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The importance of leadership roles
Defining the role of leadership
Project management
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1. Introduction
Project management involves the use of appropriate processes to deliver a project focusing on efficiency and operational performance (Shenhar, 2004) within constraints of time, budget, and scope (Kerzner 2009, 2010; Maylor, 2010; Morris & Pinto, 2007; Sanghera, 2010 Wysocki, 2009, 2014).
Slack, Chambers and Johnston (2010) argue that managing projects entails technical expertise of people internal or external to an organisation. Further, Nauman and Khan (n.d. p. 1) argue that projects success depends on people because they are the most critical resources in project management. The project manager is responsible combining these expertise in order to deliver a project accordingly. Generally, the project manager would plan and supervise the work of (1) expertise under his/her direct supervision
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Definition and concept
Many definitions on leadership exist. For the purpose of this work, leadership will be considered as the process of influencing or directing the work of team members by an individual or group towards project objectives using their experience, education and personality (Hersey & Blanchard, 1993, cited in Nauman & Khan, n.d.; Maylor, 2010; Sanghera, 2010) through different project processes. For instance, the project manager can influence or direct the work of his/her team through project initiation, planning, implementation and closedown to achieve project results.
Alternatively, Kerzner (2009) argues that leadership is a way of behaving to combine organizational needs and the interests of individuals within the organization in order to achieve results.
Whatever the definition of leadership, three most common components can be identified: someone leading (project manager or sponsor), someone being led (internal or external team members), and the context – project environment (Kerzner, 2009). Different leadership theories have explained management/leadership styles in project management.
2.2. Leadership theories and project
My impression of leadership is the ability to motivate, inspire, set a visualization, connect, and lead by example. To become a successful leader you have to be able to convince your followers that you are trustworthy of being followed. During this semester, we have learned many, if not all of the major leadership theories and how they play a role in our everyday lives. But personally, a few of these leadership models caught me and intrigued me the whole semester so much that this paper is going to predominately be referenced about them. For example, the proposed framework that organizes leadership theories based on each theory 's focus and approach. Focus is referred to as whether or not leadership is viewed as a set of traits or actions.
Crawford (2000) suggests that project leadership is the highest ranking category among project management competence factors. Project management leadership style affects overall project performance. Recent research supports the idea that successful projects are led by individuals who possess not only a blend of technical and management knowledge, but also leadership skills that are internally compatible with the motivation of the project team (Slevin and Pinto, 1988; Turner et al., 1998). Zimmerer and Yasin (1998) found that positive leadership contributed almost 76% to the success of projects. Negative or poor leadership contributed 67% to the failure of projects. Project leaders need both, relationships and task oriented leadership styles, to cope with the challenges within different phases of project (Slevin and Pinto, 1991). In projects, project leaders must lead their teams towards completing defined goals with in a fixed time scale. Verma (1997) states “Achieving the goal or final aim is the ultimate test of leadership”. Goals and tasks are achieved through people thus making people an important resource for
For more than 25 years, The Little Black Book of Project Management has been introducing project managers to the incredibly effective and logical project management skill and methods to help them achieve their goal. This book has been flooded with very nee project management techniques as well as the latest standards of the Project management body of Knowledge (PMBOK) .accepted by PMI (Project Management Institute).
A leader can be defined as a person who influences a group of people, organization, etc. in to achieving a set out or common goal. The aim of this paper is to identify the different approaches to leadership, but there is no single definition of leadership, as it can mean many different things to many people depending of their profession, environment and leadership style (Mielach, 2012).
Each different branch of leadership has a multitude of criteria and reasons that are beneficial to follow each. For the purpose of this examination focusing on the three main styles of leadership will be beneficial on top of focusing its use of them by professional leaders. Each style has their own pros and cons allowing one to understand how they can be beneficial or hurtful to any company. Professional leaders are able to represent the use of these styles and how they can alter the progress of a business or team.
Project management is known as the discipline of planning, organizing, motivating, and controlling resources to achieve specific goals. In the diagram to the left in the picture you can see that as a project manager you are the center of either a great accomplishment or a major failure. Some of the major factors to being a successful project manager would be a person that is a great manage several projects or responsibilities and scope issues on an every day basis. If you have a pr...
Leadership approaches have widely evolved over the past century. Its evolution has undoubtedly shaped its focus and meaning. Different leadership approaches, including trait, behavior, situational, relationship, “new leadership,” and others have all played key roles throughout the years (Northouse, 2009). How to pinpoint one’s view on leadership can be a difficult task, but there are a variety of resources to help classify these views.
Gray, C., Larson, E. (2008). Project Management: The managerial Process. New York, NY: The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc.
Project management is said to be completed within time when it completed within the “triple constraints”: cost, time and quality. And in a lot of causes, one them is sacrificed so as to meet the other two. Project managers prioritize which ones are the most important.
Critical Commentary Leadership is an important part of any organization. The role of a leader is to show path to every member of the organization so that they can achieve the objective in an efficient and effective manner. The success or a failure of the said project depends upon the traits and skills of a leader. Along with the traits and skills, there are several other elements that also affect the efficiency of a leader. The books and journals are full of concepts and theories of leadership that are very effective and help a leader in leading the project efficiently.
In the globalized economy, Successful project managers are in much demand across many industries. Organizations strongly need experienced project managers to lead their staff to accomplish their business goals and deliver successful projects. In an increasingly complex environment, project managers need to turn into many roles and have all kinds of responsibilities at each level of management within an organization. Good project managers are not born. They need to be trained. They develop their skills through study, practise and experience. They become better project managers after they finish a successful project each time. They learn new techniques and apply them on their projects. They learn their lessons from failed projects and then improve to be better project managers in the future.
...he solution. Instead the solution is to develop richer and more complex processes of accomplishing the leadership tasks. Project Managers facing a complex challenge should focus on how to set direction for the team, create alignment between them, and generate their commitment and ignore how many people are, or are not, leaders. Making the accomplishment of the leadership tasks at the core of leadership raises new questions: What are the barriers or obstacles project managers should clears in order to set a clear direction, create an effective alignment, and generate a solid commitment? What resources exist in the organization that project managers could tap in for creating direction, alignment, and commitment as a complex challenge is being tackled? Answering these kind of questions can assist organizations avoid the traditional problems of distributed leadership
Over the course of my professional life, I have become increasingly involved in project management roles. Doing so has made me aware of the many varied challenges that can face projects and the project managers who are charged with bringing them through to completion. The success or failure of projects, in whatever economic, political or social field, rests not just on the quality of the project’s goals, but also on the abilities of those involved in the project – and above all those who are managing it – to bring it to successful completion. To do this, project managers need to be equipped with a very wide range of skills, many of which are unrelated to the type of project itself. So, for example, a project manager of an engineering project must not only have engineering
In this paper I will look at the four major leadership styles, their characteristics, advantages, disadvantages, and in what situations a particular leadership style is desired. Additionally, I will look at my leadership style and how I acquired this style throughout my career.
When planning a new project, how the project will be managed is one of the most important factors. The importance of a managers will determine the success of the project. The success of the project will be determined by how well it is managed. Project management is referred to as the discipline that entails the processes of carefully planning, organizing, controlling, and motivating the organization resources so as to foster and facilitate the achievement of specific established and desired goals and meet the specific criteria of success required in the organization (Larson, 2014). Over the course of this paper I will be discussing and analyzing the importance of project management.