Servant Leadership: Serve to Be Great

In a recent HBR article on strategic prioritization by the current chair of PMI, Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez, I read about a tool he uses aptly called Hierarchy of Purpose. This tool helps in understanding an organization’s purpose, methods of pursuing it and its strategic vision;  what is of utmost importance over the next few years; what projects should be resourced “to the hilt” that align, as well as which should be scrapped; who the best people are to involve; and, what outcome-related targets should be set.

I think this is a great tool that ties in perfectly with portfolio management, organizational [servant, I hope] leadership, stakeholder engagement and of course the programs and projects that result from the portfolio.  

But what really intrigued me was Antonio's comments about conflicting messages coming from an executive team. The example he cited, more eloquently than I could, was about an organization telling their people they had two main strategic priorities: Efficiency and Customer Satisfaction. He then related a brief story about how someone delivering a parcel was invited into their customer’s office for a chat. The person first thought “Yes! Customer Satisfaction, here I come!”, was immediately supplanted by the second thought “Oops - where is the efficiency in that?” See the conflict?  

How often do we get conflicting and unclear priorities from our leadership team and what should we as project managers and servant leaders do when that happens? I believe it is up to us to be crystal clear in OUR understanding of priorities so that WE can be crystal clear in our decision-making and in relaying the same priorities to our teams.  Would a servant leader simply accept what was said verbatim from senior members of our team? I think not.  It takes a lot of nerve to point out the need for clarity, the need for priorities that are not both number one and the need for a change in messaging.  What senior executive would not welcome such courage from a more junior leader?

So, once we understand the business priorities and have clarified where the focus should be, how do we instill this into the project team? Knowing and understanding with clarity is the first step. Communicating it clearly is the second. Communicating to the team, to the stakeholders, to the customers if applicable. Making decisions in any project becomes much easier when that shining star representing the organization's strategic and focused goals can be seen clearly and followed to a successful conclusion. Just like those three wise men who were said to have followed a star around this time of year a few thousand years ago.

How clearly does your executive teams express the strategic goals of your organization? Can you make autonomous decisions firm in the knowledge that you clearly understand both the goals and the priorities? How do you communicate this to your teams?

Food for thought.

But during this time of year, one should be clearly focusing on food for the tummy.  And with that, I wish everyone celebrating during this time a wonderful holiday season and all the best in 2017.