Project Management Leadership Styles
To complete a project successfully, a project manager must be a true leader and have excellent communication skills to inspire the project team to get tasks done. A project manager must know the science of project management and precisely utilize leadership skills and styles.
"Just as a chameleon changes skin color to maximize survival, so should you adjust your approach to people, situations, and circumstances to ensure project efficiency." - Joseph Heagney in Fundamentals of Project Management
The leadership skills required to manage and direct a team include guiding, motivating, and directing project team abilities. Specific capabilities such as negotiation, resilience, communication, problem-solving, critical thinking, and interpersonal skills can be found within these skills. People are the focus of all projects, so there is naturally an emphasis on dealing with people in a complex manner in project management. A project manager must apply leadership skills when working with all project stakeholders, especially when dealing with the project team.
A leader in project management displays varying combinations of the following qualities:
Being a project visionary
Communicating effectively
Being optimistic with a positive attitude
Managing conflict resolution within relationships
Being collaborative
Being a critical thinker
Having respect for all project stakeholders
Being a problem solver
Displaying friendliness
Being ethical
Showing integrity and honesty
Being generous when giving credit, especially amongst the team
Being culturally sensitive
Focusing on what is important
Being a life-long learner dedicated to continuous improvement
Being service-oriented when building effective teams
Implementing the above qualities and skills is vital for the project team to perceive anyone as a great leader. To be an excellent leader requires a project manager to use a diverse mix of skills, qualities, and leadership styles. Different blends of skills, qualities, and styles work best for specific project circumstances. It is the project manager's job to choose which combination will work best for any given situation. Leadership styles should be used to motivate, engage and gain commitment to a project.
Everyone has a default leadership style they can use that they are comfortable with. But a skilled project manager will not solely rely on his natural leadership style. He will know to invest his time figuring out the best combination of options given the situation.
According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK), several factors determine the leadership style of a project manager, which include:
Leader characteristics such as moods, ethics, needs, desires, values, behaviors, etc
Team member characteristics such as ethics, moods, needs, desires, values, behaviors, etc
Organizational characteristics such as goals, structure, type of work, etc
Environmental characteristics such as social environment, status, political elements, etc
Project Management Institute explains numerous leadership styles that a project manager can adopt. The leadership styles listed in the PMBOK Guide 6th edition are but are not limited to the following:
Laissez-faire
Transactional
Servant leader
Transformational
Charismatic
Interactional
Laissez-faire
This leadership style is interpreted as "hands-off," meaning that the project team tends to lead itself when making decisions, implementing their ideas, and establishing their goals. This leadership style is based on the value of trust.
The Laissez-faire leadership style could be beneficial in organizations requiring innovation and creativity. But it could also affect a project negatively by reducing the chances of project success if the team lacks experience. To an inexperienced team, this style could result in judgments that the project manager is neglectful and inattentive.
Transactional
This leadership style focuses on explicit goals, feedback, and ways to qualify team rewards. This leader will correct the team if they deviate from set goals. A project manager who implements this leadership style will strictly implement project rules, processes, and procedures. He will discipline the team using rewards and punishment systems to re-align them with the established project values.
The Transactional leadership style effectively motivates teams when working on short-term projects but is not appropriate for long-term projects.
Servant leader
This leadership style prioritizes the team's interests over personal interests. A project manager with this style focuses on serving the project team by removing roadblocks and obstacles and helping them achieve their goals. This style focuses on creating a collaborative team culture, establishing strong personal relationships with the team, and allows the team to grow professionally by offering continuous learning opportunities.
The Servant leadership style emphasizes fostering personal relationships. Strong relationships between a project manager and his team are a result of this leadership style.
Transformational
This leadership style focuses on inspiring team members to reach ideal goals and encourages positive change in the project environment. A project manager implementing this style encourages innovation, creativity, and individual consideration. Inspiration is his ultimate focus. He will inspire the team with a shared vision and a mission concerning future goals.
The Transformational leadership style is similar to the Charismatic style in that inspiration is the main focus. Unlike the Charismatic style, the emphasis of motivation will not be on individual personality but rather on the organizational mission and vision. Implementing this style will lead to a proactive, enthusiastic, innovative, committed team that functions well without close supervision.
Charismatic
This leadership style is based on the magnetic and charming personality of a leader who has strong, outward convictions. The characteristics of a charismatic leader are high energy, enthusiasm, solid beliefs, and high self-confidence. This leader will typically encourage innovations that align with the project goal.
The Charismatic leadership style becomes a risk when a team is too oriented toward the charismatic leader. However, this leadership style can be very effective when combined with several other leadership style choices that can balance the strong personality of a charismatic leader.
Interactional
This leadership style is dynamic because it fluctuates depending on the situation allowing the project manager to use the best approach when it's needed. This style is known as a combination of the transactional, transformational, and charismatic leadership styles.
A project manager with the Interactional style often considers several variables such as the work environment, corporate culture, market challenges, conflicts and complexities, and the influence of leaders on business.
References:
A Guide to the Project Management Body of Knowledge: (PMBOK Guide). Project Management Institute, 2017.
Heagney, Joseph. Fundamentals of Project Management. AMACOM, 2016.
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