“Leading Impactful Teams” by James Louttit is a comprehensive guide aimed at project managers and team leaders who seek to enhance their leadership skills while maintaining a low-stress environment. The book emphasizes the importance of effective team dynamics, communication, and strategic planning in achieving project success.

Louttit explores the intricacies of team interactions and how they influence project outcomes. He provides insights into building trust among team members, fostering collaboration, and leveraging individual strengths to create a cohesive unit.

Effective communication is highlighted as a cornerstone of successful project management. The author discusses various communication styles and techniques that can be employed to ensure clarity, reduce misunderstandings, and promote open dialogue within teams

A significant focus of the book is on achieving success without succumbing to stress. Louttit offers practical strategies for managing stress both at the individual and team levels, including time management techniques, mindfulness practices, and creating a supportive work environment.

The book delves into different leadership approaches that can be adopted depending on the team’s needs and project requirements. Louttit encourages leaders to be adaptable and responsive to their team’s dynamics while maintaining a clear vision for project goals.

Louttit outlines best practices for planning projects effectively, including setting realistic timelines, defining roles and responsibilities clearly, and utilizing tools that facilitate tracking progress without overwhelming the team.

As someone studying for the PMP, this book provides a great visual base for anyone wanting to get started in project management. It's not so much about the program or test, but about real-world applications, tips and tricks, and techniques for maintaining scope, schedule, and budget. The illustrations are one of my favorites parts of this book.

Having been involved in numerous projects in past careers, it's so easy to get bogged down in the 'messy middle' of a project through a lack of clear vision and execution of the right tasks.
James provides lots of really insightful tips and techniques on how to structure a project using a variety of 'lenses' to keep things on track - scope, prioritisation, time, cost, quality, risks, team and stakeholders. Evaluating a project though these lenses means you're taking all aspects into consideration and ensuring all your bases are covered.
James' book takes a holistic approach to project management while taking account of all the moving parts of a project. Staying alert for risks and issues, ensuring your team (and the stakeholders) are all on the same page in terms of the goal in mind, and understanding the scope of the project means there is less room for error, and hopefully laying the ground work for a project that is completed on time and within budget.

This is a really good book with some useful tips!
Definitely recommend reading it if you’re looking for some new ideas to help with leading a successful team!

This was a great book. Anyone who has ever created a team to complete projects knows they are often unsuccessful. This book will change that.