Role of Leadership in Project Leadership- MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Discuss about theRole of Leadership in Project Leadership. Answer: Projects have become increasingly complex with project leaders having to operate under increasingly tight budges and deadlines, with very little margin for error. Many projects fail, not because of a lack of technical skills, but because there is a dearth of the necessary soft skills required to inspire and motivate people, provide guidance, and manage conflicts and challenges, that are inevitable with complex projects. A successful project leader is both an effective manager of people as well as a master of process; leading a project requires the ability overcome personnel challenges, make tough calls and exercise authority whenever this is needed, while at the same time dealing with a myriad technical challenges as well as the constraints of cost and time. Much of the knowledge concerning what constitutes leadership of effective project leaders, including the requisite competencies and skills, is in the form of lists of the essential skills and competencies of project leaders that can be grouped into business, technical, and social skills; however, these are also static attributes. Effective project leadership has become increasingly challenging as the environments in which projects are undertaken have also become increasingly complex and volatile (Anantatmula, 2010). As such, effective project leadership requires a broad mix of competencies and skills associated with processes and people such as planning and communication; technical skills are less important. There is a strong link between project success and the performance of the project leader, which makes the project leader the most critical element in the successful delivery of projects. Because project leaders have to operate with increasingly complex projects with greater resource constraints; leadership skills are important for the project leader to inspire a shared vision, communicate effectively, enhance enthusiasm, solve problems, and create teams (Bach, 2014). Inspiring a shared vision of where efforts should go and having the ability to articulate this vision is crucial for the success of a project. Projects can undergo lots of changes and having vision can make the project leader and project team to thrive on change and draw new boundaries, rather than be beset by it (Jung, Chow Wu, 2003). The project leader needs to lift the rest of the team up, given the challenges of managing projects; the leader needs to give the project team a reason to keep pushing on, especially in times of leadership by giving the team members the spirit and vision to change as changes occur. Leadership inspires vision, and this vision enables the team members to fell themselves as h aving a real stake in a project. Leadership will empower team members to experience the vision by themselves. Leadership is also necessary in providing the team with enthusiasm; negativity brings everybody down. A project leader with enthusiasm have a can-do spirit that bounces off and positively inspires other team members to perform beyond their natural capabilities. Leadership helps team members develop their skills and plays an enabler role, which goes beyond management that would play the role of maintaining the status quo and restrains people. Because projects are subject to numerous risks, leadership will help the team see the opportunity in the risk, while management alone will see the risk as something to be avoided, rather than be managed and the available opportunities taken advantage of (Keller, 2006). Unique, one-of-a-kind strategies are rare; what sets them apart is how brilliantly they are executed, and hence leadership comes into play in determining how brilliantly the project execution strategies are implemented to achieve the desired results and outcomes (Rausch, Barber Warn, 2005). Leadership is also important in projects to monitor project results and make any required adjustments; the flawless execution of the perfect strategy is a very rare occurrence. Leadership enables the project leader to give guidelines to other team members; it also enables the project leader to work with members of the team and understand the nature of their work and help them overcome challenges (Chen Bliese, 2002). During project execution, leadership by the project leader is essential in understanding and interpreting the project environment; this requires sensing what is coming up ahead, dynamics in the external environment, and identifying opportunities that can be acted upon and also see th reats in advance (Turner Muller, 2005). Dynamics such as abrupt changes to project deliverables or schedules can demoralize team members, and so the soft skills of the project leader comes into play; to share a vision and let the team members take ownership of the vision, deal with interpersonal difficulties, motivating team members, encouraging innovation, keeping the team enthusiastic, making decisions, and leading the way by example; these factors all help ensure that a successful project is delivered without overshooting resource constraints (Amason et al., 2007). The sentiments discussed in preceding passages are well captured in the article Project Manager Leadership Role in Improving Project Performance by Vittal S.Anantatmula, Western Carolina University concisely discuss why leadership is important for project leaders in improving project performance. The author uses a robust approach and extensive research to develop his points and ideas; the research used the ISM (Interpretive Structural Modeling) to identify the relationships between people related factors such as effective communication and how they impact project performance. According to the article, project leaders should have project roles and processes are clearly defined as the first and most important step towards successfully managing and leading projects. This lays the foundation for creating clarity, communication, and the use of consistent processes, along with the soft leadership skills required to solve problems, motivate teams, and empower project team members to exceed their capabilities. Project Manager Leadership Role in Improving Project Performance states that it is never if project plans will change, but when, and by how much. This is when the leadership role comes into play; leadership efforts have to be directed in convincing people about the need for changes, align them to the new direction, and motivate them to work with a unity of purpose under conditions that are difficult and demanding Conclusions and Lessons Learned Projects are becoming increasingly complex, with project leaders and teams working under ever more tight deadlines and budgets. Despite advances in project management knowledge and skills, many projects still fail. This highlights the need for leadership among project leaders; they require more soft leadership skills to keep people motivated, convince them to change, and to motivate team members to work together in difficult and demanding environments. My learning from all this is that leadership skills must be developed and be used more, in addition to technical skills when leading projects. Further, I have learned that the first step to wards a successful project is to define roles and processes, and communicate these effectively. Further, I have learned that changes in projects are inevitable and to succeed and meet project objectives, the soft leadership skills are crucial for communicating change, convincing teams to align with changes, and cooperation even in demanding and diff icult situations. References Amason, A. C., Aronson, Z., Dominick, P., Holahan, P., Lechler, T., Mooney, A., Reilly, R. R., ... Shenhar, A. J. (2007). The human side of project leadership. Newtown Square, Penn: Project Management Institute. Anantatmula, V. S. (January 01, 2010). Project Manager Leadership Role in Improving Project Performance. Engineering Management Journal Rolla-, 22, 1, 13-22. Bach, M. (January 01, 2014). The Project Coach: The New Role of the Project Manager for the Future Due to the News Tools Like Building Information Modelling, Integrated Project Delivery, Last Planner and Others. Chen, G., Bliese, P. D. (January 01, 2002). The role of different levels of leadership in predicting self- and collective efficacy: evidence for discontinuity. The Journal of Applied Psychology,87, 3, 549-56. Jung, D. I., Chow, C., Wu, A. (January 01, 2003). The role of transformational leadership inenhancing organizational innovation: Hypotheses and some preliminary findings. The Leadership Quarterly, 14, 4, 525-544. Keller, R. T. (January 01, 2006). Transformational Leadership, Initiating Structure, and Substitutes for Leadership: A Longitudinal Study of Research and Development Project Team Performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 91, 1, 202-210. Rausch, E., Barber, E., Warn, J. (August 01, 2005). Leadership in project management: from firefighter to firelighter. Management Decision, 43, 1032-1039. Turner, J. R., Muller, R. (January 01, 2005). The Project Manager's Leadership Style as a Success Factor on Projects: A Literature Review. Project Management Journal, 36, 2, 49-61.