If you advocate up, down and across your project team and organisation you are setting your project up for success and demonstrating great leadership.

By this I mean, advocate for your project including those involved in creating it AND seek people to advocate for you.

Firstly, if you advocate for your project, you gain clarity on how to communicate its vision, purpose, and key priorities. When you speak with a diverse group of people from across your team, throughout your organisation, and outwardly to your stakeholders - you learn to adjust what you say and how you say it - so that it resonates. If you also tune in to how well your advocacy is being received, you can fine-tune your messaging even further and feed these insights back into your project.

In short. The more you intentionally communicate about your project, the more intel you will gain to progress.  

I’m a huge fan of advocating for a project be it for the project vision, approach to design and development, or intentions for implementation. But it absolutely doesn’t stop there.

When you also advocate for the team members in your charge, you create a culture of recognition and feedback. You become more aware of your team members’ talents and characters and you tune in to the dynamics of the team - which can change in an instant. 

This breeds a healthy environment for growth that directly benefits your project.

Now I realise that with a small team this is easier, and with larger teams, the idea of really knowing each team member is a challenge. I strongly recommend that you work on some strategies that put you in a position to understand your team best - regardless of its size. For the avoidance of doubt, I’m not referring to buddying up with team members to become their best friends or to simply pass the buck to other senior members of your team to do the same thing. Instead, I’m encouraging you to make yourself aware of who your team members are, the way they work at their best, what worries they may have, and what motivates them. 

Notice what happens when a new team member arrives, or when one moves on. Which team members rely on others and what you can do to support them.

Not only will this enable you to lead your team more effectively, but it will demonstrate how you value individuals and the importance of the environment you create for your team to work within.

I’m a firm believer in devoting time to cultivating effective teams. It helps to understand what your project needs at its various different stages. This is learned and honed through how you advocate both for its mission and those who are involved in creating it. 

That’s why I’m so passionate about the role of advocacy in project leadership. It is essential, right the way through a project - from inception to post-occupancy.

Advocate. Advocate. Advocate.

What troubles me though, is when great leaders don’t have anyone to advocate for them.

You’d think that hard work should be easily visible - perhaps even self-evident. But I guess it isn’t and not all hard work equates to success - does it? 

But when we talk about leaders and praise them for their courage and conviction - these words go a long way. They can even carry leaders across the tough days and allow their often invisible work to be duly recognised for promotion.

This might sound harsh, but I do think the onus is on leaders to step up and advocate for their projects, teams, and for themselves. AND encourage colleagues and superiors to do the same.

Who do you need to advocate for . . . .? 

Who are you going to ask to advocate for you. . . ?

I’m keen to spark conversations for leaders within the built environment. I have also written a book that is intended as a pragmatic blueprint to support courageous leaders in pursuit of high-quality project outcomes. Our industry has some amazing opportunities and challenges ahead, that can use collective wisdom. You can check out my new book BUILD SUCCESS or follow me with the links below. 

 Wishing you success.