Susanne Madsen

In The Power of Project Leadership: 7 Keys to Help You Transform from Project Manager to Project Leader, Susanne Madsen, is of great help for render and apply leadership principles and traits to project management. To bring your projects to success you can't just manage, cherish the status quo and rely on your spreadsheets or charts. Authority only, micromanagement and task focus will not help you in a complex, interconnected, fast-moving, dispersed teams setting. Where project management books focus on hard skills, techniques, methods and approaches to get things done, this surprising book renders from contemporary though leaders and researchers to help the project leaders and the ones aspiring to become one.
A balance between management and leadership, acknowledge the unknown, do proper risk management, empower your team and innovation starts with self-reflection. What's driving you? What may be holding you back? Examine your big 'why'. Madsen uses the six human needs (certainty, variety, significance, connection, growth and contribution) which prove to be more complete than sticking to Maslow's pyramid or Daniel Pink's threefold motivators (autonomy, mastery, purpose). Next there's the set of 7 keys: be authentic, lead with vision, improve and innovate, empower your team, get close to your stakeholders, establish a solid foundation and work with intent. Communication skills, risk management, open mindedness, brainstorming, team building, collaboration and networking all are covered.
The highly structured book has 25 interviews with practitioners as insets, asks the reader to reflect and answer questions at the end of each chapter and calls to action. To overcome mental barriers, Maddison ends up with a chapter on coaching, seeking inspiration and inspire others, Project managers must learn how to lead. The world needs them! I highly recommend this book to every fellow project manager.… (más)