Taking Flak for Leadership

Denise Thompson, PMP, is a Program/Project Manager in La Farge, Wisconsin.

  Career Development   Leadership  

It’s the time of year when many of us project managers reflect on project successes and failures in an attempt to learn what worked and what didn’t so we can redefine ourselves for bigger, brighter success in the next year. During this process, how hard are we looking in the mirror to examine our own behaviors and relationships? Seriously…stop looking at spreadsheets now and take a moment to look in the mirror.

Reflect on your behaviors with the team. When you do this, if you are being honest and digging deep, you should notice a pattern between team performance and trust. Ask yourself, does the team have a belief that your primary goal is to support and protect the team so it can do the great stuff it does?

Now ask again: Do they really believe they can trust you? If this doesn’t strike you as important, you may want to examine your leadership skills and start reading stuff like The Trust Edge by David Horsager. David reminds us that “Being talented is valuable, but being trusted is the fundamental key to anyone’s success.” If you are leading a team without trust, what value are you producing from all those team-building exercises? Here’s a better question: How can you build a team that doesn’t trust you?

Proving you are worthy of the team’s trust is not easy. The last thing you want to inspire in the team …

Please log in or sign up below to read the rest of the article.