APPLIED BEHAVIORAL DEVELOPMENT IN LEADERSHIP AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT

The idea of discussing the best way to live, organize, and lead is not a recent one. Since the earliest mythological accounts, this subject has been addressed in various ways. From there, five great thinkers are presented who can help shape the view of the basic characteristics that a leader must possess to be qualified to take the lead in a project.

Perhaps the first literary work that demonstrates the importance of leadership is the “Theogony.” Hesiod wrote the Theogony: The Origin of the Gods, around 750 B.C. to 650 B.C. His work constitutes the cosmogonic myth (description of the origin of the world) of the Greeks, which unfolds with the successive generation of the gods, and, in the final part, with their involvement with men, thus giving rise to heroes.

Zeus is the clear and concrete representation of leadership. Through mastery in management, he organizes the functions and needs of each thing. Zeus’s figure becomes the representation of a great leader, generating balance, recognition, and bringing harmony where there was discord.

When Zeus takes his place on the throne as the main leader, he takes extraordinary organizational actions that align with the current idea of decentralization of power, distributing it among his allies. He divides responsibilities so that each can excel in what they master. This represents a memorable lesson from mythology about the attribute of a great leader. In other words, the importance of granting deliberative sovereignty to subordinates in what they master is clear, allowing each to improve to do what they do best. When Zeus hands over the oceans to Poseidon, the sky to Uranus, and the land to Gaia, he distributes so that each has a specific function for the proper functioning of the world, according to their abilities.

Following this view, it is clear that leading is not about having more skills and mastering all subjects, standing above everything and everyone. Instead, it is about discovering talents and the specificity of each individual, giving them the ability to manage sovereignly what aligns with their knowledge and responsibility. Unlike exploitative leadership, it is about giving collaborators the ability to do their best and not being cynical or superficial, as is often seen. This is part of a teaching of humility and extreme effectiveness in results.

Plato, through his Socratic dialogues written and narrated in the first person by Socrates, leaves a very peculiar view of how to assess human capacity for leadership. For Plato, leaders should be those with evolved souls, as leadership, for him, is about wisdom. Plato spoke of a “golden soul,” one that possesses brightness and intelligence and that comes only from thinkers, who have the power of decision. The better the soul, the more prepared it is to lead, as it has the ability to understand, through observing the world, where to find the solution. Only it is prepared, with discernment, cunning, and everything that ennobles the soul.

Plato’s thinking already constitutes another way of appreciating leadership. His leadership criterion does not lie in applause, votes, sympathy, collectivity, but in competence itself. There is no reason for the lucid individual to be applauded by others; the normal thing is that nobody likes him and that he does not arouse the passions and enthusiasm of the masses, since the great leader is exclusively won over by intellectual capacity. Therefore, for him, leadership is about knowledge. A good leader is one who seeks constant knowledge for their improvement as a human being.

Aristotle believed that everything in the universe has a purpose within perfect synchrony. Faced with this, Aristotle leaves three great lessons to reflect on: the first is that, to feel fulfilled, it is necessary to find within oneself what makes sense. The second is that each human being has a particular excellence or an individual talent, a special gift or a unique ability that, when cultivated, refined, and polished, gives rigidity to achievement. The third, the surest way for each of their gifts and, therefore, to achieve fulfillment, is to acquire virtuous habits, avoiding extremes and adopting good, right, and just proportions. Therefore, one of the great virtues of the human being is to know oneself, realize who one is, and what one really seeks. Therefore, the role of the human being has to do with the abilities and talents of each within this system.

This thinking leads to the reflection that a good leader for Aristotle is one who allows each in his team to find their role in the system, according to their gifts. Therefore, a great leader’s main concern is precisely to offer conditions that allow discovering their role as soon as possible, facilitating discussions to find the aptitude to be happy, smile, with passion, and allow everything to work well, and the whole functioning represents living well. Thus, getting the most out of each of his subordinates does not mean flogging or enslaving; quite the opposite, it means doing what each does best, with excellence. Finding excellence is finding the path to happiness.

Machiavelli teaches that a leader is someone who exercises a certain power over followers, implying that within certain limits, there are those who lead and those who are led. Leaders are those who influence the followers, who are incapable of deciding for their own lives, thus feeling the need for someone to lead them through life. In other words, Machiavelli asserts that the leader’s position is gratifying for some, as he believes that there are people who do not feel comfortable leading or making choices in their own lives. Therefore, many feel good when others decide for them, embracing a voluntary servitude.

In this sense, a leader is someone who enjoys holding power, having a deterministic perspective on the ability to possess power and decide for oneself and others. Therefore, those who assume leadership by imposition without any aptitude for the role, for Machiavelli, are a terrible example of leadership that he does not even consider as such.

Machiavelli states that a leader acts well when retaining power and acts poorly when losing it. The best way to retain power is through the applause of the followers, what is now called legitimacy. But if that is not possible, then leadership must be preserved at any cost, even if it means using force to maintain power, including replacing dissatisfied followers or eliminating them.

Finally, from an anthropological analysis of management and leadership, it is important to mention Pierre Bourdieu’s habitus. Bourdieu rethinks social structure, indicating that the contemporary leader is related to the environment, with all its content. Considering that the inserted environment makes their attitudes, actions, and behavior relevant to leadership objectives, requiring flexibility in actions. The contemporary leader possesses a certain capital, different from money; it is related to social recognition. Leadership never has as its foundation the adjectives attributed to leaders but rather the recognition in relation to them, thus being a form of relationship between people. Leadership is in the way of relating, very particular, varying greatly from the frequented social space, and society is divided between fields, each field having its own game. The leader leads those who propose to lead what aligns with their abilities. In other words, each one in their field, their specificity according to their aptitudes.

Up to this point, in these brief citations, it is evident that many thinkers have been able to present as a fundamental part the precise behavioral description of a conception of a good leader. Human behavior is the fundamental basis for leadership, and to achieve behavioral awareness, it is precisely necessary to develop human behavior.

Therefore, the awareness of the importance of management for the development of an organized environment is present in all periods described by humans. In social diversity, there were various ways to present the theme, which ultimately gave shape to many literary works written by great thinkers whose main objective was precisely to seek the meeting in which the best way to live in society. Intrinsic to this is the systemic view of the role of leadership in management and its importance in human life. Developing leadership is precisely recognizing human needs in an organized way, and managing is the search for ethical balance in relationships amid these needs. Leaving chaos behind for the creation of an ordered structure in a world that never stops changing.

Regardless of the situation, the leader represents a project, a company, a team, a group, or even a society. Leadership is a living, systemic process, and like any system, it is subject to changes, evolution, division, and transformation. It is not necessary to go far to realize that throughout history, humans by nature are always seeking challenges, going to the overcoming of their own limits. Imagine what the composition of an organization or society would be like without leaders, or even how the development of unparalleled projects such as the pyramids of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the Temple of Solomon, the Eiffel Tower, the Colosseum, the Pantheon, the Atomic Bomb, Genome, Space Station, and Man’s landing on the Moon, among many other historical works, would be possible without their presence.

The fact is that in the search for a better way to structure human life, the demand arose to find more efficient ways to develop everything related to human behavior. It was from there, faced with the need, that models emerged along the evolutionary path of life to improve the efficiency and development of everything that was being created. Regardless of the time, humans, regardless of the diversity of cultures, have been creating new ways of living, either through products or services, introducing changes and innovations in their processes to increase efficiency in their various projects.

It is feasible to assert that each of these demands faces obstacles that involve a series of requirements, demanding more than just mastering the execution of projects, from organizing manpower to the originality of functionalities, standards, and construction techniques. Therefore, it makes sense to seek more efficient ways of managing these projects.

This is because the evolutionary process has become increasingly accelerated, and with so many continuous changes, people, businesses, and enterprises have found themselves in need and, at the same time, in the opportunity to define their place in this constant evolution of behavior, especially in the face of their social and economic actions that have occurred since the 20th century.

Given the influence that scientific and technological means were undergoing, in the mid-20th century, a knowledge transformation process began worldwide, generating radical changes in the improvement and new discoveries in fields such as engineering, medicine, psychology, etc. This transformation had a strong impact on people’s behavior, especially in how they relate and interact as individuals in society, causing profound social, economic, and political changes. The refinement of project management began to take its modern form precisely during this period. The various business models that developed shared a common support structure: projects are led by a manager, who must, in turn, have a leader’s profile, bringing people together in a team and ensuring the integration and communication of workflows across different departments.

Proper project management is a key element in the current development of businesses and society. Projects are not managed just for the sake of managing. Creating a new product, building a structure, developing a specific area or department, the quest to find a cure for a disease, are examples of the daily challenges organizations face that depend on projects, and nothing is more coherent than performing them with excellence. For this, the role of a project manager is fundamental.

The world is in constant and complete reinvention, and with so many continuous changes, organizations also have the need and opportunity to define their place in this constant evolution of behavior, especially in the face of their customers. These changes represent the transformation of business from beginning to end and affect the entire organization. Previously, companies could wait for months to analyze, plan, and project reactions in the market; however, now, after the information revolution, there is a great chance of missing the right moment and falling behind, giving space to competitors.

Therefore, old consumer beliefs are no longer applicable today. The transformation of this generation demands a change from within companies, taking into account the culture and dynamics of the business. Old project management models, technocratic approaches, hierarchical control methods, have become obsolete and are very little applicable today. What must be understood is that to survive, organizations must prioritize a holistic approach. Implementing customized technologies, knowing how and where to find talent, developing a new knowledge culture, fostering creativity and innovation, as well as defining strategies, not only with the market but also with management. With this, the role of a project manager has also changed; archaic and traditional models are no longer acceptable.

There is no longer space for fearful project managers who exercise their power autocratically and do not win their teams through admiration. Nowadays, the emergence of mentors who light the way so that everyone is ready for continuous changes and constant innovations is necessary, operating in organizations that are becoming less vertical and more horizontal. Therefore, this manager must know how to motivate people, and this is related to emotional capacity, which has become the primary factor for success and makes all the difference in the results obtained. Stimulating people with better rewards, threatening them with harsher punishments, or establishing control hierarchies no longer works.

This article aims to present the challenges and responsibilities of projects and how behavioral development can assist this new Project leader. It can be understood that leadership has always been a subject of discussion for many thinkers and that understanding it makes all the difference in the face of the responsibility that the role itself brings. With this, there are tools that allow for the refinement and leadership capability, through techniques and tools developed for behavioral development, providing individuals with the ability to perceive new possibilities not only through an external perspective but also introspectively.

Experiencing behavioral development is refining systemic perception, allowing individuals to be responsible for themselves, not as a moral lesson, but as an instrument to become owners of their history and make conscious choices in their own lives.

As described in this article, it is clear that behavioral development allied to Project Leadership suggests a path of people development that is congruent with the market’s reality, favoring effectively positive results not achieved in other ways. At the same time, it adds to personal and professional needs so that they can emerge from a new perspective. In a movement that begins from the inside out, the manager develops and empowers people and companies, awakening the best in each, integrating everyone’s needs systematically.

Deepening the described knowledge will make a difference in management perception. Behavioral development is now a focus of study in integrating how to manage business and one’s own life. Changes are necessary and inevitable; as Sisódia mentions, the corporate world is immersed in this new cycle of personal transition where people are looking more inward, seeking existential meaning in the external world.

It is clear that current project management models need to be redefined; therefore, future work should focus on finding new motivational models and on behavioral development within companies. Future studies should also extend to modern and functional hierarchical organizational models, seeking to improve the interrelationship between people and the company.

In conclusion, the fusion of behavioral development with project leadership offers a promising avenue for personal and professional growth. As we navigate the evolving landscape of business and life, the understanding that leadership extends beyond mere task management becomes paramount. The shift towards internal introspection, coupled with external adaptability, creates a dynamic leadership approach capable of meeting the challenges of the modern world. Future endeavors should focus on refining motivational models, enhancing interpersonal dynamics, and exploring holistic organizational structures. Embracing these changes will not only redefine project management but also reshape the way individuals lead, paving the way for a more resilient, empathetic, and successful future in both professional and personal spheres. As we embark on this transformative journey, the integration of behavioral development and leadership becomes not just a strategy but a philosophy that empowers individuals to navigate complexities with grace and purpose.

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Hello, I’m Marcello de Souza! I started my career in 1997 as a leader and manager in a large company in the IT and Telecommunications market. Since then, I have participated in important projects of structuring, implementation, and optimization of telecommunications networks in Brazil. Restless and passionate about behavioral and social psychology. In 2008, I decided to delve into the universe of the human mind.

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