Welcome!

In today’s global environment there are always more projects than resources available, and that projects are becoming increasingly strategic and enterprise driven. These factors make project management leadership more critical than ever before. We recognize that there are plenty of tools available for managing projects, but not many tools available for managing your leadership development experience.

The Mission

MYProjectAdvisor’s mission is to increase the value of project management through the development of individuals’ leadership skills and personal competencies. Through training, education, assessment tools and coaching, MyProjectAdvisor helps project managers grow in their profession by increasing their personal effectiveness. The

Challenge

At its very core, MYProjectAdvisor is a challenge:

• A Challenge to start, continue or reinvigorate your leadership journey
• A Challenge to contribute and serve your community - to serve those around you and help them grow into more capable motivated workers
• A Challenge to find meaningful projects that have human and social impact
• A Challenge to alter the negative stereotypes that can hold project managers back To put it simply,

MyProjectAdvisor is: a Challenge to Change and Grow.

It is said leadership is best learned by experience, rather than from a teacher in a classroom. Developing leadership skills for the demanding project environment goes much deeper than classroom training, templates, and workbooks. It is a process that you yourself must manage, aided by guidance and direction from others. Changing attitudes and behavioral patterns takes time, and growing your personal competencies is a continuous learning process.

There is no one-size-fits-all way to striving for project management superiority, and the journey is just as important as the destination. The process and the journey prepare you for greater leadership opportunities and a more rewarding experience.

Leadership development is personal, but this does not mean that it should be cultivated without outside help. Many of us have received constructive feedback on our leadership skills, but without a framework, proper tools to give continuous follow-up and a support structure; it is hard to know how to turn that feedback into practical changes. Unsupported efforts at change often die on the vine.

The Framework

The framework that MYProjectAdvisor provides for project manager leadership development can be easily and effectively visualized using a pyramid. Seasoned project managers most likely already have a solid foundation to build upon project management knowledge and subject matter expertise. Personal competencies go above and beyond these levels to trust-based relationships, consultative leadership, and courage.

The center piece of this framework is trust-based relationships. If stakeholders find you difficult to work with or hard to get along with, it hardly matters how much knowledge or subject matter expertise you have; they will not trust you. Trust-based relationships resonate positive energy throughout the entire project team, going far deeper than the usual purely rational business relationships. Trust-based relationships allow you to be more effective on your current project but are also a critical component of your leadership development experience.

Once you have learned how to build trust-based relationships with stakeholders, you can lead them without express authority, through consultative leadership, a form of servant leadership. This type of leadership involves helping others achieve their goals, which align to group goals, and can be tremendously rewarding. As we all have a desire to help and serve others, achieving results by means of consultative leadership leads to increased job satisfaction.

Consultative leadership is a next logical step after building trust-based relationships; when stakeholders trust you, they are more willing to listen to you, hence you are more able to lead them without express authority. Project managers must learn how to become authentic trusted advisors to their stakeholders, customers, and team members.

A consultative leader is one who gets more results by servicing and advising. Consultative leadership is not based on power, title, or expertise, but rather it is a process based on giving advice to those you are leading in order to serve their best interest. Consultative leadership is similar to servant leadership, because it entails putting the needs of those you are leading ahead of your own interests. Your job is to guide and advise, so that they have the tools they need to make good decisions for their project.

The last step is in many ways the most difficult and the most important. The ability and willingness to create shared partnerships in leadership is at the heart of true consultative, servant leadership. However, this helps your team take more ownership, and helps stakeholders become more vested in the outcome and thus more committed. Your power, influence, and ability to handle more work grow exponentially across your projects.

Servant leadership means putting the interests and needs of your client before your own. But it also means giving back to your professional community other project managers. Just as you have learned from other project managers, they can learn from you, and you can find fulfillment in helping and teaching others. Find ways to connect to a global community of project managers, where you can find a mentor, become a mentor, and share ideas and discussions.

Courage

Finally, this framework would be incomplete without the courage to face new opportunities and the personal and political risks that may be associated with them. We realize it takes courage to lead, but perhaps it takes even more courage to serve others without the expectation of getting something in return.. The courage to serve our clients, team members and stakeholders by channeling our passion and enthusiasm into their needs, instead of self-interest is what will raise our community to new levels.

In Conclusion

We hope you find MYProjectAdvisor thought provoking, and we look forward to your participation.

Sincerely,

Jack Ferraro