Leadership in any way of life is the most crucial aspect of keeping yourself and everyone around you on course.
Be that self-leadership or project leadership where you lead a team, you should always be equipped with the knowledge and courage, to ensure that you and everyone around you are not aimlessly sailing in the unknown ocean.
And when it comes to project management, leadership is everything that a company needs, otherwise all of the different projects that they have on their roster are going to be failures.
Why leadership is so important in project management? Well, the leader, generally the project manager, is the one that has to collaborate and communicate with all of the stakeholders involved with the project.
These stakeholders can be the client, the development team, or the other upper management people that are related to the projects. And if the leader is not equipped to do their job and lead people, everything is going to go in the bin.
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Here are some of the most common theories of leadership that we are going to talk about in this article.
- Transformational
- Adaptive
- Servant
So, without further ado, let’s dive right in and find out what project leadership is and how important it is for the industry to function properly.
What is a Project Leader?
A project leader is the one who is in charge of everything and everyone connected to the project. But most of the time, the project managers are not the only ones that are pushed to exude leadership. Everyone connected to the project is encouraged to do so.
This is because everyone that is a part of the project development process or the project as a whole, needs to know about their role and responsibilities regarding the project so that they can manage all of the tasks and processes assigned to them.
The last thing that any project or company needs is a bunch of robot humans that can’t move a muscle without their manager guiding them.
Most Common Attributes of a Good Project Leaders
Project leadership is an immense responsibility that takes a toll on you no matter how well-equipped you are, but if you are good at leveraging your tools and processes of the trade, there will never be an obstacle between you and success.
Let’s take a look at the different attributes that we find in every successful project leader out there in the market right now.
- The project leaders are well aware and mindful of the work that they are conducting
- They are analytical to the max
- They can generate a sense of urgency among the team members to ensure that the project development process is a success and the company suffers no loses
- They build cohesion
- They achieve results
- They are grounded and centered
- They create solutions for all of the different problems that the team or the overall project faces
- They can evaluate risk
- They are insightful
- They motivate people to be a better version of themselves and to ensure that they put their heart and soul to achieve the goals and milestones of the company
Using a Software to Lead a Project
If you are a project manager, and you need project management software that can help you lead your team most securely and effectively possible, then you should check out nTask.
The software is a task management and project management software that allows you and your team to track and manage all of the tasks and processes that are being worked on as part of the project development process.
The software is an incredible tool that provides total transparency to project management into their team’s work, while also ensuring that all of the team members are effectively collaborating and are working seamlessly with one another.
Here’s how this software helps you to lead your team.
1. Making a Plan for the Project
The first thing in every project’s lifecycle is the plan to start and finish it, seamlessly. This plan is made by the project manager to make sure that everything goes to plan and nothing is left out.
You can do all of this by using the amazing Gantt chart that the application offers.
This feature allows you to see all of the tasks and processes included in your project in such a way that all of the task dependencies and other data are visible, and you can make proper decisions about the overall project development process.
2. Schedule Your Work
With the Gantt charting feature, you can also schedule all of the tasks and processes being displayed in the interface.
You can do so by relating the data with the due dates, milestones, and all of the task dependencies related to the tasks and cross-check them with the resource availability data at your disposal.
3. Tracking Progress
Using the application, one other thing that the project managers can do is to track the progress of every task and process being executed as part of the project development process.
This helps them to keep an eye on the productivity of the development staff and also to make better staffing decisions in the future.
4 Ideas to Strengthen You as a Project Leader
1. Minding the Gap
As a project leader, you should explore the gap between leveraging and navigating the tools of the trade and also leading others properly. It’s leadership 101 where you ignite a spark in the hearts of your team and they join hands to function as a high-performance unit.
2. Let the Team Define Your Role
One of the worst things that you can do with your team is to remind them over and over again that they are beneath you, and that they should do everything that you say without a peep.
As a leader, you should inspire them and treat them with respect in such a way that they would listen to you not out of fear but with a sense of duty for their work. When they do that, then and only then will they willingly define you as their leader.
3. Teach Them to Communicate
Many of the teams around the organizational paradigm fail to communicate with each other because they don’t know how to communicate with each other or there are no communication channels present between the different parties.
It is your job as a project leader to teach all of the team members to communicate with each other and also help them navigate the communication channels, as most of the time that process can be pretty daunting.
4. Teach Them to Decide
Another thing that you have to teach your team as a project leader is to make decisions. Most of the time the teams working on the project don’t know how to make decisions that are going to navigate them out of hard spots.
This is why, as a project leader, you need to make sure that your team knows how to make tough decisions. But how to do that? Well, there are no hard and fast rules about this but as a leader, you should teach them off of your own experience.
Or if you are unable to do that, then find a process that is working for most organizations and teams around the market.
Theories of Leadership
Here are some of the theories that we are going to talk about in this article.
1. Transformational
Transformative leaders are those who connect with their team members or the people that follow them, in such a way that it raises the level of morality and motivation in them.
2. Adaptive
This type of leader is the one that takes on the challenges head-on and they don’t shy away from any adversity. That’s why their team members are quite adaptive too even if the challenges are not solvable at the start.
3. Servant
This type of leader knows that the needs of the team and the people around them are more important than their interests. That is why these leaders motivate and facilitate the team members more than they look out for their skin.
Some Leadership Quotes that You Should Read
“Don’t tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results.” – George S. Patton
“Don’t be intimidated by what you don’t know. That can be your greatest strength and ensure that you do things differently from everyone else.” – Sara Blakely
“The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in the moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Keep on going, and the chances are that you will stumble on something, perhaps when you are least expecting it. I never heard of anyone ever stumbling on something sitting down.” – Charles F. Kettering
“You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you” – Walt Disney
Conclusion
This was our guide to project leadership in 2024. If you think that we missed something or if we mentioned something that was not supposed to be there, contact us, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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