A profession built on endurance: inspiring, training, and empowering a project team

We often confuse inspiring with impressing. The myth of the leader — visionary, dominant, first across the finish line — rarely withstands the reality of project mode, where you lead people under pressure over time. This talk offers another lens: that of endurance, tested and shared through my experience as a runner in ultra-distance events (~160 km). The narrative is grounded in a proven framework. It walks through the predictable stages of team development — from forming to storming, then to norming and performing (Tuckman & Jensen; Sashkin & Morris) — and the leadership actions specific to each (Lewis). We then address what research says about well-being in project management, psychological safety, inclusion, and team resilience (Pavez; Carmeli; Jaiswal & Dyaram), because the primary risk of a project is human, not technical. Three behaviors stem from this, directly applicable to the PMO and IT teams: welcoming bad news more warmly than good news, defending a sustainable delivery pace, and coaching rather than commanding.

Objective

Distinguish inspiring from impressing and recognize the predictable stages of team development, in order to adapt their leadership stance to each stage rather than panicking at the first sign of turmoil. Leverage three key protection drivers — psychological safety, sustainable delivery pace, and coaching — to simultaneously protect the well-being and performance of a team under pressure. Perform a simple diagnostic on their own team's maturity and cohesion, and step in at the right time.

Speaker

Xavier Fognini

Xavier Fognini, PMP, PMI-ACP, has nearly twenty years of experience managing complex projects and twenty-five years in information technology. He is a Project Manager in Concordia University's IT Project Office, where he works with his team to position the PMO as a strategic institutional partner.

His career spans a wide range of environments. At Lactanet, he led the corporate Project Office and helped advance its maturity by strengthening governance, stage-gate approvals, and enterprise-wide capacity management. He oversaw initiatives as diverse as a methane emissions calculator for the dairy sector, the redesign of herd management software, and a range of software improvement and optimization projects. In the public sector, at the Agence de mobilité durable, he led a pilot project with a borough in Montreal as well as several procurement initiatives. He now works in the university sector on projects aimed at enhancing the academic experience.

He is currently pursuing a master's degree in project management at ESG - UQAM and is actively involved with PMI-Montréal.

A long-time runner and ultra-trail participant since 2016, he has completed events including the Diagonale des Fous, TDS, QMT, UTHC, and Bromont Ultra across various distances.