Seth Godin on Project Leadership
Tanmay Vora
We live in a time when our career is not just a sum total of years we spent in the industry. Our career is about what projects we initiated/handled/led and what difference did the project deliver. Project is a new eco-system, a new playground where we play and thrive as professionals to deliver our best.
Since everything we do is a project, I thought of seeking some guidance from Seth Godin (my hero) via his blog posts on how to thrive and lead in a project-oriented world:
If you choose to manage a project, it’s pretty safe. As the manager, you report. You report on what’s happening, you chronicle the results, you are the middleman.
If you choose to run a project, on the other hand, you’re on the hook. It’s an active engagement, bending the status quo to your will, ensuring that you ship.
– Via post: “The difference between running and managing a project”
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Here’s another gem:
Instead of seeking excuses, the successful project is filled with people who are obsessed with avoiding excuses. If you relentlessly work to avoid opportunities to use your ability to blame, you may never actually need to blame anyone. If you’re not pulled over by the cop, no need to blame the speedometer, right?
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Finally,
You don’t work on an assembly line any more. You work in project world, and more projects mean more chances to screw up, to learn, to make a reputation and to have more impact.
When it’s you against the boss, the goal is to do less work.
When it’s you against the project, the goal is to do more work.
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So here are some critical questions:
- What projects you initiated in past few months (not because someone asked for, but because you believed in them)?
- Are you simply managing a project, or leading one?
- What difference are you delivering via your project(s)?
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Leadership is action, not position. ~Donald H. McGannon