Project Leadership: Requirements and Qualities

In order for someone to successfully manage a project they need to have certain personal qualities and skills. These will vary greatly between projects depending upon:  The type of project.  The scale of the project.  Whether the project is in-house or not.  Development lifecycle or methodology used

 Type of Project –Differences in the skills required to build a bridge to those needed to develop a word processor  Scale of project –Different skills required to manage a project that is going to take 5 years to one that is envisaged to take 4 weeks

Whether the project is in-house or not Is the project on: A consultancy basis (management only) The subcontracting of the entire project In-house. Even with in-house projects there are further considerations, for example the Project Manager may not be part of the line management structure for those allocated to work on the project.

Small projects may only involve a few people and perhaps no ‘people management’. However most will have significant involvement of other people and therefore require these people to work as a team.

Team Working is the ability of a group of individuals to become a cohesive unit to achieve a common goal. For most projects the Project Manager will assume the role of Team Leader. Large projects may consist of several teams and therefore several Team Leaders working under the Project Manager.

Leadership Styles and Qualities It is generally accepted that an open, transparent and even-handed approach that values the contribution made by each member of the team is by far the best approach. Leadership Styles and Qualities It is generally accepted that an open, transparent and even-handed approach that values the contribution made by each member of the team is by far the best approach.

Sometimes it is easier to see which style works best by analysing those that do not work well. An old fashioned ‘authoritarian’ approach will do little to foster a culture of inclusion and team spirit. This is likely to lead to a ‘blame culture’, more interested in finding those guilty for allowing mistakes to happen than concentrating on preventing the mistakes in the first place.

Managing the project in minute detail will do nothing to build morale or make the individual members function as a team. People can achieve the same result in different ways and most resent being managed by a ‘control freak’.

Communication is vital to a successful team. If the project is unambiguously specified with clear goals and milestones people are more likely to do their best to ensure it is successful than they will if the Project Manager is simply demanding unachievable targets. The Project Manager should concentrate as much on the project team as on the actual project.

It is up to the Project Manager to delegate the work to the project team – that is what they have been paid for. The Project Manager is paid to manage the project – not to do it. The Project Manager can delegate their responsibilities, but not their accountability.

The following list of qualities that a Project Manager should have is not exhaustive:  To develop a well-balanced and productive team that values the different skills that each member contributes to the success of the team as a whole.  Encourages each member to bring out their best qualities, and ensure that they contribute fully to the team.  Organise the team, delegate responsibilities and ensure that everyone is clear of what is expected of them.

 Ensure that everyone feels that they are making a useful contribution to the project, especially in group situations.  Build the confidence of the team members so they feel able to raise potential problems and challenge decisions if they feel that they could adversely affect the project outcome.  Deal effectively with ‘difficult’ team members and ensure that they understand their role in the team and therefore project as a whole.  Take responsibility for the project, any problems encountered and the successful achievement of the project aims.

Team Development The development of the team is an important factor in the success/failure of a project. Various studies have taken place to identify best practice, e.g. the Situational Leadership model by Dr Paul Hersey. Based on: the style of leadership needs to reflect the developing cohesiveness of the team and the different team working ability of individual members.

Using models like this help the Project Manager to understand how to support and motivate individuals to get the best out of the team as a whole.

A slightly different view of the same process is shown below in another Situational Leadership model by Hersey and Blanchard. The explanation of each stage is similar to that given above.

Another useful model is Bruce Tuckman’s ‘Forming, Storming, Norming & Performing’ model:

As well as the different stages of the development of the individual members, research has identified that a successful team needs input from several ‘different’ types of members. The models given above are helpful, but hardly ‘rocket science’. We also need more of an insight into what different types of members are needed to make a successful team.

Over a period of nine years Meredith Belbin studied the behaviour of managers taking part in team exercises and came up with the Belbin Team-Role theory. As time went by different clusters of behaviour were identified as underlying the success of teams. Eventually nine clusters were identified as significant roles in a successful team.

You might be wondering why we need to look into the composition of a team is such detail. Without this sort of consideration then a more traditional allocation of work roles may be:  Seniority and experience.  Religion.  Gender.  Ethnicity or class.  Qualifications.

None of these would be of any use whatsoever in allocating work roles and fortunately most are now illegal. A more normal approach would be:  Qualifications.  Experience.  References.  Acceptability at interview.

This would ensure that you get people with the right ability but would do nothing to ensure that several people who are ‘technically suitable’ could actually work together. A good team is greater than the sum of its parts – a bad team is less than the sum of its parts.

Conflicts within Projects Inevitably sometime during the life of a project there may be times when personal conflicts arise between team members, or with suppliers or customers. The following table identifies the main causes:

The main tactic to avoid conflicts is to identify potential problems before the event and take steps to avoid them. Conflicts will however arise so the following are some rules for dealing with them:

Don’t ignore the problem – it will only get worse. You need to find out as much as you can about the conflict: what is the problem; what caused it; who is involved; how do people feel about it. The time absorbed in dealing with conflict that gets out of hand is grossly disproportionate to the time needed to ‘nip it in the bud’. It can also be even more time consuming and very expensive if it leads to litigation.