Professional Edge | Project Management Under Pressure: When Should You Go Red?

Join KU Professor of the Practice Douglass Smith, Ph.D., M.P.M., M.B.A., PMP to discuss ethical escalation, executive trust, and leadership judgment in high-stakes environments. In project management, some of the most difficult decisions are not technical. They involve transparency, timing, and professional courage. When performance begins to decline, leaders must decide whether to escalate concerns immediately or attempt internal recovery while maintaining stakeholder confidence. This session explores escalation discipline, executive communication strategy, and the long-term credibility implications of reporting decisions. Participants will engage in structured discussion and a guided scenario to examine how leadership choices influence governance outcomes. By the end of this webinar, participants will be able to: • Evaluate appropriate escalation timing within formal governance structures. • Assess how reporting decisions influence executive trust and stakeholder confidence. • Strengthen transparency practices without undermining organizational stability. • Apply structured judgment when navigating political and performance pressure.