Be a Builder, Not a Driver

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   Talent Management   Teams   ProjectsAtWork  

As project management leaders we are accountable to our organizations, our stakeholders and our teams. We have to deliver short-term results, but we also need to develop our teams to create long-term benefits. How do we ensure we focus on the right areas at the right times?

Leadership is complex. It doesn’t matter how much experience we have, or how many courses we have taken, we are still faced with the need to make judgment-based decisions with potentially significant implications every day. There’s no manual to ensure we get it right, and often no immediate indication of whether we have made the right decision.

I often tell people that good leaders are simply the ones who make a few more ‘right’ decisions than ‘wrong’ ones. In many cases, whether the decision is right or wrong is irrelevant; it’s whether we are perceived to be right or wrong by those we are seeking to influence — our teams, our stakeholders, our organizations.

So how do we ensure we are leading in the right way? How do we become more than managers and actually lead? It comes down to a simple concept: focusing on being a builder, not a driver.

Drivers are people who are focused strictly on delivering the work for which they are accountable. They make decisions that prioritize the successful achievement of their assigned deliverables. This …

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