Gill Corkindale has published an interesting article dealing with the concept of ‘In leaders’ and ‘out leaders’. The definition of ‘in’ and ‘out’ is based on the amount of time that a leader spends with his/her team (in which case that would be ‘in’ leadership) and how much is spent with the wider organization (‘out’ leadership).

This question is very relevant to project managers who are required to spend and allocate time across a number of stakeholders, and finding the right mix could make or break the projects’ success.

Gill’s conclusion, as you would expect, is that executives need to balance the time they spend in both the In and Out arenas.  She also adds the observation that in addition to spending ‘In’ and ‘Out’ time, managers should also allocate time, separate from the above, to reflect on the time they spend. This, I guess, in another way of saying the managers need to plan their time. Planning the time is an additional dimension I would associate with project communication – the success of which can have profound implications on the perception of whether the project has run successfully or not.

Related posts:

1. The Art of Project Management