Practical wisdom for leading projects: The case of early warning signs

Every project leader has at some point in their career confronted a puzzling situation where they have had to make a difficult judgement. Such situations are often challenging, as they have to do with the ways leaders relate themselves towards an event, as a whole person, rather than merely a cartesian intellect. Under such circumstances, how can project leaders practically perform activities which are described as “wise” or “well-judged”? While this assessment is among the most difficult to attain, research shows that such “practical wisdom”, or phronêsis , is one of the most important features in leaders’ roles. We will explore “practical wisdom” in decision-making under uncertainty in the context of projects by taking the case of early warning signs (EWS) of impending threats to the delivery of the project objectives. We will do this by taking a leader-problem solver perspective on leadership as applied to a recent functional model of project leadership – the Project Leadership Model (PLM). Our contribution in this conceptual theory adaptation paper will be first to introduce the concept of phronêsis to leadership research in project organizing and, second, to develop the judging dimension of the PLM to incorporate this new perspective. • Provides a proven leadership model for developing senior project leaders in executive education programmes. • Focuses on what project leaders do rather than who they are by taking a functional approach to leadership. • Identifies project leaders as (complex) problem-solvers rather than heroes or warriors. • Introduces Aristotle's practical wisdom to tto integrate the enabling and action axes of the model. • Provides a use-case for the model by applying it to the response to early warning signs of the project deviating from plan.