Projects are delivered through the efforts of people, but people are complex and interact with team members and stakeholders in often unpredictable ways. This in turn can impact the performance of the project. It is therefore puzzling why the so called ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ aspects are treated separately.

1. 38 www.pmtoday.co.uk | JUNE/JULY 2015
Spotlight on Training
The Impact of the Individual Project
Manager on Performance
Projects are delivered through the
efforts of people, but people are
complex and interact with team
members and stakeholders in often
unpredictable ways. This in turn
can impact the performance of the
project. It is therefore puzzling why
the so called ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ aspects
are treated separately.
It is important that project leaders understand the
impact they have on the feelings of others (through
firstly understanding better themselves) and the
impact they and others have on the project (although
equally, if not more so, for programmes). This increased
awareness allows project leaders to deal more easily
with conflict, engage with stakeholders, adapt project
management to suit the project and manage the
processes more effectively. So how do we achieve this?
Personal Style
We use multiple inventories to provide an insight to - and
common language for - the discussion of preferences
and impact on projects. The most immediately usable is
the iMA Colour Styles tool which provides a framework
to interpret the style of others and build engagement
strategies using two distinctions: assertiveness and
openness. By defining preferred style along these
axes, iMA defines four colour styles (referred to as
High as we are a mixture of all styles). Each has their
own characteristics, behaviours and preferences. If you
want to give this a try, complete your profile now at
www.ima-pm.co.uk. It only takes two minutes and will
allow you to gain the maximum value from this article.
How accurately does iMA describe your
personal communication and engagement
preferences?
Relationships and
Stakeholders
It’s important to understand a person’s intention and
motivations as this allows us to relate more effectively
to them and their actions – and therefore build better
iMA High Green … are serious,
analytical, persistent, systematic
and task oriented people who enjoy
problem solving, perfecting processes
and working towards tangible results.
They do research, make comparisons,
determine risk, calculate margins of
error and then take action.
iMA High Red … are goal oriented
go-getters who are most comfortable
when they are in charge of people
and situations. They focus on a
no-nonsense approach to bottom-line
results. They are fast-paced; task
oriented and work quickly by
themselves.
• Be time disciplined
• Be logical and
prepared
• Be respectful of
rules
• Be structured and
well organised
• Be precise
• Be practical
• Be brief
• Be assertive
• Be to the point
• Be supportive of
my goals
Non-Assertive
Assertive
Task Orientation /
Self-contained
Relationship
Orientation / Open
iMA High Blue … are warm,
supportive and nurturing individuals
who develop strong networks of
people who are willing to be mutually
supportive and reliable. They are
excellent team players, courteous,
friendly, good planners; persistent
workers and good with follow through.
iMA High Yellow … are outgoing,
friendly and enthusiastic idea people
who excel in getting others excited
about their vision. They are fast paced,
high energy and deal with people in a
positive upbeat way; eternal optimists
that can influence people and build
alliances to accomplish their goals.
• Be pleasant
• Be non assertive
• Be selfless
• Be supportive
of my feelings
• Be sincere
• Be flexible
• Be quick paced
• Be positive
• Be generous
with your praise
• Be supportive of
my idea

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relationships. For example, when other colour styles
are working with High Greens they may feel that they
cannot provide sufficient information or engage with
them easily to influence their opinion or decisions.
Strong relationships with stakeholders are often a
defining characteristic of successful projects. The project
leader must understand the stakeholder’s motivation.
This is in turn impacted by the stakeholder’s role on the
project and the culture of the organisation they work
in. Understanding how each stakeholder views success
is critical – both in terms of what is delivered and in the
way it is achieved. For example, if the project leader is a
High Red and the project sponsor a High Blue, it would
be important for the project leader to understand that
they may appear pushy and insensitive to the sponsor
if delivery of outcomes is all that is focused on during
conversations.
Considering a key stakeholder, how do you
believe your respective styles impact your
ability to communicate and build a trusting
relationship?
Teams
iMA can help team members to better understand the
likely dynamics, diversity of approach and strengths
and weaknesses (from their perspective) of others. This
provides an objective and impersonal way for team
members to discuss the impact of their style on the
team and ultimately the performance of the project.
We often find teams biased towards a particular pair
- so they might be above and below the line or left
or right, or as an extreme to a single colour style. This
is not surprising as people tend to like people like
themselves. Therefore leaders are unconsciously biased
towards recruiting people like themselves. This impacts
not only diversity but also the decision making process
and decisions made - often negatively.
Considering the iMA colour style of your
team members, what impact does this have
on how the project is managed? [Why not
ask them to complete the inventory and
discuss as a team?]
Adapting the Style of
Project Management to
Suit
The project leader should identify the type of project
(defined through factors such as complexity, pace
and capability of the team) before considering the
appropriate style of project management (as defined
by the lifecycle, roles, controls, etc.). On a recent client
assignment, we were working with a team charged with
delivering a project that was key to the organisation’s
future. The current style of project management was
having a detrimental effect on relationships and, in
turn, performance. Using iMA, we helped the project
office manager (High Red) identify the need to adopt
a less systematic and inflexible approach to project
management by understanding the motivations of the
team. The bulk of the team had a High Green / Yellow
and did not feel that they were sufficiently involved or
that the style was flexible enough.
Is the style of project management adopted
on your project a motivator or de-motivator
for the team?
Impact on Process – Risk
as an Example
Planning for future eventualities, including the
identification and management of risk (as either a
threat or opportunity), is a core skill. There are an infinite
number of variations in the way people perceive a risk
and assess its impact and probability before identifying
appropriate courses of action. It is therefore critical that
the project leader appreciates these differences and
implements a process that engages the different team
members and uses this diversity. For example, if risk is
managed by an iMA High Green then the identification,
recording, assessment and ongoing management
could potentially be done in a far more structured and
thought-through manner than if another colour style
had the responsibility. We have found the following
questions helpful for individuals and teams to reflect
on, as the responses are generally different for each
iMA colour style.
1. Why do it and what value does it add?
2. Who should be involved and should they be
involved as a one-off or continuously?
3. How should it be carried out? Should formalised
techniques and processes be used?
4. When is it best to plan – early or a little later?
5. What level of detail is appropriate? How should it
be presented?
For each process you can consider your strengths
(and how to best make use of them), weaknesses
(considering them as overdone or misapplied strengths)
and best means of development.
Can you identify how your colour style
influences the way in which you deal with
risk and other processes such as planning?
Gaining an insight into your personal style and
that of others can have a positive impact on project
performance. Invest some time in working on this and
we can guarantee that you will reap the rewards in the
short and long term. Good luck!
Donnie MacNicol is a Director of team and leadership development company Team Animation
and can be contacted at donnie@teamanimation.co.uk
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