Lead like Water

​PMO leadership generally starts with an expertise in managing projects and then extends to leading a group of people and an organization. PMO leaders need to set directions, influence and mentor the PMO team to achieve organization objectives. The three essential skills are influencing, empathy, and integrity. 

Influencing means the ability to let others agree with you without forcing them. To do so, PMO leaders need to have proven expertise to establish credibility, high emotional intelligence to understand the situation, build trusted relationships, and the know-how to design a set of actions leading to the goal. PMO leader also needs to be a great mentor who can see more talent and ability than his team member can see themselves and helps bring the talent out. [3]. 

​Empathy means the soft skills to understand others, be thoughtful to recognize their needs and address their best interests while fulfilling the organization's objective. PMO leaders support others and can scarify personal loss for organizational gain. The PMO Leadership is like water which benefits everybody but does not compete with anyone.​

​Integrity means taking ownership, being responsible, and doing the right thing. It could mean making a tough decision or a challenging change to target the best result. PMO leaders operate like orchestra directors who have to endure the pains of tough rehearsals for the best performance. ​
​
We will talk more later about how to gain these leader skills. To remember now: PMO deals with complex and diverse people. Be prepared to be open-minded and flexible when applying these skills. 

​Question to Ask When Deciding What to Do as a PMO Leader 

• Do I understand the business problem and the value that my PMO should provide? 
• How can I make sure I am committed to what I said? ​

​​References

1. W.C.H, Prentice, Understanding Leadership, HBR, 2004 
   ​"Leadership studies on popularity, power, showmanship, or wisdom in long-range planning." "To be successful, leaders must learn two basic lessons: People are complex, and people are different." 
2. Hussain Bandukwala, Setting Up PMO (course),  Linkedin Learning, 2018
3. “A mentor is someone who sees more talent and ability within you, than you see in yourself, and helps bring it out of you” — Bob Proctor, a Canadian self-help author and lecturer
4. Laura Barnard, IMPACT at https://pmostrategies.com which means Instill Focus, Measure Outcomes, Perform Rentlessly, Adapt to Thrive, Communicate with Purpose, and Transform Mindset, July 2019