If my experience is any indication, most project managers get started in this career because they have a passion for technology. Then, they wind up spending most of their time dealing with people. Ironically, it is your people skills, not your technical skills that will make or break you as a leader.

I spent a number of years teaching project management skills and managing projects all over the world. Some years ago, I decided to start working closer to home. I managed to get an opportunity to present my project management methodology to the board of directors of an up-and-coming dot-com company in Seattle, USA, where I lived at the time. I got up one morning and sat at the dining room table to have breakfast and prepare my notes to ensure that my presentation would be dynamite. My three-year-old daughter came downstairs and asked, "Daddy, can I play beauty parlour on you?" In professional business mode, I answered, "Sure, whatever." I studied, ate and prepared while she played with my hair.

I thought the presentation, which was in the ballroom of an elegant hotel, went very well. At the end of the presentation, I asked if anyone had any questions. The chairman of the board raised her hand and asked, "Why do you have that large blue ribbon tied to your hair?"

Almost 15 years later, with a lot less hair, I have gleaned a lot of life's lessons. Many have come from my two daughters, including the overarching, "take work seriously, but don't take yourself seriously."

I am fortunate to be able to teach and coach leaders. And, although there are a number of critical competencies - negotiation, managing change, aligning people and managing teams, just to name a few - that are endemic to the role of leaders, none are more important than leading from the heart with a hefty dose of humour. I could write reams about this topic, but I'll just highlight two areas: communicating your personal vision and the role of humour on project teams.

Find your Vision

Look around and I guarantee you'll find that where there is excellence, where there is innovation, where there is extraordinary success, you will find a person who has a clearly articulated vision. Having taught thousands of students a variety of leadership skills, I have discovered that creating a vision that is inspiring, personally motivating, clear and succinct is one of the greatest challenges contemporary leaders face. Frankly, most people simply can't do it. Most people don't even know how to begin. Or, they create a vision that sounds like it was cut and pasted from some corporate document and could be applied to any project, for any company, anywhere.

Last year, I had a very senior manager from a major European company develop a vision for his organisation. Lo and behold, he created a vision statement that was pure corporate babble. Not one to mince words, I told him that it was drivel and that he ought to be ashamed to share this vision with his organisation. He admitted that he had in fact used much of the company's annual report language to produce it. We worked together to produce a meaningful statement of the passion he held for his work. When he communicated it to his organisation, the 300-member team gave him a standing ovation.

What do visions do? Visions can communicate the core of who and what you are and what you really value, and they can set a standard to which you will be held accountable.

A great vision should:

• Be written as if it has already occurred
• Be easily communicated
• Use language that is powerful and heartfelt
• Describe the experience you desire

A great vision should not:

• Set goals and timelines
• Tell you how you will achieve it
• Tell you what to avoid or have negative qualifications

As a project manager, you wouldn't even consider starting a project without a clear objective. Why would you attempt to lead a team without a clear purpose? Vision communicates that purpose.

Embrace Humour . . . Wisely

Once your vision and the direction are set, how do you proceed? One colleague of mine calls a sense of humour "the oil that lubricates our personal relationships." When great speakers present, the first thing they do is to tell funny story. Why? It sends a strong signal to their audience that they are human, trustworthy and believable. They have given you one great opportunity - an opportunity to laugh together. Where there is laughter, there are positive personal relationships, there is trust and there is a spirit of creativity. But laughter doesn't mean that you, as the project manager, have to be a stand-up comic.

As a project manager, one of your roles is to create an atmosphere where your team can thrive and perform at their peak. Your ability to take a joke opens an important channel of communication through which your team may try to pass valuable feedback. One project manager at a high-tech firm told his team, "I thought my boss was an idiot, so I quit and went to work for myself. My new boss is an idiot, too . . . but at least I respect him." Sharing quips like that also sends a clear signal that you are accessible. The relationship between humour and stress has been studied extensively. Supposedly, the only physical purpose of laughter in humans is to reduce physical and emotional tension. Use it.

Some years ago, I had the opportunity to be the keynote speaker a convention in West Virginia, USA. Upon arriving late to the hotel where the conference was being held, I attempted to check in. The clerk informed me that there were no rooms and that my reservation had been cancelled since I hadn't guaranteed it with a credit card. I was livid and just about to go ballistic and yell, "I want to see the manager now!" Instead, I decided to take some of my own advice. I looked her straight in the eye and asked, "If the President of the United States was here, would you have a room for him?" She looked bewildered and replied, "Well, of course we would."
"Well," I said, "he won't be here tonight, so I'll take his room." In the midst of her laughter, she was able to find a room that was vacant.

Humour is that element which allows us to experience positives when dealing with negatives. When faced with seemingly insurmountable conflict, humour gives us a different perspective on our problems. Use it often, but gently.

Dos and don'ts for using humour:

• Don't struggle to be funny. Find your own positive spin and your own way of communicating it.
• Don't overdo it. Spending 50 minutes of a 60-minute meeting engaging in humorous or clever activities is counter-productive.
• Do use every means possible to create opportunities for humour to be used on a team. For example, put Play-Doh on a meeting room table for the team to use during meetings.
• Do be inclusive. One team decided to create individual awards. All the awards were terrific and funny, except one. I asked if the recipient would find it funny. The answer was, "No, but everyone else will." Resist that temptation.

Leading with Heart Knowing your vision, not taking yourself too seriously and embracing humour can be almost as important as the technical side of your job. Your team, like it or not, will become a reflection of you as a leader. Keep them - and yourself - working well together by leading with heart. When you think about how to work with your team tomorrow, remember the words of Walt Disney; "It's kind of fun to do the impossible."

About the Author
Paul Shapiro is a consultant with Paul Shapiro Associates. He is a senior instructor for ESI's Project Leadership, Management and Communications course.

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