Bridging the 'leadership gap'

CITI and People Deliver Projects form an important new partnership

A major report on professional development¹ placed leadership at the centre of the development model in which programme and project management are prominent core skills.

CITI, specialists in portfolio, project and programme management development and People Deliver Projects, recognised for their fresh and dynamic approach to personalised experiential learning, have formed an alliance that delivers these key project leadership skills.

Each of the partners is well-known and respected in the project and programme marketplace and by joining together they have created a unique ‘one-stop’ shop for organisations that need strong leadership skills combined with excellent programme and project disciplines.

“In today’s high pressure environment, project and programme managers must have a sound grasp of the project approach. Even more, they must have the wisdom to know how to apply it, and the people capability to lead others to success – it is the complete set that we can now bring to client organisations”, commented Andy Taylor, Director of People Deliver Projects. “The relationship is a great fit for both organisations,” added Christopher Worsley, CEO, CITI.

As a recent survey carried out on 160 project managers by People Deliver Projects confirmed, more than 80% of project and programme managers believe that people factors are more challenging, and have more impact on success, than either the technical content, or the project management approach.
This reinforces what Kotter² said in 1999, “The issue of leadership is centrally important because leadership is different from management, and the primary force behind successful change is leadership, not management”.

Christopher Worsley believes, “The commonly perceived ‘lack of leadership’ in the project community in the UK has been exacerbated by the over reliance on method – a ‘by-the-book’ approach to managing leadership skills for project managers. The inevitable result is project and programme managers who fail to deliver lasting benefit or valuable change”. He adds, “It is not sufficient to expose project and programme managers to methods through standardised training courses in the expectation that this will equip them to successfully carry out change initiatives.

Leadership is learned by a range of experiences; on the job, in life, and in training. Training must be personalised, self-driven, and experiential. CITI have long advocated that professional project managers must receive education that transcends a purely methodological approach. They must be able to engage with sponsors and stakeholders to understand what successful outcomes are expected, and then exert judgements in the execution of projects to ensure that the right outcomes are realised.”
Andy Taylor concludes, “I am convinced that the leading project organisations in the future will master methodology AND build strong team and leadership capability. As service providers we must respond to this need, and I see the partnership between CITI and ourselves as the first complete offering in UK
project management.”

¹ ‘Professional Skills For Government’, May 2005
² John P. Kotter “What Leaders Really Do”, Harvard Business School Press, 1999