44 Vision High-Status Leaders 45

44 Vision High-Status Leaders 45 The trouble with track records Why project managers with a high status can perform worse than their lower-ranking colleagues By Balazs Szatmari 46 Vision roject management plays a critical role in almost every organisation. If a project fails to meet its targets or dead- lines, or exceeds its budget, the effect can be devastating. So the project manager’s P performance is key. Steering a project towards success requires the leader to ensure that team members do their work effectively. It also demands that the leader has a clear vision, clarity in reason, practical sched- uling and the ability to attract a talented and efficient team. There is stress associated with motivating the project team to make sure things get done. Fortunately, good leadership can be cultivated and modified in line with the organisation’s culture to generate the best results. Playing the game My colleagues and I studied the video games industry to find out how the status of a project leader could influence the quality of their project. The industry was a good subject since it requires demanding project management skills. WE FOUND Failing to perform We set out to discover whether having a high status as a project leader makes a project better, THAT PROJECTS Since project management was a pivotal issue in and whether this kind of leader can garner the LED BY TOP this saga, it led us to examine how a high-status necessary support. project leader might influence the quality of American video game producer and designer MANAGERS projects. We were interested to discover whether George Broussard is an interesting example. He WERE MORE high project leader status, which is considered co-founded the video game publisher 3D Realms, very beneficial for project performance by both and he also led the development of the highly LIKELY TO FAIL researchers and practitioners, leads to a higher successful video game, Duke Nukem 3D. variance in project performance, and therefore After the game was released, critics went wild more failures. with praise, and the title sold about 3.5 million You would have thought that a senior manager copies, making 3D Realms extremely wealthy. with an impressive track record and connections In 1997, Broussard announced a sequel to the should consistently perform better than middle game, called Duke Nukem Forever. But after 12 years managers. To a point that is true, but we found of development and spending an estimated budget that projects led by top managers were more likely of at least $20 million, 3D Realms ended up having to fail than those of managers further down the to sell the rights and intellectual property asso- hierarchy. And it is important to bear in mind that ciated with the game to another development even one failure can be fatal for any organisation. company. Earlier studies revealed that projects led by So, here we have a very talented game people with high status are judged more kindly developer, a highly successful company that and less severely by their peers. We suspected had already proved itself in the past, and a title their projects could go one of two ways: they might that everyone loved – critics and gamers alike. either fly sky-high because everyone enthusias- Yet mixing these ingredients resulted in the biggest tically jumps aboard or they might fail relatively failure in the industry. How could this happen? more often, because people are less critical of Everyone who has some experience of teaching these projects and turn a blind eye to their flaws. might agree that asking a question in the right way What we actually found is that a combination can sometimes help in finding the answer. of fear and unconditional support can lead to high- Our research project set out to explain similar status managers delivering less successful projects cases by asking not how could this happen, than lower-ranking managers. This is because but posing that question from an altercentric teams are less willing to critique the ideas and perspective: how could everyone let this happen? management approach of high-status managers. High-Status Leaders 47 MIDDLE LEADERS COME UP TRUMPS The video games industry is despite resistance from within the in irrational resistance being inherently innovative – up-front development firm, or within the overcome and it can also speed up investment is high and outcomes market. We studied the status of innovations. Also, new ideas have are uncertain. We polled 349 the project leaders, comparing to be sold to top management, projects from a large online their importance in past projects. and support for them has to be database that documents the Our analysis revealed that project drummed up throughout the development of video games since leaders with a higher status whole organisation. It is the job of 1972, and for which a single project contribute to better-quality project managers to sell ideas and leader – or ‘producer’ in video projects, but only up to a point. get people on board with them; game terms – could be identified. Projects delivered by leaders with here the research found that The quality of the video very high organisational status status could help them to turn game projects was gauged by are generally the same quality ideas into implementation. combining the scores from critics as projects run by low-status Nevertheless, high status with customer reviews, taking into producers. It’s just that the may also lead others to support account the size of the project’s variation in project quality is much projects that will fail. Then, if this budget and how innovative it bigger. The results revealed that is not recognised, organisations was. We looked to determine if leaders with a middle-ranking can end up allowing a senior the project’s quality surpassed status typically deliver projects manager to frame their failures as expectations, according to the that attain the highest quality. successes, further compounding available budget. We also looked Our study demonstrated that the manager’s high status to the to see if the game had succeeded having a high status can result detriment of the organisation. As a result, they are permitted to proceed with to high-quality resources. Moreover, since high- their project, even if the approach may be flawed. status individuals are more powerful than others, On the other hand, middle managers receive there is less need for them to compromise with the critical feedback that allows them to produce other members of the organisation, with the risk better results than their high-status counterparts. that the market fit of a new product or service could be adversely affected. Choose your project leader wisely A very high status can also have negative consequences. It has been argued that gaining Companies should bear status in mind when status is an end in itself. Hence, high status might deciding who should lead projects. Just as subor- lead to complacency (i.e. lack of motivation to dinates are careful not to beat the boss at golf, perform even better). Furthermore, due to their middle managers are less likely to call their network position, high-status project leaders are superior’s judgement into question on projects often sought out for help and advice, because they they are leading. Yet one of the most important are very visible, and perceived to be extremely aspects of any project is that critical analysis is competent. This is likely to lead to distraction allowed to take place. If important projects are only and information overload, which can negatively entrusted to managers with high-status, critical impact on performance. Therefore, we believe that analysis is less likely to happen and more projects very high status may decrease the performance of are likely to fail. In addition, when managers are project leaders. evaluating projects early on, they should make Since high-status individuals usually want sure that they like the project itself, and not just to protect their position within the organisation, the individual who is leading it. they might do what they can to overcome any Previous research had shown evidence of a organisational resistance. So status may not just positive relationship between status and perfor- suppress irrational resistance, it may also generate mance. Where an individual has high status, he or irrational support. We argue that high-status she usually has a more central network position. A project leaders, due to their network position and central network position, in turn, has been asso- STATUS image, are inclined to deliver projects that deviate ciated with stronger influence and higher product CAN ALSO from expected performance not only in a positive, development performance. Thus, a project leader’s but also in a negative, direction. status, as indicated by his or her central network GENERATE Balazs Szatmari carried out a PhD study on how the position, should have a positive influence on IRRATIONAL status of a leader could influence the quality of a project, project performance. This is because having a with Dirk Deichmann and Jan van den Ende at Shutterstock higher status provides a project leader with access SUPPORT Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University .

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