Leadership Models

Models

• Models provide simplified views of reality and improve work processes
• Models solve problems, guide behavior, and meet key needs
• Some models apply to specific projects, while others are universal

Situational Leadership

• Situational leadership provides a flexible way to lead teams, because no single leadership style works for every situation
• Good leaders adapt leadership styles to fit their team's needs and the task, offering strategies to bring out the best in teams and individuals
• Ken Blanchard’s Situational Leadership® II emphasizes adapting leadership styles (directing, coaching, supporting, delegating) based on team members' competence and commitment
• Karen Whittleworth and Andrew Gilbert’s OSCAR coaching model has steps for personal development:
  • Outcome: Set goals
  • Situation: Assess current abilities
  • Choices/Consequences: Explore Options
  • Actions: Define actions
  • Review: Maintain progress with check-ins
• Both Situational Leadership® II and the OSCAR coaching model provide tools for growth and accountability
• Scenario:* Picture this: You are a team lead and have a new member who is great at their job, but seems like they have plateaued, and you want to make sure they continue to grow and enhance his skills. Using the OSCAR model would apply in which way?
• Setting goals
• Assessing current abilities
• Exploring options/ consequences
• Defining action items
• Maintaining progress with regular check-ins

Communication Models

• Effective communication is vital for project success, and communication models enhance connections
• Cross-cultural models (e.g., Browaeys and Price) explain how factors (like language, stereotypes, relationships) shape interactions
• Alistair Cockburn’s model focuses on choosing the right communication channel
• Face-to-face is ideal for complex situations
• Donald Norman’s "gulf of execution" and "gulf of evaluation" concepts emphasize intuitive design and clear communication
• Applying communication models enhances collaboration and interactions
• Scenario:* You have a few team members who love working from home, but project goals and the like seem to be getting lost in translation. How would you go about connecting with them.
• Understanding communication models to enhance how you connect with others
• Communicate face-to-face for complex situations

Hygiene and Motivational Factors

• Fredrick Herzberg's research identifies:
  • Motivational factors (achievement, growth, advancement) drive job satisfaction
  • Hygiene factors (company policies, salary, work environment) prevent dissatisfaction
• Hygiene factors keep people content but don't inspire passion

Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Motivation

• Daniel Pink suggests the following:
  • Extrinsic rewards (like salary) motivate only up to a point
  • Intrinsic factors (autonomy, mastery, purpose) take over to motivate
• Scenario:* Your software team wants more money, but you know it isn't possible. How can you keep them happy, engaged, and working hard?
• Autonomy: Letting team members decide how, when, and where they work
• Mastery: Setting goals for growth, improving, excelling, and learning new skills
• Purpose: Helping team members find meaning by contributing to a larger vision

Theory of Needs

• David McClelland suggests people are driven by a mix of:
  • Achievement: Setting/reaching challenging goals
  • Power: Leading/taking responsibility
  • Affiliation: Teamwork/building relationships
• Knowing these drives allows alignment of tasks to strengths

Theory X, Theory Y, and Theory Z

• Douglas McGregor explored management styles that align with motivation:
  • Theory X: People mainly work for income and require hands-on guidance
  • Theory Y: People are naturally motivated and thrive under creative, collaborative leadership
  • Theory Z: Focuses on deeper purpose and employee well-being for long-term commitment
• Scenario:* Your team is coming to work late, struggling with the daily workload, and is just all around unhappy. As the project manager, how can you build motivation to work?
• Knowing the drivers to align tasks to team member strengths
• Giving team members who are self-motivated freedom to lead and work collaboratively

Change Models

• Change is central to projects and requires thoughtful planning and execution
• Proven models guide the process effectively
• "Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice Guide" offers a flexible, iterative model with five interconnected elements supported by feedback loops:
  • Formulate change: Build a case, show why change is necessary and how future state improves things
  • Plan change: Map the steps to help everyone move from the current state to the future
  • Implement change: Bring the future state to life, test it, and tweak as needed
  • Manage transition: Address ongoing needs/concerns as people adjust
  • Sustain change: Ensure new ways stick while phasing out old habits

The ADKAR® Model

• The ADKAR® Model (Jeff Hiatt) focuses on the individual experience of change and breaks it into five steps:
  • Awareness: Understand why the change is needed
  • Desire: Build willingness to support/participate
  • Knowledge: Provide skills/understanding via training or resources
  • Ability: Help people practice/apply change effectively
  • Reinforcement: Keep momentum with recognition/rewards/feedback
• ADKAR makes change personal by focusing on individual needs
• Scenario:* You are the project manager and are tasked with helping the team transition to hybrid, with few of them coming into the office and most working remote. How do you go about implementing this smoothly for everyone involved?
• ADKAR Model: Understanding each team members specific experience with the change
  • What do they need individually to succeed?

Virginia Satir Change Model

• Helps teams understand and navigate the emotions of change, enabling smoother transitions

The 8-Step Process for Leading Change

• John Kotter's 8-step process uses a top-down approach to organizational transformation:
  • Step 1: Create urgency (identify why change is essential and build momentum)
  • Step 2: Form a powerful coalition (gather influential leaders across roles)
  • Step 3: Create a vision (define values, goals, strategies for transformation)
  • Step 4: Communicate the vision (share the vision and benefits consistently)
  • Step 5: Remove obstacles (address barriers like outdated processes/resistance)
  • Step 6: Create short-term wins (celebrate successes to build confidence)
  • Step 7: Build on the change (use early wins to drive improvement)
  • Step 8: Anchor changes in culture (make changes part of the organization's values)
• Kotter's model ensures changes are fully embedded
• Scenario:* The project is undergoing a major leadership change. How do you ensure changes are more than implemented by deeply embedded.
• Step 6: Celebrate short term wins
• Step 8: Anchor changes in the organization's values

Lade Status Quo

• Everything feels familiar and "business as usual"
• For some, this is reassuring, while others feel bored or stuck
• Change is a journey requiring strategy, empathy, and persistence

The Foreign Element

• Something disrupts the status quo (project, shift, challenge)
• Resistance is common, and performance may dip
• Scenario:* Your project team is working in the middle of two processes simultaneously, how to get the team on board?
• Change management by demonstrating clear communication, empathy, and persistence
• Understand this is a tough changing point and recognize resistance will be common

Chaos

• People are out of their comfort zones
• Uncertainty takes over, replacing routines with anxiety/excitement
• Despite performance hitting a low point, chaos can spark creativity

The Transforming Idea

• Clarity emerges amid chaos; a new approach helps people adapt
• Performance improves, and frustration turns to hope

Practice and Integration

• People implement new ideas and behaviors, but setbacks and learning curves are common
• Over time, the approach is refined, leading to stronger performance

New Status Quo

• Change becomes the new normal
• Performance stabilizes, and teams thrive with better productivity

The Transition Model

• William Bridges’ Transition Model focuses on the human side of change
• Distinguishes between "change" (external event) and "transition" (emotional adaptation)
• Scenario:* Project deadline has come and gone, team members are stressed and blaming each other?
• The ending, losing, and letting go phase

Ending, Losing, and Letting Go

• This is the emotional stage, where people let go of the old ways of doing things
• Marked by fear, anger, denial, or resistance as they face uncertainty

The Neutral Zone

• The old way is gone, but the new way isn’t fully established ("messy middle")
• A time of frustration, anxiety, creativity, and innovation
• People experiment with new approaches

The New Beginning

• People embrace the change and adopt new skills
• They feel energized and move forward with purpose/optimism

Complexity Models

• Projects often exist in ambiguity, requiring interaction with systems and uncertain outcomes
• Complexity can be challenging, but models provide frameworks to understand and navigate it

Cynefin Framework

• Dave Snowden created the Cynefin framework to identify cause-and-effect relationships to guide decisions
• Scenario:* Your team is trying to decide which vendor to go with, and what the next steps should be. How do they go about the decision-making process? Outlines five contexts:
• Obvious: clear cause-and-effect, use best practices
• Complicated: known unknowns/multiple answers, analyze and apply practices
• Complex: unknown unknowns/no cause and effect, use probe-sense-respond cycles as environment evolves
• Chaotic: no cause and effect, stabilize situation, sense stability, and respond
• Disordered: unclear relationships, break into smaller parts

Stacey Matrix

• Ralph Stacey's Stacey matrix evaluates complexity based on uncertainty of:
  • Deliverable requirements
  • The technology used
• Projects are simple, complicated, complex, or chaotic

Project Team Development Models

• Project teams go through different development stages
• Understanding these stages helps project managers support team growth and high performance

Tuckman Ladder

• Bruce Tuckman identified five team development stages: forming, storming, norming, performing, and adjourning
• Scenario:* The project team has a lot of conflict, and project goals are suffering, how can you smooth the group out?
• Forming: team comes together; members learn names, roles, skills
• Storming: members adjust to personalities, strengths, weaknesses
• Norming: team starts functioning as a unit; roles are clear
• Performing: team becomes efficient/productive
• Adjourning: project finishes and disbands
• Team culture evolves through these stages

Drexler/Sibbet Team Performance Model

• Allan Drexler and David Sibbet proposed seven team performance stages
• Steps 1–4 involve team creation, while steps 5–7 focus on sustainability and performance:
  • Step 1: Orientation: The team learns the project’s purpose/mission
  • Step 2: Trust building: Team members identify roles, skills, stakeholders
  • Step 3: Goal clarification: The team defines stakeholder expectations, deliverables, requirements
  • Step 4: Commitment: Plans are developed
  • Step 5: Implementation: Detailed plans are created
  • Step 6: High performance: The team operates efficiently
  • Step 7: Renewal: The team adapts to changes in deliverables, leadership, or membership
• Both models provide valuable insight

Other Models

• Various Models can help teams navigate challenges more effectively

Conflict Model

• Conflict is a natural part of any project, and handling it well builds trust
• Mishandling can damage morale and stall progress
• Scenario:* A team member is late, and the daily workload is adding up on the rest of the team.
• Thomas-Kilmann Model outlines six key ways to address conflict based on power dynamics and relationship importance
  • Confronting/Problem Solving: tackle conflict together (best when relationships matter and both parties trust each other).
  • Collaborating: bring perspectives to find a well-rounded solution (consensus key).
  • Compromising: give-and-take when no one gets everything (parties have equal power).
  • Smoothing/Accommodating: focus on the bigger picture (dealing with the party with more authority).
  • Forcing: When there is no room for debate because of safety issues (the party with more power enforces a decision).
  • Withdrawal/Avoiding: step back (such as regulatory compliance).
• Understanding the ways to handle conflict, by turning It into a growth opportunity

Negotiation Models

• Negotiation is critical in achieving goals
• Scenario:* Your two project team leads are not in agreeing terms on the direction the team should head. What negotiation tactics can come into play?
• Based on Stephen Covey’s principle of “Think Win-Win”
  • Win-Win: Everyone leaves happy
  • Win-Lose/Lose-Win: Solve issues leading to tension
  • Lose-Lose: Competition trumps Collaboration
• Achieving Win-Win:
  • Character: Act with integrity, maturity
  • Trust: Open communication, accountability
  • Approach: Understand each other's perspectives, and identify shared goals

Barry Boehm Planning Model

• Compares time/effort invested in plans to reduce risk. By identifying the "sweet spot," there is an optimum level of planning
• Additional planning can become counterproductive

Process Groups

• Project management processes are organized into logical groupings
• Scenario:* You are preparing to write the PMP, or are curious about an overview about what should be included in a comprehensive project plan? Outlined in five process groupings:
• Initiating: performed to define a new project
• Planning: required to establish the project scope
• Executing: Performed to complete any of the work requested
• Monitoring and controlling: required to track, review, and regulate progress
• Closing: used to formally complete or close the project

Stakeholder Salience

• Stakeholder management is about recognizing prominent, noticeable, or perceived as important people in the project.
• Proposed by Ronald Mitchell, Bradley Agle, and Donna Wood.

Project Team Model Choice

Choosing the right model is crucial for project success because of different performance domains

Methods

• The tools used to achieve a project outcome, result, or key deliverable

Data Gathering and Analysis

• These are crucial for gaining insights and making informed decisions
• *Scenario: Making sure to gather all vital data to analyze complex situations Key methods:
• Alternatives Analysis: evaluate multiple options to achieve project goals
• Assumption and Constraint Analysis: unproven factors versus limitations to ensure both are integrated plans
• Benchmarking: compare products, processes, or set standards
• Business Justification Analysis: Provide a clear rationale ◦Payback Period: recover investment ◦Internal Rate of Return (IRR): expected annual growth ◦Return on Investment (ROI): percentage return compared to cost ◦Net Present Value (NPV): today’s term ◦Cost-Benefit Analysis: assess feasibility
• Check Sheet: organize data into visual tools, histograms and matrices
• Cost of Quality: analyze total costs
• Decision Tree Analysis: visual options and impacts

Earned Analysis

• Evaluates a project’s cost
• Schedule used for costs
• Schedules and costs

Expected Monetary Valye

Used to assess or compare alternatives

Forecasting

• Predicting future project conditions on current data, identify those impacting outcomes

Influence Diagram

• A visual tool portraying relationships between variables

Life Cycle Assessment

Evaluates total environmental impact

Make or Buy

Compares purchasing versus in-house production

Probability and Impact Matrix

Maps likelihood of risks and their overall project impact

The Process Analysis and Regression Analysis

Review of input variables to build a statistical model

• Scenario:* Your project is showing some red flags on key areas of deliverables (ROI or stakeholder communications, etc.) The next few steps are to perform the root cause analysis to identify what has gone wrong or how to make things improved? How much is too much and what is going wrong?
• Sensitivity Analysis: Focus on priorities
• Simulations: help predict better decisions
• Stakeholder Analysis: Know those who matter
• SWOT Analysis: Evaluate choices and make confident decisions
• Trend Analysis: Keep the project on track
• Value Stream Mapping: Streamline processes and inefficiencies
• Variance Analysis: to uncover to solve issues
• What-If Scenario Analysis: Evaluate each individual one's impact and plan for it

Estimating

Approximate cost on the project

• *Scenario: You have a project where the tasks share similarities
• Affinity grouping
• Analogous estimating
• Function point
• Multipoint estimating
• Parametric estimating
• Relative estimating
• Single-point estimating
• Story point estimating
• Wideband Delphi

Meeting & Events

Meetings are crucial for project success, helping teams and stakeholders communicate, and stay aligned

• *Scenario: The team is struggling to communicate the goals of the project, and there are multiple change requests coming in without any end in sight. What meeting will the team need?
• Backlog Refinement, prepare future iteration
• Bidder Conference, so potential vendors understanding needs
• Change control board
• Daily standup also know as daily scrum
• Iteration planning estimate for next iteration
• Iteration Review show team stakeholder completions
• Kickoff Meeting with all team align on goals
• Lessons Learned meeting for future improvement
• Planning meeting gain commitment for steps
• Project closeout
• Project Review to assess progress
• Release planning
• Retrospective improve
• Risk review updating all strategies
• Status Meeting check up on progress
• Steering Committee providing guidance

Agreements & Other Artifacts

• *Scenario: *The project is wrapping up, what are some of the key things needs before everything is closed. *
• All the deliverables needs to a proper, signed off agreed to
• Activity: scope
• Bid: depending on needs
• Metrics: tracking on how measured
• Project: shift and schedule
• Project: recording team values
• User stories

Artifact Across all performance

Models, Methods,Artifacts guide project success depends on the right fit