New Book: Harvard Business Review Project Management Handbook

I am a big fan of the series of Harvard Business Review (HBR)’s Handbooks, including the one for leaders and the one for family businesses.

Newest in the series is the HBR Project Management Handbook.

Author Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez explains that to fully harness project management and to live into the idea that projects can inspire positive change – it is time for companies and leaders to break out of outdated structures and lean into a fresh, modern approach to project management. Hence, his new book.

Nieto-Rodriguez defines projects as:

Limited in time; they have a start and an end.
They require an investment in the form of capital resources (money, funds).
They required an investment in human resources (effort, time).
Frequently, they bring together people who have diverse expertise and background and who have never worked together before.

Further, he explains that projects differ from operations, which are day-to-day activities, and which generally follow similar patterns and objectives every year. In addition, after a project is completed, the end deliverables or outputs are often transferred to the operations side of the business, where the anticipated benefits of the project must be successfully achieved and sustained.

In the book, you will find multiple case studies, accessible tools and proven methods you can implement to help you lead more successful projects.

If you are a project manager, “This book will help you better understand project fundamentals. You will learn how to ensure that projects have a strong foundation and the importance of your role as a project sponsor. You will learn how to increase alignment and buy-in from project stakeholders,” explains Nieto-Rodriguez.

And, if you are a CEO or in a leadership role, “This book will help you weigh the importance of projects and strategically align and prioritize your project portfolio. You’ll see ways to better support your project teams, to create a more agile and project-driven organization,” shares Nieto-Rodriquez.

Finally, Nieto-Rodriquez explains that:

Projects need a clear rationale, business case, and connection to a higher purpose before they are launched.
An active, ongoing, and fully engaged executive sponsor is critical to project success.
Effective project managers must be true leaders.
Projects will always need motivated people to execute them.
Project failure is not always bad. Often, failure is an opportunity to learn, mature, and refocus on other more relevant projects.
Project-driven organizations work across silos.
Projects cannot go on forever; they must be closed.

Thank you to the book’s publisher for sending me an advance copy of the book.

Comments

The Playbook For CEOs To Lead Under Pressure

“Most CEOs spend years mastering strategy, finance, operations, and execution,” says author Andrea Petrone , “Far fewer spend time defining who they are as leaders.” He adds that all too often the leadership style that got a CEO to the top becomes the very thing holding them back. More specifically, after more than two decades coaching CEOs and senior executives at Shell, Unilever, Takeda, EssilorLuxottica, and PwC, Petrone noticed a pattern: sustained pressure was pulling leaders away from who they were. Fortunately, in his latest book, Reinvention at the Top: The Playbook for CEOs to Lead Under Pressure , Petrone introduces the Throughline, an architecture that helps leaders align their identity, message, and presence so they can lead powerfully under pressure. Whether stepping into a new role, navigating a crisis, or reinventing an organization, Throughline offers CEOs a practical roadmap for leading without losing themselves. As you read the book you will discover: ...

How To Achieve Human Leadership

Human Leadership: The Courage To Face Ourselves And Each Other is Kristen Hadeed ’s newest book. It’s a raw, personal account of losing herself in service to others and the challenging work of finding her way back. It’s a story of burnout, ambition, resentment, grief, reinvention, profound self-examination, and the courage it takes to share what you discover with the people around you. By learning to face herself, tell the truth, and take ownership of her choices, Hadeed became a more courageous, compassionate leader and built a life and business that would take care of her, too. Hadeed’s journey shows that leadership doesn’t have to mean endless sacrifice or self-abandonment. Human Leadership offers a different path―one where courage, honesty, and humanity become the foundation of meaningful leadership and a meaningful life. Part memoir, part invitation, Hadeed’s story will empower you to: Recognize the values, fears, and limiting beliefs driving your lead...

3 Things To Avoid When You Give Your Next Speech

If you don't want to get your speech off to a bad start, the communications experts at Speechworks suggest you: Don't apologize (particularly about your anxiety or lack of preparation. Apologies put your audience on the defensive. Don't start by telling a joke (which may not be all that funny, or is irrelevant, or that may even be offensive to someone in your audience). Don't beat around the bush (including, don't list off a lot of people you want to thank. Don't waste your audience's valuable time) Instead: If you need to deal with your anxiety, practice like crazy . Rehearse particularly your first line over and over. Start your presentation by laying out for your audience a key issue that they are facing in their business . If you must thank someone, do it at the end, or thank your introducer briefly, pause, and then start right into the meat of your message .

High-Performing Teams Are Made Of This

According to Ron Ricci and Carl Wiese, authors of the book, The Collaboration Imperative , high-performing teams have the following characteristics: People have solid and deep trust in each other and in the team's purpose--they feel free to express feelings and ideas. Everybody is working toward the same goals. Team members are clear on how to work together and how to accomplish tasks. Everyone understands both team and individual performance goals and knows what is expected. Team members actively diffuse tension and friction in a relaxed and informal atmosphere. The team engages in extensive discussion, and everyone gets a chance to contribute--even the introverts. Disagreement is viewed as a good thing and conflicts are managed. Criticism is constructive and is oriented toward problem solving and removing obstacles. The team makes decisions when there is natural agreement--in the cases where agreement is elusive, a decision is made by the team lead or executiv...

How To Make One Bold Move A Day

Shanna A. Hocking ’s new book, One Bold Move A Day , is all about meaningful actions women can take to fulfill their leadership and career potential. Specially, Hocking reveals the transformative mindsets needed to make one Bold Move a day. Those are: Gratitude Mindset And Mindset Happiness Mindset Progress Mindset “Each of these four mindsets individually plays a special role in the process of continuously showing up for yourself and others,” explains Hocking. “Each mindset contributes in a different way to your success, but they all complement each other and together they will become the foundation to your Bold Move Mindset.” Hocking explains in her book that a Bold Move is one that challenges you to grow . “Sometimes it’s about capitalizing on an opportunity, and sometimes it’s about creating that opportunity for yourself,” explains Hocking. Keep in mind, too, that a Bold Move for you might not be the same as someone else’s. ...

5 Compelling Benefits Of Having An Ethical Culture

In Andrew Leigh's book, Ethical Leadership , he provides these compelling and important benefits of having an ethical culture in your business/organization: Customers prefer dealing with companies who put ethics at the center of their culture. Most employees would prefer to earn less working for an ethical company than being paid more and working for an unethical company. More than one in three people at work say they've left a job because they've disagreed with the company's ethical standards ( Trevino, L and Nelson, K - 2011 ) If you adopt an early warning system against misconduct it reduces the risk of you facing expensive litigation. An ethical culture helps you make your company a strong affirming place to work in. "The foundations of an ethical culture include values, attitudes, meaning, behaviors, purpose, and management practices," explains Leigh.

Coherence: The Secret Science Of Brilliant Leadership

Coherence: The Secret Science of Brilliant Leadership is the new book by author Dr. Alan Watkins . Trained as a medical doctor, Watkins is now an honorary senior lecturer in neuroscience and psychological medicine at Imperial College, London and an affiliate professor of leadership at the European School of Management, London. According to Watkins, coherence is the biological state achieved when elite performers experience maximum efficiency and super effectiveness, where body and mind are one . Coherence provides one of the most unique approaches to showing leaders how to be younger, smarter, healthier and happier -- which gives them the power to make decisions under pressure and achieve sustainable success. Prepare to spend quality time reading Coherence . It's not light reading. Kind of feels like a medical text book in parts. But, it's worth your commitment to it. I particularly found useful Watkin's discussion on culture , where he w...

Decide

Many years ago, I worked with a person who could not make decisions. Neither big nor small decisions. That indecisiveness paralyzed our business in many ways. Unfortunately, the book, Decide: Work Smarter, Reduce Your Stress, and Lead by Example , had not been published. Had it, I would have shared it with my co-worker. Decide , published this past February, teaches readers how to make better decisions based on the real results they want to experience. The author, Steve McClatchy, explains how to use the two forms of human motivation -- Gain, or Prevent Pain , to make more effective decisions. For example, he demonstrates how inserting a Gain task in the middle of a Prevent Pain day can give you the energy you need to move forward and make the Prevent Pain tasks take less time through motivation. Deeper into the book, you'll be reminded about not only the problems with procrastination, but also about the benefits of procrastination, and, if you are ...

Searching For The World's 2012 Fittest CEO

The CEO Endurance World Championship is a made-for-TV event covering six grueling stages of competition from September 13 - 16, 2012 , and featuring 25 top CEOs that combine success in business with a healthy and fit lifestyle. Each of the six stages is designed to test the CEOs - mixing strategy with endurance - and at the same time be very entertaining to watch. The goal of the competition is to identify the World’s Fittest CEO . The CEOs that have been chosen to take part in the event were hand-picked for their athletic ability and, more importantly, for the charity for which they will be racing. The overall winner will earn the coveted title of Fittest CEO® plus the opportunity to donate $50,000 to the charity of their choice. The entire competition will be filmed and packaged into a TV show (“The Fittest CEO®”) that will: illustrate the breath-taking beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains profile a number of charities that the CEOs will be racing for applaud CEOs who c...

How Will The Value Of Your Days Be Measured?

I recommend that all leaders every so often read the What Will Matter poem by Michael Josephson . It serves as a powerful reminder of the importance of unselfishly serving and leading with character. I've highlighted in bold and in color my favorite parts of the poem: Ready or not, some day it will all come to an end. There will be no more sunrises, no minutes, hours or days. All the things you collected, whether treasured or forgotten, will pass to someone else. Your wealth, fame and temporal power will shrivel to irrelevance. It will not matter what you owned or what you were owed. Your grudges, resentments, frustrations and jealousies will finally disappear. So too, your hopes, ambitions, plans and to-do lists will expire. The wins and losses that once seemed so important will fade away. It won't matter where you came from or what side of the tracks you lived on at the end. It won't matter whether you were beautiful or brillian...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog