What Can Challenge-Based Leadership Do for You?

George Freeman, PMP, is a seasoned IT project manager and leader who has worked in the software industry for nearly four decades, including over 25 years of project management. He has significant experience and expertise in enterprise information systems, data, and business architectures, and is an advocate for “business and technical architectural awareness” among all project team members. Mr. Freeman has international and remote team experience, and has a passion for meta-modeling, domain-driven design, and “all things architecture.”

  Leadership  

Knowledge is an accelerant that produces the energy one needs to succeed. So, what is our role as a leader when this accelerant is in short supply? Do we show our technical prowess by modeling a project that can survive on rations of knowledge, or do we seek a “way of working” that can mine and produce this vital substance, thus providing us the fuel needed to reach objective success?

If your choice is the latter, you may find this read of interest as we explore facets of challenge-based leadership. If you have never heard of this strategy before, then know that you are not alone as it represents an approach that I have deployed and honed over the years. For fear of alienating some who may view this article as being over the top, I ask that you keep a skeptic’s eye to the details and glean the appropriate value for your practice.

Introduction
When failure is not an option, the definition of success becomes amazingly versatile. This unfortunate real-world truth lives in the political spectrum of our profession—and as such, is a complicated topic to discuss. Its reality, though, forces us to recognize that there’s a difference between “objective success” and “success determined.” In other words, evaluated in the corridors of power or through well-meaning project post-mortems, the determination of success cannot evade …

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