Leadership within the Project Team - Essay Example

PROJECT MANAGEMENT "Leadership within the project team" Introduction Project management is defined as the planning and organizing a plan to be able to achieve and accomplish a specific a project. The plan associated with the project management includes project goals, resources required for the achievement of the project, the budget for the entire project as well as the time required in accomplishing the project. Aside from the basic requirement needed in the achievement of the project, it is also very essential to consider the implementation of the project. Project implementation should be able to cover all the required task in accomplishing and finishing the right project and to be able to do this, a project manager or a team leader is needed. Moreover, project management contains phases for better implementation and achievement of a specific project, these phases includes a feasibility study, planning and implementation. After implementation, evaluation and maintenance is also needed (Free Management Library, 2007). Before we make the analysis of what is the right approach in project management and leadership within the team, leadership should first be taken into consideration. Leadership is defined as a process of how a person (leader) is able to influence other people (members) to achieve and accomplish a specific objective. The leader also is the one who directs the organization or the team for the team members to be effective and efficient in their task in accomplishing and achieving the specific goal or project. Leadership attributes are being able to be carried out by the leaders. The essential attributes which the leader should be able to possess are attributes such as values, ethics, knowledge and skill. The leader is sometimes perceived to have the “power” to lead but it should not be the thing to happen (Bernard, 1989). Being a leader is not being powerful but being the boss and bossing around for your members to follow you. Bossing around is entirely different from being a leader which is able to have the power to make the team members follow the leader’s orders to accomplish something. The Project Manager as a Leader Project management is process wherein a leader or a project manager is needed for it to be considered a well organized process. A project manager is someone who has the general responsibility of taking care of the project planning up to the project execution and project maintenance (Project Smart, 2007). There are many terms or addresses that a project manager may have. He maybe the project coordinator or the team leader of the organization but the roles and responsibilities he may shoulder is just the same whatever he may be addressed of (TenStep, 2005). Being a project manager, there are several roles and responsibilities that should be performed so that a specific project will be able to be accomplished according to plans and expectations. Behind the several duties and responsibilities of the project manager are the skills and knowledge he must be able to possess in order to be an effective and efficient leader. He must be able to be a rational leader which includes being a leader who asks pertinent questions and answers diligently and intelligently when it comes to the point that his members are not able understand something about the project. Interpersonal conflicts among the members of the group are also being addressed by the project manager because this conflict is one of the deciding factors of the success of the project. A very systematic way of organizing as well as executing a plan must also being possessed by a project manager (Project Smart, 2007). One of the categories wherein the project manager’s duties and responsibilities are at stake is responsibilities of the project manager regarding of how responsible he is when it comes to the processes involved in the project. Before starting the project, the control and management of the works included in the project must be able to be secured by the project manager. Among the works included in the process responsibilities of the project manager is the identification and resolving of the project issues that could arise while the execution of the project is going on. The project manger is also responsible in the active dissemination of all the necessary information regarding the project. Several risks in executing the project is also being identified and managed by the project manager (Project Smart, 2007). This is done to be able to make sure that this risk will be able to be avoided whenever they arise during the execution of the project. Moreover, several control measures will also be prepared to be able to solve the risks that will arise. The solutions or the control measures should be analyzed by the project manger if it would be an acceptable solution or not. Acceptable solutions mean that it is being able to be in favor of the success of the project and is sensitive of the feelings of all the affected parties. The project manager is also responsible in assuring that the original project plan together with all the agreement listed in it is to be executed properly except if there are changes made. These changes must be able to be approved by the management before including it in the project execution. Reports and other significant occurrences in the project execution must be able to be done by the project manager to be able to keep track of how the project is progressing (Project Smart, 2007). A project is understood by all the members of the team that it should only be completed within a given time frame; therefore, it is the responsibility of the project manager to make sure that the project is smoothly going on according to the time required for it to be completed. The process responsibilities of the project management mentioned above does not mean that the project manager will be alone in performing the whole task but the entire team is also being responsible in doing their assigned tasks. The role of the project manager is to manage and to make corrections whenever mistakes are being committed which means that all the responsibilities mentioned above is not physically being performed by him. Instead, his primary role is to be accountable if ever one of his responsibilities had been able to face problems or risks. The management processes is only successfully performed if the project manager is a process-oriented one, knows how to actively determine the causes of a problem and is being equipped with the right management discipline (Project Smart, 2007). Another category that is included in the roles and responsibilities of the project leader is how he is able to mange the people working around him (Project Smart, 2007). The establishment of the leadership skills by the project manager is very essential for the whole team to follow the orders given by the project manager. Leadership is not about bossing around for orders to be followed but it is simply establishing an easy and open communication between the project manger and the members of the team to be able to for the team to willingly accept orders given by the project manager. Willingness to accept the orders of the project manger is not only the result of an open communication but the endeavor and the power for the team members to strive for the betterment of the project is also being achieved. Moreover, open communication is not the only essential part of the having a good and sensible leadership skill but also having the right team building skills. Team building is essentially needed by the team in order for the team members to establish rapport with each other (Project Smart, 2007). Motivation towards the betterment of the project and for the team to visualize the importance of a strong team is being established when team building activities are done. This is the role of the project manager, to make sure that the team building abilities and characteristics of his team is already an established one and if not, he is responsible in establishing the right and proper team building characteristic of the team or the group. In line with the open communication that should be established by the project manager with the team members is the ability of the project manager to listen attentively to the feelings, ideas, suggestions and all pertinent things about his team. Therefore, the project manager could also air out his expectations about the team and the success of the project and his expectations should be a challenge to the group to be able for the team to meet his expectations (Project Smart, 2007). For the project manager to be able to do his roles in the management of his people, he must be able to consider his discipline and management skills in resolving the risks and problems created by the people working with him. If the team is unable to meet the required time for them to accomplish a certain task, then, the project leader should be able to take care of the problem. Moreover, when the team is not able to understand something about the project, the project manager is the one accountable to make the team realize the true essence or meaning of their understanding and performance toward the project. The project team, the project manager and the approaches of leadership To be able to have clear analysis of the project team and the relationship undergoing inside a team, we first define what is meant by team project. A team project team is often defined as a team which is composed of different people with different functions but is assigned to a specific project. This project is always given a specific time to be accomplished. As a project manager, it is a critical job to organize a project team that is properly fitted for the project to be successfully implemented. Sometimes, in a company, the project team is already assigned to do a specific project. However, there are also instances that the project manager is the one who is going to search f or the people who are fitted to be part of the project. Whatever the situation is, there is a need for the project manager to perform an assessment of the abilities and skill of the team members for the success of the project. The assessment of the team member’s abilities is very crucial in the sense that it would be useless to assign specific task to a certain member if his abilities are not fitted with the given task. In assessing the abilities of the members, it is also important for the project manager to use methods in the assessment (McGrawhill/Osborne, 2005). The Leader’s Approaches There are several approaches the project manager (leader) can use in solving the problems that the team maybe able to undergo while on the journey of accomplishing a project. One of the approaches that can b e used by the project manager is the positional power which is based on the job title or the rank that is held upon by the project manager. When the word power is used by people, it is associated with force but it should not be the thing when it comes to project management. In project management, being powerful as an attribute for the project manager lies a great responsibility and complex things are associated with it. With the power in the hands of the project manager, there are two complex things that can result the power, the positive and the negative effect. It is the way the project manager perceives and uses power in the positive and negative way. In the negative result, the project manager uses the way to deal with his team members in the way that it will be causing threats, demands and unhealthy feedbacks towards the group. On the other hand, it will become a positive effect when the project manager is able to have a power with people. Having power with people means that respect is equipped with that power. The project manager is able to show the team members (team) that he could respect them in the sense that he listens attentively and offer choices whenever it is applicable to the situation. Respect is very essential in accomplishing a successful output in the project because respect is virtue that should not only be given to the most powerful one but it is also given from the most powerful one to his followers and believers (Mercier and Prest, 2003). The project manager is able to use his power effectively and ethically if he is equipped with the proper leadership skills. Another approach that can be used by the project manager is the transformational approach. In this approach the project manager is able to influence the team members by using their passion and energy when working with the project. The project manager is able to care about the team me members and he has this devotion to make the team members achieve success. Transformational leadership is initialized by the development of a vision wherein the vision will be the one that will make a push to the team to work hard to achieve the goals of the project (Burns, 1978). Sometimes, in the transformational leadership, the project manager do not have this concrete details of how to go about the project but having a clear and established vision, he believes that this clear vision will lead him to the step by step plan in accomplishing the project. Of course, because of the unplanned actions that will be taken into the project process, the team may experience many flaws and problems along the way. But as long as the team feels that there is a project progress, they will happily continue the process of accomplishing the project. The good thing about the project manger in the transformational approach is that he is always standing in front of his team to lead, to motivate, to give enthusiasm, to listen and to make sure that he uses his energy to guide his team. Aside from the successful output the transformational leadership could offer, it could also cause a good transformation process towards the members of the team. They will be transformed in the sense that they will have potentials of becoming an amazing leader in the future (Bass, 1985). Another leadership approach is the path-goal theory wherein the project manager is able to establish the goals that the team maybe following to accomplish the project. The roles of the project manager include path clarification so that the team maybe able to know which road they will follow. The removal of the hindrances along the way of the team members is also a role taken by the project manager so that the team may not be able to follow the path of the hindrances. While the team is undergoing the process of accomplishing the goals of the project, he may incorporate the reward system along the way so that the team maybe more motivated in achieving success. The only backlog of this approach is that while the project manager is able to conceptualize the right way to achieve goals while the team members can not see or visualize it. This creates the situation that the project manager is the person with all the knowledge while the team is the dependent one (House and Mitchell, 1974). Conclusion Project management is only considered a successful one if the players of the game are participative, effective and efficient in working for the success of the project. While the project leader is the leader, the team members are the followers of the orders of the leader. For me, using the positional power leadership approach is best to use since the project manager is able to have power with the people around them. This power is not the power that had been very popular to us as the power over things which is a negative one. Instead of the negative way, the project leader makes use of the positive way in which he is able to gain respect from his team because of the respect he is also giving the team. This is also a good approach since the transformational approach does not have a concrete plan of activities that will be done in the achievement of the project. In these sense, there will be many unpredicted problems that will arise on the way of the team in accomplishing the project. Moreover, using the path goal theory is not a healthy approach in the context of leadership because knowledge is only concentrated to the project manager and is not shared with the team members. . BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectation. New York: Free Press. Bass, Bernard (1989). Stogdill's Handbook of Leadership: A Survey of Theory and Research. New York: Free Press. 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