Under pressure, clarity before urgency
In the final weeks of a construction project, everything accelerates.
Deadlines tighten. More and more decisions need to be made. Contractors are being pulled in every direction. Snagging begins even while some works are still incomplete.
In a hotel, the pressure is even more tangible: guestrooms need to be handed over, equipment tested, operations teams need to be able to take possession of the premises, and the opening date is no longer negotiable.
It is precisely at moments like these that the quality of leadership becomes critical.
And for a project management adviser, there is a particular challenge: the people we bring together to work on the project are not our employees.
Architects, engineering consultants, contractors, scheduling and coordination teams, technical inspectors, suppliers, operators… each belongs to a different organisation, with its own constraints, objectives and sometimes its own interests.
The project management adviser therefore has no traditional hierarchical authority.
There are, of course, contracts, deadlines, meeting minutes, follow-ups, action plans and, where applicable, penalties.
But none of these, on their own, creates a team.
A less visible variable
When managing a project, there is one factor far less visible than the programme, resources or organisation: the state of mind in which people are working.
When a team becomes frantic, rushed or anxious, working faster does not necessarily improve its performance.
In fact, performance may deteriorate.
People anticipate less. Communication becomes less effective. Things get overlooked. Decisions become poorer. Mistakes increase, and time then has to be spent correcting them.
The pressure itself then begins to fuel the very delay it was intended to overcome.
This dynamic is easy to recognise on a construction project: the closer the deadline gets, the greater the temptation to add pressure to a situation that is already under considerable strain.
Yet urgency in the project does not necessarily require a constant sense of urgency within ourselves.
The first state of mind to consider is your own
For the project management adviser, this reflection begins with oneself.
When the programme comes under pressure, it is very easy to become absorbed by the atmosphere surrounding the project: impatience, concern, frustration and sometimes anger.
But if I become caught up in that agitation myself, I risk adding tension to the situation and losing some of the clarity I need to manage it effectively.
Leadership is not about denying difficulties or putting on an artificial display of calm.
It is about maintaining enough perspective not to lose sight of what actually needs to be done.
Where do we really stand?
What is holding us back?
What is essential if we are to meet the deadline?
What can be simplified?
Which decision has yet to be made?
Who needs whom in order to move forward?
These are simple questions. Yet in the most challenging periods, they can prove far more useful than another instruction to “speed up”.
Motivating people… or preserving their desire to do good work?
When managing external teams, I also start from a simple principle: people generally already have a desire to contribute, to do good work, to cooperate and to be part of something that works.
The challenge may therefore be less about creating that motivation than about not burying it beneath frustration, fear, resentment or pressure.
This idea significantly changes the way we approach project management.
We often talk about “mobilising teams”.
But in most cases, the professionals involved in a project already want their work to succeed.
An architect wants their design to be well executed.
A contractor wants to be proud of what they deliver.
An engineering consultant wants to see their solutions work.
An operator wants to take possession of a fully operational building.
The commitment is, by and large, already there.
The role of the person leading the project may therefore be less about pushing harder and more about preserving the conditions in which that commitment can continue to find expression.
High standards are not the same as pressure
This does not, of course, mean lowering expectations.
A project management adviser must remind stakeholders of their commitments, highlight deviations, request recovery plans, make or facilitate decisions, alert the client and, when necessary, use the contractual mechanisms available.
But there is an important difference between maintaining a clear framework and creating a climate of threat.
A penalty can protect a contractual obligation.
On its own, it cannot create cooperation.
And in the final weeks of a project, what is often needed is not simply people carrying out their respective tasks within the boundaries of their own scope, but professionals who are able to look beyond it: to flag a problem before it becomes critical, propose a solution, help another contractor or take a useful initiative.
This quality of cooperation can neither be decreed nor imposed, but the conditions for it can be created.
Leading an organisation that exists only temporarily
A real estate project is, in a sense, a temporary organisation.
For a few months or several years, companies that may never have worked together before must come together to successfully deliver something unique.
Then that organisation disappears.
The project management adviser occupies a particular position within this temporary organisation: they do not carry out the design work or construction themselves, but they have a significant influence on the way the different parties work together.
Conclusion
Beyond the brief, budget, construction monitoring, programme and contracts, there is a less visible dimension to project management: the state of mind in which each person approaches the situation. It can significantly facilitate — or complicate — the successful completion of a project.
During the critical stages of a project, it becomes decisive. It shapes our ability to see clearly, make sound decisions, cooperate and find solutions where pressure might otherwise narrow our field of vision.
For the project management adviser, this necessarily begins with oneself. Not to project a superficial appearance of calm, but to avoid adding confusion to complexity, or tension to tension. It is a condition for performance.
And perhaps this is one of the most effective forms of leadership: creating, even in the midst of urgency, the space and conditions in which everyone can continue to bring the best of their intelligence and commitment to the project.