Planning Your Project with “The Leadership Lens”
By Mike Norman, PMP, Bob McGannon, PMP,
and Jayne Gnadt, PMP

You have received a fairly comprehensive project charter, have sponsorship that will dedicate time and effort to the project, and you even have the technical expertise in house and available to get the job done. So all that is left to consider is the project schedule, the risk plan, communication plan, quality initiatives, and a myriad of other tools at the disposal of the experienced project manager. How does the experienced project manager decide which – and to what degree – each of these tools are to be used on the project? To accomplish this, the project manager needs a “Leadership Lens.”

When a project is in the initiation or planning stage, The Leadership Lens approach analyzes four main factors to assist the project manager in understanding what may lie ahead. These four approaches are the Rational, Organizational, Political, and Shared Values of the project environment and the people within it. Let’s take a look at each of these “Lenses” and see how they may shed light on the project manager’s pathway to success.

The Rational Lens

The rational lens examines items that are “metrics-driven” such as return on investment (ROI), the enhancement of employee capabilities, or productivity gains. Key stakeholders and users of the project’s product can be “won-over” via the Rational Lens if the result of the project provides them with a perceived victory – greater capabilities without impacting job security. This does not exclude the need to gain buy-in for the solution via tactful communication allowing the end users voice be heard in the design of the final product.

The rational lens for analyzing project process initiatives can be broken further into factors such as balance sheet management, positioning relative to one’s competitors, and the ROI of a given project or initiative. Engaging a process without appropriate consideration of the rational lens may gain the support of the staff, however the Board of Directors and shareholders will have little tolerance for it, unless business progress may be quantified. The challenge with this lens is when a project may have a business “positioning” or longer term benefit, while negatively affecting finances in the short-term. Packaging the sale from the rational lens perspective entails describing the “survival” and growth of the business in the marketplace. This can be accomplished by demonstrating the future need or desire of your customer base the initiative will satisfy, or the advantage one will gain over competitors. A focus on “easing the pain” for your customer usually works quite effectively when dealing with sponsors via the “rational lens”.

The rational lens is usually the most visible and easy to assess of the Leadership Lenses. It is most often visible, in the behavior of people and the way in which objectives are accomplished. Of the four lenses that comprise the Leadership Lens, this is the most often utilized, because it is the most visible and understood in the business world today. It is vital, but alone does not position the project manager to successfully implement change in a consistent manner. The other lenses need to be understood, addressed and considered as well.

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