Glue: How Project Leaders Create Cohesive, Engaged, High-Performing Teams Spiral-Bound | March 29, 2022
Anh Dao Pham
Glue: How Project Leaders Create Cohesive, Engaged, High-Performing Teams
“Glue offers a rare gift to project managers. It artfully blends specific step-by-step recommendations of how to move from project management to project leadership with the psychological rationale for taking those steps.”
- Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion
An Essential Guide to Get Stuff Done
How many books have you read on project management? On leadership? Too many, right? But no other book combines the practice of project management and leadership into one balanced approach with practical examples—except this book.
You don’t even need Project Manager in your title to employ the lessons in this book. You can be any person on any team who has stepped up to take a leadership role on a critical initiative.
You’ll learn the critical blend of management and leadership skills that will make you indispensable to any project. You’ll learn what it takes to become the binding agent—the glue—that creates cohesive, engaged, high-performing project teams.
The author’s methods have been battle-tested against real technology projects. Her insight and vision reach beyond theory into application and can be used immediately regardless of the length, scope, or phase of your project—whether it’s planning a wedding, remodeling a home, or leading a team in a major website revamp or product launch or company start-up.
You’ll learn—
- How to get started when you don’t know much—yet
- How to lay a solid foundation for your project
- How to support a project and a team that’s in flight
- How to communicate (yah, that’s a thing), how to reward (candy works), how to take notes (yes, please), and how to map out your project with Post-it notes
In this debut business book, an executive applies leadership strategy to project management.
Pham, who advanced from an information technology consultant to a vice president of product management, has seen project management from the middle and the top. In this well-crafted work, she is highly supportive of those project leaders who “act as the glue that binds teams together, filling gaps in process and communication wherever there is a need.” From the outset, the author makes it clear that her book is not about the processes associated with project management but rather the leadership abilities necessary to become a capable project supervisor. In Part 1, Pham identifies fundamental leadership skills, including techniques for building rapport quickly, running productive meetings, asking the right questions, and documenting/synthesizing information. While this content is basic, it is actionable—and it will undoubtedly assist middle managers who have yet to develop leadership expertise. Parts 2 and 3 are much more project specific. In the second part, for example, the author shares sensible advice about setting measurable goals, managing project teams, and establishing road maps. One memorable methodology she highlights is “CALM,” an acronym for “Closely Aligned, Loosely Managed.” A chapter on preempting risk in this section is especially helpful. Part 3 addresses project implementation; here, Pham cites some excellent examples of how best to encourage cooperation and explains how to manage each of the elements of the well-known time-scope-resources triangle. She closes this portion with a frank acknowledgment: “There is no project I’ve ever led that has gone as planned. No matter how hard you try to manage or control them, change will happen.” This should be comforting news to novice project leaders. Part 4 consists of just a single chapter yet it is one of the most powerful; with sincere words, Pham urges project leaders to create bonds that transcend the office and turn co-workers into friends. The best project leaders, she writes, “are the ones who—with appreciation, empathy, encouragement, trust, loyalty, and strength—from plans and goals, create work friends and work families.” The author is at her best when inspiring others.
A valuable, humanistic perspective on leading projects. - KIRKUS REVIEWS
What industry executives are saying about Glue—
“Glue offers a rare gift to project managers. It artfully blends specific step-by-step recommendations of how to move from project management to project leadership with the psychological rationale for taking those steps.” Robert B. Cialdini, author of Influence and Pre-Suasion, Regents’ Professor Emeritus of Psychology and Marketing at Arizona State University
“Emerging from the pandemic, organizations need leaders who unlock the creativity and engagement of their teams by building strong, personal emotional connections. In Glue, Anh Dao Pham vividly brings compassionate, positive, nimble leadership to life, demonstrating with actionable guidance, the power of caring and connection to inspire outstanding results.” Peter Steinlauf, Founder of Edmunds.com
“If you’ve ever led a project, go out and buy this book. It’s wonderfully practical and specific, making it extremely useful. Anh Dao Pham has distilled a lifetime of experience and best practices into a guide for those who lead others in getting things done. From sticky-note roadmap meetings to ice-breaking candy jars, this book is full of ready-to-go advice that I find myself already putting to use.” Daniel Yates, Executive Chairman, Dandelion Energy, Climate Tech Investor, Founder and CEO of Opower
“No authority? No problem. Finally a business book for you, not the CEO. Glue shows the rest of us how to create and harness influence to lead an organization to success, even without formal authority.” Nick Gorton, Chief Innovation Officer of Edmunds.com
“Anh redefined the constellation of roles around delivery of complex and critical projects for me. While your first choice for learning how to become stronger at delivering projects should be to choose to go work with her, reading, absorbing, and playing with the strategy and tactics shared in this book until they are your own will accelerate your path to impact. Over a decade after starting to work with Anh, I continue to see echoes in my day-to-day activities tracing back to projects that we worked on together. Read this book, make some friends at work and go change the world.” Devin Dawson, Engineering Manager at Meta
“Anh’s infectious enthusiasm for empowering teams and leaders comes to life in this engaging read that delivers the blueprint for mastering the extreme sport of project management with the clarity, insight, and impact of a true project leader.” Lisa Murison, General Counsel of Bird Global, Inc., and former EVP of Operations, Chief Legal & People Officer of Edmunds.com, Inc.
“Truly a must-read for anyone who plans to lead teams of people to get important things done! In Glue, Anh generously reveals the trade secrets that have made her a one-of-a-kind superstar in leading teams to perform their absolute best and smash their goals.” Eugene Park, Chief Product Officer of Edmunds.com
“Pham’s Glue is a welcome break from certification-driven books on Project Management. It’s a page-turning playbook on getting big things done with working professionals. Definitely read this book to get valuable insights on how to lead and inspire teams on a daily basis.” Rick Oliver, VP of Product & Program Management, Experian
“This book isn’t just for project managers. In Glue, Anh Dao Pham shares proven methods anyone can apply to manage friction within teams, promote collaboration, drive engagement, and navigate change to simply deliver results. No matter what your role, Glue will make you a more effective contributor in your organization.” Richard Tang, VP of Insights & Analytics at Ticketmaster, and former SVP Global Consumer Insights & Data Analytics at 21st Century Fox
“In Glue, Anh Dao Pham lays out techniques to support teams in a truly revelatory fashion. By itself, being excellent at rapid note-taking seems handy, but not decisive. When Anh shares how to wield foundational skills like note-taking to enable a host of other concerns—from running effective meetings to managing inter-team handoffs—a lightbulb turns on. I wish I’d had this book when I was starting my last company!” John Fries, Co-founder and CTO of System1