The Importance Of Project Success

There are several factors that contribute to project success. The most important one is the effectiveness of the project manager. A project manager is a person who is responsible for the execution and successful planning of a project. Research shows that project management is most effective when the manager practices both management skills and effective leadership skills (Kumar 2009). It is observed that leadership skills can be learned, however, leadership qualities have to be developed. Whereas, in the context of strong management skills, these are competencies that can be acquired through practice and experience. Successful project managers understand the importance of evaluating, monitoring, evaluating, analyzing and developing a process.

Effective project managers may not be successful leaders. Though, in the many fields, there is an expectation for project managers to be leaders. Successful project managers are those that apply their creative and innovative skills to develop leadership skills within themselves that will supplement their project management abilities (Kumar, 2009).

The major difference between project management and leadership are that:

- Project Managers administer, whereas Leaders innovate o Project managers ensure the team has the require tools to be product. They focus on following and implementing processes. o Leaders seek to challenge the process in order to improve productivity and way of doing things.

- Project managers control whereas, leaders motive and inspire o Project managers tend to seek control with a strong focus on implementing processes (i.e. deliverables, schedule, scheduled work assignments, milestones, etc.). Successful managers, do however practice leadership process in terms of inspiring and motivating the team. o Leaders tend to set goals and recognize effort and encourage the team to try their best and deliver quality

- Managers focus on doing things right, whereas, leaders focus on doing the right things o Project managers deal with delivery and implementation, ensuring things are done correctly. o Leaders place a strong emphasis on the team’s vision.

Commonalities between leadership and project management:

Successful project managers develop skills through knowledge and integrate leadership skills with their current capabilities to effectively complete the project. An article emphasizing the leadership skills of a project management states that “The performance of a project manager and the effectiveness of a leader are both measured in terms of the performance of the team.” (Kumar, 2009)

For a project manager, leadership can take the form of negotiating, listening, influencing skills, team building and communicating. All of these skills come together and contributes towards improving team performance. Project managers encourage their team to accomplish work with full satisfaction and consider the different skill set of the team. As the project progresses, a project manager adjusts their leadership style to motivate, encourage and relate to member of the