"Leadership in Project Management: From Plans to Victory" BRIG HEMANT MAHAJAN, YSMON 01 FEB26 PART 3

https://youtu.be/VCbVOu9NqQc?si=dSefZ-LREh-MC53V 

A Few "Anti-Patterns" for Leadership

If you want to poke fun at bad leadership styles during your 25-minute slot, you can mention these "How-Not-To" strategies:

• The Seagull Manager: Fly in, make a lot of noise, dump on everyone, and fly out.
• The Mushroom Method: Keep your team in the dark and occasionally drop some fertilizer on them.
• The "Shadow" Stakeholder: Someone who never attends the DiSHA conference but suddenly appears on the day of Go-Live to change the color of the entire UI.

1. Grounding the Seagull: "Strategic Air Traffic Control"

The Fix: Don’t just manage the project; manage the Sponsor.

• The Strategy: Transition from "Reporting" to "Influencing." Establish a Engagement Contract early on. Tell your sponsor: "I need you for these 3 specific milestones, not for the daily font-size decisions."
• The Takeaway: A leader’s job is to build a "buffer zone" that allows the team to work without the turbulence of unplanned interventions.

2. Lighting the Mushroom: "Radical Transparency"

The Fix: Replace the "Need to Know" basis with the "Need to Succeed" basis.

• The Strategy: Use Information Radiators. Instead of hiding problems, make the "Obstacles" the most visible part of your dashboard. When the team sees that you don't punish bad news, they stop hiding in the dark.
• The Takeaway: Trust is built in the light. If you want a high-performing team, give them the context they need to make decisions without you.

3. Aligning the Shadow: "The Pre-Mortem & Proactive Inclusion"

The Fix: Bring the "Shadows" into the light before they become "Ghosts."

• The Strategy: Conduct a Pre-Mortem. Ask everyone—especially those quiet stakeholders—"It’s six months from now and the project has failed. Why did it happen?" This forces the Shadow Stakeholder to voice their "epiphanies" during the requirements phase, not the Go-Live.
• The Takeaway: Silence in a meeting is not "Agreement"; it’s "Debt." Collect that debt early, or you’ll pay for it with interest during the release week.