My experience is that many people—even those in senior leadership positions—still do not comprehend the true importance and impact of effective leadership. I had a noteworthy person in the PM community ask me, “What is the most important issue on projects today?” I have known this person for years and replied that he will likely not agree with me. He said of course he would agree with me. He said he respected my years and history of contributions in the PM community. I told him the Number One issue is the lack of effective leaders. He immediately disagreed. He said that answer is so 20 years ago. He said he thinks the primary issue will be related to other subjects such as tools, process and methodology, certifications, organizational maturity, stakeholder communications or a host of other issues.
I said to him that I have reviewed hundreds of projects in trouble over the years. At the end of a review I always list the top 3-5 problems that the leaders of the project must immediately get under control. In all cases, the top 3-5 problems revealed the lack of effective leadership on the project; otherwise, the problems would not have been such serious issues negatively affecting the project.
So my point is simply: It’s all about leadership; through effective leadership everything else follows.