shifts in the schedule, increased competition from

direct competitors, or even a change request resulting in a higher level of product, which requires

more tasks to be completed, regardless of the expected scheduled completion.

Three Areas of Advice

1) Prototyping

Students should ensure that prototyping is a part of each plan of attack. Prototyping allows your

project team to create prototypes. These prototypes will enable your team to build a basis on

which to work, should any issues arise during the middle of the project. It also allows your team

to find errors in their work more frequently, reducing the number of issues identified later in the

life of the project which in turn helps increase the number of tasks each project team member can

complete.

2) Relationships

The relationships between all the factors a project manager needs to balance are near limitless.

Each factor in your control is delicately related to one another and identifying weaknesses or

strengths in each is critical to the success of the project. The following are what I consider to be

the most important relationships:

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a) Meetings and Communication

Your team will change its attitude towards how many meetings you have during each week of

the project. Earlier in the project, it is wise to have more coaching sessions, especially if the team

is filled with lower-level employees. Later in the project, you want to have more status updates,

helping reduce the punch list and get the team to the finish line

b) Schedule and Stress Levels

Over the life of the project, your schedule will slide left or right, depending on the stress levels of

your employees. Using fewer meetings and having more employees while increasing outsourcing

can help reduce stress relating to task completion but may result in communication concerns. It is

important to find a perfect balance between these factors and changing the formula week to week

depending on the stress factor is key

3) Scheduling

Understanding the schedule and shifting the timeline is also a major key to reducing the stress on

your employees. But you can also use this stress to your advantage. Stress is a normal part of

each project, and it can be used as a factor to complete more tasks. Identifying the management

expectations and changing the desired completion time can help your project team complete

more tasks but use this wisely. A student would be wise to also take advantage of the overtime

function. I always kept mine set to allowed or encouraged. This enabled my team to complete

more tasks at their leisure, but if I needed to, they would work overtime if we were at risk of

missing a deadline.
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Conclusion

Overall, my experiences in this class were invaluable to my career as a project manager. I

have always wondered what I was going to do with my life. Luckily with project management, a

practically universal skill, I have found my calling. From installing electrochromic glass products

to maintaining a crew on a sportfishing boat, each project is always a completely different and

unique experience. I have always been a problem solver, and this class has shown the light on

several problems we as project managers may face. Communication concerns, ethical issues,

pressure from management or stakeholders, or whatever it may be, I know that this class has

prepared me for a career in project management and a life in leadership.

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References

Madsen, S. (2021, November 16). What Makes a High Performing Team? Susanne Madsen

International Developing Project Leaders. https://www.susannemadsen.co.uk/blog/what-

makes-a-high-performing-team

Kerzner, H. (2010). Behavioral Excellence. In Project Management Best Practices. (pp. 377-

398).