38 www.pmtoday.co.uk | JUNE/JULY 2015

Spotlight on TrainingThe Impact of the Individual Project

Manager on Performance

Projects are delivered through the

efforts of people, but people are

complex and interact with team

members and stakeholders in often

unpredictable ways. This in turn

can impact the performance of the

project. It is therefore puzzling why

the so called ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ aspects

are treated separately.

It is important that project leaders understand the impact they have on the feelings of others (through firstly understanding better themselves) and the impact they and others have on the project (although equally, if not more so, for programmes). This increased awareness allows project leaders to deal more easily with conflict, engage with stakeholders, adapt project management to suit the project and manage the processes more effectively. So how do we achieve this?

Personal StyleWe use multiple inventories to provide an insight to - and common language for - the discussion of preferences and impact on projects. The most immediately usable is the iMA Colour Styles tool which provides a framework to interpret the style of others and build engagement strategies using two distinctions: assertiveness and openness. By defining preferred style along these axes, iMA defines four colour styles (referred to as High as we are a mixture of all styles). Each has their own characteristics, behaviours and preferences. If you want to give this a try, complete your profile now at www.ima-pm.co.uk. It only takes two minutes and will allow you to gain the maximum value from this article.

How accurately does iMA describe your

personal communication and engagement

preferences?

Relationships and StakeholdersIt’s important to understand a person’s intention and motivations as this allows us to relate more effectively to them and their actions – and therefore build better

iMA High Green … are serious, analytical, persistent, systematic and task oriented people who enjoy problem solving, perfecting processes and working towards tangible results. They do research, make comparisons, determine risk, calculate margins of error and then take action.

iMA High Red … are goal oriented go-getters who are most comfortable when they are in charge of people and situations. They focus on a no-nonsense approach to bottom-line results. They are fast-paced; task oriented and work quickly by themselves.

•Betimedisciplined

•Belogicaland prepared

•Berespectfulof rules

•Bestructuredand well organised

•Beprecise

•Bepractical

•Bebrief

•Beassertive

•Betothepoint

•Besupportiveof my goals

Non-Assertive

Assertive

Task Orientation /Self-contained

Relationship Orientation / Open

iMAHighBlue … are warm, supportive and nurturing individuals who develop strong networks of people who are willing to be mutually supportive and reliable. They are excellent team players, courteous, friendly, good planners; persistent workers and good with follow through.

iMA High Yellow … are outgoing, friendly and enthusiastic idea people who excel in getting others excited about their vision. They are fast paced, high energy and deal with people in a positive upbeat way; eternal optimists that can influence people and build alliances to accomplish their goals.

•Bepleasant

•Benonassertive

•Beselfless

•Besupportive of my feelings

•Besincere

•Beflexible

•Bequickpaced

•Bepositive

•Begenerous with your praise

•Besupportiveof my idea

www.pmtoday.co.uk | JUNE/JULY 2015 39

relationships. For example, when other colour styles are working with High Greens they may feel that they cannot provide sufficient information or engage with them easily to influence their opinion or decisions.

Strong relationships with stakeholders are often a defining characteristic of successful projects. The project leader must understand the stakeholder’s motivation. This is in turn impacted by the stakeholder’s role on the project and the culture of the organisation they work in. Understanding how each stakeholder views success is critical – both in terms of what is delivered and in the way it is achieved. For example, if the project leader is a High Red and the project sponsor a High Blue, it would be important for the project leader to understand that they may appear pushy and insensitive to the sponsor if delivery of outcomes is all that is focused on during conversations.

Considering a key stakeholder, how do you

believeyourrespectivestylesimpactyour

ability to communicate and build a trusting

relationship?

TeamsiMA can help team members to better understand the likely dynamics, diversity of approach and strengths and weaknesses (from their perspective) of others. This provides an objective and impersonal way for team members to discuss the impact of their style on the team and ultimately the performance of the project.

We often find teams biased towards a particular pair - so they might be above and below the line or left or right, or as an extreme to a single colour style. This is not surprising as people tend to like people like themselves. Therefore leaders are unconsciously biased towards recruiting people like themselves. This impacts not only diversity but also the decision making process and decisions made - often negatively.

Considering the iMA colour style of your

teammembers,whatimpactdoesthishave

on how the project is managed? [Why not

askthemtocompletetheinventoryand

discuss as a team?]

Adapting the Style of Project Management to SuitThe project leader should identify the type of project (defined through factors such as complexity, pace and capability of the team) before considering the appropriate style of project management (as defined by the lifecycle, roles, controls, etc.). On a recent client assignment, we were working with a team charged with

delivering a project that was key to the organisation’s future. The current style of project management was having a detrimental effect on relationships and, in turn, performance. Using iMA, we helped the project office manager (High Red) identify the need to adopt a less systematic and inflexible approach to project management by understanding the motivations of the team. The bulk of the team had a High Green / Yellow and did not feel that they were sufficiently involved or that the style was flexible enough.

Is the style of project management adopted

onyourprojectamotivatororde-motivator

for the team?

Impact on Process – Risk as an ExamplePlanning for future eventualities, including the identification and management of risk (as either a threat or opportunity), is a core skill. There are an infinite number of variations in the way people perceive a risk and assess its impact and probability before identifying appropriate courses of action. It is therefore critical that the project leader appreciates these differences and implements a process that engages the different team members and uses this diversity. For example, if risk is managed by an iMA High Green then the identification, recording, assessment and ongoing management could potentially be done in a far more structured and thought-through manner than if another colour style had the responsibility. We have found the following questions helpful for individuals and teams to reflect on, as the responses are generally different for each iMA colour style.

1. Why do it and what value does it add?

2. Who should be involved and should they be involved as a one-off or continuously?

3. How should it be carried out? Should formalised techniques and processes be used?

4. When is it best to plan – early or a little later?

5. What level of detail is appropriate? How should it be presented?

For each process you can consider your strengths (and how to best make use of them), weaknesses (considering them as overdone or misapplied strengths) and best means of development.

Can you identify how your colour style

influencesthewayinwhichyoudealwith

risk and other processes such as planning?

Gaining an insight into your personal style and that of others can have a positive impact on project performance. Invest some time in working on this and we can guarantee that you will reap the rewards in the short and long term. Good luck!

Donnie MacNicol is a Director of team and leadership development company Team Animation and can be contacted at donnie@teamanimation.co.uk

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