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According to PMBOK ® Guide, “Leadership is the ability to get things done through others and focusing the efforts of a group of people toward a common goal and enabling them to work as a team” (PMBOK, 2008). Being the project manager or director does not only require the task of supervisor but also a leader and an authority. The leader manages, communicates, motivates and guides the entire team project and entities involved with it.
In this paper, we will discuss the practices of successful project managers, their leadership skills, and management roles. We will evaluate Judy Stockley’s level of success in developing a culture of trust while implementing her drawdown plan as Eglin Air Base’s new Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) program director, learning and behavior modification strategies that Judy Stockley used, actions took in order to change the project team’s culture and create a relationship of trust, mutual support, and teamwork between the government and contractors, and a personal leadership development plan.
All of us are aware of the attributes a good and successful team leader possesses. Some of the factors of good leadership and characteristics of successful project director are discussed below:
Successful leaders know what is happening in their team. They have the control of all fundamental details like short and long tem aims, mission of the project, basic knowledge of the industry they are working in, technical information about the things they are dealing with, members of the team or organization and their roles, responsibilities of other departments, acquaintance of their competitors, and what customer is expecting from them. If they lack any of this, they hold resources from where this information can be extracted from.
Particularly, they should have technical knowledge, for instance production technology, advertising methods, engineering knowledge, information about rules and regulations, sources of funding, and knowledge of basis background management principles and theories, e.g. planning, management and scheming (Personal Development, Online).
Managers differ in the level to which they can identify what is going on in a certain state. A successful manager is comparatively more responsive to proceedings and can adjust it more promptly and properly. He is insightful and open to statistical information like facts and figures and soft information like the sentiments and issues of team members.
The job of the team leader is very much accompanied with taking big decisions. Occasionally, these are taken through rational and recuperating techniques. Other decisions demand the strength to judge pros and cons in what is principally a very unsure or indistinct circumstance, calling for a more complex and enhanced judgment or even instinct. The leader therefore is obliged to fortify his decision-making proficiency, along with the skill to work along with uncertainty and insecurity.
A project manager fundamentally needs enhanced interpersonal skills. He must possess abilities such as “communicating, delegating, negotiating, resolving conflict, persuading, selling, using and responding to authority” (University of South Carolina, Online) and complete several imperative tasks.
The team leader’s job includes a quantity of emotional pressure and tension, which occurs as a natural result of working in circumstances involving power, leadership, power, interpersonal clashes, gaining objectives, meeting deadlines, and several instances of insecurity and uncertain situations. The successful leader needs to be adequately resilient to deal with all these state of affairs. ‘Resilient’ here denotes the condition of feeling the stress yet being strong and competent enough to deal with it by being disciplined and gentle towards the circumstances.
Successful managers have definite objective or aim to achieve, instead of only responding to demand. It is not necessary that they plan everything beforehand and sometimes they have to react to the situation on immediate basis. However, actions of an efficient team leader depend on long-term basis. These decisions comply with vision, mission, and values of the team/organization, are more critical, and more unsusceptible towards pressure. This type of skill also contains qualities such as observing a job through, being enthusiastic and devoted, having wisdom of mission, and taking accountability for things that occur rather than putting the blame on others.
The leader must be creative and innovative. This means to come up with distinctive ideas for the success and project and solutions if any problem occurs. The leader should be able to adopt change and take risks too. He should consider the ideas of others despite of their post and capabilities. Though associated with general intelligence, the notion of ‘mental activeness” consists of the ability to identify problems immediately, work in pressure, carry out multiple things at a time, handle problems, and see through the situation vividly, and chiefly and to address the situation appropriately.
After Judy Stockley took her charge as the program director, she held a meeting with all 200 workers of the AMRAAM project to provide the details of the drawdown plan. Informing them about downsizing was no doubt a difficult job and Judy was aware of fears of these workers as well. The target of government was to drawdown almost fifty percent of employees. Judy, on her personal behalf, made it clear to the team members that she did not took over to just “fire” them but also she will also help them to get new jobs. Although frustration grew among the workers but nothing serious happened in this regard. This was the first instance of development of culture of trust in AMRAAM project.
Before Judy Stockley’s appointment as program director of AMRAAM, the cost study on how to save money developed by the Chief Financial Officer, Dennis Mallik was kept confidential and limited to the program director only. When Judy took over, this trend was changed and the cost study was considered important for each member of the project and information was disclosed to other leaders and members too. This helped the team to trust their director and confidence started building. Not only this, a mutual sentiment of “reform” was sensed by everyone involved in AMRAAM.
Another instance of Judy’s success in building trust during the drawdown plan was the acquisition reform. It was a difficult phase for contractors, workers, and Judy herself. To address this problem, Judy started struggling for making the contractors and government virtually one team. The meeting she held with key members of Hughes and Raytheon helped the project leaders to express their concerns over the project, risks associated with government, and lack of opportunities. Apparently some of them even started trusting her intentions. Again, she was successful in development of trust in the team during downsizing phase.
Judy Stockley utilized several learning and behavior modification strategies in order to achieve the goals of the AMRAAM project.
Primarily, she was an active participant of the team, the first learning strategy (DMS, Online). She considered all the aspects of success in team, for both the issues of missiles and trust in the team members. Judy discussed matters with the government workers, project leaders, and contactors Hughes and Raytheon. Immediately after her appointment, she held meeting with all workers, later she did not hesitate in meeting with Base Commander, executives of Hughes and Raytheon, and their program directors.
Another learning strategy applied by Judy Stockley was of Shared Brainstorming (University of Minnesota, Online). Maintaining a notable cultural change necessitates continuous struggle. In order to keep the workers relaxed and oriented towards the project majorly, Chuck Anderson in collaboration with Judy Stockley utilized the technique of brainstorming with the workers. Each month, all the 80 members use to enjoy together. The basic purpose of that meeting, every month, was constancy of purpose. It helped all workers to stay aligned and brainwashed. This also helped them to do what was right, deliver their work on time, ensuring that the design is right, and that they fulfill all condition and requirements of customers. Consequently, financial concerns were also eliminated.
According to Judy Stockley in the case study by Alexander Laufer, Dan Ward, Alistair Cockburn, “In the Air Force, it’s a big deal to meet with a base commander, especially when it occurs in a public forum. By the time I arrived at his conference room, people were already seated all around the table. Suddenly, the commander flung open the door to his private office and strode into the conference room, red in the face and with eyes bulging. He sat down without speaking; making it clear that he felt no need to be civil.” During the whole meeting in his office, he criticized every action of Judy and things she said with irritating remarks. The basic thing he expressed over and again was that contractors were making profit from the resources provided by the government. Here, Judy utilized the strategy of behavior modification, Cognitive behavioral therapy, i.e. recognized and controlled negative or disconcerting thoughts and actions that would influence her leadership and could cause her to show unconstructive behavior (Cherry, Online). Despite of base commander’s anguish, Judy remained chivalrous. At the end of the briefing, Judy said that she will continue as planned with this plan. In the end, she thanked him for his attention and time and left.
During the drawdown phase, Judy Stockley was conscious of worker’s apprehensions about their positions in team and employment. Being a project director, it is the person’s duty to build a setting in his team where giving and receiving feedback is considered a custom and criticism is not anything unconstructive. Healthy and successful teams frequently share feedback among all members working to gain the common objective (Hackman & Oldham, 1975). Following this strategy and to soothe the tension, Judy offered them a platform to express their dissatisfaction and concerns. For this purpose, she held monthly conferences where all members were given note cards to namelessly criticize the director or policies and give suggestions which were deposited in a box at the end of conference. These criticism and suggestions were then actually reviewed and enacted. In the next meeting, a briefing about each complaint and feedback was given to the members then.
In the early 1990s, Judy’s forerunner ordered AMRAAM’s financial officer Dennis to make a report of cost study on how to manage the budget of project expenses. When the report was complete, Dennis was told to hide it with him and do not reveal its information until base commander leaves the post. When Judy Stockley became program director of AMRAAM, he showed that report instantly to her and was surprised on her reaction. Denis was told by Judy to put show this information to all members. This helped in formation of trust between the leaders and workers and many members considered this a reform in AMRAAM.
As feedback was open, many important members of Judy’s team gave ideas of enhancing the culture of confidence among members. After the “handshake agreement” of Judy and Chuck Anderson, a “mirror exercise” was carried out. In this process, both sides, viz. government and contractor, were told to make a list of issues they had at their and other’s side. As the two sides started sharing information, a trend of trust started forming between them.
All these efforts by Judy helped in developing confidence among the team members and with each other as well.
“If you want to build loyalty to you and your organization, your products and your goals, you have to constantly refine your leadership talents” (Marken, 1999). To be an effective project leader, Judy Stockley should have first outline and revise the vision, mission, and values statement of the team project. Then, she should have worked harder to improve the communication skills. This is because of the changing trends and mindset of people in the society. Her verbal communication, as well as written should be influential and relevant. Her technical information about the project and industry must be illustriously perfect in the field of missiles and air forces. Along with these, she should be able and much competent enough to take proper and timely decisions. She should be able to meet the deadlines of the tasks and face the critical matters of project. Being the program director, Judy should be aware of her accountability in the consequences of the decisions and tasks completed.
The actions and decisions by the project leader is actually the representation and outline of his insight about the importance and requirements of job. The aims, objective, and ethics of the project are also depicted by the tasks achievements of project. In order to be a successful leader, one must be aware of his capabilities and always strive to conform to the modifications in the business environment.
PMBOK ® Guide. (2008). A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge. Appendix: G1. 4th Edition. Project Management Institute. Pg. 409
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Marken, G. A. (1999). Improving your leadership skills. Public Relations Quarterly, 44(1), 40-41.
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