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The concept of inclusive leadership, embracing people, approaches, mindsets and behaviours, is a proactive thread linking project strategy, delivery and relationships. No longer about ‘me’ or ‘us’, it catapults ‘them’ and ‘others’ to the core. As we cope with an altered context, the extensive benefits of greater inclusion cannot be overstated. No leader has all the answers – making this our starting point demands an element of humility alongside an altered mindset. Directional leadership styles often come to the fore during a crisis, as anything else may appear counter-intuitive. Organisations and teams built on a foundation of inclusive leadership thrive in good times and bad. Beyond an altered starting point, a further component of inclusive leadership is empowering and drawing on the voices and strengths of all the team and wider stakeholders. Countless studies have demonstrated that psychological safety is key to unlocking innovative capability. Harnessing the capability of diversity also creates a sense of feeling valued in others, but requires emotional and cultural intelligence. How well developed is yours? Too often we view the world from our own perspective – an implicit bias linked to upbringing, role models and previous team and work cultures. Inclusive relationships and leadership require objectivity in acknowledging this, greater empathy for others, deep listening, more meaningful engagement and different behaviours that are perhaps unfamiliar or may even initially appear risky. Cognisant of our individual limitations, greater challenges today, unseen gaps of groupthink and the numerous benefits possible from more inclusive working, why is inclusivity not a greater constant within project teams and leadership? As project professionals, we are altering our mindsets on the significance of soft skills. Are we ready for a further paradigm shift – more inclusive collaboration and transitioning into inclusive leaders?
WHY PEOPLE SKILLS LEAD TO PROJECT SUCCESS Good people skills only come through experience, argues David Eggleton, so be sure to give your people the chance to improve As part of the UK’s post-pandemic recovery strategy, the chancellor has pledged £5.6bn for accelerated infrastructure projects. However, project professionals are expected to deliver successful outcomes across progressively more complex, dynamic and novel conditions, when historically as few as 20 per cent of projects wholly meet their planned objectives. Against this background, APM commissioned me and associate professor Nicholas Dacre to carry out research into how we now define project success. The research team and our steering group strongly believe that projects are fundamentally about people. Guided by the academic literature, we examined the thematic role of people, processes and broader principles as dynamic conditions for project success. We defined people skills as encompassing communication, emotional intelligence, leadership and attitudes to problem-solving. From our survey, what emerged most strongly was the centrality of people skills for achieving project success. Ninety-seven per cent of respondents indicated that people skills were either important or very important as a contributor to project success. This made it by far the most important dynamic condition according to our respondents. So how can project professionals develop people skills? Obviously, it isn’t possible to put any colleague on a training course and have them suddenly emerge as individuals with perfect soft skills. You must be innovative when designing and It isn’t possible to engaging with people skills training courses. put any colleague on For example, role play has its place and can a training course and be very valuable. But there’s nothing quite have them suddenly like experience to develop the skills and to emerge with perfect embrace new innovative ideas. soft skills This can also be quite a personal experience. What kind of leader do you want to be? Which leaders do you admire and wish to emulate? You need to find opportunities to provide more junior colleagues with that practical experience. But try to make sure they’re recognised roles and any unresolved challenges won’t permanently affect their career. No one wants to take unnecessary risks for training purposes, but perhaps you have a new iteration of a project where an experienced colleague can provide mentorship. Such training won’t necessarily be for everyone; some people won’t want to step away from the workbench into these types of roles, and that’s okay too. Provide them with a technical pathway so they can advance their careers while keeping their tacit knowledge where it’s most valuable. Dr David Eggleton is a lecturer in project management at the University of Sussex and co-author, with associate professor Nicholas Dacre, of APM’s forthcoming project success research report
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