What is a Systemic Project Coach™?
The term appears often on this site and for good reason:
The Systemic Project Coach™ is a new stance to address the human dynamics that derail projects.
The term appears often on this site and for good reason:
The Systemic Project Coach™ is a new stance to address the human dynamics that derail projects.
Most project issues are not technical. They are human.
Missed expectations, resistance, emotional tension, political dynamics: these live inside projects.
Curious about how this approach can transform your posture and your projects?
From Project Management to Systemic Coaching
Project managers are expected to operate within a familiar triangle:
Expertise:
Knowing what to do
Management:
Organizing people and tasks
Leadership:
Inspiring action
This model assumes stability, authority and clarity. In the real world, these assumptions collapse as project managers are asked to:
Be experts without having full expertise.
Manage without formal authority.
Lead without always having followers.
They are left alone with the real blockers: ambiguity, disengagement, resistance, power plays, emotional overload. The pressure builds inside the triangle.
And the result? They hold the pressure without leverage.
This is where the Systemic Project Coach™ stance comes in. It represents a posture shift, a different way to stand in the same environment.
It activates three interdependent capacities:
Self-leadership:
Know yourself. Notice your reactions. Choose how you show up before you lead anyone else.
Relational Agility:
Communicate with assertiveness and respect. Set healthy boundaries. Use coaching tools to build trust and engagement without taking over.
Systemic Thinking:
Step back to see how people, processes and structures interact and identify where to act for structural impact.
These capacities are like muscles to train. They do not replace expertise, management and leadership. They make them viable under pressure.
They address the limits of each edge:
When leadership becomes performative, systemic thinking reveals leverage.
When they align, something new happens:
Leadership emerges as a result.
This shift opens new ways to act without needing more control, authority or effort. It enables a different way to lead through uncertainty, by standing differently.
Same environment. New posture. Better outcomes.
Want to apply the Systemic Project Coach™ posture?
Discover Stance and other Sparkli coaching offers specifically designed for project leaders who want to turn this posture into daily practice.
The Systemic Project Coach™ in action
What if you stopped firefighting and started thinking like a Systemic Project Coach™?
Get our free eBook with three project scenarios per key capacity (Self-leadership, Relational Agility, Systemic Thinking) and one in-depth case study from a CRM rollout.
Use it to step back, reflect and realign the way you lead.
Et si vous arrêtiez de courir après les urgences et commenciez à penser comme un·e Coach Systémique Projet™ ?
Téléchargez notre eBook gratuit, avec trois scénarios de projet illustrant chacune des compétences clés (self-leadership, agilité relationnelle, pensée systémique) ainsi qu’une étude de cas approfondie sur le déploiement CRM.
Vous pouvez l’utiliser pour prendre du recul, réfléchir et ajuster votre manière de diriger.
Pour l’instant, l’eBook est disponible uniquement en anglais. Sa version française arrive bientôt.
The origin of the concept
The Systemic Project Coach™ was developed by Camille Caclin as part of her professional thesis* at ESCP Business School, after years leading digital transformation.
It started with a simple question:
Why are project managers largely overlooked while leaders and managers dominate research?
Project methodologies are well documented but the human posture of the project manager remains thinly covered.
Project leaders work across functions with little formal authority. They must deliver, keep people engaged and handle resistance, change fatigue and disengagement.
Their human dynamics are at least as complex as those of hierarchical managers.
The Systemic Project Coach™ offers a practical posture for this reality.
*Caclin, C. (2023) La posture de Coach Systémique Projet: hypothèse d’un axe de mutation des compétences du chef de projet. Professional thesis. ESCP Business School.
© Camille Caclin, 2023. All rights reserved.
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