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The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relative importance of project management (PM) competences across the different stages of a software project life cycle to identify competence development gaps and opportunities.

A deductive and quantitative approach was adopted to address the research questions with a web-based survey for data collection.

After reviewing the context of competences and PM competences, the importance of the PM competences overall and for specific stages in the project life cycle was analysed. The result highlights that functional and meta-competences are perceived to be the most important competence dimensions for software project practitioners.

This study makes three contributions. First, it consolidates PM competences into a set of 20 within four competence dimensions. Second, it prioritises these competences across the software project life cycle. Third, it identifies the significance of the inter-relationship between PM competences and project life cycle to reveal PM competence development gaps and opportunities.

The aim of this study is to report and reflect on the development of a tailored executive education programme rooted in state-of-the-art research and focused on enhancing and embedding project leadership competences in a multi-national project-based organisation.

Through a detailed description of an example of a leadership development programme, the paper reflects on the learning journey. Drawing on research in management education, leadership and project management competence development, the authors present the rationale, design, delivery and participant and organisational experiences.

Reflections on the learning journey identify five key points: a) the fundamental role of a programme champion, b) the importance of balancing rigour and relevance in executive education programme design, c) the importance of attending to the milieu of the clientele in terms of culture, demands and where they are in terms of their learning journey, d) the significant role that reflection can play in personal development and e) the competences necessary for project leadership.

This paper reflects on a single programme for a single organisation and is therefore at risk of being idiosyncratic and not generalisable. This is indeed a limitation. However, the authors are all experienced in delivering executive education – and therefore can use those experiences to view the reflections. Many of the considerations noted here resonate with other programmes (both in support and through experience of omission having detrimental effects).

The paper provides new insights into developing enduring and effective leadership competences in complex project management, i.e. one that has a lasting impact on the organisation and is recognised to provide benefits. The reflections on how the authors charted a course and embarked on a journey are deemed of relevance to academics and industry.

The paper provides, for both industry practitioners and academics, new insights into effective leadership development in complex project management, one that has a lasting impact on the individual and the organisation and is recognised to provide benefits.

In this chapter, the authors explore emotional discomfort and the use of live polling to enable business leaders on executive education leadership programmes to move beyond their emotional comfort zones, to facilitate self-awareness and enhance reflective practice. Openly acknowledging and discussing one’s leadership weaknesses produce emotions which are not always easily shared, especially among business leaders. Yet, identifying emotions and acknowledging discomfort is key for reflective practice and a common failure in many leadership development programmes (LDP). The authors reflect on their experience in designing and delivering a custom LDP commissioned by a UK-based corporate client. The authors draw on the pedagogy of discomfort, emotions in leadership development, and the use of audience response system (ARS) technology to enable and facilitate the development of learner self-awareness.