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Clarity in Leadership: Discovering Your North Star

May 8, 2025
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In fast-moving organisations, where change is constant and priorities compete for attention, it’s easy for leaders to fall into tactical mode, managing deliverables, tracking deadlines, and juggling dashboards. But what happens when all that activity starts to feel unanchored? That’s the question Cheri Smith set out to explore in her recent interview with Jasmine O’Reilly, Founder and Managing Director at The Outlier Group.

In this interview for Project Uplift, Jasmine unpacks a powerful idea that has shaped her work with leadership teams across industries: that clarity in leadership is not a nice-to-have, it’s a necessity. It keeps teams aligned during change, focused under pressure, and connected to purpose when things get messy (because they always do).

The interview highlights the importance of defining a “North Star”, a clear and consistent point of reference that helps leaders guide their teams through uncertainty. At The Outlier Group, this isn’t just theory. It’s the foundation of real-world work with executives, delivery teams, and organisations transforming. Because clarity doesn’t just support execution, it enables leadership.

From Strategy to Structure: Jasmine’s Accidental Start

Jasmine didn’t set out to be a project manager. As she put it in the interview, “I fell into it.” Her early work focused on cross-functional strategic initiatives, often innovative, always messy.

“We weren’t calling them projects,” she said. “We were just doing business.”

That background gave Jasmine something rare: a perspective shaped more by strategic need than by process. When she eventually encountered formal frameworks, she appreciated the structure, but also saw the limitations.

“I love frameworks,” she told Cheri. “But I wasn’t raised in them. When you only follow structure, you miss the forest for the trees.”

Why Clarity in Leadership Means Putting People First

At The Outlier Group, we’ve always believed that clarity in leadership starts with empathy and connection. And Jasmine’s story shows why.

Project management, as Jasmine puts it, is really people management. Frameworks are helpful, but they can’t replace the nuanced work of guiding teams, resolving friction, and aligning humans with purpose.

“There isn’t a project out there that doesn’t touch people,” she said. “And we’re more people-focused now than ever.”

This is why Jasmine and our team don’t hire just for certification, we hire for instinct, presence, and the ability to read a room.

“A formal qualification doesn’t impress me much,” she admitted. “What matters is: Can you rally people? Can you ask the right questions at the right time? Are you empathetic?”

The Outlier Model: Embedded, Collective, Impact-Led

Rather than relying on a single person to fill a project role, The Outlier Group uses what Jasmine calls an “augmented model.” We embed small, specialised teams that act as a unified, flexible PMO, not just managing delivery, but influencing culture, communication, and outcomes.

“We embed with clients so deeply they forget we’re consultants,” Jasmine said. “That’s when we know we’re doing it right.”

From Stewards of Scope to Managers of Value

Perhaps the boldest idea in the interview was Jasmine’s take on the project manager’s role.

“We’ve spent years thinking of PMs as stewards of scope,” she said. “But what if we thought of them like investment managers?”

Her point: Projects are value vehicles. If we measure them only by task completion, we miss the larger impact they were designed to deliver.

That’s why Jasmine encourages every client to name a single North Star goal, then define three “big rocks”, tangible, trackable outcomes that anchor the work.

“You can’t track progress unless you have a baseline,” she said. “That’s where most organisations fall down.”

And yes, that includes “intangibles” like team morale or customer experience. Those can (and should) be measured through pulse surveys, interviews, and actual conversations. Because that’s where the real value lives.

Say It. Say It Again. Then Say It Louder.

Jasmine also challenges traditional communication models in project work. If you want people to align, she says, you need to think like a marketer.

“The project manager is also the head of marketing for the project,” she told Cheri. “You need a tagline. A short, sticky phrase that captures the vision. Then say it again. And again. Until people start saying it back to you.”

At The Outlier Group, we weave that message into everything, dashboards, check-ins, 1:1s, even casual conversations. The goal isn’t volume, it’s memorability. If your message spreads, alignment follows.

Change Starts on Day One

One of the strongest points Jasmine makes in her Project Uplift feature is about the false division between project management and change management.

“The best change management doesn’t feel like change management,” she said. “It’s embedded from the start.”

Too often, change is treated like an add-on, a final phase to be ‘handled’ once the work is done. But in our model, change starts on day one. From first conversations to final delivery, the people impacted by the work are involved, heard, and prepared.

To support this, we’ve even created an internal training called The Change-Driven Project Manager, designed to reintegrate two roles that never should’ve been separated in the first place.

Benefits Reporting: Start Early, Not at the End

When it comes to governance and executive reporting, Jasmine believes we’ve made things too complex and too slow.

“Executives don’t want a 20-page update,” she said. “They want one page. What are we trying to achieve? Are we on track? What are we learning?”

She emphasises the importance of reporting on value mid-project, not just at closeout. When a benefit starts showing up, whether it’s faster workflows, better engagement, or early revenue signals, it belongs in the next update.

And when leaders push back on reporting as “overhead”? Jasmine reframes it:

“This isn’t just admin. It’s credibility. It’s visibility. It’s proof of progress.”

Final Word: Stop Waiting. Start Building.

Jasmine ended her Project Uplift conversation with a call to action:

“We’ve all got these little campfires,” she said. “But if we join up, we’ll change the industry.”

It’s a powerful challenge and one that reflects the ethos of The Outlier Group. We’re not waiting for PMI or Agile Alliance to define the next version of the future. We’re building it here, with our clients, in real time.

To continue that momentum, we’re launching Change-Driven Project Management Training, a one-day practical training for project managers, project leads, change managers, and anyone working at the intersection of delivery and transformation.

This training is built around the same philosophy Jasmine shared in Project Uplift: that change isn’t an add-on, it’s the job. We’ll share the tools, language, and strategies we use inside organisations every day to embed change into the heart of projects from day one.

If you’re ready to lead differently with clarity, alignment, and impact, this training is for you. Register now: Change-Driven Project Management Training.