Reflecting on leadership, change, and project management

Image by Midjourney

Over the past ten weeks, we have covered a lot of ground, starting with exploration of the field of leadership, then moving into change management, finally getting an overview of project management principles and methodologies.

My experience with leadership has been varied, but the literature was helpful in unpacking various concepts and giving shape to new ideas of leadership I had not considered. As with many skills, we practice what we learned from those who mentored us. I have not had strong leadership examples to follow, and this has been an excellent way to begin to unlearn many poor leadership traits and move toward a more inspiring and transformational leadership model (Workman & Cleveland-Innes, 2012, p. 317).

I was also very inspired by the indigenous concept of leadership, that it resides within the community and individuals are called upon when needed, that it is fundamentally built on respect and not popularity, with a focus on the greater good and the “long view” to the impacts on future generations by the decisions made today (Julien et al., 2010).

I am still forming my own concept of myself as a leader. It is not a role I have often aspired toward, but in recent months have started to feel a subtle shift in my confidence, and realizing that others may actually want to join me on some of the paths I have typically followed on my own.

I have gained greater appreciation for those to practice change management as their primary activity. It requires a lot of delicate balance of people skills, analysis and synthesis. The change models outlined by Al-Hadded and Kotnour (2015) proved to be a tremendous resource when examining different change management models and methods. And I think I actually found an application for Hamel’s Insurrection Method for Change!

And of course, I have always had tremendous respect for the project managers I have worked with over the years. They make it seem so easy, and they make it possible for their teams to excel at their jobs while the details of keeping the project on track were in capable hands.

This was too brief of an introduction to all three disciplines. This course really could have been three courses, to allow some of the more complex nuances of each to emerge. I feel like my final assignment didn’t even scratch the surface of the complex system I work within… but that’s a story for another day.

In closing, I can’t help but think of this classic SNL commercial parody whenever the subject of “change management” comes up.

I won’t embed the second one, but I’ll link it here. It’s worth it just for the Phil Hartman part. Brilliant.