In Part 1: Ten Differences Between a Secure and an Insecure Leader,  I contrasted ten key attributes that distinguish a secure leader from one who is insecure in his or her abilities.  Part 2 is dedicated to giving you eight nuggets to help you succeed under an insecure leader. 

For years I was an insecure leader.  My greatest fear in leading others was that I would be "found out" and that everyone would see me not as a strong, competent leader but as a bumbling fool.  Through the years I've learned that the quest for infallibility is impossible to reach and that making mistakes is part of the growth process.  I'm less insecure today because I am more comfortable saying "I don't know" without everyone in the room thinking I'm an incompetent twit.  Having said that, I am secure in knowing I will continue to screw up until my Maker calls me home.

Way back when I was with Andersen Consulting (now Accenture), our senior management became very interested in Stephen Covey’s book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Every partner and manager attended an intensive five-day seminar on the seven habits and how to practically implement them into our daily lives.

Now, I have attended many seminars that I honestly got nothing out of. Not this one. This was when I experienced my first 360 evaluation. It was also during this seminar that one of the key concepts left a lasting impression: Habit 3, “Put first things first.” In this habit, Covey introduces the four quadrants of time management, as follows:

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

Delivering effectively through others requires project managers to build trusted relationships, particularly when there are bumps in the road and the PM has to ask team members to do unplanned activities to keep things on schedule and budget, and within scope. I’m being intentional in naming this block Relate for Results. Building relationships with your team doesn’t mean you have to socialize with them or that some team members become personal friends. It means the relationship pillars are there to help you deliver what, when and how much you’ve agreed to.

There are common relationship pillars such as honesty, integrity, mindfulness and effective communication you can find in simple internet searches. I’d like to pose a slightly different lens on some pillars that I think are every bit as important, as follows:

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

Some time back I was reminded about a crucial attribute that all seasoned leaders possess.  What surprised me was that it didn't come from what I do in my work life, it came from an interaction I had with my then 15-year-old son. 

Sparing you some of the gory details, we had a situation where my son and I had to have some "man talk" where I expressed some displeasure with his behavior.  It wasn't pretty and was very uncomfortable for him and not at all pleasant for me.  Given that I took some huge withdrawals from the emotional bank account with him I recognized that I needed to have a more grounded follow-up discussion with him the next day.  

Some time back I was working with a leader who was having difficulty with his employees feeling empowered in their work.  Ned (not his real name) was frustrated.  "I don't understand it!" he stammered.  "I assign tasks out, stay out of their way while they're completing the tasks, hold them accountable to dates, and praise them when the task is done well.  I do all this yet my employees tell me I don't empower them.  I'm ready to pull my hair out (ironically he was folically challenged)".

Several years back I conceived and funded a small business.  My partner and I were very excited about the concept and had sky-high aspirations about the prospects of the business.  While the idea was great, I ultimately decided to shut the business down as I felt the cost of keeping the business afloat would continue to outstrip the revenue.  I'm not going to bore you with the details of the business; what I do want to do is talk with you about the decision process I went through and how the "morning after" decision making process tipped the scales for me. 

I remember my first position as a manager, selling clothes in a department store to work my way through college. One of my colleagues, who I’ll call Jay, was also a good friend. We ran together, went to movies, and overall had a great time.

After I got promoted and became his boss, we still did some things together—but there was persistent tension in our relationship. He didn’t like the fact that I was his boss and would tell me that he worked for my boss, not me. He then became chummy with another guy who was his peer in another department. This tension existed until I graduated from college and left the department store. Once I wasn’t his boss, the tension lifted.

That was my first experience with the “them” team.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

I am a huge fan of 360-feedback evaluations, a tool in which a participant and their leader, peers and followers evaluate them using a series of structured questions. With the 360 evaluations I’ve gone through, the results were presented to me in terms of how I view myself versus how my leader, peers and followers viewed me.

My first 360 was part of a five-day leadership offsite where survey participants completed the survey prior to the offsite and the results were given to us at the end of the third day. Prior to handing out the evaluation results, I can remember the offsite facilitator saying, “You’re probably going to see some things that will hurt. Take some time to go through the feedback tonight in your hotel room, then let’s talk tomorrow about what you’ll do with it.”

We got the packets with our individual evaluation results. I remember being excited to see the results, expecting to be reaffirmed by how others viewed me as a leader.

Then I opened the packet.

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

I remember as a kid being entertained by plate spinners. The performer would spin bowls, plates or other flat objects on poles and keep them all spinning without falling off.

I watched each plate spinner run from pole to pole, jiggling the pole to keep a plate from wobbling and falling off. The spinner had to prioritize those plates most likely to fall off the pole first, get them spinning again, them move on to the next teetering plate.

Sometimes, the spinner was able to keep everything spinning; sometimes, a plate crashed to the ground, to the “oohs” and “aahs” of the crowd.

Welcome to the world of managing multiple projects.

As a young PM, I was managing three large engagements. I was bound and determined to show everyone I could do it. Long story short, I ended up tanking not one, not two, but all three projects. All three plates came crashing down. It was one of the most painful experiences I ever went through as a PM…one that I was determined not to repeat.

I’ve been asked how many projects is reasonable for a PM to manage. Honestly, it depends on several key factors:

Read more at ProjectManagement.com.

Some time back I was talking with a fellow project manager about a difficult issue he was having with his new boss.  The thumbnail summary of the discussion was that the project manager was feeling overly scrutinized and micro-managed.  Now I knew the project manager to be a capable professional who could confidently handle the work assigned to him.  Yet his boss insisted on managing every detailed aspect of his work.  More so, his boss was very critical of the work being done even though it was performed to professionally acceptable standard.  The situation became unbearable for the project manager; he ultimately left the organization.