Is leader born or made?

Good day...

Picture credit: Stones

The above question has been around for the past century. People are always asking whether leadership is given since the person was born, or something that a person can learn and grow. With the hypothesis that leaders are born, there have been a number of researches, trying to crack what genetic factor that shapes a leader.

In my opinion, there is no absolute answer to the above question. In my professional lifetime, I have met many natural leaders, who are born with strong character of a leader, namely discipline, result oriented, problem solver and people person at the same time. However, I also noticed that some people are growing leadership along with their career progression. In many cases, this is observable when a person is assigned a role when leadership is required, such as a project manager or team manager.

So, as of today, my conclusion is leadership is a combination between a person's character with learn and grow experience. There are many sources for leadership development. You can easily find endless number of book titles talking about leadership. In addition tot that, real life experience is the best leadership teacher to each individual.

In my case, I feel that the development of my leadership style began when I joined a company that some of the senior team members did not really welcome a new joiner in their team. Faced with hardship and challenges to cope with their way of working, until I was finally acknowledged as a good contributor, I promised to myself that when I become a leader, I will treat each of my team member with a personal care to their career and personal development. 

Coming back to the question which started this posting, I am a strong believer that leadership is a combination of both the character with learn and grow experience of an individual.

-Edwin-

Does PMP certification matter?

Picture credit: ArtsyBee

Good day...

The answer to the above question I believe would be something that everyone starting her career in project management would be looking for. In this posting I will try to share my opinion on the very crucial question.

As we know, there are a number of well-known certification in project management space. PMP and Prince2 are among the most accredited ones. Apart from those two, there are also local certifications at every country. Having worked with many project managers, both with and without certification, I found that being a certified project manager does not necessarily make you a stronger PM than your non-certified colleagues, and vice versa.

Don't get me wrong here. I am a certified PMP myself since 2010 and I found that the framework and methodology being elaborated in the certification course and exam is very useful as a foundation thinking towards the best and standardized project management practice in the industry. The material really helps you to have a structured thinking on different aspects of a project.

On the other hand, I learnt that to become a strong project manager, knowledge is far from adequate. The main characteristics any project manager needs to have in order to be successful in this space is strong communication skill, leadership, people management and result oriented. Without these four characteristics your chance to be successful is less, no matter how familiar you are with project management theory.

Again, whilst going through the project management book and sitting in the exam helps you to accelerate your knowledge, experience in problem solving and dealing with different situations in practice is something can never be replaced by any kind of study. 

I met some very strong project managers without certification, and at the same time, I have also been working with equally strong project managers with certification. However, in my experience, there are a number of job openings with project management certification as an advantage to the candidate. In my l case, I have been engaged by several organizations to help them in dealing with their clients, who required the representative to be a PMP certified.

As a conclusion, in my opinion, although being a certified project manager does not guarantee your quality in leading a project, I would recommend you to take the certification whenever you have the opportunity to, in order to upscale your credibility in the very competitive job market. At the same time, you will enjoy the benefit of having a basic structural thinking on best project management practice. 

-Edwin-

Innovation: optional or mandatory?

Good day...

Today everyone talks about innovation. Across all industries and all levels, innovation might be a trending topic in majority of articles and postings, be it in social media, web sites, magazines, news papers and any media you can name of.

I believe all of you would agree with me that innovation is now inevitable in any organization. The question is, how much innovation an organization should pursue? Doing the things just like they have always been might not be good enough anymore to survive in this competitive world. On the other hand, doing too much innovation might risk the existing business. Also, bear in mind that any kind of innovation requires investment, resources, and management focus.

Picture credit: jarmoluk

Coming back to the question on how much innovation is right for an organization, I see that there are several key factors to be considered by the management in order to answer this question. First, you need to look at your ecosystem, including:
1. What industy is your organization doing business in?
2. What is the market condition of the industry today?
3. What are the competitors doing better than you do, especially in relation with customer experience and services?

Once you can comfortably answer the questions on external factors, now it's time for you to look into your internal organization. Some of the key questions you will need to address include:
1. Define the target state you want to arrive at in another one, three and five years
2. What is your current state and how far are you from the target state?
3. Do you have the right capability, organization assets, and resources to drive the organization toward the target state?

Last but very important question is to be honest with yourself on how serious you want to bring your organization to the desired state. Remember that innovation is not a side job in your organization focus. Once you decided that innovation is non-negotiable for your organization, then it's time to go and pursue the desired state.

-Edwin-