Insights for Training Leaders from New Research Study

In 2023, PM Solutions carried out a research study on the top skills for value delivery (download the executive summary for that study here or watch the recorded webinar). One of the surprising findings was that, among high-performing organizations, a top skill was identified as “Carrying out activities with integrity, care, and trustworthiness.”

This year, a new study, The Adaptive Organization: A Benchmark of Changing Approaches to Project Management, also asked about the top capabilities of team leaders. The number one?

“Promoting safety, respect and trust.”

Training leaders may ask: Is trustworthiness a teachable skill? While it may come more naturally to some project leaders than others, the ability to inspire trust has a number of corollaries in more traditional project management training. Chief among these is clear communication. Trusted leaders express themselves with both honesty and sensitivity. They set clear goals and boundaries … in language that is understood by all … without being heavy-handed. In old-fashioned terms, we might say they have good manners. “Manners,” my late mother-in-law once observed, “Exist to set other people at ease in your company.” People who are at ease with you are more likely to share information, bring problems to light, and work collaboratively. Manners can be taught and, even more important, can be modelled by leaders within the organization, setting a standard for how team members and managers treat each other.

Clear communication can also be taught, along with active listening. So can realistic goal setting and the wise choice of performance indicators. In fact, the more solid your leaders and teams’ grasp of project management basics is, the easier it will be for them to communicate clearly with each other about progress, issues, and outcomes.

“Trust the process,” is a kind of buzzword—but when applied to project management, it couldn’t be more true. The better we understand project management processes, the more clearly we can communicate about them, and the more trusted our judgment will be.

Check out the executive summary of the 2024 research here, and sign up to receive alerts about our work, including a free webinar exploring the research findings later this year.