Who Are You?

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Leadership   ProjectsAtWork  

As project leaders, we have to recognize how our own preferences impact the way we deal with others. You can’t effectively lead others if you don’t know yourself. So, what are your leadership drivers?

This is the second article in an ongoing series on project leadership and communication. This series will purposefully stray from the trampled path of safe management advice that abounds in books and blogs. Instead it will seek to inspire good project managers to become better project leaders through forward thinking and cutting-edge approaches.

Last month I started a series about leadership and communication, and talked a little bit about the differences between those skills and management (see “You Are Not A Project Manager”). I also provided my perspective on why leadership is important. There were some great responses from readers, and I’m delighted that not everyone agreed with all my points — some healthy debate will help me to structure future articles so that together we can explore this complex subject.

This month I would like to spend some time focusing on ourselves. I firmly believe that to be a great leader you have to have a very keen awareness of who you are as a person and a leader. Among a myriad of other things, you need to understand:

• Your strengths and weaknesses
• Your motivators
• The things that cause you anxiety
• How you …

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