Projects are performed through people. People are influenced through projects and their leadership. Power and politics are gaining increasingly recognition as success factor for project management. With this blogpost I´d like to start a dialogue in the community in order to explore and better understand the topic. The IPMA Individual Competence Baseline 4.0  defines power as the ability to influence the behaviour of others. The influence may be aimed at getting project activities done or at accomplishing certain objectives. The source of power may be derived from a formal position (e.g. head of a functional department), it may be given to someone by others (e.g. reputation; expert authority), or it may be an informal source of power that may be motivated by personal ambitions and interests. Typically, a project manager has limited formal power and thus needs to build influence using the latter two sources. Other stakeholders engage in a different way. Sponsors and executives typically build influence based on their formal power. The same applies to clients, functional department heads and other functions within the hierarchy of an organisation. Other stakeholders may use informal power or build their influence on relationships with other people involved… Projects are often highly affected by politics, which means various people are pursuing their interests, goals and expectations, not always to the good of the project. The tensions created through politics or power games are often perceived as negative.

Jeffrey Pinto describes in an early book on “Power & Politics in Project Management” the effects of those power games with the well-known Western movie “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. Good about power is to get things done, to be assertive and reach the intended objectives effectively. Especially in change projects and programme power should be exercised to enable people to come out of their comfort zones and change their behaviour. Imposing too often or too much power in the context of a project may people to simply follow, not building contributions on their own motivation, competence or creativity. The effect could be an adverse one, at least on medium or long term. The effect of too much power could be anxiety, people could withdraw, conflicts could arise or people could get sick being exposed to power games and politics. The ugly side of power is the effect on ourselves. People could smell the “taste of power” and misuse it seeking own advantages, they could seek adverse advantage of resources made available to them (e.g. people or finances), or they may devalue the worth of other people seeing themselves as superior.

What to do as project manager or team member? Power and politics is an inherent factor of projects. Projects (and programmes) are intended to achieve change and reach ambitious objectives. Many stakeholders are involved. Those stakeholders have often contradicting expectations, interests and objectives. A project is for them a tool to pursuit those (own) expectations, interests and objectives. Thus, a project manager needs to analyse the stakeholders, evaluate their influence on the project and plan appropriate measures. The “Bad” shows typically not at the beginning of a project. The stakeholder engagement has to be ensured throughout the entire project lifecycle. Communication and facilitation are important skills needed. Psychological processes should be observed, potential sources for conflicts analysed and appropriate measures taken. A project manager should carefully influence the stakeholders, mainly building on informal and relationship power. Sometimes also formal power is needed, especially shortly before the end date of a project to keep the team focused or in critical situations. The kind of power utilized by the project manager depends on the situation in the project, the people involved (e.g. the education level) and the own personality shaped by past experiences.

What do you think of the subject? How do you deal with power and politics in your projects?