Hey, Leader! Where Are We Going?

 

A lot of what’s written about leadership has to do with consideration for the followers, communications with stakeholders, maintaining a high level of integrity, etcetera, etcetera. I would like to cut straight to the heart of the matter: where, exactly, are we being led?

Have you ever had the experience of following someone who had no idea where they were going? For long-distance runners in a competition on a poorly-laid-out course, this can be especially frustrating. If the appointed leaders make a wrong turn, it can add a lot of distance to an already difficult run, meaning that those who would otherwise be in the forefront can suddenly find themselves significantly – if not prohibitively – behind where they thought they were. In short, when we’re talking about leadership, one (literal) misstep can lead to dramatic and frustrating failure.

It’s true in running, and it’s also true of project management. The problem with managerial leadership is that the appropriate course is almost never known (or even knowable) beforehand. The team simply has to tackle the scope in front of them, really without a clear picture of where they will end up, since we’re no longer talking about a geographic destination. We’re talking about an anticipated end-state that takes place in the future, and the future is notoriously difficult to map out.

(Just as an aside, “the undiscovered country” is NOT the future, at least not as referenced in Hamlet, Act III, scene 1. As Hamlet himself uses the term in his famous soliloquy, it actually refers to the afterlife – which, on second thought, might have been the real intent when Councilor Gorkon quotes it in the Star Trek movie of the same name. Perhaps it is better rendered in “the original Klingon.”)

Look, I’m not saying it’s fair, or easy; but the truth of the matter is that followers have an expectation that leaders can see into the future, at least to some extent, and have selected the most appropriate strategy to deliver them to this desired end-state. This is why leaders of all stripes are so often attracted to soothsayers, fortune-tellers, or others who claim to be able to peer into the future and return the results that will be realized should the asker continue on the chosen course of action. On the managerial side, these people are known as risk managers (Ahh, c’mon! It’s been weeks since I took a swipe at those guys!). All these so-called analysts have to do is to shoe-horn in some statistical jargon into their predictions, and they automatically assume the aura of insightful, must-have information generators. Consider:

Palm reader: “I sense a dark force, one that you can’t stop, damaging your path going forward.”

Risk analyst: “If the weather closes in, you will have a 15% lower chance of completing those tasks on-time.”

Crystal ball-gazer: “I see a tall, thin man coming into your life, and changing many aspects of your comfortable routine.”

Risk analyst: “Did you see that last Baseline Change Proposal?  I’ll have to completely re-do my ‘risk baseline’ if this goes through.”

It’s my contention that true leaders spend less time attempting to quantify the future than they do making their teams more robust and better prepared to deal with the unexpected events that inevitably find their way onto – and obstructing – the path to success. That’s not to say true leaders don’t plan – on the contrary, they make it a point to plan, and do so to the best of their ability. But it’s like Eisenhower said : “In preparing for battle, I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”

And so it is in project management. To have a clear view of the project team’s ultimate destination , and the best way of attaining it, is one of the most – if not the most – crucial aspect of managerial leadership.

That, and knowing when Klingons are mis-interpreting Shakespeare…